Not to piss in the lemonade, but some places still have the divine right of kings.
this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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Lefty Memes
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I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Shelley’s Poetry and Prose (1977)
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I've only read two books of Le Guin's, and they were both memorable:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Word_for_World_Is_Forest
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed
The second one is more relevant to this meme.
Absolutely 100% run (don't walk!) and get The Left Hand of Darkness. It is easily one of the best sci-fi/fantasy books I have ever read.
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thanks for sharing. I've been feeling pretty hopeless lately and this helped me today
Remember, it took the black death and like 1/2 the population dying to bring about this change
I mean the black death was like 450 years before the French revolution... I think it just took some angry French people for change
If anything I think our societal problem is that everyone remembers what happened to Robespierre.
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I agree with the sentiment and also wonder if she's still ferociously pro-copyright?
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Divine right of kings simply morphed into capitalism. We didn't get rid of jack shit, and we never will.
Feudalism is entirely different from Capitalism, which is entirely different from Socialism. Class dynamics have changed, and will change.
Feudalism is entirely different from Capitalism
Not really, no. Even though feudalism doesn't consider greed and resource hoarding inherently virtuous like capitalism does, both are at their core about the few rich and powerful exploiting and abusing the many poor and powerless through ownership of the necessities for life and a greater capacity for violence.
Both are class societies, yes. Both are fundamentally different relations of classes.
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I agree These systems both emerged from inherent humanity, not conspiracy.
"inherent humanity" - what a magical term. you might have a magical worldview! which means you won't even recognize this as an insult, which is sad, but a little funny.
I can recognise nonsense when I see it, and viewpoints based on assumptions rather than evidence.
That would make sense for capitalism, if humanity didn't have to have its permanent, essential characteristics beaten, traumatised and groomed out of them with land seizures, branding, whipping, workhouses, schools, prisons, debtors prisons, being forced to sell their children, slavery and the threat of homelessness and starvation for hundreds of years.
People didn't just accept either of those two systems and there's nothing remotely inherent about them. They were both forced on people through violence or the threat of it.
.They were both forced on people through violence or the threat of it.
And so is revealed the violence inherent to the system.
One of the greatest sci-fi authors.
One of the greatest fantasy authors
Los dos!