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Avi's avatar
Nov 26Edited

> Rather than scapegoating individuals, we can diffuse norms throughout culture. The idea is to develop conscious taboos against anti-social behaviors, in the same way we teach our current society’s values to our children, with the aim of making it socially risky to try and accumulate power and control.

The good thing is that we don't even have to invent something new here, or rely on humans suddenly becoming better or more noble. These traits seem to have been pretty universal in human cultures all the way up to the introduction of agriculture.

Abraham Maslow originally had a theory explaining the world in terms of social hierarchies and dominance, but was recommended by his mentor Ruth Benedict to experience other cultures before he assumed it to be universal. He ended up living with the Blackfoot tribe for an extended period and it totally changed his perspective (ending up with him formulating his famous theory of the Hierarchy of Needs and the need for self-actualization):

> To most Blackfoot members, wealth was not important in terms of accumulating property and possessions: giving it away was what brought one the true status of prestige and security in the tribe.

> He was curious how the Blackfoot might deal with lawbreakers without the strategy of dominance that he’d seen in his own culture. He found that “when someone was deviant, [the Siksika] didn’t peg them as deviant. A person who was deviant could redeem themselves in society’s eyes if they left that behavior behind”

- from: https://gatherfor.medium.com/maslow-got-it-wrong-ae45d6217a8c

Most anthropologists agree that hunter-gatherers practiced a form of "reverse dominance" that prevented anyone from assuming power over others. They were not passively egalitarian; they were actively so. Indeed, in the words of anthropologist Richard Lee, they were fiercely egalitarian. - https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/freedom-learn/201105/how-hunter-gatherers-maintained-their-egalitarian-ways

If this was in our past, there should be no fundamental reason for it to not also be possible in our future.

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Klaus Hubbertz's avatar

Once rabid followers of anthropogenic, monotheistic religions, narcissists and greedy or power-craving creatures are universally community-shamed, things will automatically get better.

It's a long trail humanity still has to cover ...

Non-state education would be paramount and the collective West should consider approaching Easern/Asian philosophies if it wants to survive.

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