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Preface: I might be too influenced by Adam Curtis. But what I find most interesting about this reply/rant, is that it - like most of left, always seems to envi
by Ygg2 10y ago
Preface: I might be too influenced by Adam Curtis.
But what I find most interesting about this reply/rant, is that it - like most of left, always seems to envision a world without power. And you can't confront entrenched power, without seizing power, and using it to transform society.
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoIt's worse than that. Fundamentally, the problem is that people are not angels. The left recognizes, correctly, that the people in power - the leaders - are not angels. So the left wants them gone - wants there to be nobody in power. The problem is that the people who are not in power also are not angels. Left to themselves, a fair number of them will find ways to harm (economically or even physically) people around them. They need someone with power to restrain them. But then you're back to having people in power, and they're not angels...
- Ygg2 10y agoPeople might not be angels, but they aren't devils either. The way I see it, left doesn't want people to have power. So it limits politician's power. And then, the financial/corporate interest seize all powers, and use it as they will.
- Pokepokalypse 10y agoFunny thing is: corporations really don't have ANY power. If the government doesn't like a corporation, they can simply pull the corporate charter. Corporate personhood is a legal fiction, allowed by law. There are some tortured legal arguments that it becomes "personal property" which can not be deprived without due-process - and in practice, this simply is never done anymore. But any legal fiction can be simply signed-away into non-existence. There is no technical reason this can't happen. In theory. The problem is, there is no political will to ever actually do it, even when it's necessary. Our entire facade of legality rests on political willpower.
- bordercases 10y agoI take this pretty literally and I not ironically see Buddhism or something like it as a leverage mechanism to make people closer to angels. But gnostic religions don't scale well unless one intends to be a cult leader. So...
- maleno 10y agoI'm not sure that's right. I mean, if we replace the word "power" with the word "agency", then maybe it's clearer. The goal isn't so much a world without power, but a world where agency is more evenly distributed, and far less coupled with wealth/capital. This isn't to say that such a world is easy to imagine, or easy to bring about.
- Drumlin 10y agoAs soon as I saw it was Aral, I knew the direction that the article was headed. He has good intentions, but humans are naturally hierarchical - from the family upwards. Fighting against hierarchical power is a losing battle.
- Pokepokalypse 10y agoSo authoritarianism is dictated by the "Law of Nature"? Fuck that.
- Ygg2 10y agoNo. Just hierarchical structures inherently are easier to control. In other words, hierarchies have less communication overhead.