cornered rat
Moderator
Seems to me that most societies operate, on a basic level, like this. Organized criminals prey on the rest. The criminals could call themselves government or Mafia or whatever, the main feature being enough anonymity and numbers to overwhelm any individual.
This is why you'd fight a mugger trying to steal $50 but not fight an enforcement officer stealing more. The thug is alone, the officer has backup that will hunt you down and kill you. Same with mafia: you eliminate one tough guy, two others kill your family while you are at work.
Most people have their jobs, lives, dependents to lose. So they put up with taxation, seizure, other types of theft, restriction of movement, the myriad laws in order to avoid being confined, beaten, shot, etc.
A society functions as long as the first group (inconviniences) is significantly less severe than the second group (calamities). Also, the populace needs to beleive that the second group of troubles is certain to visit them if they fight the first.
The breakdown of this occurs if 1)two types of trouble become too similar (i.e. thugs take all your property as taxes on the pain of imprisonment) or if 2)people resist on irrational basis (pride, principles, etc.) without regard for consequences.
At some point after that fight, the equilibrium is restored at a slightly less opressive level and the process repeats itself (see recent Eastern Europe). Depressing thought...
On the plus side, nomads can escape this in theory, if not in practice...
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Cornered Rat, now at bay
ddb.com/RKBA Updated March 20
"Disarm, then past the barbed wire, into the oven and out of the smoke-stack..."
[This message has been edited by cornered rat (edited June 16, 1999).]
This is why you'd fight a mugger trying to steal $50 but not fight an enforcement officer stealing more. The thug is alone, the officer has backup that will hunt you down and kill you. Same with mafia: you eliminate one tough guy, two others kill your family while you are at work.
Most people have their jobs, lives, dependents to lose. So they put up with taxation, seizure, other types of theft, restriction of movement, the myriad laws in order to avoid being confined, beaten, shot, etc.
A society functions as long as the first group (inconviniences) is significantly less severe than the second group (calamities). Also, the populace needs to beleive that the second group of troubles is certain to visit them if they fight the first.
The breakdown of this occurs if 1)two types of trouble become too similar (i.e. thugs take all your property as taxes on the pain of imprisonment) or if 2)people resist on irrational basis (pride, principles, etc.) without regard for consequences.
At some point after that fight, the equilibrium is restored at a slightly less opressive level and the process repeats itself (see recent Eastern Europe). Depressing thought...
On the plus side, nomads can escape this in theory, if not in practice...
------------------
Cornered Rat, now at bay
ddb.com/RKBA Updated March 20
"Disarm, then past the barbed wire, into the oven and out of the smoke-stack..."
[This message has been edited by cornered rat (edited June 16, 1999).]