Mischief Maker wrote:orange808 wrote:What did North Koreans use before candles? Light bulbs. They traded bad for worse.
How in god's name do you go from discussing anarchism to North Korea, one of the most repressive totalitarian regimes in the world? This is beyond a slippery slope, it's a sci-fi null-gravity pad.
Because, every government starts out promising some kind of magic escape from the last one. In the end, some grifter takes over with a pack of lies. Often, they are promising a short cut.
Mischief Maker wrote:
Mass movements without clear leaders often have difficulty getting the most polished message out, especially through a hostile oligarch-controlled media.
Sure, but what's the benefit of a cult of a personality leader? What you end up with is a grifter that will do anything to maintain power, while lying about bringing change.
Mischief Maker wrote:
And holy shit are you missing historical context behind the gangs and/or militants of Africa and South America you mention.
Oh yes. Gangs of young men with guns (and no accountability) didn't rape and steal because they were natural born paladins? We can look up all kinds of stories. I am not fond of the way foreign policy is performed, but you're ignoring quite a bit.
You also ignored the way the "militia" always grinds axes from the past. They get "revenge" if they were the minority. If they were the majority, they try to finish genocide. Every time. Every darn time. Without fail. When the rule of law goes away, they can't wait to get their "justice".
Mischief Maker wrote:
If humans really were so naturally murderous and warlike, why do wars require so much propaganda? Why is so much training dedicated to psychologically breaking down soldiers' natural resistance to killing fellow human beings?
Why did Egypt spend all their money on the elites? They didn't need to sustain themselves with war. They had the most stable and large income of any society. They had natural protection from most threats. They still didn't do much of anything for the common person--and they had the resources to do more.
Thousands of years they carried on. Robbing each other's graves and doing anything they could to maintain the status quo.
Same song, different verse. That's what human beings do, because they are generally awful.
That's why we have to keep the progress we've made and keep pushing ahead.
I identify with the left, but the solutions are boring and time consuming. They require transparency and forcing humans to be honest. Yes, humans must be forced to be honest.