4 ms·
The secret we all know is that governments, countries, laws, they’re all just a bunch of stuff we made up. They exist only as long as we all keep agreeing they
by ilamont 6y ago
The secret we all know is that governments, countries, laws, they’re all just a bunch of stuff we made up. They exist only as long as we all keep agreeing they exist, and act accordingly. Far more than Tinkerbell, regimes and governments need us to believe in them or they die. Sometimes this death takes the form of people just ignoring old structures, like in the Hellenic age when a remote Greek colony might hear from the founding city so infrequently that it starts ignoring the empire and just makes its own government. A more common consequence when people stop believing in governments is that some rival will take advantage of that lack of confidence, and rise up to claim power instead, whether through an electoral primary challenge or a bloody civil war. For this reason, regimes to work hard to gain legitimacy, that is to acquire any and all things that make people agree the regime is real, and has the right to rule.
Wow.
- slibhb 6y agoGreat quote. Civilization is a spell that we're under. All true political power is built on belief strong enough to enable coordinated action. This flies in the face of the modern conception of politics which views everything as the result of coercion or the state's monopoly on violence.
- pjc50 6y agoRare to see it so baldly stated, but .. yes? Legitimacy is a common theme of history; divine right of kings and all that.
- visarga 6y ago> They exist only as long as we all keep agreeing they exist It goes both ways, we exist (in such large numbers) because we found a way to organize - governments, countries, laws.
- JohnWhigham 6y agoAs Stirner put it: it's spooks all the way down.
- toyg 6y agoI'm surprised by your surprise. This goes on every day around the world, with coups and challenges to the right of rule by this or that institution or personality (Venezuela, Lybia, Syria...). This is also why controlling the propaganda channels (state radio, tv etc) is so important for takeovers.
- david-cako 6y agoPower is self-reinforcing too. A revolutionary stands a chance only if their ideas can be subsumed into a vision of greater prosperity for a nation; they can bring a narrative of greater freedom and liberty, but they must also show how it fortifies the institutions that already exist. Sort of relevant is the Euthyphro dialogue, and the nature of piousness. "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma