“YOU’RE MAKING IT HARDER AND HARDER TO PREFER NOT TO KILL YOU AND TAKE YOUR STUF

“YOU’RE MAKING IT HARDER AND HARDER TO PREFER NOT TO KILL YOU AND TAKE YOUR STUFF”.

(by James Augustus Berens)

—“Majoritarian Democracy can only function in a state of Perpetual Prisoner Dilemmas, where zero-sum outcomes are not deterministic and sub-optimal outcomes are preferable to default aggression. We choose to cooperate via comprise (sub-optimal outcomes) because the comprise is preferable to war and defection.

When the rules (normative & legal) make the outcome of the game zero-sum & deterministic, favoring one set of agents over another (as opposed to a sub-optimal agreement) players will abandon the rules and start playing a different game.

Or, plainly worded: why don’t I kill you and take your stuff?

You’re making it harder, and harder, to prefer not to.”—James Augustus Berens