Every human and every other conscious organism begins life, experience, and sensuality in a state of solipsism.
The infantile state does not, and cannot understand the consciousness of others, including its own parent. The infantile state, what could be called the “natural state” of conscious, exists as an introverted perspective. All infantile, conscious organisms begin life in a state of absolute selfishness, with an inward, internally pointed psyche. An infant only survives. And with the case of humans, is almost entirely dependent on a parent during its incubation period, which ranges from months to years, depending on the health and genes of the child. Therein selfishness is the natural state of conscious existence. And all evolved (conscious) organisms experience life from this default, presumed metaphysics. The mind is turned inward.
It is not until physical maturation of the body, and survival granted over long periods of time, that an organism will invert the default perspective from introversion to extroversion, from inward to outward. I even purport that a majority of humans will live their entire lives in a state of introversion or “inward thinking”, comparatively to those who are most attuned to looking outward at existence. So a mental state can be divided into two categories, outward looking and extroverted, inward looking and introverted. Similarly, what most humans call “objectivity” or an objectively attuned mind, is another term for extroversion. When somebody is thinking objectively, then he is also thinking outwardly, since these both mean essentially the same point. And somebody who thinks subjectively, thinks inwardly.
Autism has been around forever, but now has a new term to signify this age of humanity. Autism refers to the inability for a mind, or a whole population of minds, to think outwardly or objectively. People are incapable to think outwardly, but why? Because it is a challenge to mature out of the stage of selfishness, and into a stage of selflessness. It is difficult to absolve subjectivity, and replace that mentality with objectivity. The infant believes that other people care for it, because, its parent cared for it. All every child knows, for the first few years of life, is that another person cares for it, and this must represent humanity as a whole. It is not until infants are harmed, sometimes grievously, that an infant begins to develop fear, anger, and hatred against other people. Again, because all that an infant knows of other human beings, is the default position of love, care, and nurturing. What can be called evil, comes later in biological development.
But humans do harm each other, and some groups of people want to murder the children, babies, and infants of other groups of humans, as proved by the circumstances of war. In this way, although all infants maybe born supposedly innocent, are not actually so. Because birth does not aspire from nothing. Everything and everybody has a past. As such, organisms are not born equally. All life is born unequally. There is never an organism in existence that is born equal to another. Because every organism retains at least some minuscule degree of difference apart from another. Not even identical twins are perfectly identical, as the very occurrence of space and time separates identical twins apart through the change of time. Bodies are separated by space and time. And so too is the mind also separated by space and time.
Although every infant and evolved organism is born to the default position of introversion, solipsism, does not imply that all equally grow out of or will mature “beyond” solipsism. Objectivity and maturity are challenges of life, that imply suffering. Selflessness is a sign of something rare. By no means is selflessness, objectivity, and maturity commonplace, defined by a standard. And what is the standard for intellectual maturity, if not wisdom? It is wisdom that separates the young from the old, the inexperienced from the experienced, the solipsist from the existentialist, the idealist from the realist, and the subjectivist from the objectivist. The introvert from the extrovert. The selfish from the selfless. Surely an adult will appear more powerful, selfless, caring, and altruistic than any infant. Because every degree of maturity separates the young from the old through age, years, and change.
What is the nature of change to biology and psyche? Since all are born unequal, the potential for one mind to mature and become objective, is distributed throughout a populace. Those with more “intelligence” are recognized as those with the most potential to think, and to use every facet of their mental ability. While those who are unintelligent, are crippled along the way. Delayed in development, by various means. If intelligence is a form of power, then it must be true that those with the highest power, the highest intelligence, would want to keep those underneath them stupid and unintelligent. Because power can be monopolized and concentrated. And a super intelligence can emerge, seemingly from out of nowhere, to surpass all those in current competition. Such is the nature of evolution, because what is the heart and matter of evolution, if not to grow a highest intellect and consciousness?
Consciousness, spawned from intelligence, is the conclusion, result, ideal, and reward of evolution. To evolve, is to become most intelligent and most conscious. And those who are, will appear so vividly and radiantly to others, that it can never be denied. This severe separation of intelligence, from lowest to highest, demonstrates the difference of genes and species. Some organisms, born of a genus, are born with greater or lesser capabilities for this or that mental function. And in the universal sense, the most objective view, all lifeforms both cooperate at times, and compete at times, to create a highest consciousness. Because life maybe considered as “just one thing”, one universal body, as monism and monotheism leads its followers to believe and presume. But to look at the world as competition, struggle, and separation, also indicates that intelligence and consciousness cannot “grow” or achieve more power, without the suppression of others. Therefore, intelligence must represent both the cooperation of diverse organisms, along with the hierarchical suppression of those in power, over those without power.
So what is power? I leave this question, for now, to dwell on. After all, this is merely an introduction to newer ideas.