Yeah, I'm not an anarchist but it seems people are just cogs slaving away for their fascist overlords under every system of government. The main difference seems to be who gets healthcare.
Lol. Law of the jungle. There are those that eat and those who are eaten. Civilizations that prize security through social order and government naturally lend themselves to the “cog” mechanism you describe regardless of their philosophy because force to provide security is consolidated with some power as opposed to being distributed to individuals to be responsible for using force to secure their own security. Social order breeds a conformity to agreed upon rules- the order and security are derived from predictability which is derived from established expectations.
When you look at the popular morality and manners of most modern civilizations you will see that following them tends to not be the best path to individual material or status enrichment- instead they emphasize coexistence without causing upset to the order of things. Even modern sentiments on individualism are largely superficial- “paint your hair and body, feel free to cry..” yes. Truly these things will upend the entrenchment of wealth in society and end 40,000+ years of leadership by power and dominance.
Simply put- your average person isn’t very dominant. Most people are subservient in nature. Even if they are rebellious. The truly rebellious- the sort that can greatly upset fundamental social order- tend to end up dead or in jail.
Mass populations are allowed to exist. Traditionally it is the power of the mob to overwhelm the elite and the elites reliance on the mob to provide for their needs which has allowed the masses to exist. Where masses are not needed pragmatically- or already exist as outsiders to a society AND lack the force to overwhelm a group in power- we have seen historical genocide and slavery or acts akin to slavery.
As s sheer matter of practical thinking without morality- other humans can be seen as either providing benefit to you, or providing competition to you. Competition for goods or mates or land or freedom of movement or simply to possibly be in the way of what you want at a given moment. Hence the popularity in reality and human fantasy with secluded homes and get aways, gated communities and post apocalyptic scenarios where there are few humans.
In simple terms- most people would choose to live in a home that only has them and those they choose in it, to have private space- as opposed to a home with 6 random roommates or an apartment with walls and ceilings shared with neighbors. In absence of law or morality- a self goal oriented human sharing a house with strangers would ask themselves: “do I need these people?” If not... they’d force them out or kill them.
Generally it is preferable as a practical matter to subjugate than to kill. Having a home to yourself is nice- having someone to clean that home who sleeps out in the wilderness and isn’t under your foot is practically better. So those with the power tend to be those with the self motivation and moral flexibility to allow them to accumulate power. And thus those with the power to shape the world tend to shape it in ways that keep them in power, and limit the amount of accommodation they must provide or undesired interaction they must have with people without power.
And so whatever the system you almost inevitably end up with a mass group which is allowed to exist simply because they serve the needs of whoever who has the power, and or whoever has the power doesn’t have the power or ability to remove those people from the world as they know it without risking their power base.
So it isn’t so much that we are cogs- as it is that we enslave ourselves because we lack the desire or ability to stand against a raging river- most people realize that they’d ultimately be crushed for trying, or try and are crushed- and either ends with you just following along with the current.
Scraps from the big table trickle down and the most well behaved doggies get the best scraps. It’s a very simple but elegant and effective system underpinning most societies through recorded history- the most powerful have primary control to steer society and information. In turn, those who serve society are rewarded and those who don’t are punished.
It’s basically a pyramid scheme- the middle class or the status quo, to continue existing in the level they are, require compliance from others to do so. There are always jobs people don’t want to do and those jobs are almost always positioned towards the bottom of a strata while jobs people want tend to be positioned at the top. There is no “classless society” as this is a simple fact- no one is going to spend their day dying in a coal mine and think that’s equal to spending your day in a nice office designing buildings on a computer.
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