Follow Me into the Maze, if You Dare - by Doc Nolan, AI images by Xenon Darrow

 Human lore is full of groups and collective endeavors.  Our world is one dominated by the ebb and flow of memes, "popularity", and the 'group mind'.  Art, politics, pop culture, 'trending', cults, religion, and so on are like "mini-civilizations" in which some things conform and others are cast out, feared or ignored.  Deep within the human brain and our proclivity to socialize there must be explanations.  

All effects have underlying causes, often hidden so deep even those with "preferences" have no idea of their source or sources.  That said, there are alphas (those who lead), betas (those who follow), and a third tribe -- those who wander from group to group, intermittently connecting and disconnecting.  Known as sigmas, they're the glue that holds disparate groups together.  A mathematical study of human socialization, known as graphing or network theory, describes the sundry roles people play and how individuals end up in social 'locations'.  It may be cold-blooded to examine human socialization as if "we" were ants, or wolves, or dolphins, or beavers, or chipmunks, but we are just as much "natural" creatures as any other species. 

Today, we gather around glowing screens instead of campfires.  A few tell fictional stories to their fans, much as some old man would talk about hunts long lost in times around those campfires.  And some scoffers would chuckle as the story teller got wound up, creating a story in which he was prominent, knowing the facts and how things really happened.  We now find meaning in a wide network of (slightly) connected narratives, which is nothing new.  What technology has done is to bring clashing tribes into contact who might otherwise have never known of each others' existence. And humans, ever seeking control, order, sense, and comfort, often get upset when competitors make the old man around their campfire sound like the old windbag that he is.

Meanwhile, the minstrels wander from tribal group to tribal group, calming the frightened and bringing new stories, cults, religions, that fascinate the young with dreams of other places and other ways of seeing things.  And that's how civilizations precariously manage to exist.  And when those sigmas vanish, the worlds close up and become fossilized remnants of old stories told by alphas to credulous betas sitting in a circle.  An isolated circle.  And now that I've told you a story that's hopefully new, I will move on to another village, leaving you to make of these words what you will. I am the sower of seeds.