Dictatorship of the left...dictatorship of the right..no idealogy is immune from the corruption that derives from absolute power and concentrated wealth. Communism is a failed system and fascism embodied in unbridled corporatism isn't exactly healthy either.

I agree with what you are saying, but I think that your beliefs are not entirely different from those of Fergie - just that he is thinking before the transition and you are envisioning the aftermath.

A problem that is see is that many of us are afraid of being truly free because we don't know how we would behave. In a truly free economy, there would be no protectionist identity. Once government gets involved, it has to keep dipping into the mess to stabilize an issue from both sides.

Also, on the social scale we're afraid of losing a police presence, but most of the smaller crimes would be alleviated if a true egalitarian existed. We would just have to deal with the lack of initiative.

One of the main reasons that these societies do not prosper or remain civil is that although there is equality, there is still work to done. It can't be a paradise because everyone would die of starvation. If there is no hierarchy, then who does the labor jobs? It seems that rotating placements might be an option here as well. Ultimately, there will be cliques and favoritism.

Even tribes tend to have hierarchies, coupled with extreme mutilating practices and initiation rites, so there really is no way to begin an experiment of true egalitarianism.

__________________
"He taught by example that part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his or her views."

--Melissa Lane, The Guardian; obituary for philosopher of science Peter Lipton.

Farewell Eddy Arnold...Make the World Go Away...

MAGIC THEATER
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY
FOR MADMEN ONLY!

Is there no possible hope of egalitarianism, fascism aside?

__________________
"He taught by example that part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his or her views."

--Melissa Lane, The Guardian; obituary for philosopher of science Peter Lipton.

Farewell Eddy Arnold...Make the World Go Away...

MAGIC THEATER
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY
FOR MADMEN ONLY!

Not if you want to frame the debate and discount the real existence of fascistic or authoritarian tendencies of humans in positions of power as well as those who support such a power structure for personal gain.

(let me be more specific) Political Egalitarianism is profoundly anti-human and violently coercive in nature. This is made clear in the influential classical myth of Procrustes, who forced passive travellers to lie down in a bed, and if they were too long for the bed he lopped off those parts of their bodies which protruded, while racking out the legs of the ones who were too short. This is why he was given the name of Procrustes (The Racker).

The powerful and generally unchallenged cry for "equality' is driven by the the decidedly inegalitarian aim of climbing on its back to increasingly absolute political power, a triumph which will of course make the egalitarians themselves a ruling elite in income and wealth as well as power...

Having said this..people in this country particularly are just pawns in the hierarchical power structure game. The political discourse in this country shouldn't necessarily be about left vs right, liberal vs conservative, Republican vs Democrat but about those who are on top vs those that are at the bottom. The only thing that has kept this country from breaking at the seams was the creation of a middle class of collusionists. That is now breaking down more and more...hence the consensus will break down and Procrustrians will multiply...

We had a remarkably egalitarian economy in the decades following WWII, when laws and policy favored the middle class rather than the super-wealthy. There were still poor people and wealthy people, but the poor people weren't as badly off or as numerous, and the wealthy people weren't as ludicrously rich as the millionaires of the gilded age or the billionaires of today.

Capitalism is a great way of generating wealth, and with carefully drafted policy it doesn't have to be drastically unegalitarian. It's only when we make it completely unrestricted and put the foxes in charge of the henhouse that it becomes problematic.

Which is why we really need to change the system. The Foxes are in and the hens are almost all dead.