• Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Might make right has always and will always be the de facto. It takes those with. Might choosing to not have it make right for anything else to exist.

    That’s the reality of history and anyone who has even a grade school understanding of the history of humanity knows it.

    We can all want better, and we all know the cost of the fall out of might makes right. But that doesn’t change reality, it only makes it more painful to watch history repeat.

    • Ontimp@feddit.org
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      4 days ago

      Yes and no.

      As a last resort, the threat of violence (or enforced consequences more generally) is ultimately behind the authority of any institution.

      But legal and institutional frameworks can persist if power to inflict consequences is distributed and governed by rules, the incompliance with which is again sanctioned, and so on. The system is then kept stable by preventing consolidation of power with few actors and not tolerating arbitrariness in how it is welded. The fact that any authority is ultimately rooted in the threat of violence does not mean that we as social and reasonable animals cannot find reasonable and stable arrangement that should prevent us from actually having to resort to violence all too often.

      And we have absolutely slipped up in this regard. Relying on one party (the USA) as the primary locus is power in NATO and the world to keep peace. Allowing big social media platforms to consolidate and grow beyond any reason. Turning a blind eye to violations of international law