Theme: Civilization

  • Recommended

    Jan 14, 2020, 2:42 PM Henri Pirenne – Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe-Mariner Books (1956) You can find this book on library genesis. So far it’s the ‘least wrong’ history of medieval europe I can find. Also can recommend: Hodgett, Gerald Augustus John – A social and economic history of medieval Europe (1972). Haven’t seen it on libgen. Shorter. But adequate.

  • Explanation of The Success of The Western Order

    Explanation of The Success of The Western Order https://propertarianism.com/2020/05/30/explanation-of-the-success-of-the-western-order/


    Source date (UTC): 2020-05-30 16:25:14 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1266767635741642752

  • Explanation of The Success of The Western Order

    Jan 14, 2020, 4:27 PM by Bill Joslin (important) (riffing of post shared below) (note the multiple dimensions common in propertarian analysis) 1) Production Distribution: Whereby the square root of the population accounts for 50% of productivity (thanks Heavens Wolves for these connections). 2) Lower Power Distance = Greater Chance of Trust. Power distance index: whereby some people have a predilection to trust immediate leaders (personally known) , other are amiable to trust leaders at high distance (impersonal). 3) Lower Power Distance = Greater Agency Hierarchies that “chunk” into smaller units and delegate power (agency) into the smaller chunks, while maintaining accountability (risk) for the outcome, recursively maintain lower power distance relationships across a larger organizational structure. 4) Lower Power Distance = Easier to emulate those we trust. Lower power distance afford lower members the opportunity to emulate leaders which they have access to (my sargent, my supervisor etc) which increases their agency and calls them forward to become leaders. 5) Lower Power Distance = Greater opportunity for expression of excellence. By chunking, the square root of a smaller group, on the aggregate across many groups, produces more super performers. (a group of nine will have 3 super performers. a group of 100 will have 10 super performers – 10 groups of 9 will have 30 super performers by the standard of a single group of 90) 6) High power distance = obedience over trust. Those with higher power distance preferences, produce larger groups which delegate from one to many (one leader to 100 or 1000 men with no ranks between) 7) High Power Distance = lower agency. They do not capture the square root potential of recursive groups, which mean few super performers are available for emulation – to wit they have little to no proximity or exposure. This reduces their ability to increase agency at the same time, encourages dependence on the leaders (also known as demand for authority) 8) Western Hierarchies = produce velocity and agency. The west, via militias and presumption of individual sovereignty, has allowed low power distance individuals to organize at larger scales. in doing so has captured more benefit from the square root performance distribution. the result has been velocity. So now I can make my point: 9) Western Social Cohesion = via proximity, delegated agency, distributed accountability. This structure of chunked groups with delegated agency, bound by accountability, allowed us to emulate and respect our betters and inspires us to become them… at the same time as being able to have a higher resolution (and speed) in applying accountability. This becomes of paramount importance in maintaining cooperative class structures. Because class structures are no different from military structures Respect and reward where due, disrespect and correction where due. HOW DOES INTELLIGENCE ENTER THIS? 10) Communication breaks down across 2 Standard Deviations. A standard Deviation is 15 points. 11) Lower power distance, via “chunking” allows for IQ-capture across scales. A general (IQ 145+) communicates to a senior officer (IQ 130+) who communicates to an officer (120+) who communicates to an NCO (110+) who communicates to the soldier (IQ 85+). 12) High power distance communicates from leader to soldier whereby the leader expects blind obedience and the soldier is unable to understand context for commands. This breeds confusion and resentment whereby the leaders have no respect for lowers and lowers see leaders as tyrants. class conflict then ensues. 13) Organizational patterns: i) Centralized, ii) Decentralized, iii) Distributed i) Centralized moves organization toward high power distance relations to reap the benefits of organization at larger scales. (3rd world armies)(herd with a shepard) ii) Decentralized preserves lower power distance while scaling to larger scales. (western armies)(pack) iii) Distributed attempts to remove the centralized by clipping off leaders (antifa) and in doings reduces itself to “intelligence of the mob” (only as smart as the lowest component) (herd) 14) Leftist i.e. western liberals, coming from a culture and predisposition of a lower power distance, (distrust power at the more distant levels), attempt to organize themselves in a decentralized manner but can only achieve distribution, eventually devolve into a mob due to the dissonance between their desire for authority and low power distance predilection (from being western) That is why socialism/communism may work in China without social de-cohesion (asians being high power distance) and will not work in the west. The outcome results in the distribution of a mob (herd).

  • Explanation of The Success of The Western Order

    Jan 14, 2020, 4:27 PM by Bill Joslin (important) (riffing of post shared below) (note the multiple dimensions common in propertarian analysis) 1) Production Distribution: Whereby the square root of the population accounts for 50% of productivity (thanks Heavens Wolves for these connections). 2) Lower Power Distance = Greater Chance of Trust. Power distance index: whereby some people have a predilection to trust immediate leaders (personally known) , other are amiable to trust leaders at high distance (impersonal). 3) Lower Power Distance = Greater Agency Hierarchies that “chunk” into smaller units and delegate power (agency) into the smaller chunks, while maintaining accountability (risk) for the outcome, recursively maintain lower power distance relationships across a larger organizational structure. 4) Lower Power Distance = Easier to emulate those we trust. Lower power distance afford lower members the opportunity to emulate leaders which they have access to (my sargent, my supervisor etc) which increases their agency and calls them forward to become leaders. 5) Lower Power Distance = Greater opportunity for expression of excellence. By chunking, the square root of a smaller group, on the aggregate across many groups, produces more super performers. (a group of nine will have 3 super performers. a group of 100 will have 10 super performers – 10 groups of 9 will have 30 super performers by the standard of a single group of 90) 6) High power distance = obedience over trust. Those with higher power distance preferences, produce larger groups which delegate from one to many (one leader to 100 or 1000 men with no ranks between) 7) High Power Distance = lower agency. They do not capture the square root potential of recursive groups, which mean few super performers are available for emulation – to wit they have little to no proximity or exposure. This reduces their ability to increase agency at the same time, encourages dependence on the leaders (also known as demand for authority) 8) Western Hierarchies = produce velocity and agency. The west, via militias and presumption of individual sovereignty, has allowed low power distance individuals to organize at larger scales. in doing so has captured more benefit from the square root performance distribution. the result has been velocity. So now I can make my point: 9) Western Social Cohesion = via proximity, delegated agency, distributed accountability. This structure of chunked groups with delegated agency, bound by accountability, allowed us to emulate and respect our betters and inspires us to become them… at the same time as being able to have a higher resolution (and speed) in applying accountability. This becomes of paramount importance in maintaining cooperative class structures. Because class structures are no different from military structures Respect and reward where due, disrespect and correction where due. HOW DOES INTELLIGENCE ENTER THIS? 10) Communication breaks down across 2 Standard Deviations. A standard Deviation is 15 points. 11) Lower power distance, via “chunking” allows for IQ-capture across scales. A general (IQ 145+) communicates to a senior officer (IQ 130+) who communicates to an officer (120+) who communicates to an NCO (110+) who communicates to the soldier (IQ 85+). 12) High power distance communicates from leader to soldier whereby the leader expects blind obedience and the soldier is unable to understand context for commands. This breeds confusion and resentment whereby the leaders have no respect for lowers and lowers see leaders as tyrants. class conflict then ensues. 13) Organizational patterns: i) Centralized, ii) Decentralized, iii) Distributed i) Centralized moves organization toward high power distance relations to reap the benefits of organization at larger scales. (3rd world armies)(herd with a shepard) ii) Decentralized preserves lower power distance while scaling to larger scales. (western armies)(pack) iii) Distributed attempts to remove the centralized by clipping off leaders (antifa) and in doings reduces itself to “intelligence of the mob” (only as smart as the lowest component) (herd) 14) Leftist i.e. western liberals, coming from a culture and predisposition of a lower power distance, (distrust power at the more distant levels), attempt to organize themselves in a decentralized manner but can only achieve distribution, eventually devolve into a mob due to the dissonance between their desire for authority and low power distance predilection (from being western) That is why socialism/communism may work in China without social de-cohesion (asians being high power distance) and will not work in the west. The outcome results in the distribution of a mob (herd).

  • We Can Learn Something from The Soviets – but Not the Communists

    Jan 15, 2020, 8:51 AM

    —” (with irony) Today’s Youth explains that the economic failures of communism didn’t have much to do with the Soviet Union’s demise.”—Steve Sailer @Steve_Sailer

    The Soviets used the fact that Russians had been serfs only decades before – and most still lived like serfs – and migrated them to a militarized labor force – saving the cost of market prices for labor, redirecting that savings to the funding commons. Then the people adapted to incentives: black markets in all. They reverted to serf behavior: minimum production. But Soviet education, science, and commons production were far ahead of USA’s. The error is probably on both sides in that the market and private production are optimums for the middle and up, and non-market for physical commons better for working-class and down: serving each other. We (economists) know perfectly well why the socialist and communist systems don’t and can’t ever work: (a) incentives produce declines in production in exchange for increases in corruption free riding and rent. (b) economic calculation of investment is impossible. ( c) “Humans”. We can end the monopoly(equality) presumption of the economy. Historically we used barbarian > “slave” > serf > freeman > citizen > sovereign, as progressions of market independence (not power). We don’t think of these as different economies, but they were. We need 3+ economies. We’ve tried to force too many people at the bottom into the middle class because that was the reason for european success – culling the lower classes. We’ve bred and imported vast underclasses undermining european market majoritarianism. And we’ve recreated demand for “serfdom”. There are plenty of people who would exchange voting rights for economic dependency and some sort of equality while maintaining access to the goods and services produced by market goods.

  • We Can Learn Something from The Soviets – but Not the Communists

    Jan 15, 2020, 8:51 AM

    —” (with irony) Today’s Youth explains that the economic failures of communism didn’t have much to do with the Soviet Union’s demise.”—Steve Sailer @Steve_Sailer

    The Soviets used the fact that Russians had been serfs only decades before – and most still lived like serfs – and migrated them to a militarized labor force – saving the cost of market prices for labor, redirecting that savings to the funding commons. Then the people adapted to incentives: black markets in all. They reverted to serf behavior: minimum production. But Soviet education, science, and commons production were far ahead of USA’s. The error is probably on both sides in that the market and private production are optimums for the middle and up, and non-market for physical commons better for working-class and down: serving each other. We (economists) know perfectly well why the socialist and communist systems don’t and can’t ever work: (a) incentives produce declines in production in exchange for increases in corruption free riding and rent. (b) economic calculation of investment is impossible. ( c) “Humans”. We can end the monopoly(equality) presumption of the economy. Historically we used barbarian > “slave” > serf > freeman > citizen > sovereign, as progressions of market independence (not power). We don’t think of these as different economies, but they were. We need 3+ economies. We’ve tried to force too many people at the bottom into the middle class because that was the reason for european success – culling the lower classes. We’ve bred and imported vast underclasses undermining european market majoritarianism. And we’ve recreated demand for “serfdom”. There are plenty of people who would exchange voting rights for economic dependency and some sort of equality while maintaining access to the goods and services produced by market goods.

  • Jan 17, 2020, 9:43 AM Under P-Law claiming you were or your ancestors were oppre

    Jan 17, 2020, 9:43 AM

    Under P-Law claiming you were or your ancestors were oppressed if (a) domesticated, (b) forcibly integrated into civilization, rule of law, truthful speech, nuclear family, self-sufficiency, the sacredness of the commons, duty, piety (c) fulfilling an economic necessity, is a crime.

  • Jan 17, 2020, 9:43 AM Under P-Law claiming you were or your ancestors were oppre

    Jan 17, 2020, 9:43 AM

    Under P-Law claiming you were or your ancestors were oppressed if (a) domesticated, (b) forcibly integrated into civilization, rule of law, truthful speech, nuclear family, self-sufficiency, the sacredness of the commons, duty, piety (c) fulfilling an economic necessity, is a crime.

  • Symmetries: The Anna Karenina Principle Applied to Civilizations

    Symmetries: The Anna Karenina Principle Applied to Civilizations https://propertarianism.com/2020/05/30/symmetries-the-anna-karenina-principle-applied-to-civilizations/


    Source date (UTC): 2020-05-30 16:19:01 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1266766071266238466

  • Symmetries: The Anna Karenina Principle Applied to Civilizations

    Jan 18, 2020, 8:43 AM (core) important —“It is possible to fail in many ways, while to succeed is possible only in one way; then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.”— Aristotle —“This is a manifestation of a general principle stating that all good things (e.g. stability) are more fragile than bad things. It seems that in good situations a number of requirements must hold simultaneously, while to call a situation bad even one failure suffices.”—Vladimir Arnold (mathematics) —“All well-adapted systems are alike, all non-adapted systems experience maladaptation in their own way,… But in the chaos of maladaptation, there is an order.”— Alexander Gorban, Mathematics, Physics –“All domesticable animals are alike. All undomesticatable animals are different.”— Diamond, Guns Germs and Steel, Anthropology “They cannot be picky eaters; reach maturity quickly; willing to breed in captivity; docile by nature; cannot have a strong tendency to panic and flee; conform to a social hierarchy.” –“All happy families are the same, all unhappy families are different”– Tolstoy, Anna Karenina —“All high trust civilizations are the same. All less trusting civilizations are different” — Doolittle, “P”. A High Trust Civilization Must: 1. Universal Militia (egalitarian, meritocracy, entrepreneurial warfare), 2. Heroism (truth before face, duty before self), 3. Sovereignty (reciprocity, rule of law, jury), 4. Markets in All Aspects of Life (cooperation, production, reproduction, commons, polities), 5. Excellence (competition, innovation, beauty). 6. Limiting the reproduction of the (dependent) underclasses. All Truthful Speech Must: 1. Categorically, 2. Logically, 3. Operationally, 4. Empirically, 5. Rationally, and 6. Reciprocally consistent, 7. Fully Accounted, within 8. Stated Limits, 9. Restitutable within the means available, and 10. Warrantied as such. All Morality (Reciprocity) Must: 1. Productive, 2. Fully Informed, 3. Warrantied, 4. Voluntary Transfer of demonstrated interests, 5. Free of imposition of costs upon the demonstrated intersets of others, 6. whether body, kin, physical things, normative things, institutional things, cultural things, civilizational things. The Law Must 1. State the via-negativa irreciprocity to resolve, or via-positiva opportunity for cooperation. 2. State the intentions of the signatories 3. State the operations (process of construction) 4. State the limits 5. State how it will terminate, and under what conditions it will terminate. 6. State how it is constructed from reciprocity, including what prior acts it depends upon, and would falsify (invalidate) it as a consequence. 7. State how it is warrantied by the signatories. 8. State the signatories. THE MEANING OF SYMMETRIES A “symmetry” consists of a set of inputs, states, or outputs that must remain constant in order to maintain the survival (state) of a system regardless of transformation (change). In mathematics a Symmetry refers to an intrinsic property of a mathematical object which causes it to remain invariant under certain classes of transformations (such as rotation , reflection, inversion , or more abstract operations). There is no alternative to the symmetry in western civilization. It’s perfect. If we restore it. If not, only one thing must fail, for it to fail. UNDERSTAND THIS. Dimensions (sets of causality) Symmetry (necessity for equilibrium of the system) Only europe did this. Only Japan could have equalled us. Only china came close. Only india was otherwise on the path.