On 2013-11-27 13:18, Hashem Nasarat wrote:
Nothing like good wealthy land owners to run a country well. Would could be more telling of a person's privilege (nay, right!) to rule others than a history of wealth?
Because war, slavery, genocide, were definitely not byproducts of having a homogeneous in-group that controlled all areas of wealth and power...
The level of warfare, slavery, and genocide seems to have increased steadily with the decline of kings as the world got more demotic Those mightily indignant about slavery that substantially increased the living standards of those lucky enough "to catch the boat", as Mohammed Ali famously phrased it, just loved slavery that caused a hundred million or so to starve to death. We also saw all the gliterati and the progressive intellectuals gathered to support Mengistu's slave state. War increased from the days of the Restoration until World War II, after which we got the pax atomica, the peace of terror, the nuclear peace. Things were, during the nuclear peace, if not quiet, comparatively quiet. Let us look at the middle east. Would anyone be worried if one the monarchies had nukes? No, they would be mightily relieved, confident that the Kings would keep the fanatics quiet. But when the nearest thing to democracy in the middle east reaches for nuclear weapons, looks like the peace of terror may finally end in terror.