I’m thinking here mainly of a prototypical case of an isolated farmer family (like the early farming families of the greek peninsula, not absorbed into a polis), being accosted by some roving bandits
The assertion IIUC is not that it never makes sense for anyone to give in to a threat—that would clearly be an untrue assertion—but rather that it is possible for a society to reach a level of internal coordination where it starts to make sense to adopt a categorical policy of never giving in to a threat. That would mean for example that any society member that wants to live in dath ilan’s equivalent of an isolated farm would probably need to formally and publicly relinquish their citizenship to maintain dath ilan’s reputation for never giving in to a threat. Or dath ilan would make it very clear that they must not give in to any threats, and if they do and dath ilan finds out, then dath ilan will be the one that slaughters the whole family. The latter policy is a lot like how men’s prisons work at least in the US whereby the inmates are organized into groups (usually based on race or gang affiliation) and if anyone even hints (where others can hear) that you might give in to sexual extortion, you need to respond with violence because if you don’t, your own group (the main purpose of which is mutual protection from the members of the other groups) will beat you up.
That got a little grim. Should I add a trigger warning? Should I hide the grim parts behind a spoiler tag thingie?
The assertion IIUC is not that it never makes sense for anyone to give in to a threat—that would clearly be an untrue assertion—but rather that it is possible for a society to reach a level of internal coordination where it starts to make sense to adopt a categorical policy of never giving in to a threat. That would mean for example that any society member that wants to live in dath ilan’s equivalent of an isolated farm would probably need to formally and publicly relinquish their citizenship to maintain dath ilan’s reputation for never giving in to a threat. Or dath ilan would make it very clear that they must not give in to any threats, and if they do and dath ilan finds out, then dath ilan will be the one that slaughters the whole family. The latter policy is a lot like how men’s prisons work at least in the US whereby the inmates are organized into groups (usually based on race or gang affiliation) and if anyone even hints (where others can hear) that you might give in to sexual extortion, you need to respond with violence because if you don’t, your own group (the main purpose of which is mutual protection from the members of the other groups) will beat you up.
That got a little grim. Should I add a trigger warning? Should I hide the grim parts behind a spoiler tag thingie?