Claim: All societies emerge as groups of individuals that have the
property of destructive equality.
Definition: destructive equality: a group of
individuals has the property of destructive equality if and only if any
member of the group can destroy value faster than any other member can
produce something of equivalent value.
A society is therefore a mutually-beneficial association held
together by the persisting threat of destruction as a means of
punishment for violating the society’s rules.
Examples:
- Intelligent animals such as elephants or chimpanzes aren’t part of
modern human society because they’re no threat to humans.
- Slaves are not proper members of their master’s society. However,
once slaves become threats to their masters, possibly through gaining
education, they’re freed i.e. they’re made members of the same society
as their masters.
Consequences:
- Society rules exist to prevent threats of mutual destruction from
realizing.
- In general, large wealth inequalities are still possible within the
same society.
- As a consequence of mutual threats, a split in society cannot occur
without the isolation of sub-populations. Conversely, the increase of
communication between nations that were once considered separate
societies results in the merging of those societies.
- There’s a limit to how much value a society member can control.
Multibillionaires are merely tolerated by other society members. If they
were to abuse their power, others would organize to stop it by enforcing
or creating new laws.
- Societies organized in multiple tiers or castes with different birth
privileges tend to become more uniform as all members acquire the same
education and means of revolt.
Martin Jambon, December 10, 2022