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You are correct that some wars have helped economies improve. Protip: it's the massive economic reorganization rather than the death that does that. War create
by michaelochurch 13y ago
You are correct that some wars have helped economies improve. Protip: it's the massive economic reorganization rather than the death that does that.
War creates demand for labor which means that people doing the work have leverage. (See: my note about dividing the 1000 richest people artificially into "Red" and "Blue" teams and putting them into war.) Without it, the world seems to be run by yes-men and visionless cost cutters (do the same damn mediocre thing with less resources) than people with the leadership and creativity to actually advance the world.
It seems to be a pretty dismal fact of humanity that the only thing that prevents social cancer (i.e. the emergence of a parasitic, non-producing, and aggressively self-enriching elite that causes increasing dysfunction in the society, while labor's leverage approaches zero) is the existential threat to a society posed by major war. I wish it were otherwise. I wish we were a species that could mobilize around solving cancer or clean water in the way we are able to mobilize around killing people.
The problem is that, during peace time, the good seem to become complacent and bad peoples' superior ability at social ascendency and ingratiation puts them into positions of leadership (see: the rightward lurch of American politics after 1980, and the increasing mean-spiritedness of Corporate America beginning around that time). Eventually, the social rot reaches an "overflow" point where the dysfunction of one society or more causes violent conflict. Then there's war, which makes good and bad people warlike both.
Wars don't always make economies improve, of course, and war is pretty much the worst thing imaginable. However, to this point, humanity hasn't come up with anything else that gives the disenfranchised enough leverage to shock society out of a cancerous state.
I really hoped that Silicon Valley would show the world a way out of that idiotic cycle, but the actual behavior that is in it, thanks to the VCs turning it into Hollywood for Ugly People, has rendered that impossible.
- FD3SA 13y agoAbsolutely right. War demands men of merit at the helm. When the risks of incompetence include utter annihilation, parasites are routed rapidly. In addition, war demands investment in the most rational enterprises at the state level. The biggest of which? Science and technology (Manhattan, Apollo, etc.). There is no time or resources for consumerism and advertising. The civilization that is the most efficient, and invests most rationally, will win. Compare this with modern publicly funded research, which is receiving cut after cut and appears doomed to stagnation and decline. Contrast a president like Eisenhower with Obama based on political platform, policies enacted, and individual merit. Absolute night and day, and a concise yet poignant case study on the decline of American society.
- busterarm 13y agoMan, I love Eisenhower. That guy was such a boss. Easily in my top three POTUS list.
- ahomescu1 13y ago> the emergence of a parasitic, non-producing, and aggressively self-enriching elite IMHO it's not just the elite that's getting parasitic and non-producing (how many people are on welfare these days?)
- busterarm 13y agoBack that shit up. Welfare in many ways is a wage subsidy for large employers like Walmart and McDonalds. Some other forms of welfare only buy things like baby food and diapers to make sure infants are cared for. Lots of people on welfare work full time and lots of other people are on welfare because they have a disability that prevents them from working. What should folks with severe cerebal palsy do? Should they just die already to make you happy? Every hard look into the idea that there are mostly "welfare queens" milking the system has come back to show it's bullshit. Plenty of the most needy people (in really poor states like Georgia) can't get any kind of assistance because of attitudes like the one you posted. Georgia has fewer than 4000 (out of 10 million) residents receiving welfare and is 33rd in median income. Keep in mind that the state's income figures are being propped up by Atlanta, which only has half of the states' residents. In Savannah, many restaurants are closed on weekends or only open at all on weekends; that's how little economic activity there is in the state.
- ahomescu1 13y ago> What should folks with severe cerebal palsy do? Should they just die already to make you happy? I didn't say that, I'm all in favor of helping the truly needy, but are they really the majority? Are sick/disabled people really where most welfare goes? I don't have numbers for it, but it's hard to believe it; people in genuine need (because they're unable to work for health reasons) can't be more than 1-2% of the general population, and I feel it should be cheap to take care of them. Regarding Savannah, if there's so little economic activity there, the solution is to take measures to boost activity, not keep everyone on welfare. What happens when the money runs out? EDIT: Also, please keep it polite. I will not be intimidated out of my opinions, and will not "back that shit up".
- selimthegrim 13y agoNot just this, war also happens when an ideology that the elite uses as its lodestone suddenly loses moral or ethical superiority or relevance (or just fails to serve the social needs of the people). Shorn of their ideological fig leaf for resource manipulation, their central membership affirming rituals, etc, the nomenklatura at issue decide to switch teams or get outhustled by the new new class (with apologies to Djilas). Cf, the Roman empire in Diocletian's era, post Tito Yugoslavia, political "Islam" in any number of countries, the Baath party in Syria and Iraq, etc.