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But you could argue that's what civilization is based on, normal people making deals with each other face to face.

• Bartweiss 8y ago
  I... don't think you can really argue that. Personal transactions, based on reputation and persuasion and goods-on-hand, predate agriculture and settled habitation. In fact, they predate humanity by quite a bit. Definitions of civilization vary, but all of them that I know involve sedentary agriculture, written communication, and social stratification or organized government. Pretty much all of that represents a move away from face-to-face dealing by equals. I can certainly believe that civilization effectively sacrifices positive human interactions and free association in the name of reliability and (sometimes) efficiency. And I'm very open to the idea that a society full of Homeowner's Associations and impossible-to-override checklists is abandoning normal human interaction for no real benefit. But I think that's hard to address without conceding that this is part of the same process as calling the cops instead of starting a fistfight; civilization is in large part the process of adding more intermediaries to our interactions.