←back to thread

523 points mhga | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.215s | source
Show context
hliyan ◴[] No.44496589[source]
I'm starting to realize, very belatedly in life, that we suffer from an end-of-history illusion in politics and political economy. I used to think we live in a golden age because a hundred years ago, democracy broadly replaced monarchies, market economies replaced feudalism and other coercive systems, and with it went many of the old, indirect mechanisms of subjugating large populations (e.g. moral imperatives through the Church, legitimization of rule through concepts such as the divine right of kings, control of education etc).

But it seems we've only replaced those mechanisms with more refined versions (manufacturing consent through mass media, surveillance and indirect indentured servitude through student debt, rent and health insurance).

We probably have another century of socioeconomic and political evolution to go before we reach a decent end state.

replies(14): >>44496602 #>>44496623 #>>44496657 #>>44496662 #>>44496711 #>>44496815 #>>44496891 #>>44496901 #>>44496953 #>>44496961 #>>44496987 #>>44496997 #>>44497210 #>>44497837 #
1. smaudet ◴[] No.44496997[source]
We are probably several centuries out.

Thought experiment - how many generations does it take to forget grandpa?

If Grandpa is the issue, their grandchildren may have falsely optimistic opinions of their corrupt roots. Their children (grand grand children) don't have the same rosy memories, and don't get why Mom and Dad are into their weird rituals. But it's Mom and Dad so it can't be so bad, right?

It's not till their grandchildren, normally, that (assuming they are decent people and the trait isn't genetic or somehow encouraged by society) people can maybe see what utter crappy people their grand grand grand grand parents were, and maybe do something about it.