Some stuff here :
A lot of FourthGenerationWar people are catching on to the idea that non-state actors such as GlobalGuerrillas and gangs (ThirdGenerationGangs) are a return to feudalism.
I don't entirely buy it. As I say on WorkArticulationTopologies, the myth of the hierarchy or feudalism is the permanence of the hierarchy. These new networks of non-state actors, co-ordinated via a BazaarOfViolence are not pure feudal. Nevertheless, what may be arriving is similar to my idea of InformationalistReductionOfCapitalism a similar informationalist reduction of feudalism.
Foreign Affairs article :
(The emphasis on the information economy aspects makes this pretty much NetoCracy.)
To the extent that AlQaeda
? are NeoMedieval
? they are
not fascist.
Hmmm. I wonder if this is why role-playing gamers (who are steeped in virtual medievalism (look at guilds in MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRoleplayingGames
? etc.) are psychologically ready for this world? (Counter : or will they just miss the differences between medievalism and
NetoCracy ... hence rabidly pro-war. Iraq-as-Mordor comparisons.)
The more I think about
AltMoney, the more I suspect that gold or other commodity backed moneys are the natural money of the aristocracy. (A feudal institution.) Because the quantity of money is
fixed by the commodity while the human population grows, the value of labour falls against the value of the cold, hard metal. Effectively the inherited wealth grows in value. In fact, with fixed money (rather than everything-floats-against-everything FiatMoney
?) even capitalist investment might not be as valuable as putting your wealth into a horde of gold candlesticks and other ornaments. After all, however succesful your capitalist enterprise, it can never capture more money than is available.
One symptom of the NationState losing power is the retreat of non-state fiat currencies. If these are gold-backed this could also be a cause/symptom of a new medievalism.
Momus on
HipsterAsChivalricCode
See also :
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