A Thought About The Frontier

Yesterday I rebutted a critique of r/K that repeatedly referenced the frontier. I pointed out that in the paradigm of r/K the frontier was neither r or K – it was the realm of the r/K breakdown, where diminished population density caused a breakdown in the rules of r/K. If r’s are liberals, and K’s are conservatives, the r/K breakdowns will be libertarians.

I have been thinking about that some more, and wanted to elaborate. The form of mankind you see is molded by what he is fighting. In r and K mankind is fighting man, because high population densities promote encounters with others humans, and thus make those humans the force who must be overcome. In r, like a rabbit, man is fighting to produce offspring faster and longer than other men. So he avoids conflict, and mates aggressively with everything to impregnate all the females before everyone else. In K, like a wolf, man is grouping up into packs and fighting to defeat other men, so his pack, and he by extension, can acquire resources and survive to reproduce fit offspring that can repeat the process themselves.

But when r/K breaks down because man is spread out thin (usually due to resource shortage), individuals do not encounter other humans. Man is fighting the environment as it tries to kill him back, and he is doing it alone. Urges to fight other humans reflexively or avoid conflict with them compulsively abate, as man shifts his focus to a mindset devoted to overcoming technical problems presented by an impersonal environment. This produces an individual focused on the world, who may be aggressive or may not, depending purely on circumstances and conditions rather than instincts and social drives.

I recognize this psychology because it is strong in me. Those who need the company of others, or feel strange alone, appear incredibly foreign to me. I don’t need to fight or compete, but can if I have to. I am focused on technical aspects of the world around me and this somewhat blinds me to the human, social aspects of the world. As a result, I could walk though beautiful woods myself, drinking in the world around me, and be the happiest guy alive absent human company. I also probably do not meld as easily within society because the rules other little robots seem to draw comfort from feel unusually constraining to me. Conformity with the drones who often seem on autopilot seems bizarre. I understand the allure of a government-less frontier where nobody is trying to fit me in society’s box.

I am also probably at a disadvantage under conditions of true K-selection, because a K-strategist who happened on me with his group might reflexively attack, while I am still assessing the situation. Where that unnecessary drive to violence might eventually get him killed unnecessarily in a frontier, in K-selection it would be a decisive advantage. The urges of r and K exist for a reason. They are the best adaptations to their environments.

I think you can see this difference too in our perceptions of the Frontier Outlaw. In our mind’s eye, we see an individual who either operated alone, or as part of a very small gang that was probably not the most stable of organizations. He was not a character with tons of pro-social urges for conformity, who was designed to fit into a large group and respect an established hierarchy of authority. He might do things outside the box, in ways most people would not think of, with the sole objective of overcoming an obstacle. He might seem inhuman to the more socially-prone.

If you traveled to a higher population density as in the cities however, you would find the most capable criminals were organized crime, often in the form of the early Mafia – a very different psychology which viewed conformity and hierarchy as vitally important, and which probably enjoyed the social aspects of the lifestyle. There, each individual was almost like a cog in a machine, designed to fit in and not make waves. Different environments, different psychologies.

K’s and r/K breakdowns can agree that it is best if others leave them alone, because each recognizes violence as a danger, and each has a drive to do as they wish. However, they will often have grossly different moral frameworks, since the moral framework of the K is designed to help them fit effortlessly into a group. The r/K breakdown’s idea of fitting into the group is having everyone else leave them alone.

That works if everyone else is miles away. But in the real world, when people are crowded around you, you will not be left alone. You will either live in a world ruled by r or ruled by K.

Spread r/K Theory, because the assholes will rarely leave you alone