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[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I can see where you're coming from, for sure.

total decentralization and taking the power back in the hands of the people.

I've also heard this referred to as "Anarcho-socialism" (the non-authoritarian type of socialism, NOT communism) or "libertarian socialism". I just call it anti-authoritarianism, because the word "socialism" has a lot of baggage. Both capitalism and communism almost always result in authoritarian systems if given enough time, it seems.

The only problem with decentralization is that it has little defense against a highly-organized authoritarian system taking it over. Like the west took over the Native Americans.

If you got the whole world to be totally decentralized and the power in the hands of the people, all it takes is one Hitler-type to take over the world because there will be little defense against a large army. You cannot get rid of armies, unfortunately.

So there has to be some sort of aspect of world culture or something that can defend against this sort of pathogen, leading to authoritarianism again.

It seems humanity keeps going in these cycles of authoritarian to freedom and back again. Except now things are becoming so globalized that it's not just happening on a kingdom-by-kingdom basis or a country-by-country basis. Now it's the whole world at once, and it's a little scary tbh.

Even if you could create a utopia, how can you maintain it? It requires a very specific type of wisdom to be distributed on a culture-wide level, in a way that lasts more than 3 generations.

I wonder if humanity is just doomed to be stuck in this cycle forever.

[–]CA_Taxpayer 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I have traveled a lot, and one of the things I've realized is there is no such thing as a utopia. No matter what system you set up, it carries problems. Often, the differing problems in countries are the flip sides of the same coin. For example, in Europe, there is a lot of job protection. No one will fire you if you call in sick or show up late. As such, you don't live in fear of being fired... and there are days when the post office opens an hour late because the workers were all late. And it is maddening when you have an important letter to mail and you have to waste an hour waiting for the employees to arrive! Things in America tend to run more smoothly because employees know if they fuck up, they'll be fired in a heartbeat. And employees live in fear of being fired and are terrified to call in sick when they have pneumonia.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That's a sensibly balanced view. However I think it's also true that some systems are actually better than others, generally speaking. It's hard to know what the "best" system is though.

[–]CA_Taxpayer 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you for saying that about a balanced view! You have to pick your poison. I, personally would prefer bad customer service over not being able to call in sick when I'm sick. But there are a lot of these "two sides of the same coin issues" and in a society, some of the choices that society made you'll prefer and others you won't... that is why there is no such thing as a utopia. We're all different and have different preferences...