Why can’t we mandate anything? Global resurgence of patrimonial rule

Re:Why can’t we mandate anything? Global resurgence of patri... by nicolas_t on Monday September 06, 2021 @10:55AM (#28434275)

While I appreciate this article and find it interesting, I'd be remiss not to point out that even 100 years ago, there were people who rebelled against the rules of law and rational, reasonable public health measure and the science around it. See the anti mask league of San Francisco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Mask_League_of_San_Franci...

I don't know if the distrust for the idea of bureaucratic expertise is really that recent, it seems to me that it has always been a lever certain politicians, business men or manipulators have used to manipulate the gullible masses.

Sorry for the slightly misanthropic comment, I've been disappointed by people too many times not to become a cynic (even if I do feel wonder and awe at some of the things humanity has achieved).

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Re:Why can’t we mandate anything? Global resurgence of patri... by exo-pla-net on Monday September 06, 2021 @11:35AM (#28434723)

The article doesn't claim that distrust is recent. It claims the opposite.

It claims that people historically have seen strongmen as the "legitimate" authority. As a corollary, authority from anything other than strongmen was illegitimate.

We've managed to get many people to believe in systems and organizations instead of strongmen. But for various reasons, we've recently regressed.

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Re:Why can’t we mandate anything? Global resurgence of patri... by nicolas_t on Monday September 06, 2021 @12:06PM (#28435079)

Yes but they claim that the rise of bureaucracy and legitimate authority corresponds to the rise of the modern state, so I might be mistaken but it seemed to me that the intent was to contrast to earlier times than the 20th century?

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