Whenever there is an opportunity to corner power, most people do it, and like with capital, people with power are in an advantageous position to corner more power.
In the last 100 years - a speck in the human timeline - many democracies arose to overthrow monarchy, even as some retained our fetish for princes and princesses thru irrational ceremonial excesses. With Democracy came the promise of elected representatives of the people by the people and for the people - even if it took some time for everyone to be recognised as 'people'.
Elsewhere communists overthrew monarchy, and noticeably absent here was a fetish for royalty. Here was an even greater promise of peasant power, and representation of labour's interests.
The checks and balances envisoned in parliamentary electoral democracy gave way to modern day monarchs leading political parties in democracy. They are worshipped and assume powers and accolades like Kings in the years past. Likewise, Communism led to concentration of power within the Communist Party, and led to leaders who enjoyed even more power than the Kings they overthrew.
Likewise with religion. Even the ones which branched off from a dominant religion, with the purpose of reform in society, have become cults of their own.
Most of these ideologies, religions and ways of life were made with good intentions. Unfortunately, power is a vice like no other, it blows humanity's will to smithereens.
When we imagine social relations thru culture, tradition, law and so on, we must then account for this tendency for concentration of power.
Look at some common forms of social relations: country, religion, race, caste, nationality, political party, capital, fame, cinema, sports, music etc. In every social context people have attempted and succeeded in cornering power, and to use this power to concentrate even more power, on loop.
All good things in life operate within a band. Even Food, Water and Oxygen operate in a band. Too much and too little are both deadly. Trees don't grow endlessly tall and reach the moon. There are disadvantages to size - to oneself in natural design, and to others in human design.
In natural design, if humans grow too big, our bodies struggle with coordination and balance. If trees grow too tall, they bear the brunt of the wind during storms. So in nature, things grow as big as necessary, no more and no less, within a band.
In human design of nations, religions, companies, cinema and political parties, there are no limits to how much one can grow. There are no instinctive forces of resistance, like fear of wind or a weak spine, to limit how big one of these can grow.
As humans, the more power we have, the more challenged is our ability to resist megalomania. This is not so much an individual's mistake, as it is a natural outcome of nature's design. Humans are designed with good and bad tendencies - the reason why most people are not dominant is because they are not in a position to be so.
It's a question of opportunity. So when we imagine society, we must think of this opportunity to dominate all around us, and how, in society's conscience, we can grow an instinct to resist this concentration of power.
In the last 100 years - a speck in the human timeline - many democracies arose to overthrow monarchy, even as some retained our fetish for princes and princesses thru irrational ceremonial excesses. With Democracy came the promise of elected representatives of the people by the people and for the people - even if it took some time for everyone to be recognised as 'people'.
Elsewhere communists overthrew monarchy, and noticeably absent here was a fetish for royalty. Here was an even greater promise of peasant power, and representation of labour's interests.
The checks and balances envisoned in parliamentary electoral democracy gave way to modern day monarchs leading political parties in democracy. They are worshipped and assume powers and accolades like Kings in the years past. Likewise, Communism led to concentration of power within the Communist Party, and led to leaders who enjoyed even more power than the Kings they overthrew.
Likewise with religion. Even the ones which branched off from a dominant religion, with the purpose of reform in society, have become cults of their own.
Most of these ideologies, religions and ways of life were made with good intentions. Unfortunately, power is a vice like no other, it blows humanity's will to smithereens.
When we imagine social relations thru culture, tradition, law and so on, we must then account for this tendency for concentration of power.
Look at some common forms of social relations: country, religion, race, caste, nationality, political party, capital, fame, cinema, sports, music etc. In every social context people have attempted and succeeded in cornering power, and to use this power to concentrate even more power, on loop.
All good things in life operate within a band. Even Food, Water and Oxygen operate in a band. Too much and too little are both deadly. Trees don't grow endlessly tall and reach the moon. There are disadvantages to size - to oneself in natural design, and to others in human design.
In natural design, if humans grow too big, our bodies struggle with coordination and balance. If trees grow too tall, they bear the brunt of the wind during storms. So in nature, things grow as big as necessary, no more and no less, within a band.
In human design of nations, religions, companies, cinema and political parties, there are no limits to how much one can grow. There are no instinctive forces of resistance, like fear of wind or a weak spine, to limit how big one of these can grow.
As humans, the more power we have, the more challenged is our ability to resist megalomania. This is not so much an individual's mistake, as it is a natural outcome of nature's design. Humans are designed with good and bad tendencies - the reason why most people are not dominant is because they are not in a position to be so.
It's a question of opportunity. So when we imagine society, we must think of this opportunity to dominate all around us, and how, in society's conscience, we can grow an instinct to resist this concentration of power.
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