It's a bitter pill to give up your childhood faith in the Myth of 1776. Moldbug warned us that the pill slits open and the sodium core burns as it goes down.

...but it makes perfect sense that an elite will always be in power

I remember reading a brief article 20 or 30 yrs ago

2/

asking "why do planets and moons spin?"

and the answer was an appeal to statistics - there are a ton more items in a random distribution of momentums that equate to "spinning" than equate to "not spinning".
3/

Planets and moons are formed by the coallescence, under gravitation, of various small bits.

Things falling in from infinity, basically.

Depending on the random assortment of starting locations of those infalling bits, you get torque applied to the accumulating mass core.
4/

In order to end up with a planet with absolutely no spin, you need a PERFECT balance of starting locations of all of the constituent bits before they start their fall in.

This is possible, but is an insanely small subset of all possible starting configurations.
5/

Governments and societies form from the coalescence of individuals.

We could imagine a society where Everyone Was Perfectly Equal ... but that would require a starting universe where all people were born with equal talents.
6/

...and the result was never once perturbed by random events (also effectively impossible).

In the real world, some people are "ten X-ers" on sociopathy, or social skills, or persuasive speech, or making friends, or threatening enemies, or...
7/

These people will aways form an elite.

A MORAL elite? no

An INTELLECTUAL elite? no

Just a ruling elite.

The definition is descriptive, not prescriptive.

Those who rule are the type who rule.

I'm smart, introvert, nice. I HATE that the Darwinian nature of the universe
8/

But just because you dislike (a) the distribution of talents, (b) the way that the universe responds to that unequal distribution, (c) the moral worth of the traits that selection seems to prioritize

...is no reason to deny the evidence. We are not science deniers here!
9/

So
10/

More or less in keeping with Nozick's "Wilt Chamberlain" argument re unequal results in market economies, we've got a "Kennedy / Biden" argument re unequal results in political exchange.

The Kennedies etc will always rise to the top, like toilet paper in a septic tank.
11/

You can stir a septic tank, but as soon as you put down the paddle, the solid matter settles back to the bottom and the TP floats to the top again.

So too with politics and revolutions.

You can hate the Gini coefficient of power distribution, but you can't really change it
12/

It IS cheerful.

I'm giving you permission to stop spending your time stirring a septic tank, and go read a book or learn glassblowing or take up piano.

That's the most useful thing you'll hear this year.

https://t.co/qOxVgl39K4
13/

ok, let's test theories with an experiment

you do ... whatever your theory tells you too, and then report back to me about how well that behavior has changed the universe

https://t.co/z5o5YVJF9l
14/

I am also interested in being left alone

Please tell me how your theories achieve that.

https://t.co/VA50duUcyR
15/

Well, I guess that means that your theory is better / smarter / more accurate.

Congrats on that, and best of luck.

https://t.co/1CGu9r9gZ5

More from History

Thank you so much to the incredible @gregjenner and his team for having me on "You're Dead to Me" and to @kaekurd for being so hilarious and bringing Gilgamesh the restaurant into my life!

Here’s a thread of some of the stuff referenced in the podcast for those interested


First of all, what even is cuneiform?

It’s a writing system from the ancient Middle East, used to write several languages like Sumerian and Akkadian. Cuneiform signs can stand for whole words or syllables. Here’s a little primer of its evolution
https://t.co/7CVjLCHwkS


What kinds of texts was cuneiform used to write?

Initially, accounting records and lists.

Eventually, literature, astronomy, medicine, maps, architectural plans, omens, letters, contracts, law collections, and more.


Texts from the Library of Ashurbanipal, who ruled the ancient Assyrian empire when it was at its largest in the 7th century BCE, represent many of the genres of cuneiform texts and scholarship.

Here’s a short intro to the library via @opencuneiform https://t.co/wjnaxpMRrC


The Library of Ashurbanipal has a complicated modern and ancient history, which you can read about in this brilliant (and open access) book by Prof @Eleanor_Robson

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The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed