I notice that I missed the whole reason for democracy, which was that the Athenian navy won the Persian War, so they had to keep the ordinary seamen and rowers happy, so they gave them the vote.
We're so creative as a species, really -- both at creating incredibly messed up systems, and at kludging together the weirdest workarounds to try to compensate for at least one or two of the problems they create.
I had a revelation a while ago reading an article about women and inheritance dynamics in Beowulf, which is that a society can't work if 50% of the population is unhappy with it. There has to be a reason for everyone to buy in, even if it looks like a tiny, inadequate reason in another society. Or at least, there has to be a way things could be worse.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-06-06 09:21 pm (UTC)We're so creative as a species, really -- both at creating incredibly messed up systems, and at kludging together the weirdest workarounds to try to compensate for at least one or two of the problems they create.
I had a revelation a while ago reading an article about women and inheritance dynamics in Beowulf, which is that a society can't work if 50% of the population is unhappy with it. There has to be a reason for everyone to buy in, even if it looks like a tiny, inadequate reason in another society. Or at least, there has to be a way things could be worse.