One of the most misunderstood things by almost everyone around me and beyond is the nature of emergent phenomena in complex systems. And it is misunderstood both bottom up and top down.

Bottom up - the emergent phenomena are very real. And they don't require neither consensus nor conformity. Morality is emergent phenomenon that if created by interactions between people and their moral judgement (or lack of it). That does not mean they have to agree. It is very plastic and can even be very uneven, yet the result of very real and was a basis of natural law (and common law). No written rules needed.

Top down it is believe you can easily change the emergent phenomenon by regulation of other top down intervention, without the hard work of changing the individuals. An eagle can fly through a flock of smaller birds, massive temporarily changing the apparent form of the flock, it can even catch a bird, but the flock continues fundamentally unchanged.

These phenomena are very real, yet they cannot be centrally grasped or controls.