The Aes Sedai's strength-based hierarchy, a think piece

So I was thinking about the amount of criticism that the Aes Sedai's based hierarchy gets after a recent post. And this is criticism both among readers but also in-world in the thoughts and even words of quite a fair few Aes Sedai. I feel like, for all that this system's ineffectiveness is pretty clear, there are some key reasons why it stuck around and also ought to stick around in the world that the Aes Sedai have.

But how does such a system happen?

Imagine that you're part of the fledgling group of women that are assembling the new White Tower in the time immediately after the breaking. Who are these women and what values do they hold? Is it fair to say that channelers after the breaking are a bit more nakedly wielding their power and very about might makes right? Three hundred years of absolute chaos is too much for even individual Aes Sedai to return the positive views of before. And in a Mad Max world, even if you have the best of intentions and are a good person, it's hard for human nature to not go 'nah, I'll do my own thing because it's kept me alive and you better come along' when someone objectively weaker than you tries to boss you around. So even if this wasn't explicit even back then, and I doubt it wouldn't have been, more powerful channelers would probably have less powerful channelers following them for protection and they'd form little groups/gangs. OK, but how does the WT itself come up? Eventually I think you have high-minded powerful individuals who see the benefits of allying to win over other channeler groups and they start taking asses and kicking names. And voila, the fledgling WT is born.

OK, here's where I admit that there's a pretty crucial "if" that I'm relying on: that the WT started as a union of ad-hoc groups led by powerful channelers that were either allied or subsummed by groups led by more powerful channelers' groups. What if it's opposite, what if it starts as an union of more flat hierarchy but weaker channelers that decide to have a central organization that join for mutual protection and gradually expand to assimilate other more powerful individuals and groups?

OK, let's say that that's the case and it's weaker channelers banding together. Well still there is a need to maintain unity so that the group stays together. And who's  more likely to leave the group? Those who are most likely to be alright on their now, in other words the powerful among them.

A good RL example of this is with actual RL labour unions. US unions started to fall apart when their "most powerful" members - IE those who had the best ability to succeed outside the union(white males historically compared to women union members and especially minority male union members) - started to leave unions in droves either by literally or by choosing to work in non-union companies. Unions grew weaker and companies were able to capture the political class and pass anti-union legislation that accelerated things.

I know it's a weird analogy but let's apply that to the fledgling white Tower who hasn't yet made itself the dominant female channeler organization in the Randlands. They want to avoid growing too weak as their most powerful members leave, so essentially you have to bribe your most powerful to stay slash cater to your most important constituency. Well you do that by giving your most powerful more influence and more leadership roles. This becomes an unspoken deal between powerful a nd non-powerful channelers, the strong lead and the weak keep them in the fledgling WT. And over the years, decades and probably centuries that the fledgling WT takes to turn into regular, I'm the only game in town for female channelers WT,  that bargain between strong and weak members gets internalized and new entrants to the organisation are brought up to view this as the natural order of things.

And this is still the case if it was adhoc groups led by powerful channelers uniting. You need to incentivize your strongest to not break and go back to squabbling groups of channelers. Same bargain.

The WT did what RL labour unions didn't do and that's convince their most powerful members to stay by bribing them with higher benefits(influence and power in the WT's case). Nevermind that doing so RL would be unethical for all sorts of reason.

Strength-based hierarchy does the best of a key part of human nature; namely that the strong expect to receive more and for female channelers in Randland that means more influence and power. We, as readers, tend to view Aes Sedai's strength-based hierarchies as a bug to fix, I think that's a wrong view. It's a logical response to the situation that the WT faced at its outset. And in fact it's probably the correct response an organization.

OK but so what? The Tower's been around for thousands of years, does it mean that it should still be like this after the last battle and going forward after the series ends? I think so.

The series are set in a pre-enlightenment world, WoT society just hasn't made the move away towards valuing individuals equally that the world as a whole had(even in dictatorships at the micro level two individuals by and large are seen the same). And so long as that happens, might and power are seen as the natural axis along which to organize society and groups within that society. Until WoT undergoes its own paradigm shift about valuing individuals the same, the WT still faces the same conditions as it had and if the books have shown anything, the Tower and has split. Who's to say it won't happen and then we end up with a world like Seanchan pre-Luthair; endless petty fiefdoms led by channelers who constantly scheme against one another.

And that's where I close. As readers, we make the mistake of seeing the alternative to the Aes Sedai's strength-based hierarchy as being one where the wisest and brightest lead. A lot of characters in the books see things like that. For me, a more natural alternative is how female channelers in Seanchan behaved without the unionizing effect of the White Tower. At least until WoTland transforms into a modern world with ensuing values.

I doubt that RJ explicitly thought things through this way when he came up with how the WT's organization is. If he  actually did, then I'll be even more impressed with the man's writing than I already am. But it makes RL sense that the WT is organized that way given how successfully RL organizations are.

This thread was my working through my own changing views on the benefits of the WT's hierarchy but I'd welcome/love thoughts.

P.S. Swear to god I had that annoying song that plays in the background of every youtube pop culture thinkpiece video essay playing in my head while I was writing this.