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> Human society's default is authoritarianism. I'd say it's quite the opposite. It takes a lot of force and coercion to maintain authoritarian institutions pre

• simpaticoder 2y ago
  Human society's default organizing principle is authoritarianism. This is born out by the fact that most humans who've ever lived lived under such a system. A large fraction of us today live under such a system. Even in liberal societies our entertainment overflows with depictions of monarchy and feudalism. Even at a smaller scale, families, clans, businesses, militaries and teams are run this way: there is one boss, and all authority flows from them. For some (for me) there is a psychological allure to the idea that left to our own devices we'd self-organize in an enlightened way. But the experiment has been done over and over and over again, and that's not what happens. I realize it's painful to accept something you don't want to be true, but that's no reason not to face up to it. Better to face the challenge open-eyed than to have false assumptions undermine you.