My correspondent below makes the argument that any effort by an exploited class to end its exploitation will necessarily be violent.
People will want revenge. It will be bloody. The poor will rise up against the rich and murder them; all we have to do is look at an historical example like, say, the Romanovs of Russia to see that this is true.
I’d be remiss if I failed to note that my correspondent’s argument is not only empirically wrong, but also deeply morally repugnant.
All of these systems—American chattel slavery, the feudalism of ancien regime France or czarist Russia, modern capitalism—are deeply, intrinsically violent. Even if exploited people tended to free themselves through violence, and even if they took revenge against their former exploiters, that violence would still pale against the constant violence of the systems against which they fought.
A history that prioritizes a handful of high-profile examples of spectacular but brief violence against elites while downplaying millennia of elite violence against everyone else isn’t really history; it’s propaganda. As Mark Twain noted:
“A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”
#introduction hey, i'm teeth. i'm old enough to remember the original run of Kids In The Hall. I always wanted to be a supervillain, but I've just never found the time. Mostly #danmei trash. Also #svsss, #mdzs (the yi city party), #2ha, #beyondevil , #theterror, and #succession
I don't self-censor that much which usually leads to me being horny on main. I will talk about NSFW topics freely, but if I happen to post something explicit, I'll try to remember the CWs. However, I will boost NSFW art even if doesn't have CW.
I'm here to have fun and talk with people who share my interests.