[wpietri]

I agree that left-wing authoritarianism is as bad as right-wing authoritarianism. But thinking that the only alternative to hierarchical power is chaos is going to be one sort of authoritarianism or another.

As I explain elsewhere in this thread, one alternative of hierarchical authority is carefully limited, distributed power. There are historical examples of it working pretty well for hundreds of years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22415807

[luckylion]

A society with hyper exaggerated social classes, with voting rights only for property owners, indentured servitude, slavery and all that was "carefully limited" in its hierarchical authority?

[wpietri]

Sure. Which was mostly way better than what Europe was doing at the time. And which, more importantly, led us to keep seeking that "more perfect union". Where each generation has said, "Maybe we could do yet better. And here's how." And where quite often we have done better.