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> His observation is wrong. In all societies in which there is a power vacuum gangs take over. Witness Africa, South America, Burma, and the middle Eastern coun
by gwern 7y ago
> His observation is wrong. In all societies in which there is a power vacuum gangs take over. Witness Africa, South America, Burma, and the middle Eastern countries in which we have removed the “dictators.”
And it's particularly amusing because he just mentioned Haiti. What happened in Haiti is precisely why the American plantation class was so terrified: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre
- coliveira 7y agoThe plantation owners in Haiti knew fully well that the revolt was deserved.
- gwern 7y ago'deserved' has nothing to do with it. The American South elites deserved it almost as much as the Haitian planters did; and they were likely correct to fear it, contrary to Stross's glib dismissal of their fears as irrational.
- mcguire 7y agoDid you miss the rest of that comment: "Even the term “elite panic” is lie. The elite are fine in a disaster and they know it."
- gwern 7y agoThe Haitian elites were not fine in their disaster. And other elites (viz the American south's elites) knew it. That's the point.