To be fair, this has been tested in laboratory rats, not people. However, This propensity seems to be evolutionarily conserved. which means that there is a high likelihood that it applies to us, too, and subordination is bad for us. Not only it may lead to depression, it induces learned helplessness. The Fiat hierarchy is an "inescapable aversive situation" for people, even the ones who are part of the hierarchy itself. They are constantly defeated and learn to be losers.

Claim

And here is my claim: as opposed to rats, we can get over the “loser” mindset. We can win-at-all-costs by exploding and heading for ruthlessness if need be. Mind you, we’ve learned to do it nicely, and be polite, not yell, and all that, but we are going to do what we have to do to win. And if it hurts others in the process, so be it.

Speaking for myself, I didn’t even see the hurt that I caused to others because I was the boss and they had learned to signal that I am not standing in your way. My own reaction went something like, I have a good team—they understands and back me.

My subordinates could live with this kind of thing by telling themselves that it was a win for the team, though in reality it was a win for me. When the time came, I went along with eliminating the team that had “backed” so many wins for me.^∇

People Are…

Whenever I hear a sentence that starts with, … but people are…, I think, yes, that’s the way we are under the Fiat system. The system we have grown up in and the only one we know. In other words, it is not “in our nature,” as is is often claimed, to be submissive, but the Fiat system makes it easy for most of us to give up our agency and behave that way. Any of us can do so.

ENDNOTES

• Alexander Harris, Nancy Padilla-Coreano, How loss of social status affects the brain. Nature Magazine, Vol 614, Issue 7952. <https://radicals.world/QpSFC1> (alt, <https://www.diigo.com/item/pdf/zk1n/apyc>)

• “Luckily,” they found jobs elsewhere in the company.

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