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Neofeudalism is only possible in an agrarian society, or if your income is digging stuff out of the ground. Industrialized societies quickly tear themselves ap

Neofeudalism is only possible in an agrarian society, or if your income is digging stuff out of the ground. Industrialized societies quickly tear themselves apart when you need an educated workforce, and intelligent consumers. A society of serfs will only consume the bare minimum, stagnating technological progress, ask the chinese about gunpowder and naval force projection. Unlikely for the US to enter Neofeudalism when we are entering an age of great power competition. You only get to keep your power if you "bribe" your workers enough to help you.

ianleeclark 6y ago
> You only get to keep your power if you "bribe" your workers enough to help you. This is largely a misunderstanding of historical systems of discipline. When the enclosures started to happen, serfs were booted from their land, and were coerced into working for early capitalists at threat of subjective violence (branding, beating, &c., if caught begging) or objective violence (starvation). It's understood that the states armed bodies of men, under feudalism and neofeudalism, don't care about you. So what is to stop a reversion to the level of subjugation seen by English serfs many centuries ago? You're free to go look up cops wearing, "I CAN breathe," t-shirts and take from that what you will. These bribes you mention, although an accurate retelling of American history through westward expansion and imperial expansion, are directly threatened by the faltering american hegemony.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  These systems of discipline were indeed quite real, but they were strongly associated with the mercantile system which was pre industrial revolution. ISTM that parent comment is still correct wrt. industrial and even more so wrt. post-industrial (service-based, contemporary) economies.
  - ianleeclark 6y ago
    > These systems of discipline were indeed quite real, but they were strongly associated with the mercantile system which was pre industrial revolution. Okay, so post industrial revolution domination is what you want: Blair Mountain. Even more relevant? Literally today as America shovels an underpaid mass of it's citizens into the jaws of a pandemic so that a labor aristocracy can resume their bloomin' onions, onto the beach, and back into movie theatres.

ianleeclark 6y ago

> You only get to keep your power if you "bribe" your workers enough to help you. This is largely a misunderstanding of historical systems of discipline. When the enclosures started to happen, serfs were booted from their land, and were coerced into working for early capitalists at threat of subjective violence (branding, beating, &c., if caught begging) or objective violence (starvation). It's understood that the states armed bodies of men, under feudalism and neofeudalism, don't care about you. So what is to stop a reversion to the level of subjugation seen by English serfs many centuries ago? You're free to go look up cops wearing, "I CAN breathe," t-shirts and take from that what you will. These bribes you mention, although an accurate retelling of American history through westward expansion and imperial expansion, are directly threatened by the faltering american hegemony.

zozbot234 6y ago
These systems of discipline were indeed quite real, but they were strongly associated with the mercantile system which was pre industrial revolution. ISTM that parent comment is still correct wrt. industrial and even more so wrt. post-industrial (service-based, contemporary) economies.
- ianleeclark 6y ago
  > These systems of discipline were indeed quite real, but they were strongly associated with the mercantile system which was pre industrial revolution. Okay, so post industrial revolution domination is what you want: Blair Mountain. Even more relevant? Literally today as America shovels an underpaid mass of it's citizens into the jaws of a pandemic so that a labor aristocracy can resume their bloomin' onions, onto the beach, and back into movie theatres.