Alternatively—we communicate about the things that pose the most danger to us, in a manner intended to minimize that danger.
In a typical Level-4 society, people don’t have a lot to fear from lions and they aren’t in imminent danger of starvation. The bottom half of Maslow’s hierarchy is pretty stable.
It’s the social stuff where our needs run the risk of being unfulfilled; it is the social stuff that poses the most danger. So of course most of the communication that takes place is about social stuff, in manners intended to reinforce our own social status. This isn’t a simulacra of reality—it is reality, and people suffer real harms for being insufficient to the task.
Alternatively—we communicate about the things that pose the most danger to us, in a manner intended to minimize that danger.
In a typical Level-4 society, people don’t have a lot to fear from lions and they aren’t in imminent danger of starvation. The bottom half of Maslow’s hierarchy is pretty stable.
It’s the social stuff where our needs run the risk of being unfulfilled; it is the social stuff that poses the most danger. So of course most of the communication that takes place is about social stuff, in manners intended to reinforce our own social status. This isn’t a simulacra of reality—it is reality, and people suffer real harms for being insufficient to the task.