Re:BBC staff: we're forced to do pro-Israel PR
by int_19h on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @01:06AM
(#44497264)
I would argue that Rojava is one modern case that still shows hope. Although not as decentralized as those other examples, perhaps this is also why they're still there 11 years later.
Re:BBC staff: we're forced to do pro-Israel PR
by Wickedflickr on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @07:27PM
(#44504936)
I agree. Though unfortunately there have been reports of them slowly centralizing power away from community councils toward the military over time. Even still, it's offering far more freedom and diversity than any of the surrounding countries. I'm rooting for them to succeed.
Re:BBC staff: we're forced to do pro-Israel PR
by ertian on Thursday July 10, 2025 @08:52PM
(#44527370)
Ehh, I would put it differently: purposefully decentralized societies are ineffective, and create a power vacuum that tends to be quickly filled. Assuming they would have worked requires a view of human nature that I just don't buy. Along comes a Lenin, or a Mao, or a Trump, or a Robespierre, who starts giving rousing speeches about how dangerous forces are rising against the movement, and next thing you know you've got concentration camps, guillotines, mass shootings, and so on. And that environment rewards authority and tyranny.
Centralization of power has so far made every society deeply flawed or even hellish. The three societies you mentioned are the only ones where power was purposefully decentralized, and that seems to be the most promising path forward that was never allowed to stretch its legs.