Not universally, and not always. Even in the Western tradition there were free self governing cities.
I don’t have the time and energy to elaborate and have the inevitable subsequent debate, but it’s defeatist and unhelpful to say that hierarchy and oppression have always defined human existence. We need to demand more.
Nowhere did I say we shouldn’t demand more. You can be angry and wanting for change without letting those feelings overwhelm you and driving you to despair. If you are arguing that people really should be depressed and suicidal because of things in the world outside them which they cannot change alone then you are wrong. No one should be letting the news affect them so deeply as that.
Not universally, and not always. Even in the Western tradition there were free self governing cities.
I don’t have the time and energy to elaborate and have the inevitable subsequent debate, but it’s defeatist and unhelpful to say that hierarchy and oppression have always defined human existence. We need to demand more.
Nowhere did I say we shouldn’t demand more. You can be angry and wanting for change without letting those feelings overwhelm you and driving you to despair. If you are arguing that people really should be depressed and suicidal because of things in the world outside them which they cannot change alone then you are wrong. No one should be letting the news affect them so deeply as that.
We can agree on that, certainly. The line between mental self-preservation and complicity in a harmful system can be thin, but you’re generally right.