"Getting rid of capitalist 'exploiters' in Communist countries did not raise the living standards of workers, even to levels common in many capitalist countries, where workers were presumably still being exploited, as Marxists conceived the term." - Thomas Sowell

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[–]cybitch 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

The USSR was a fucking shithole for anyone who wasn't Russian. An imperialistic, genocidal tyranny full of greedy bureaucrats. Tankies are the worst scum on this planet, as bad as nazis if not worse because nazis are a thing of the past, but commie BS is taking over the west at the moment.

The issue here is that unfortunately human beings are unable to work in harmony without leaders. Hierarchies will form naturally. So the utopia of everyone being equal that's supposed to follow the big slaughtering of the rich will never happen, instead new elites rise to the top while spewing BS propaganda about being for the people or whatever. Meanwhile the people have less power than ever, nepotism, censorship and slave camps for wrongthinkers thrive.

[–]sudd3nclar1ty 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

And yet for almost all of human history, people practiced social equality. The need for heirarchy is a myth.

"Christopher Boehm, having explored data from 48 societies spread across the globe, ranging from small hunting and gathering bands to more sedentary chiefdoms, suggested that with the advent of anatomically modern humans who continued to live in small groups and had not yet domesticated plants and animals (hunter-gatherer), it is very likely that all human societies practised egalitarianism and that most of the time they did so very successfully."

"The term egalitarianism has two distinct definitions in modern English, either as a political doctrine that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social and civil rights, or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic inequalities among people, economic egalitarianism, or the decentralization of power. Some sources define egalitarianism as equality reflecting the natural state of humanity."

[–]cybitch 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The need for hierarchy is called evolution. The more resources you gather for yourself, the better the chances your offspring will survive and thrive. Other people's genes are competition, even when there is a need to cooperate with them. This is the case with all primates. There is ALWAYS a hierarchy. There is zero reason human beings would be an exception, aside from wishful thinking. Whatever "noble savage" BS theories some sociologists spew are irrelevant, just look at the actual world as it is and you'll get it.

[–]sudd3nclar1ty 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Evolution: a process of change in a certain direction

For 70,000 years humans cooperated in egalitarian ways. We evolved to be social, compassionate and creative.

Warriors hunted. Shamans healed. Chiefs administrated. Hierarchy is a recent social phenomenon closely linked to religion and patriarchy. Read some sapiens by hariri. But of course, learning from experts is irrelevant.

[–]cybitch 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

learning from experts

Nope. Historians are not experts on human beings. Have any neuroscience?

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2015.00154/full

[–]GConly 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hierarchy is a recent social phenomenon closely linked to religion and patriarchy.

Well that's balls.

Hunter Gatherers are almost always patriarchal. Virtually all able bodied males hunt, you only see them split off into other skills if they get too old to hunt. The chief is usually the grandaddy, maybe his bully son, or they don't have one and they have an elder council.

You see heirarchy in other primates. It's not even a human only thing

Also modern humans date back 120k years, and the African origin was almost certainly over 100k ago.

We evolved to be social, compassionate and creative.

We also evolved to be violent and selfish. Violence is an acceptable way to acquire women in HG tribes as long as they are from outside you tribe. Genocide was a recurring theme of AMH populations, murdering your neighbors to steal their territory or women was a normal thing. Still is. Most HGs have permanent conflict with their neighbours and higher homicide rates than we see in other cultures.

Read something more current.

War Before Civilization: the Myth of the Peaceful Savage, by Lawrence H. Keeley

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization

For a summary.

HGs ate each other in famines, and still do.

You are full of romanticised nonsense. It's the idiot hippy ideal of the noble savage all over again.