From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Jul 25 2001 - 12:13:59 MDT
> "Smigrodzki, Rafal" wrote:
>
> Mike Lorrey wrote (quoting Lee Corbin):
>
> > While I can't agree with that for the aforesaid reasons, it's
> > true that in comparison, systems that arise from the concentration
> > of power at a central focus seem artificial in comparison.
>
> Yes, they do.
>
> ### Somehow I have the impression that capitalism is highly unnatural,
> compared to the good old despotic tyranny. Why did all the rulers of
> ancient Egypt and Assyria brag about the heaps of bodies of people
> they slaughtered, rather than about how much money they made on their
> newest software offering? Their shape of government appeared hundreds
> of times, independently, naturally. It took literally thousands of
> years to develop the ideas necessary for capitalism to exist.
>
> Capitalism is much better than "natural" - it works. "Natural=good" is
> a bad meme.
Only if you claim that the 'natural' state was the dynastic feudalism of
that period. I don't.
The animistic/naturalistic tribal paganism prior to the rise of highly
organized agriculture like that seen in the first civilizations is much
more representative of that state which we call 'natural', for it
endured not for a few thousand years, but for tens of thousands of years
back to the Heidelberg/Neanderthal period. Tribal cultures are actually
far more socially and economically egalitarian than most any other
social system (though I suppose the claim could be made that if everyone
is in the ditch, your relative position in the ditch is of little
consequence to those outside the ditch), and operate within and between
tribal units on a far more 'fair trade' Bayesian system.
The animistic paganism of these early cultures eventually evolved as
tribes merged authority into organized agriculture into pantheistic
priesthoods that legitimized the holy authority of the kings beyond
their true legitimacy based on their real managerial capability, much as
collectivist ideologies today enforce dogma through propaganda and
punishment to maintain the authority of the state despite its lack of
real legitimacy based on economic efficiency. Both are unnatural
manipulations of preexisting systems through disinformation and lies.
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