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Social evolution
Posted By: Forrest of B.orgDate: 10/11/06 4:37 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Maturity and Internet Forums (goran)

: This is because this started very very long ago. Those in power are stripping
: the lower classes of their power, making them weaker. They can't take all
: at once, because we would notice and kick their asses. Instead they take
: little, and we adapt to it, then they take a little more, and we adapt to
: it, rince and repeat.

While I agree that all social organizations (governments in particular) tend to concentrate power in the hands of the few over time, I don't think that this has been happening unilaterally on a global scale for all of history. People form a society. Power begins to concentrate, things get worse and worse for the masses, and eventually the whole top heavy thing crumbles under it's own weight. So people build something new. Wash, rinse, and repeat. But people aren't complete idiots, they do learn some, and so on and on down the generations, each new social structure gets a little bit better, and lasts a little bit longer. We've abolished slavery and feudalism, at least properly speaking. And while our present social structure still retains relations similar to the master-slave or lord-fief relations of generations past, the effective power differential between the upper class and the lower class has gotten less with each new revolution in social organization (even as, within each iteration of a given organization, the classes still draw apart until that organization's collapse).

Think of it as the evolution of societies. Every society has flaws, and one of those flaws is the one you pointed out: the slow extraction of power from the many into the hands of the few. But then, every organism is mortal and has biological flaws that will eventually lead to it's natural death (if violent death doesn't get it first). That doesn't mean that successive generations can't evolve past those flaws and continue to improve. Likewise, even as each society as an individual unit dies a slow death for the reasons you've named, successive societies overall seem to be getting better and better across history.

And none of this is even to mention technological advance. I'd rather be lower-middle-class me today than a king of ancient Britain, just for the sake of hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity, to name a few things.

But we seem to have gotten far off track. What does any of this have to do with "kids these days"? The point I was making was that every generation forgets what it was really like when they were a kid (both their own actions and their environment), idealizes their youth (both their own generation's behavior and the general quality of things 'back then'), and then berates the new generation and all of their things for being generally lower quality then "when I was your age". That's got nothing to to with progress or decline in society. It's purely psychological.

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

yota part 4-6goran 10/9/06 1:41 p.m.
     Re: yota part 4-6Johannes Gunnar 10/10/06 11:08 a.m.
           Re: yota part 4-6goran 10/10/06 12:11 p.m.
           Re: yota part 4-6RyokoTK 10/10/06 12:32 p.m.
                 Re: yota part 4-6Forrest of B.org 10/10/06 2:39 p.m.
                 Re: yota part 4-6goran 10/10/06 3:07 p.m.
                       Re: yota part 4-6RyokoTK 10/10/06 3:36 p.m.
                       Re: yota part 4-6Johannes Gunnar 10/10/06 10:45 p.m.
                             Re: yota part 4-6Forrest of B.org 10/11/06 7:28 p.m.
                                   i'll drop by at psyjnir later today :) *NM*Johannes Gunnar 10/12/06 3:10 a.m.
                                   Is psyjnir down? *NM*Document 10/19/06 8:43 a.m.
                                         the hotline server is up at the moment... *NM*Johannes Gunnar 10/19/06 10:07 a.m.
                 Re: yota part 4-6Adam Ashwell 10/10/06 4:03 p.m.
                       Re: yota part 4-6mitchellan 10/10/06 5:24 p.m.
                             Re: yota part 4-6RyokoTK 10/10/06 5:44 p.m.
                       Re: yota part 4-6RyokoTK 10/10/06 5:47 p.m.
                             viva la story forum! *NM*Johannes Gunnar 10/10/06 10:47 p.m.
                       Maturity and Internet ForumsForrest of B.org 10/10/06 8:04 p.m.
                             Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsRyokoTK 10/10/06 8:33 p.m.
                                   Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsForrest of B.org 10/10/06 10:24 p.m.
                                         Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsRyokoTK 10/11/06 4:23 a.m.
                                               AddendumRyokoTK 10/11/06 4:27 a.m.
                                                     Re: AddendumDocument 10/11/06 7:43 a.m.
                                                           Re: AddendumCallie21V 10/11/06 6:58 p.m.
                                                                 That took you way too long, man. *NM*RyokoTK 10/11/06 7:14 p.m.
                                                                 ROFLCOPTER down! No LOL left behind! *NM* *NM*Forrest of B.org 10/11/06 7:30 p.m.
                                                                 Re: AddendumDocument 10/11/06 7:32 p.m.
                                                                 L.O.L! *NM*Johannes Gunnar 10/12/06 3:12 a.m.
                                   Re: Maturity and Internet Forumsgoran 10/11/06 12:30 a.m.
                                         Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAachim 10/11/06 2:48 a.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsRyokoTK 10/11/06 4:25 a.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet Forums *LINK*goran 10/11/06 6:33 a.m.
                                         Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsForrest of B.org 10/11/06 10:43 a.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAaron Sikes 10/11/06 12:16 p.m.
                                                     Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsForrest of B.org 10/11/06 1:49 p.m.
                                                           Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAaron Sikes 10/11/06 4:09 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Maturity and Internet Forumsgoran 10/11/06 11:56 p.m.
                                                                       Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAaron Sikes 10/12/06 6:44 a.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet Forumsgoran 10/11/06 3:02 p.m.
                                                     Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAaron Sikes 10/11/06 4:11 p.m.
                                                     Social evolutionForrest of B.org 10/11/06 4:37 p.m.
                                                           Re: Social evolutionAaron Sikes 10/11/06 5:34 p.m.
                                                           Re: Social evolutiongoran 10/11/06 11:49 p.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet Forumsxyfbzi 10/15/06 2:50 p.m.
                                         Is this a movie quote? *NM*Document 10/11/06 5:44 p.m.
                                   Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsD-M.A. 10/11/06 4:51 a.m.
                                         Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsRyokoTK 10/11/06 5:04 a.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsD-M.A. 10/11/06 7:19 a.m.
                                                     Re: Maturity and Internet Forumstreellama 10/11/06 8:43 a.m.
                                                           Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsD-M.A. 10/11/06 9:05 a.m.
                                                                 *looks at thread* What have I unleashed!? *NM*Adam Ashwell 10/11/06 3:27 p.m.
                                                                       Re: *looks at thread* What have I unleashed!?Aaron Sikes 10/11/06 3:45 p.m.
                                                           Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAaron Sikes 10/11/06 3:43 p.m.
                             Re: Maturity and Internet Forumstreellama 10/11/06 4:36 a.m.
                                   Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsAaron Sikes 10/11/06 9:26 a.m.
                                         Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsTycho 10/11/06 4:55 p.m.
                                               Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsRyokoTK 10/11/06 5:16 p.m.
                                                     I wasn't arguing your point, I agreed with it. *NM*Tycho 10/11/06 5:24 p.m.
                                                           Oops. *NM*RyokoTK 10/11/06 5:30 p.m.
                             Re: Maturity and Internet ForumsNicholai 10/11/06 9:19 a.m.
     Re: yota part 4-6D-M.A. 10/11/06 4:53 a.m.
           Re: yota part 4-6RyokoTK 10/11/06 5:26 a.m.

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