> The problem comes from that "ratchet effect", where the only way to stay safe is to keep escalating things.
This reminds of accounts I've read of the Khmer Rogue. Nobody, including Pol Pot, started out intending to kill nearly 50% of Cambodia's population.
But the communist zealotry created an environment of extreme paranoia. Capitalists and counter-revolutionaries were suspected of being everywhere and sabotaging everything. Even the shakiest unsubstantiated accusations were enough to put someone on the execution block.
The result is that people became so fearful that they started preemptively lobbing accusations at everybody and anybody. Even if you think your neighbor might possibly accuse you in the future, you're better off putting in a call to the secret police about him before he gets the chance.
Trust is a social phase state. One that's easier to fall out of than we think. We take it for granted that we encounter thousands of people in our lives and vanishingly few try to cause us harm in any way. But that's an accomplishment that took countless of generations of hard and careful work.
Pol Pots vision was pretty dark, though, and the horror rather immediate. His ideology was extreme for communist standards well before he got into power.
This reminds of accounts I've read of the Khmer Rogue. Nobody, including Pol Pot, started out intending to kill nearly 50% of Cambodia's population.
But the communist zealotry created an environment of extreme paranoia. Capitalists and counter-revolutionaries were suspected of being everywhere and sabotaging everything. Even the shakiest unsubstantiated accusations were enough to put someone on the execution block.
The result is that people became so fearful that they started preemptively lobbing accusations at everybody and anybody. Even if you think your neighbor might possibly accuse you in the future, you're better off putting in a call to the secret police about him before he gets the chance.
Trust is a social phase state. One that's easier to fall out of than we think. We take it for granted that we encounter thousands of people in our lives and vanishingly few try to cause us harm in any way. But that's an accomplishment that took countless of generations of hard and careful work.