Sleepless in Society

Human beings build societies. It is something we are actually pretty good at. Obviously, this is a handy survival tool, at a basic level being merely a question of safety and numbers.

In early human history, such societies would have been small, little more than family affairs. Though human nature has probably always been duplicitous, it is not hard to imagine a higher degree of trust in these societies, directly proportional to the higher levels of immanent danger.

Human history moved on and our societies grew bigger and far more complex. Where once each member would have known each other- strengths, weaknesses and, not least important, trustworthiness - now, the individual, evolutionarily designed for small, bonded communities, must negotiate vast, internecine conglomerations. Of course, to make sense of such a wilderness of connections and interrelationships, human beings continue to construct smaller, more manageable, societies within the belly of the whale that is the great society.

It is the nature of things that wherever there are two (or more) human beings or groups sharing the same resources, seeking better lives, struggling to survive, conflict will ensue. It is debatable whether the great societies ever experience a truly peaceful existence; certainly the lesser societies, those that exist to provide the illusion of connectedness, security, possibly even identity, certainly never do. If there is no struggle with some other group there will as likely be internal strife.

These small societies of which I speak may take any form whatsoever: family, organisation, club. Any one individual can be and almost inevitably is a member of any number of such small societies, seeking pretty much the same things in each - what can't be found in family will be sought in the workplace, or some other gathering together of like-minded people.

Without doubt, enough security is found within these small societies. There would be no evolutionary value to them otherwise. But, things being what they are, there is always a position or possession of value up for grabs and so even in those places where we should feel safest, there is always reason for doubt, suspicion and fear.

As the adage goes, "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean the buggers aren't out to get you!"

Mulder has a tendency towards paranoia, but it doesn't always serve him well. When Alex Krycek first approaches Mulder in Season Two's fourth episode, Sleepless, there is no sign of suspicion that maybe this newcomer is anything more than what he says he is, a 'green' agent. Despite that Mulder is on punishment detail, despite being knocked back by AD Skinner, despite a rookie having 'opened the case' on a death that hasn't been reported as suspicious, certainly "[t]he article makes no mention of the fire," (cf. the transcript for 'Sleepless' available at http://insidethex.co.uk/) Mulder takes Krycek for who he says he is. Why shouldn't he? After all, if we affiliate ourselves with small societies for the sake of security and survival then a fellow FBI agent is evidently beyond suspicion, even for a some-time paranoid like Mulder.

The problem is, as Mulder so prominently had on display on the wall of his erstwhile office, we want to believe. We should be safe among our friends, family and colleagues and so we, to an extent, delude ourselves - sometimes going to inordinate lengths, sometimes just ignoring the obvious. 

The truth is that the workplace, the playing field and even the family are rife with deceptions and conflicts, jealousies and enmities - enough so to make life insufferable if we were to constantly be on guard against all that is arrayed against us. And so, like Mulder, we assume that Krycek is who he says he is, only to ever-after hold him personally responsible for all that is wrong with life when we finally discover that, instead of believing in what we are doing, he is all the time working as an agent for those who seek our destruction.