The American Ecosystem Risks a Societal Forest Fire

Despite the admonitions of Smokey the Bear, sometimes forest fires can serve an important purpose. As a natural phenomenon, fire can be ecologically valuable by serving to cleanse and rejuvenate an ecosystem. Such “destruction events” force ecological succession by restructuring the habitat in which species coexist, recycling constrained resources to support growth, and improving ecosystem diversity

Destruction events are often triggered within what are known as “climax communities”, ecosystems that grow in complexity until they achieve a steady state and become self-perpetuating. When stressed, entrenched dominant species in climax communities (in environment ecology, dominance is not necessarily equated with species majority) desperately seek to maintain their equilibrium by impeding evolutionary forces, even when equilibrium is impossible, and change is unavoidable.

By all accounts, American social ecosystem has become a climax community, with dominant species defined by cultural and social identities, many of whom have been actively resisting social evolution for decades by maintaining networks of self-interest without values that prevail towards community stability and well-being.

While forest fires also pose severe risks to property and life, the root cause is often ithe way humans have imposed themselves on the ecosystem — the forests are just doing what comes naturally to them. While forest fires can be prevented, the needs of the ecosystem to change must ultimately be accommodated; resisting ecologic change can increase the risk of destruction events.

The science of ecology has shown us that the most diverse communities are the healthiest communities; in ecosystems, diversity is more than just presence; it’s full inclusion in the function of the ecosystem. The relationship between species diversity and community stability highlights the need to maintain the greatest richness possible within communities.

Dominant species in climax communities typically seek to resist change by suppressing diversity that may threaten their dominance. They do so by controlling the habitat structure in ways which can support, or limit, the opportunities for subordinate species to thrive. In our case, habitat refers to our social fabric: the interconnected environments — physical, virtual, and social — of our systems of government, social policy, legislative action, business, and other social structures such as standards of respectability. Species that “fit” into the habitat structure survive, those that have needs that are not supported by the existing habitat structure may not.

This approach to sustained dominance is supported by a parallel evolutionary construct of convergence, which is where otherwise unrelated species must evolve similar phenotypical features (like language, styles of dress and hair, or principles of worship) in order to thrive; species that don’t converge are forced out (or into extinction).

Habitat structure directly influences the diversity, richness, and composition of our communities. Community assembly, species coexistence, and the maintenance of diversity are all habitat dependent. Habitat structure can also be used to sustain the oppression and discrimination of individuals and groups. Without changes in habitat structure, species diversity is impossible. We reject or ignore this at our societies peril.

There are current habitat structures in the American social ecosystem that suppress diversity and monopolize economic and other resources necessary for survival and growth of non-dominant species; policies that sustain inequities of opportunity and access for currently subordinate social species are all habitat structures leveraged to sustain the current state.

When access to vital resources is constrained, they are otherwise unavailable to nourish and promote growth. Destruction forcibly releases them into the ecosystem as raw materials for the evolutionary process to build upon, where they can be reclaimed, repurposed, and recycled to drive change.

While a destruction event in the American social ecosystem does not necessarily portend the end of democracy, it does mean that something very big and disruptive will upend the current habitat structure and the currently dominant social species; some current members of the population adapt; others may not survive.

However, we can avoid crises associated with destruction events by choosing leaders who wish to actively disassemble the structures that function to support and sustain harmful ecological social constructs, and de-risk the chances of destruction events. Such an effort will allow for a more stable and successful society, the benefits of which accrue to everyone and support a more productive and positive future for the American social ecosystem.