Paul Cantrell
The combination of (1) democracy and (2) the rule of law is an alternative to rampant violence. For all the flaws of both, those two things together are the alternative to a world where people make social decisions by constantly murdering each other.
I’m not sure the oligarchs fully appreciate that fact.
From @Mabande: https://mastodon.social/@Mabande/114116370622980357
Paul Cantrell
My dear would-be authoritarians, if you destroy democracy, if you destroy the rule of law, it doesn’t mean you win. It means there are no rules anymore. It means that the UnitedHealth CEO is going to look like a mild little warning shot.
Please don’t take us there. You don’t want that world, and neither do I. You’re wealthy enough already. You can just go sit under your mountain on your pile of gold, pay your damned taxes — which are a paltry sliver of your wealth, let’s be honest — and leave the rest of us the hell alone. You have that choice.
Paul Cantrell
@lianna
No, I really do •not• want a society where murder is the primary way we work out social disputes, and everyone (which •will• include you and me) expects to be killed at any moment by either the state or by the desperate. That’s no way to live.
What you’re describing — politicians deciding to destroy people — is •already• democracy failing. And yes, it is an invitation to violence, but I do not celebrate being in that situation.
Real-life examples of what I’m talking about — democratic disenfranchisement + collapse of law — are not glorious revolution. They’re fucking miserable: Jim Crow, the USSR, El Salvador’s RJG, Mobutu’s Congo, South Sudan today…. I don’t want to go there. And we don’t have to. But these people are taking us there anyway.
i686-powered lia
@inthehands speak for yourself, i want that world.
im so tired of politicians calmly and politely sitting around in a big building pretending to have a nuanced discussion on whether to destroy the livelihood and identity of people or not
there should definitely be more little warning shots
Paul Cantrell
@TritTriton
Nope, they never will. Only very broken people get that rich; any well-adjusted person has some sense of “enough.“
Trit’
@inthehands They want, and they won’t. Never. Even when they die, they have secured the future to be held by their accomplices.
Paul Cantrell
Basically, the ultra-wealthy are acting out IRL the the fable of The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, and our society is the goose.
Paul Cantrell
Struck by the aptness of various tellers’ morals to the fable in our current moment:
“Greed loses all by striving all to gain”
“Greed oft o'er reaches itself”
“Much wants more and loses all”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goose_that_Laid_the_Golden_Eggs
Marsh Gardiner 💡🐝🔧
@inthehands I've been thinking about this a lot, too. I used to apply it to private equity malevolence, and now we've loosed the same upon our own government (which also should not be viewed as a profit-seeking business!).
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