Okay, wife is due back in town tomorrow, so I’d better get this out of the way.
Must admit, that last post had me stymied. It’s like when I’m playing chess and someone makes a move so bizzare that I’m left only with two conclusions: That the other player is just so good as to be unfathomable, or that they come from some alternate universe where that move is a sure-fire game-winner. ie. they’re crazy.
Hence to my opponent I say:
“Okay, where’s the real Tentative, and what have you done to him…?”
Restraint. Restraint…? Restraint…???
And you’re using that word in conjunction with human beings…? That branch of primates renowed for displaying its lack - those bloat-headed monkies that raven all in their paths…? Hmm.
I’m protesting too much. Okay, in the abstract, if everyone was restrained in their behaviour then yes, everything would be lovely - bluebirds would alight upon every shoulder and sing Disneyesque tunes while we skipped along wooded paths dressed in ribbons and bows. Pink ones even.
I have kids, you have kids, so we know the amount of blood, sweat and tears we’ve had to expend just to get them to think of their sisters and brothers when sharing out the sweets. And you reckon we can do that to the entire population of the Earth. In a couple of generations. Presumably without using any form of coercion and repression in the process…?
Smileys fail me.
I’m sorry, but I’m seeing droves of jack-booted Restraint-Police trampling over helplessly consumption-addicted teens who’re chanting “We’re entitled !!! We deserve the best, fuck the rest !!!” and crushing their fingers as they tap spastically on keyboards updating twitter and facebook. And I’m seeing that going on for centuries. And still not doing any good.
Obviously, anyone with half a brain can see that Tentative’s right and the human vice of ‘too much and right now’ is going to kill us all, or at the very least force us right to the brink of extinction. And yet we keep right on with the slash and burn bullshit we’ve always done since we picked up the first stone axe. Why…? Why keep taking the pill we know will kill us in the end…?
That’s easy, if the same pill keeps you alive right now.
Retraint is not a stable behavioural gambit. It only works if everyone is as equally as restrained as you. The first individual, or group of individuals that reneagues on the new and shiny ‘restrained’ social contract will surge ahead like a Mustang on nitro. Unless they are massively repressed instantly, by some (scrupulously neutral, unbribable) coercive force that er… wouldn’t exist anymore in our restrained eden.
Anyway. I drew a graph. Can’t remember why now, as I did it on Monday, but here you go.
It’s a bit general, but it’s intended to illustrate the cycles Tentative mentioned. [Stability is in green btw. I forgot to label it].When legitimacy is high, people toe the line because it is overwelmingly apparent that that line is the right one to toe, and the governence is equally right in supporting that line. However, times change as do circumstances and legitimacy fades as rulers do stupid things like buy one too many Ferraris and get caught with one or four too many super-models while everyone else is stuck with a Volkswagon Beetle and the not-so-bad-looking-if-you-squint-a-little, girl next door.
When the lines cross, things get ugly fast. The secret-police get their capes out and wars on terror are declared, whether terror knows about it or not. Unlike the graph, this period of high repression and low legitimacy can extend for as long as it takes. Then, come the revolution, the ratios of repression to legitimacy reverse again, though in the interim, stability goes out the window as infrastructure gets blown up, people get killed and general mayhem rules. Rinse and repeat. It’s not rocket-science. It’s a stable relationship. Stable because for a society to work, it needs to be held to some predictable standard of conduct. People need to be able to bank on next week being pretty much the same as this week, otherwise they’ll go to the bank, withdraw all their money, convert it into gold or cans of baked beans or whatever and hide it under the matress - then act all surprised when their neighbor comes round with a machete, removes the stash from under the matress, takes a dump on their living room carpet and fucks off into the wild blue yonder.
Stability must be maintained, and mutual restraint, at least without a gun to the head somewhere involved, ain’t stable. And that’s the irony. Tentative’s restrained society would be more repressed than mine ever would. - Food-stamps and ration-books and women drawing lines up the backs of their legs.
(I mean, so okay - that worked in World-War II, but then again, it was only World-War II that made it work. There’s a catch there somewhere, with ‘22’ written on it).