I made a thread earlier this month about how industrial society, paired with rentier capitalism, high taxes, and an overall high and increasing cost of living has changed the DNA of the West in particular, because of the sheer inequality, our Guilt Based culture, based on independent philosophy, has been withered away and replaced with hypergamy and obsession with class and status, many socialist call this Late Stage Capitalism, but I do not blame Capitalism, I blame the financialization of common resources like land, labor and women. This thread will go over the future we, no matter the ideology, will walk into as long as those common assets are unmanaged and speculated upon.
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The rise in agriculture shifted how human societies organized themselves, the need for exhaustive labor and the unpredictability of the climate and environment varied in regions, but eventually resulted in the creation of the Shame Based culture. Before, shame in hunter gatherers was usually based on the empathy they developed, but during the agricultural revolution, shame was dictated by the community, that is to say, shame is arbitrary based on what the community views as right. Every society that has agriculture has a level of shame based social organization, usually it can come in the form of respecting authority and tradition, suppressing thoughts contrary to them. Over time, people in agriculture societies became roles rather than people. In short, Shame based societies use peer pressure and the fact that outcasting members meant certain death for the outcast, to strip members of any opinion against what is dictated by the community and tradition. This is why caste systems stay in place, why slaves stay loyal and why war crimes go unpunished.
The end goal of a Shame based culture is stability. The idea that if we just put aside our humanity, we can enjoy a good harvest and a good life. However, those days rarely came for them, a tyrant, war band or dynasty always had to capacity to strip them of their produce and keep them as the subsistence level, their mindset makes them sitting ducks waiting to be harvested.
Harvested they indeed were, by empires, but especially by Europeans. The Great Divergence is a complex subject and I will not say I can provide the full answer, but a factor we should consider is that rurally, Shame based cultures are purposefully stagnant and repressive to those who threaten social order and stability. Plenty of Einsteins and Teslas died in the rice fields, their only hope being to Run Amok (proto word for going ER) and take revenge against their oppressors.
These societies are easily harvested, that is to say, easily have their production stolen, because they are limited by who they can trust, which is typically just their social circle, but this includes status as well. An empire or conquerer is only as good as their ability to make use of diverse peoples to achieve their goals.
But are these societies built for extinction? The answer is yes. They can only thrive if they can create a stasis by their organization, this is only slightly achievable by agriculture, but this factors out weather, invasion and other natural disasters. As soon as those factors arrive, it is game over for their society, they have two options, submit of sacrifice, and they always choose the later until taking the second option is impossible and they go extinct.
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The rise in agriculture shifted how human societies organized themselves, the need for exhaustive labor and the unpredictability of the climate and environment varied in regions, but eventually resulted in the creation of the Shame Based culture. Before, shame in hunter gatherers was usually based on the empathy they developed, but during the agricultural revolution, shame was dictated by the community, that is to say, shame is arbitrary based on what the community views as right. Every society that has agriculture has a level of shame based social organization, usually it can come in the form of respecting authority and tradition, suppressing thoughts contrary to them. Over time, people in agriculture societies became roles rather than people. In short, Shame based societies use peer pressure and the fact that outcasting members meant certain death for the outcast, to strip members of any opinion against what is dictated by the community and tradition. This is why caste systems stay in place, why slaves stay loyal and why war crimes go unpunished.
The end goal of a Shame based culture is stability. The idea that if we just put aside our humanity, we can enjoy a good harvest and a good life. However, those days rarely came for them, a tyrant, war band or dynasty always had to capacity to strip them of their produce and keep them as the subsistence level, their mindset makes them sitting ducks waiting to be harvested.
Harvested they indeed were, by empires, but especially by Europeans. The Great Divergence is a complex subject and I will not say I can provide the full answer, but a factor we should consider is that rurally, Shame based cultures are purposefully stagnant and repressive to those who threaten social order and stability. Plenty of Einsteins and Teslas died in the rice fields, their only hope being to Run Amok (proto word for going ER) and take revenge against their oppressors.
These societies are easily harvested, that is to say, easily have their production stolen, because they are limited by who they can trust, which is typically just their social circle, but this includes status as well. An empire or conquerer is only as good as their ability to make use of diverse peoples to achieve their goals.
But are these societies built for extinction? The answer is yes. They can only thrive if they can create a stasis by their organization, this is only slightly achievable by agriculture, but this factors out weather, invasion and other natural disasters. As soon as those factors arrive, it is game over for their society, they have two options, submit of sacrifice, and they always choose the later until taking the second option is impossible and they go extinct.
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