The term "democracy", "rule by the people", is in and of itself already nonsensical because in reality a country is always "ruled by the oligarchy".
This is a matter of simple geometry.
There is always a hierarchical top to society where all the political power accumulates, and therefore, also pretty much all the wealth.
Efforts to make the populace believe in the always-fake democracy are very bad for the people that they are supposed to serve. You are just bamboozling them a bit more.
It is simply not possible to prevent the concentration of political power and therefore of wealth. — Tarskian
I can say Elon Musk is an insufferable idiot — Moliere
If that's so then we could make the economy better even if hierarchy is inevitable. — Moliere
just want to riff on this idea of hierarchies being inevitable, and whether democracy manages to address hierarchy at all, or is just a re-invention of the same. — Moliere
"There will always be winners and losers, so stop talking about making it better" — Moliere
So the thing when it comes to politics is to recognise the fact and use it to your best advantage. You don’t want to waste time trying to erase hierarchical order. You want to understand it well enough to use it to achieve your goals. — apokrisis
Freedom from harassment by the oligarchy is possible. It takes effort to achieve it, but in my opinion, it is definitely worth it. — Tarskian
Wow. You realised you describe the age of Colonialism so well. Just the same model in today’s world. Pack up your bags and settle in some land inhabited only by natives you fundamentally need not care about. Take it from there. — apokrisis
https://digitalnomadbrothers.com/blog/post/faith-on-the-move-navigating-halal-travel-as-a-muslim-digital-nomad
Exploring the challenges and solutions for Muslim digital nomads, this guide offers insights on locating Halal food, keeping up with prayers, and ensuring one's travels never compromise their faith. Discover how to harmonize your nomadic lifestyle with the principles of Islam.
Karl Marx did not erase hierarchical order. His communists merely created another one. — Tarskian
Political power itself cannot be abolished. It will always exist because that is simply human nature. — Tarskian
First of all, colonialism is about forcing your views onto the indigenous population. You are not in that position as a digital nomad or nomad capitalist. You just need a place where the ruling mafia will leave you alone. It is not about oppressing others but about avoiding getting oppressed yourself. — Tarskian
In the end, all morality emanates from the laws of the Almighty. — Tarskian
The political question is what do we think about it if we extrapolate the trend - the trickle becoming the flood? Do we still think it such a wonderful thing? Does it successfully scale? — apokrisis
Get to that question and you have a political position to advance here. At the moment you are just describing running away from problems rather than fixing problems. — apokrisis
That is, religion has long served this precise social function. And sadly religious institutions are also famously corruptible. — apokrisis
A constitutional society seems better. But the US is an example of how that can eventually go if it doesn’t keep its power balancing mechanisms politically up to date. — apokrisis
Why should I be interested in everybody else's problems? Are they even interested in mine? — Tarskian
If I could, I would reprogram myself around the morality of the original hunter-gatherers but these guys could not write. So, they did not transmit a copy of their moral rules to us. That is why I make do with the nomadic shepherds. — Tarskian
Every system can be gamed. If it can be gamed, it will be gamed. — Tarskian
But we know quite a lot about hunter-gatherers. And what reliable sources are you using when it comes to nomadic shepherds? Any cites? — apokrisis
And every system can be policed. — apokrisis
That is why anti-oligarchy and anti-monopoly policies exist. — apokrisis
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase found in the Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–348), a work of the 1st–2nd century Roman poet Juvenal. It may be translated as "Who will guard the guards themselves?" or "Who will watch the watchmen?".
The original context deals with the problem of ensuring marital fidelity, though the phrase is now commonly used more generally to refer to the problem of controlling the actions of persons in positions of power, an issue discussed by Plato in the Republic.
Just happen to be reading a book about the early Iron Age, and the Israelites weren't nomadic. Arabs weren't either. I can see how you'd get that impression though. — frank
https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-a-nomad.html
Abraham is the first person in Scripture who seems to be specifically identified as living a nomadic lifestyle. He moved from place to place in a land that was not his own, living in tents.
...
When the people of Israel left Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years living as nomads. Even the tabernacle was mobile, so that it could be moved from place to place.
https://www.the-faith.com/featured-posts/prophet-muhammad-working-as-a-shepherd/
When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was still young, Abu Talib was going through a financial crisis; he had many mouths to feed, and business wasn’t going so well. To help his uncle get through those hard times, the Prophet (peace be upon him) worked as a shepherd. In an authentic Hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said,“Every Prophet that Allah sent herded sheep (at one time or another during his life).” The companions said, “And even you?” He (peace be upon him) said, “Yes, I herded them upon Qararit.” (Ibn Hajar said that scholars mention two possible meanings of Qararit: it is either a place in Makkah, or it is a portion of a dinar or dirham, in which case the Prophet (peace be upon him) was mentioning his wages. (Al-Bukhari)
Abraham and the Exodus are folklore. The Israelites occupied a specific area.
Muhammad had a number of occupations. The Arabs weren't nomadic. — frank
Oh wow. I wasn’t expecting your ideology to be quite so narrowly based. — apokrisis
That's true. It's a consequence of freedom. Competition means winners and losers. Winners are in a stronger position to compete and tend to win more than losers, and vice versa.There is always a hierarchical top to society where all the political power accumulates, and therefore, also pretty much all the wealth. — Tarskian
That works the other way round, as well. It is simply not possible to prevent the concentration of wealth and therefore of political power.It is simply not possible to prevent the concentration of political power and therefore of wealth. — Tarskian
People have been saying that forever - almost certainly since societies were formed. But the Golden Age of the past, on closer inspection, always turns out to be a nightmare. Why on earth would one want to become a nomadic shepherd in any earlier age?Everybody alive today has been corrupted from early childhood by our degenerate society. — Tarskian
indeed. Especially as they are also players in the market.Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
That works the other way round, as well. It is simply not possible to prevent the concentration of wealth and therefore of political power. — Ludwig V
In a capitalist society, wealth becomes concentrated, then redistributed by economic crisis. It's happened over and over, no matter who was in charge. The secret to the endurance of capitalism is that it's incredibly creative. In a sense, it created all of us.
The only part democracy plays is that it provides the freedom capitalism needs. — frank
As a digital nomad slash nomad capitalist, I do not care if the ruling oligarchy increases taxes in a particular jurisdiction, for example, because it never affects me.
Most political decisions are irrelevant to me because I can just choose another jurisdiction where they made another political decision.
Freedom from harassment by the oligarchy is possible. It takes effort to achieve it, but in my opinion, it is definitely worth it. — Tarskian
You don’t want to waste time trying to erase hierarchical order. — apokrisis
That's true. But I was also thinking of the political influence wealth can have indirectly, not by influencing politicians. Where does that new factory go? Who going to be laid off? Where am I going to put my money? That sort of thing. Money talks. To put it another way, "it's all about economics, stupid"All politically powerful people get approached by wealthy people for political privileges, but not necessarily the other way around. — Tarskian
I think you've slipped up there. Isn't the idea of representation that the apes that get the office should as like the apes as home as possible?you can't build representative systems since the apes that get the office are no better than the apes at home, — Moliere
But your subtext is correct, of course. It is very hard to find democratic politicians who will vote for an unpopular policy. — Ludwig V
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