Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (103094)	2/4/2009 1:39:15 PM
From: cosmicforce	Respond to of 544125

Generally agree - in dictatorships the problem occurs at the transition boundaries. The dynastic periods of Egypt had phases but the culture was fairly stable. The merchant classes no doubt had their economic cycles and as long as you didn't aspire to the throne, I think even in the Roman periods, day-in day-out, for most people, the rules of the road were stable - but hardly "democratic". There were people you paid off, there were people you contracted to kill, but it was probably not unlike living in NYC around 1900. Not egalitarian, but stable. Sure periods of civil war broke out as did various insurrections but by and large, dynasties stayed more or less in place with no fundamental changes in the underlying society for 100's of years at a time. Even using England as a modern example, the idea of universal suffrage was controversial into the 1800's. They actually were ahead of us in terms of slavery by decades.