Historian and complexity scientist, Dan Hoyer, examines why past societies collapsed when faced with crisis, while others founds ways to survive and flourish.
What we see time and again is that wealthy and powerful people try to grab bigger shares of the pie to maintain their positions. Rich families become desperate to secure prestigious posts for their children, while those aspiring to join the ranks of the elite scratch and claw their way up. And typically, wealth is related to power, as elites try to secure top positions in political office.
How, if it’s even possible, can we stop this endless competition? Can we ever learn to live equally with each other?
There’s ways. The indigenous on Canada’s west coast used to hold potlatches. That was an important way for society to maintain a level of material equity.
We’ve done it many different ways under many different labels. I find labels rather limiting. I linked a book below, I encourage you to paruse through it if you have time.
How, if it’s even possible, can we stop this endless competition? Can we ever learn to live equally with each other?
When there isn’t a need for it, attempts at grasping power shall be rebuked or ignored.
The key strategy is therefore to remove the need for power.
How? I can’t imagine how there could never be a need or at least a want for power for some people.
There’s ways. The indigenous on Canada’s west coast used to hold potlatches. That was an important way for society to maintain a level of material equity.
The only limit is imagination
So a form of socialism.
We’ve done it many different ways under many different labels. I find labels rather limiting. I linked a book below, I encourage you to paruse through it if you have time.
Most society structures have some form of socialism built in
https://archive.org/details/graeber-wengrow-dawn/David Graeber%2C David Wengrow - The Dawn of Everything_ A New History of Humanity-Farrar%2C Straus and Giroux (2021)/page/n13/mode/2up