
Epsilon Theory: Things Fall Apart - anm89
https://www.epsilontheory.com/things-fall-apart-pt-1/
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anm89
I really love this bit. It something that I've felt was true in observing the
world views of people around me but never could think of an eloquent way to
say.

"How did we get here? We got soft. I don’t mean that in a macho sort of way. I
don’t even mean that as a bad thing. I mean that, just like the Romans of
Gibbon’s history and just like the Africans of Achebe’s novel and just like
the mobsters of the Sopranos, we have long forgotten the horrors of literal
war and why we constructed these cooperatively-oriented institutions in the
first place. We are content instead to trust that the Peace of Ani or the
Peace of the Five Families or the Pax Romana or the Pax Americana is a stable
peace – a stable equilibrium – where we can all just focus on living our best
lives and eking out a liiiiitle bit of relative advantage. We are content to
become creatures of the flock, intently other-observing animals, consumed by
concerns of relative positioning to graze on more grass than the sheep next to
us. Besides, it’s so wearying to maintain the actual intent of the old
institutions, to mean it when you swear an oath to a Constitution or a god or
a chief, and not just see it as an empty ritual that must be observed before
getting the keys to the car."

