Industrial Feudalism

Feudalism is the default system of human communal intercourse, and we have in the space of some few hundred years made an epochal shift from agrarian feudalism into the age of industrial feudalism. Industrial feudalism has an identical hierarchical structure to agrarian feudalism but is based on the production of goods to such a point that even agriculture is subsumed as an industrial product. There are lords; there are serfs. Lords own the means of production. Serfs are bound to labor in production no less than they were a thousand years ago, and the middle class as an economic class is a falsehood. The real middle class is not the management class serf, but rather the artist, craftsman, and small business operator. And again this is unchanged from its previous agrarian constellation.

Government is quite another matter. A democratic republic is founded on the common dignity of all beings, and on a rule of law dedicated to such principles. All government is imperiled by hubris, disenfranchisement, and ennui.

Reciprocal respect for the dignity of individuals is the only hope for civility to survive civilization. And if we are unable to grant to others the dignity of their confusion then there can be no dignity at all.

Equality

we hear a lot of preaching these days

about equality

there is no equality

never has been

nothing is the equal of anything else

equality as an ideal denigrates the low

and debases the high

it is an idea invented by the jealous to enflame the ignorant

and it is an affront to nature

the sanctity of our uniqueness is the foundation of human dignity

and the test of dignity is as we extend it to others

this is the sum total of all the equality that ever was