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I'm not seeing how fascism can be said to have pioneered them, concepts of lese majeste - which, for a monarchy is essentially equivalent to the crime of dissen
by dotnet00 4y ago
I'm not seeing how fascism can be said to have pioneered them, concepts of lese majeste - which, for a monarchy is essentially equivalent to the crime of dissenting against the government - have existed for centuries all over the world.
- Retric 4y agoScale makes a huge difference here. Early governments used more compromises like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(punishment) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(punishment) rather than just killing thousands of people. As to timing, it’s the same technological developments which resulted in large companies becoming common and being linked to government for the first time with new options for governmental control. Radio, telegraph, calculators/computers, and trains allowed for much larger a more homogeneous organizations. The Hitler Youth for example didn’t have similar parallels in the 1800’s and before. At the same time individuals became less useful to the state. Large prison populations are really expensive in terms of guards and lost productivity. Similarly execution means removing potentially productive people. Historically, only a small number of people within a society would get made examples of until industrialization increased productivity to the point where states could suddenly afford to have secret police capturing large percentages of the population.