If we assume that humans are predatory primates the political default system would be the monkey rock system, one chief (Khan, Caesar, Kaiser, King, Czar, Party secretary, Saddam Hussein, Kim, Putin) with a privileged entourage, a violent and privileged secret police, a productive middle class and an underprivileged lower class serving as a buffer which will starve first in case of famine.
From 1500 the west became more affluent, first fueled by firearms, colonialistic exploitation and slave trade and from 1750 by fossil fuel economy and industrialisation which was run by the new class of bourgeoisie.
Economy and politics ceased to be a zero-sum game and growth opened unheard of possibilities. The ruling classes then gave themselves the luxury of conceding a resemblance of democratic participation, which however is tightly controlled by the mass media and the propensity of the masses to believe anything if its repeated enough times. In this view democracy is an artefact caused by affluence.
Growth is now ending and reverting. And human societies now seem to revert to the default state. The first steps can be done and have been done in a very democratic way by finding majorities which agree to suppress underprivileged minorities (one can read the Anti-Woke-campaigns in this sense). There are also hybrid democratic-violent ways as exemplified by Nazi Germany, or purely violent ones as in Francos Spain.
I agree with you. Democracy might well be an artefact of abundance.
And yet, as long as energy is available in unlimited quantities, a more liberal system where everyone is free to maximize their energy use has an advantage over a more authoritarian system. I suspect it is mainly for this reason that, although all three systems are avatars of the industrial economy, the liberal/capitalist system prevailed on the Nazi and communist regimes.
Poeple who believe thay are free work harder and more productively. Fordist capitalism surprised the elites in its profitability through paying workers more.
Ultimately that implies your value to community must be higher when alive than when robbed (and killed). Armed guards of oligarchs surely have done the math already.
After Blackrocks "going direct" liquidity bailout during the C-19 pharmakon, Democratic governors put test positive elderly patients in nursing homes driving early death rates and Corporations paid Marxist ngos $millions to foment domestic color revolutions to trigger a fascist response and still had to fire flash bangs and tear gas into the J6 crowd to get a guided tour of the Capital which was heavily infiltrated by provocateurs. The political Kayfabe spun into high gear with Hobson's choice, the Heel and Face routine and Calming the Marks who were noncompliant with the New Normal.. we get Ivy league dissidents, Tech bros switch sides and Neocons (former Nazis) are the new folk heroes against the Fascists. Bloomberg, Rockefellers, Dems/Rinos leaders and science dept heads are knee deep in Chinese influence peddling, intermitent energy, crowd control tech and mil labs the epicenter of an outbreak destroying western hegemony and tearing apart the nuclear family thru 25/7 trolling and gaslighting. Then the Dark winter crowd turns its gaze on Russian resources while handing over their golden whistle and a bag of fiat for a half dead woodland soldier with a broken left foot disrupting energy flows to Europe, confiscating foreign reserves and encouraging a multipolar world order with regional energy and trade blocs. But Russia is still supplying energy 3rd party, pursuing digital transformation and cattle tagging just like the West and was a major participant in the Cyber Polygon exercise.. Schwab says about the expected cyberpandemic, "10x worse than Covid-19" This looks more like a Degrowth Agenda rather than a game of musical chair or minority bashing. Most conservatives I know were too busy working and doing the bare minimum to comply, hate was evenly distributed between those calling for common sense energy and immigration and those wishing a Winter of sickness and death for the knuckle draggers.
"As so many have underlined (Ugo Bardi, Charles Hall, Jean-Marc Jancovici, Donella Meadows et al., Herman Daly, Nate Hagens. …), energy is growth’s silent partner."
Does “Democracy Does Cause Growth” ? Maybe… Or, indeed, does fossil fuel allow growth and a more liberal political system, that is a less hierarchical and more egalitarian one than those prevailing in agrarian economies, makes energy dissipation more efficient ? Thus, if energy per capita is stalling, so the liberal system does, somehow reaching its shelf date and usefulness limits.
Furthermore, is liberal democracy, which emerged in the European Christian cultural context alongside the concept of the nation-state, suitable for all cultures and political entities? We, Europeans assumed that this was the case. But if Europe loses its global leadership, isn't it logical that its preferred political system should do the same?
I don't know if I've ever noted this to you, but your concept is outstanding, can be applied in many situations and has been particularly useful in many instances, even more so than another favorite, chaos theory. Thank you .
Trend forecaster Gerald Celente is famous for the saying "When all else fails, they take you to war" which already suggests democracy in the West is a farce.
I understood it the other way round:
If we assume that humans are predatory primates the political default system would be the monkey rock system, one chief (Khan, Caesar, Kaiser, King, Czar, Party secretary, Saddam Hussein, Kim, Putin) with a privileged entourage, a violent and privileged secret police, a productive middle class and an underprivileged lower class serving as a buffer which will starve first in case of famine.
From 1500 the west became more affluent, first fueled by firearms, colonialistic exploitation and slave trade and from 1750 by fossil fuel economy and industrialisation which was run by the new class of bourgeoisie.
Economy and politics ceased to be a zero-sum game and growth opened unheard of possibilities. The ruling classes then gave themselves the luxury of conceding a resemblance of democratic participation, which however is tightly controlled by the mass media and the propensity of the masses to believe anything if its repeated enough times. In this view democracy is an artefact caused by affluence.
Growth is now ending and reverting. And human societies now seem to revert to the default state. The first steps can be done and have been done in a very democratic way by finding majorities which agree to suppress underprivileged minorities (one can read the Anti-Woke-campaigns in this sense). There are also hybrid democratic-violent ways as exemplified by Nazi Germany, or purely violent ones as in Francos Spain.
I agree with you. Democracy might well be an artefact of abundance.
And yet, as long as energy is available in unlimited quantities, a more liberal system where everyone is free to maximize their energy use has an advantage over a more authoritarian system. I suspect it is mainly for this reason that, although all three systems are avatars of the industrial economy, the liberal/capitalist system prevailed on the Nazi and communist regimes.
Poeple who believe thay are free work harder and more productively. Fordist capitalism surprised the elites in its profitability through paying workers more.
Seneca's Cliff-Diving competition approaches.
;-/
Ultimately that implies your value to community must be higher when alive than when robbed (and killed). Armed guards of oligarchs surely have done the math already.
;-}
After Blackrocks "going direct" liquidity bailout during the C-19 pharmakon, Democratic governors put test positive elderly patients in nursing homes driving early death rates and Corporations paid Marxist ngos $millions to foment domestic color revolutions to trigger a fascist response and still had to fire flash bangs and tear gas into the J6 crowd to get a guided tour of the Capital which was heavily infiltrated by provocateurs. The political Kayfabe spun into high gear with Hobson's choice, the Heel and Face routine and Calming the Marks who were noncompliant with the New Normal.. we get Ivy league dissidents, Tech bros switch sides and Neocons (former Nazis) are the new folk heroes against the Fascists. Bloomberg, Rockefellers, Dems/Rinos leaders and science dept heads are knee deep in Chinese influence peddling, intermitent energy, crowd control tech and mil labs the epicenter of an outbreak destroying western hegemony and tearing apart the nuclear family thru 25/7 trolling and gaslighting. Then the Dark winter crowd turns its gaze on Russian resources while handing over their golden whistle and a bag of fiat for a half dead woodland soldier with a broken left foot disrupting energy flows to Europe, confiscating foreign reserves and encouraging a multipolar world order with regional energy and trade blocs. But Russia is still supplying energy 3rd party, pursuing digital transformation and cattle tagging just like the West and was a major participant in the Cyber Polygon exercise.. Schwab says about the expected cyberpandemic, "10x worse than Covid-19" This looks more like a Degrowth Agenda rather than a game of musical chair or minority bashing. Most conservatives I know were too busy working and doing the bare minimum to comply, hate was evenly distributed between those calling for common sense energy and immigration and those wishing a Winter of sickness and death for the knuckle draggers.
"As so many have underlined (Ugo Bardi, Charles Hall, Jean-Marc Jancovici, Donella Meadows et al., Herman Daly, Nate Hagens. …), energy is growth’s silent partner."
I'd like to include Tim Garrett in this list.
Does “Democracy Does Cause Growth” ? Maybe… Or, indeed, does fossil fuel allow growth and a more liberal political system, that is a less hierarchical and more egalitarian one than those prevailing in agrarian economies, makes energy dissipation more efficient ? Thus, if energy per capita is stalling, so the liberal system does, somehow reaching its shelf date and usefulness limits.
Furthermore, is liberal democracy, which emerged in the European Christian cultural context alongside the concept of the nation-state, suitable for all cultures and political entities? We, Europeans assumed that this was the case. But if Europe loses its global leadership, isn't it logical that its preferred political system should do the same?
I don't know if I've ever noted this to you, but your concept is outstanding, can be applied in many situations and has been particularly useful in many instances, even more so than another favorite, chaos theory. Thank you .
My theory is technology created both growth and democracy
China has growth without democracy
Another theory is individualism created democracy
But did technology increase individualism
What led to individualism
The increase in the ego
What caused it if not technology
More important than focusing on democracy might be this:
https://theconversation.com/before-the-american-revolution-native-nations-guarded-their-societies-against-tyranny-242363
Trend forecaster Gerald Celente is famous for the saying "When all else fails, they take you to war" which already suggests democracy in the West is a farce.
https://podscan.fm/podcasts/gerald-celente-trends-in-the-news/episodes/when-all-else-fails-they-take-you-to-war-and-its-failing