12. Dominant Realm

Dominant Realms represent the boundaries of what is good, possible, or normal in a given collective. While Realms of Freedom for individuals can vary significantly, the Dominant Realm provides a sense of continuity for institutions to function and for culture to translate across individuals. Just as individual Realms are imperfectly composed of Mythoscapes, Dominant Realms are imperfectly composed of the individual Realms in that group.

Imperfectly Composed?

The process the shapes Dominant Realms repeats at multiple scales, so to conceptualize how this works, let's start at the smallest level:

Person X subscribes to, let's just randomly say 15, primary Mythoscapes. In addition to his surrounding culture and institutions, on an individual level it includes his identity, gender, religion, geographic region, his profession, a sport he's deeply involved with, and so on. All of these form his Realm of Freedom, but what if Mythoscapes conflict? Well, in some cases, Mythoscapes can be squishy enough for Person X to simply not ascribe to a particular part of it. If his profession is in neuroscience and the sport is American football, though, that might be trickier to reconcile. If the contradiction between Mythoscapes becomes too great, one may end up excluded entirely.

This process is largely internal. It is that person's choice for what to include and what not to.

However, once this process shifts up to the level of a collective, what determines the boundaries of possible and impossible? Unless everyone agreed completely, the outcome will inevitably be a mosaic that fails to account for particular aspects. This is where Power and Boundary Negotiation come in. Who has more access to Power Capacitors, and whose views will be embedded in the Realm Enforcers?

More on its way soon - this one also needs to be a bit of a longer one, particularly as it relates to what defines the main topic of this Index (American society) and the role Hegemony plays in the process.