PART IV
SOCIO‑ECONOMIC ORGANISMS.
CHAPTER I.
Organisms And Societies.
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We could say that the Universe is an immense Organism that we are still in the process of discovering and understanding. This immense organism is composed by many smaller ones, and these, in their turn, are composed by even smaller organisms and so on.
Inside this immense and still unknown Universe every organism is directly or indirectly connected or related within a continually changing physical balance.
Whatever happens to any of them, even to the smallest or to the more distant one, affects all the rest. Naturally, because of the immensity of the Universe, these repercussions may take millions of light years to reach a distant part, and therefore may be imperceptible.
Our Earth is a planet in the solar system situated in the galaxy that we call the Milky Way.
The Human race is a living organism and so is every group, every family and Human being within it.
All living organisms and inanimate things on this Earth are precariously balanced within complex ecological relations. Like a set of springs continually compressed one against the others, as soon as one is removed, all the rest are set in motion until they find a new state of balanced tension.
Complete balance is never maintained for long. Changes are constantly produced by the evolution and interaction of the organisms themselves. As the temporary balance is continually disturbed, it continually tends to settle into new ecological relations. Sometimes these changes are imperceptible and may take thousands of years to become manifest, sometimes they occur in a few decades or even suddenly.
Given time, most forms of life can evolve and adapt to a new environment and to a new ecological situation. It may require thousands or millions of years. But during rapid or sudden changes some forms of life may suffer or even disappear, while others may benefit and take over.
From the point of view of the Human race, every ecological change which in the long term is favourable to our existence could be considered beneficial, those which may be damaging to our future existence are detrimental.
What is the driving force in the continuous changes in the ecological balance of living organisms?
So far, it seems to be the natural instinct of self preservation inside every living being. It seems to be a law of Nature that everything that comes to life wants to stay alive and, if possible, to grow and expand.
Sometimes the life of an organism depends on the support or cooperation of another, therefore they form instinctive alliances. Sometimes certain organisms are mortal enemies and are locked in a struggle for survival. Sometimes continuous struggle is the condition of their life, and without it they would perish
Ecology is a study of vital importance for our survival. From this study we may be able to learn how to promote the development or the conservation of environments beneficial to our long term future. But we must keep in mind that, no matter how much we may study, we will remain basically ignorant for a very long time. Therefore, we must always be very careful when we are tampering with our environment. To be sure, we must always leave ourselves a way out so that we may be able to retreat whenever we make a mistake. We should avoid promoting changes which may be irreversible.
To change a desert into a rain forest or into fertile farmland may be a beneficial ecological change. This is probably what the desert may have been in a previous ecological situation.
In this chapter I may have already gone too far from the main topic of this discussion, but this digression may facilitate our understanding of a Human organism: a socioeconomic system.