Reg and Simon,

Reg wrote:

A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

Simon replied:

In an e…

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Unseen wrote:
It’s sometimes pointed out when one argues that matriarchies simply don’t work that they worked in Polynesian societies.

The absence of patriarchy doesn’t necessarily imply a matriarchy.  It implies egalitarianism.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

In an egalitarian society, i…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

It’s sometimes pointed out w…[Read more]

A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

Unseen wrote:
This makes anarchism a practicsl impossibility.

It’s a practical impossibility within a delayed-return economy, because, at least: 1) hierarchical coordination is necessary to get the jobs done; 2) a small group of people is always going to control the means of production; 3) if they’re lucky, a small group of people can control a…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
It was probably a free anarchist state, with no hierarchy.  We assume that egalitarianism was the default position, and this is psychologically hard to break as each man and woman is as good as anyone else.

You are delusional. There will always be a power dynamic which results in the populace being divided in…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
It is what Stephen Jay Gould called ‘Punctuated Equilibrium’, a theory that suggests Evolution proceeds with long periods of stasis, Interrupted by short, sharp bursts of rapid change.

If the environment changes in stops and starts, then it makes sense for evolution to do the same.

Unseen wrote:
I mean, if bees and…

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