Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
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Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
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Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#2thats what all the monkeys think
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#3[deleted]
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#4This is true but also those that embrace violence to closely are destined to eventually fall via violence. Power through fear has very few people trying to catch it on the way down.
Everyone can have that violent tendency, the trick to acknowledge it and work around it.
It is a core tenant in Taoism "All things carry yin yet embrace yang"
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#5And the default civilization is violent.
So let us return to the matrilineal, matrifocal ways developed by those who created and nurtured life before we had a language that covered all of our needs and build replacement civilizations from there. Time to get back into the nonbinary animist ways of being.
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#6This is true but also those that embrace violence to closely are destined to eventually fall via violence. Power through fear has very few people trying to catch it on the way down. Everyone can have that violent tendency, the trick to acknowledge it and work around it. It is a core tenant in Taoism "All things carry yin yet embrace yang"
I read “Humankind” by Rutger Bregman and now think this is not true.
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#7I'm sure the author doesn't need to hear "leftist-counter-arguments 101", but the US has not dominated by peace and "through arguments rather than force".
The US has "pushed for liberalism", but only when it aligned with economic interests. There's a long list of brutal dictatorships and Islamic extremists propped-up by the US.
To give one data point (lesser known, I think), check out the book "The Jakarta Method" and learn about the ~1M Indonesians killed in this era of Pax Americana.
That being said, I agree with the author on the Enlightenment principles and can see the world getting worse in this regard.
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#8thats what all the monkeys think
The distinction isn't meaningful to me because I feel like one of the humans from Planet of the Apes here.
Re: Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is
#9So this is the argument that there's a path dependence in how peaceful a civilisation is. I think whatisalthist argued this as well - that Christianity (with largely pacifist founders) did a lot to moderate Rome, and then the Catholic Church (which some argue is the rump of the Roman empire) moderated its region of influence.
whatifalthist is a bit western centric (and a bit ... odd and extreme in some ways), but it seems reasonable, you could argue that India and China are also historically pretty peaceful (more so even than Europe), internal issues aside (yeah, Taiping rebellion, the 1940s and 50s, and any other Chinese civil conflict for example). 2 nuclear powers with the ability to rapidly create well over a million strong armies (India and China) can be having actual deaths on a contested border (e.g. the 2020 border clash) and it's no real concern, whereas in some regions a war can basically start over a mean tweet. The argument is that culture / institutions / path dependence matters.