Friday, January 28, 2011

It is scarcity that engenders manners between people within small communities. Manners are a form of social insurance that becomes habit.
Religion and tradition takes these tribal manners and uses them as morality to ritualise acceptable behaviour in larger societies.
Abundance and individualism is the death of these things. Secularism that has no traditions breaks the links of mutual dependence between people in larger societies. Abundance means that other people no longer matter - social insurance is not required.

The culture of the wealthy is therefore toxic when given to the poor - which is why slums and the underclass lose their moralities and squabble, even while still poor. The communal culture has been eclipsed by a consumer culture that's in their faces - even though it should never have been applied to them.

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