in reply to Re^2: The Real World and Theory
in thread The Real World and Theory

Communism. It can, among a small family-sized or tribal-sized unit with willing participation, work quite well. It has never been shown to work at sizes much larger than that.

I learned that a long time ago, and personally am convinced that humans are happier in tribes of roughly 100 or less....just about as nature intended. Numbers have to be low enough so that everyone knows the others( and their children) on a first name basis, and are related somehow.

If you read on the history of human tribes, at or about the 100 level, tensions and factions rise, usually resulting in a split.... now 2 separate tribes are happy. This all works well until the available land runs out.....then war and all hell breaks loose.

It is interesting to note that modern civilization does whatever it can to stomp out tribalism, it leads to gangs, and an us-against-them attitude; and in the worst cases cannibalism.

What this has to do with the French being easily mis-construed, is beyond me. :-)

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth Remember How Lucky You Are

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Re^4: The Real World and Theory
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Oct 29, 2008 at 14:54 UTC
    What I meant to point out is that perhaps the language was a barrier, but perhaps the difference in scale and context is also important in this case.

    After all, once we get past our own tribe-sized groups, theory is largely all we have. It's terribly difficult to run a controlled experiment at a national size to see if the practice translates directly from the theory without additional factors. Who would be the control group?

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