Marakesh 𓅦 on Nostr: > This is the essential flow of state formation, repeated throughout history: elites ...

> This is the essential flow of state formation, repeated throughout history: elites with owned power gather together to coordinate and agree to terms for the sake of their own interests. They go on to lend authority and legitimacy to the body they formed, or choose a leader from their own ranks, so that some entity can operate more efficiently and coerce dissenters to obey. After some decades or centuries, enough of their power has pooled in one place that it takes on its own, independent character. It can attract men of worth to serve it directly, whether to achieve higher ideals, free themselves from the authority of their clans or lords, or satisfy their own ambitions. It develops its own genius, defends itself from attack, and eventually goes on the offense.
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> And as long as it has the social and communications technologies to organize, the devotion of its servants, and the foresight of its leaders, the centralized state can use its superior coordination and pooled resources to crush the decentralized collective it emerged from.