Mastodon Politics Show more
Mastodon Politics Show more
Mastodon Politics Show more
Mastodon Politics Show more
Mastodon Politics Show more
Mastodon Politics Show more
The people who want to use blocks as a political tactic to pressure this or that admin are just trying to create a status hierarchy with themselves at the top of a chain of command. It's a familiar game.
@bob @fallerOfFalls The counterpoint to that, is that when there are no rules then the weakest suffer.
Having a hierarchy isn't always a bad thing. Having rules isn't always a bad thing. Even having a benevolent dictator can be a great solution, as long as it lasts.
Extremes tend to be wrong, no matter which direction they take.
@bob @fallerOfFalls Trouble is assured either way.
Your "no rulers" utopia has no provisions to deal with assholes, let alone mobs of assholes who mobilise of their own volition to mistreat other people.
As soon as people start working together - whether on defense or offense or just creative projects, you get hierarchies and rulers, defacto or otherwise.
That's humanity.
When you apply the small scale psychology to large cities or nations then it becomes dysfunctional. The attempt to work around this is to invent bureaucratic structures and recruit police forces to ensure that rules are followed, but all that really does is create a privileged class who lord it over the rest. This kind of dynamic is why many of use stayed out of the silos to begin with.
@bob @fallerOfFalls Now we're getting pretty philosophical, but I'd like to point out that these large bureaucratic structures aren't pure evil.
They're the reason we're not mostly dead of measles, the reason we have CPUs with billions of transistors and the reasons violent crime is probably at its lowest point in all of recorded history.
Just sayin'. Working together, at scale, does have a few advantages. 😎
@HerraBRE @bob @fallerOfFalls Iron Law of Oligarchy, Robert Michelss, "Political Parties", 1911.
@HerraBRE @bob @fallerOfFalls When there are rules then the weakest suffer in a privilege structure reinforced against opposition. Bullies gang up too, and the top of any hierarchy is irresistible to them. When they get the mantle of legitimacy, they use it to enable their own bullying while silencing and punishing opposition.
@HerraBRE @bob @fallerOfFalls I agree. Rules and hierarchies are a necessary part of human society, and as you say, without rules the weakest suffer in a free-for-all. Since rules are hard to enforce without hierarchies, we need them also. We may not always like the rules and hierarchies, but not having them would be worse. The good thing about Mastodon is that we can choose which instance to use, and each instance has its own rules.
@fallerOfFalls @bob @HerraBRE And because of the ability of users to choose instances, we can have the advantages of benevolent dictatorship (long-term thinking, stability, a general care for the community even if not everyone agrees) without the disadvantages (potential for tyranny/repression) because users can choose their dictator through choosing an instance. If the dictator goes too far everyone can leave and the dictator can't stop them.
Too much hierarchy and rules lead to dysfunctional systems. There's the David Graeber book called "The Utopia of Rules" which describes this to some extent.
@bob @fallerOfFalls @HerraBRE Its true that the rules are often stacked against the weak, but equally, without rules, the weak suffer because unfortunately the strong will ride roughshod over the weak in a free-for-all contest. As long as rules are clear and enforced fairly, rules give the weak a chance. Problems occur when the rules are applied selectively (an in-between worst of both worlds that's unfortunately fairly common in the world)
