Every law is signed with a bullet. Every one. Yes, even the one you're thinking of that proves I'm wrong. People have been killed by the state for not complying with laws as innocuous as selling loose cigarettes or not cutting their lawns. Every law is a potential threat: "Do this thing, or the state might kill you".
Some people want to make politeness the law. "You should be doing this anyway, it's just polite!" -- Well it isn't politeness if it's signed with a bullet.
In the past, we have had people you had to be polite to under penalty of law. They were the aristocracy. Nobles or samurai could have commoners punished if they were disrespected. People did die for disrespecting the aristocracy.
At that time, the aristocracy wrote stories to explain why they ought to be respected under penalty of law. They explained that they descended directly from God or heroes, that the people protected were specifically deserving of their station as protected.
It bothers me a lot, that people don't realize you shouldn't put a gun to someone's head and say "Be nice". It bothers me that people want to create a new aristocracy.
Some stuff just shouldn't be part of the state. "Everything is part of the state, nothing outside the state" (paraphrased) is literally fascist doctrine stated by Mussolini.
Some people want to make politeness the law. "You should be doing this anyway, it's just polite!" -- Well it isn't politeness if it's signed with a bullet.
In the past, we have had people you had to be polite to under penalty of law. They were the aristocracy. Nobles or samurai could have commoners punished if they were disrespected. People did die for disrespecting the aristocracy.
At that time, the aristocracy wrote stories to explain why they ought to be respected under penalty of law. They explained that they descended directly from God or heroes, that the people protected were specifically deserving of their station as protected.
It bothers me a lot, that people don't realize you shouldn't put a gun to someone's head and say "Be nice". It bothers me that people want to create a new aristocracy.
Some stuff just shouldn't be part of the state. "Everything is part of the state, nothing outside the state" (paraphrased) is literally fascist doctrine stated by Mussolini.
In the Aristotelian definition of an aristocracy, I would tend to agree with you. I was referring the American conception of aristocracy as a bunch of people elites in power purely through an accident if birth. The aristocrats in the demeritocracy would be the people we all agree are the best at being losers.
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