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Notes -
I seriously wonder if the bitter lessons of ca. 1800 to ca. 2200 will end up being around the power of nominally-materialist ideologies to mimic religious warfare and wreck society, just as the bitter lesson of ca. 1500 to ca. 1800 was the power of religious wars to wreck society. Perhaps we'll find our own treaty of Westphalia to resolve the bitter ideological conflicts of Communism v Capitalism, Fascism v Liberalism, Conservatism v Progressivism, Globalism v Nationalism... or maybe this just all ends in us nuking ourselves out of existence. I hope not.
I’m less optimistic of this as long as the legitimacy of the regime rests upon people voting for “good things” there’s no way to reverse course here. You cannot allow people who disagree with you free access to the cultural memeplex as it might mean losing the election and thus power. If I’m a Globalist, the idea of Nationalism isn’t just a different opinion, it’s an infection in the body politic and must be cured. After all, the Nationalists not only get to vote, but can infect other people with Nationalism. Or the same with communist vs capitalist ideas. If the people are infected with “bad ideas” they can spread and eventually the plebs end up going full capitalist.
Legitimacy leads to power, and power is the end goal of any movement. And the big secret of the Westphalia treaty was that it removed the church leadership from the state. Kings were no longer Kings because the One True Church anointed him with holy oil. So it no longer mattered which church anyone went to. The government didn’t care because it no longer mattered. The legitimacy of the government didn’t rest on all the people supporting the church that anointed him.
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