this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
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Have we forgotten the couple millennium of "divine right of kings"?
The divine right of kings was conceptualized in England by James I of the Stuart Dynasty in the 17th century, following the growing absolutism of the Tudors, and effectively ended just fifty years later when Cromwell executed Charles I.
Hardly two thousand years worth of it, even if you want to talk about how the idea wasn't simply an English conceit.
My point isn't that the fall of Rome didn't usher in a dark age of democracy, even by Roman standards, but rather that claiming divine right is actually a pretty small portion of history, the Roman Emperors for example spent a lot of time talking about how they actually had the consent of the governed, even the ones who would execute you for treason for denying that they were literally a god.
And, of course, never forget what the most compelling counterargument to it is.
We can call it "sharply withdrawing the consent of the governed"
In truth statism hierarchy and by extent property seem to go hand in hand.
There was a monopolisation of the commons as far back as the earliest states of ancient mesopotamia, where the elites controlled the irrigation system and by extent the water, crucial for farmers to gain a substinance.