Ian BetteridgeMar 10

I think this post has been in my drafts folder for about three years, occasionally being reworked, and finally – FINALLY – I've finished it. Joni Mitchell, Jello Biafra, and Peter Thiel all feature. Warning - it's REALLY LONG.

https://www.ianbetteridge.com/zen-fascist-wi/

Zen fascists will control you...

In 1979, a punk band from San Francisco recorded a song about the Governor of California. It was a joke, mostly. Jerry Brown was a Democrat, a Buddhist, a man who dated Linda Ronstadt and discussed limits and simplicity at a moment when America was in no mood for either.

Ian Betteridge
Show threadgrrl_aexMar 10

@ianbetteridge

I read it.

What i got: 1)Humanity is innately hierarchical. 2)*Any* ideology/philosophy we come up with eventually leads to authoritarianism and oppression. 3)The current version on the rise (some sort of ayn randian fueled billionaire-ism) is particularly heinous. (but probably only because it is arising during this particularly "global tech/money" period of late-stage capitalism.)

So the takeaway i got: Humanity is fucked whatever we do.

what am i missing here? Any hope?

Show threadIan BetteridgeMar 10

@kitkat_blue Really good questions, thank you for asking them. I need to have a proper think, but my quicker take is no, humanity isn’t innately hierarchical. I don’t think people are innately much, except “messy”!

Cultures (and sub-cultures) are what I’m talking about. And I guess the key point is that cultures which involve an “attainable perfect” inevitably veer towards authoritarianism, because inevitably someone has to decide what perfection is, which gives them huge amounts of authority.

Humanity isn’t fucked. But any politics which says you can be a perfect individual if only you follow these rules is worth being wary of.

Show threadgrrl_aex

@ianbetteridge

A lot flows from the answer to the question of innate hierarchy.

I'm trying to think of any persistent human group, past or present, which isn't hierarchic. And i come up empty. Shamans, headmen/headwomen, elders; even hunter-gatherer cultures, a basal social form, have hierarchy. Any human activity that is skill-based will also possess a hierarchy, from the flint chipper to the programmer. It seems hard to escape the universality of hierarchy within humanity.

Or...?

Mar 10 at 7:00pmWeb
Show threadIan BetteridgeMar 10

@kitkat_blue Most hunter-gatherer societies were non-hieriarchical, and sometimes have strong cultural norms designed to stop people getting "too big for their boots" and assuming dominance. The !Kung, for example, practice "shaming the meat", where, a hunter gets to think of himself as above others, they literally insult his hunt. There's quite a few societies with levelling mechanisms like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leveling_mechanism

Leveling mechanism - Wikipedia

Show threadgrrl_aexMar 11

@ianbetteridge

That practice speaks more to conflict avoidance than hierarchy.

The !Kung do have hierarchy and it is evident in the elevation of the *elders* of the band in conflict resolution (common in H-G societies). Also, ownership has a role. Large game is divided based on the ownership of the arrow of the "fatal strike". The arrow owner is the one who is privileged to divide the kill--which goes to hunting party members first and then to their families, and then to the rest.