Organized religion is a coercive hierarchy every bit as violent as any state. Where we see the violence of organized religion restrained, it is restrained by the presence of a better-armed gang that chooses not to abide religious competition. Double-ditto for centralized financial systems.
Violent coercion is an inherent characteristic of hierarchical control systems. The twin purposes of hierarchy are to separate producers from their property and to separate power wielders from accountability.
The artificial scarcity racket we have been trained to call civilization rests on these three pillars: military gangs, religious gangs, and finance gangs. One or another may take precedence for a time, but the violence and theft have not taken a sustained break in any ‘civilized’ area since the first cities arose in Mesopotamia, nearly 10,000 years ago.
Today's Winner: WACO 😔
Organized religion is a coercive hierarchy every bit as violent as any state. Where we see the violence of organized religion restrained, it is restrained by the presence of a better-armed gang that chooses not to abide religious competition. Double-ditto for centralized financial systems.
Violent coercion is an inherent characteristic of hierarchical control systems. The twin purposes of hierarchy are to separate producers from their property and to separate power wielders from accountability.
The artificial scarcity racket we have been trained to call civilization rests on these three pillars: military gangs, religious gangs, and finance gangs. One or another may take precedence for a time, but the violence and theft have not taken a sustained break in any ‘civilized’ area since the first cities arose in Mesopotamia, nearly 10,000 years ago.