Tulips (and the dangers of hierarchical thinking)

Contemplating the wonderous qualities of the tulip,
drawn into philosophy of human cultures, a strange turn.

A common paradigm of organization, Hierarchy
places items in vertical categories, worth assigned in descending order,
like a tower with the best rooms at the top.
This can be quite useful in prioritizing, triage, and coordinating large numbers of people for big projects.
As a basis for human interaction, a government or religion for example, it is highly subject to abuse.

However worth is assigned (status, money, respect are traditional indicators of worth),
hierarchy too easily allows for those at the top to manipulate and mistreat lower castes.
Greed, indifference, and cruelty are assumed privileges of the elite; they become very good at these pastimes.
Eventually, the tower falls and the animosity is played out on level ground.

We are now preferring to assign worth more democratically; we are different but equal.
More important than status are the ways we can support each other laterally.
Communication technologies like writing, art, and mathematics have helped us share ideas and coordinate our efforts.
This new age of hyper-connectivity allows for more spontaneous lateral cooperation than ever before.

Judge these blossoms not as members of an inferior species, but as individuals.
Judge individuals by their behaviour, on a case by case basis.
To succeed, we must prioritize (weed the crop, cull the herd, decide how to spend our efforts),
but we can no longer justify our actions by convincing ourselves that we are the best people, the best country, the best species.
Instead we ask "is this the best we can do?"

Observe; you will see many examples of hierarchical thinking around you.
Examine closely; you may see examples of hierarchical thinking in your own mind.
Ask yourself if the paradigm is useful. Practice reframing your references, as egalitarian instead of stratified.
We are each Equally Unique.