I think that would be a highly useful way to examine one’s values and ethics. Including your own views.
I was thinking of making a strong pseudo-Marxist argument in this direction, so I’m not sure how relevant it would be to my own views.
As you can see, the latter view is inconsistent—as you have said yourself many times before, rallying against the futility and weakness of “mere conservatism”, with its aquiescence to nearly any reform. The former view—no government or outsider should restrict a subject’s control over his inferiors and subordinates, to do so in any one case is to threaten the whole structure of hierarchy and dominance—certainly seems to be a stable Schelling point. And to prevent any drift from that point, you’d need a ruthless zero-tolerance policy of enforcement.
A different plausible Schelling point is the preservation of existing hierarchies but opposing the creation of new ones. Note that Americans spoken of had previously rejected the hierarchy of aristocracy without rejecting in general stratification by class, wealth, education, nationality, beauty, ancestry, race, gender, merit or ability. Some of these are preserved to this day.
So what is your judgment here? Any bullets you’d bite on the subject of hierarchy and dominance?
Overall a society without hierarchies is something that I doubt would be optimally matched to human values and I might even find disturbing. At the very least it would have high costs. I however need to think about these issues more before committing myself to biting any bullets.
I was thinking of making a strong pseudo-Marxist argument in this direction, so I’m not sure how relevant it would be to my own views.
A different plausible Schelling point is the preservation of existing hierarchies but opposing the creation of new ones. Note that Americans spoken of had previously rejected the hierarchy of aristocracy without rejecting in general stratification by class, wealth, education, nationality, beauty, ancestry, race, gender, merit or ability. Some of these are preserved to this day.
Overall a society without hierarchies is something that I doubt would be optimally matched to human values and I might even find disturbing. At the very least it would have high costs. I however need to think about these issues more before committing myself to biting any bullets.