Computer sim explains why hippies became extinct
Egalitarian societies of the past were doomed to oblivion
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Old-time egalitarian societies were just too stable to survive in a dog-eat-dog world, according to Stanford University researchers, a situation which led to them being overrun by the stratified societies which dominate humanity today.
The study used a computer simulation to compare demographic stability and rates of migration for societies that shared everything equally and those that had a class structure with those on top controlling most of the resources.
The researchers found that, when resources were consistently scarce, egalitarian societies didn't have the motivation to change their ways because they shared out the pain, but in unequal communities, the have-nots tended to go in search of a better life when things got bad.
If resources fluctuated, the class societies were the ones that were stable because the ruling class always had plenty, so they expanded, while the sharing and caring communities found it hard to adapt and once again stayed as they were.
"The fact that unequal societies today vastly outnumber egalitarian societies may not be due to the replacement of the ethic of equality by a more selfish ethic, as originally thought by many researchers," said cultural evolution specialist Deborah Rogers, head author of the study.
"Instead, it appears that the stratified societies simply spread and took over, crowding out the egalitarian populations," she added.
The study, co-authored by Stanford evolutionary biologist Marcus Feldman, was published online this week in the journal PLoS One. ®
COMMENTS
Hippie Civilization
In my simulations (Civilization II) the Hippie tribe ruled the world. Their leader was called, Man. The game's opening message would read, "Man, you have risen to become leader of the Hippies."
Hippie technology was world class and the reason for a constant stream of exchange offers and threats Of course, Hippie attempts to fob off other covilisations with cartographic treasures inevitably met with a churlish, "We have no need of your useless Hippie maps."
Yeah? But you jealously eyed the Hanging Gardens of Skunkweed, didn't you?
Funny. And when the Hell has there EVER been a Fair egalitarian society?
I miss the days where you could easily edit text files and change the text in a game
And what the hell did they use as a model for fair Countries? There has NEVER been a fair and egalitarian society EVER (that I am aware of). Military dictatorships that ruled with Iron fists under the guise of being fair, or even Marxist were NOT FAIR nor EGALITARIAN, they were usually just straight up dictatorships.
In fact I am not aware of ANY civilization in history of significant size or duration that EVER shared everything equally. Almost all societies up until recent history were ruled by monarchs or tribal leaders, more recent examples of "socialism" or "communism" were absolutely and totally ruled and owned by an elite upper class. Every society EVER has had a mass of poor uneducated masses that were kept uneducated and ignorant to be easier to control and use.
Where the hell did they get their basis for modeling? Sure maybe fascist run states turned out not do so well as their more free capitalist counterparts, but how does that translate into anything the study or headline claims?
I would argue that the UK, US and more modern socialist countries like Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland are the most FAIR societies to exist in history, being that we (variably) have social well-fair, social medicine (not US obviously) public services, and community protections like fire, police etc. And these countries have flourished and spread over the globe especially with the UK spawning US, Australia and Canada, and US culture influencing the entire modern world.
And even these countries are GROSSLY unfair, with still uneducated held down masses, and super rich elite class that owns 80-90% of the countries wealth. Human kind has decades of education, reform and growth before we ever get a real socialistic model to even test this with!
An while I'm ranting, why does everyone (some commentators here included) buy the rich elite garbage that having a fair society means you don't get paid what your worth? Just because you have a fair system that keeps an elite class from setting the rules and abusing the rest of the population, doesn't mean you have to pay garbage men and CEO's the same wage. Those that contribute more and work harder, should get more rewards, they just shouldn't be allowed to game the system to their advantage, and have political positions and own companies because of who their daddy is. When the Garbage man and the CEO's kids both have to work at their educations, and are responsible for their success AND have a FAIR chance at the same jobs and rewards THEN we will have something you could call a FAIR society. Never existed yet that I can see, and no country seems like they are moving to that any time soon either.
These kinds of studies amuse me.
Their own unconscious assumptions (political, social etc.) did not in any way influence or bias the model? I am not accusing them of dishonesty, I am just amused that they appear to believe that this kind of modelling can have any pretensions to scientific objectivity (a very difficult thing to attain even in the so-called "hard sciences"). The joke icon? Just my comment on this kind of "research".
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