[ethbr1]

His point was that once the physical power individuals/governments hold exceeds a threshold, a pluralistic society cannot coexist with violence being an acceptable option.

In the context of the 1960s, governments and nuclear weapons. But more broadly the same holds true for individuals.

Either we learn to live together despite our differences, or we use our newfound great power to annihilate each other.

[Retric]

Society can be shockingly resilient to personal violence especially if it’s primarily people at the top in terms of status, wealth, or political power are regularly getting assassinated. Recently gangs have been shockingly stable despite relentless violence but historically duals between gentlemen etc where quite common.

By historical standards we’re living is a near paradise of non violence and that’s worth persevering at significant cost.

[denkmoon]

It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/douglasmacarthurra...

[giardini]

ethbr1 says "...or we use our newfound great power to annihilate each other."

That isn't possible without bio-warfare. I sometimes hear people foolishly speak of a shooting "race war" in the USA but always remind them that the active phase of such an event would last about 15 minutes.

[ethbr1]

Distributed mass hunting rifle shots on high voltage transformers.

Unguarded. Scattered around the country. Any oil leaks potentially destroy them. Manufacturing backlogs of multiple years.

https://www.energy.gov/oe/addressing-security-and-reliabilit...

The only thing that's kept domestic terrorism to a minimum is that anyone smart enough to do it well has better economic opportunities.

[more_corn]

The tragedy is that several players in the transformer market went out of business because they ramped up due to the building boom before the financial crisis. If I weren’t busy I’d go buy one of those old factories and open it back up. Great boring business to be in.