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122 points throw0101b | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.232s | source
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camillomiller ◴[] No.44442592[source]
The fundamental problem I have with this analysis is that it won’t consider a simple assumption: Jack Welch was just better at the capitalism game than others. He didn’t rewrite the written rules, he just didn’t care about the ethic-based unwritten ones. With the decline of historical ideologies, hyper-individualism took over. Welch was just very good at understanding that some invisible boundaries didn’t apply anymore, and that the zeitgeist was shifting in that direction.
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pyrale ◴[] No.44442849[source]
The invisible boundaries did apply, and they still do. The story isn't that he saw that some rules no longer applied, it's that he was willing to go to war about it.

Post WW2, we had gradually managed to build a less violent society, and at some point, some CEOs decided: "You know, the Ludlow massacre and the Bisbee deportation were not that bad". And now, we get the pushback, where some employees think that murdering a CEO in the middle of Manhattan is fair game.

Rules didn't disappear. But people are more willing to go to conflict about them.

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tpmoney ◴[] No.44443307[source]
> Post WW2, we had gradually managed to build a less violent society

This feels like a whitewashing of a lot of post WWII history. That “less violent society” included the Korean and Vietnam wars, multiple assassinations, civil rights riots, the Kent State massacre and the Cold War.

Was it that society was less violent or that we became more diverse in our ability to commit violence?

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1. pyrale ◴[] No.44443875[source]
I'm not saying post-WW2 society was non-violent.

I'm saying prior to WW2, sending the army (or just any hired goons) to shoot at workers was a common way to handle a strike in western countries. I'm saying at the turn of 20th century, people in colonies had their hands cut for not meeting rubber quota. etc.

You are right to point out that things weren't (and aren't) perfect, but you'd be a fool to think that there was no improvement.