Everyone’s talking about this as if it was a hypothetical, but as far as I can tell it describes pretty accurately how hierarchical human civilizations tend to organize themselves once they hit a certain size. Isn’t a divine ruler precisely someone who is more deserving and more able to absorb resources? Aren’t the lower orders people who would not appreciate luxuries and indeed have fully internalized such a fact (“Not for the likes of me”)
If you skip the equality requirement, it seems history is full of utilitarian societies.
Everyone’s talking about this as if it was a hypothetical, but as far as I can tell it describes pretty accurately how hierarchical human civilizations tend to organize themselves once they hit a certain size. Isn’t a divine ruler precisely someone who is more deserving and more able to absorb resources? Aren’t the lower orders people who would not appreciate luxuries and indeed have fully internalized such a fact (“Not for the likes of me”)
If you skip the equality requirement, it seems history is full of utilitarian societies.