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Because it absolutely interacted. That community and collective effort was built to suppress Helot rebellions by overwhelming military force. Their extreme of s
by azernik 7y ago
Because it absolutely interacted. That community and collective effort was built to suppress Helot rebellions by overwhelming military force. Their extreme of social mobilization was only possible or desirable because of common threat, in this case of their own making. You cannot separate the social structure of a ruling minority from a ruled majority, the former is always shaped by the interaction with the latter.
See also the reports of drops in suicide rates and better social cohesion in war zones. That doesn't mean we should advocate a brutal civil war as a mental health measure.
- icegreentea2 7y agoThe article hardly attempts to say structuring our societies to maximize its ability to crush rebellions is a good thing. It does say that solely maximizing individual spheres of rights and opportunity of commercial profit may actually not be a great idea. I think this is hardly a controversial opinion. Like I agree that more context about helots would have shored up this article nicely, but I also think that all the chatter about its absence misses the point of the article.