From: Charles Hixsn (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Aug 11 2003 - 11:04:07 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
>Samantha writes
>...
>
>I know that you don't have time or interest to give
>the entire history of technology, :-) but how do you
>explain that some societies do have (relative)
>freedom? How is it that those in power are not
>in total control now, and how did we ever evolve
>away from domination by an elite? And if you can
>answer that, then why couldn't such forces succeed
>in the future too?
>
>Lee
>
I can see several reasons why those in power have not been in total control:
1) The "elite" is not monolithic. The guy at the very top wants to
keep the challengers down, so he encourages their challengers.
2) Strategic alliances. This is really a generalization of point 1.
3) A frontier. If there's somewhere to get away to, then people won't
stick around when things get really bad.
4) Speed of communication. The rate at which communications can be
transmitted have an effect on how difficult it is to organize a large
area. And at the borders there's a "kind of" frontier.
5) Complexity of organization. Fine grained control of a system
requires a finely grained organization. This can be difficult to achieve.
6) Unions, guilds, etc. Economically important groups have some
leverage. (Not much, but some.)
7) Unexpected changes make the future hard to predict.
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