Who Can Vote?
In our society, there is a base assumption that the default “correct” way to run a government is to allow all stakeholders to vote and count all their votes equally. If you are a state, your stakeholders amount to anyone living within your borders. If you are a family office, your stakeholders are your family members.
Voting is seen as a system for translating the majority will of stakeholders into action on behalf of the governing body—yet this is almost never what happens in practice. This was not what played out in ancient Greece, this was not seen in the early board structures of companies, this rarely happens in family offices, and rule by the majority will of stakeholders was even explicitly stated as a hazard the U.S. governing structure was intentionally designed to avoid.
There are a myriad of reasons why almost no voting system is set up as a direct democracy. Why, then, do so many people believe this to be the purpose of voting?
Changes to a voting system (in this case, transitioning a voting system to a one-man-one-vote system) will be promoted by individuals whose factions stand to benefit from those changes. In the US at present, this means Democrats benefit from promoting the belief that a “correctly” functioning voting system gives a vote to everyone and equal weight to all votes (because were the US to do this, Democrats would win more often). As those who often first teach us about voting have a monolithic political identity (89% of social scientists teaching at universities are Democrats and 87% of high school teachers are Democrats) it should not be surprising this idea of a one-man-one-vote system has gained steam even if, in practice, it is almost never used when people intentionally design voting systems.
Why is one-man-one-vote voting almost never used?
1. Tyranny of the Majority: This is the “classic” reason and can present itself in multiple forms, be it an excess of centralization, in which decisions that should be local are applied too broadly due to population concentrations, or the oppression of a minority group by a majority group.
Personally, we don’t see these as significant risks, or at least not differentially significant risks. Even non-majority stakeholder systems feature these risks. So why do people fret about the tyranny of the majority while ignoring more realistic dangers? Because the real dangers (the next few) are either offensive or harder to succinctly explain.
2. Unequal Competence: There is a saying: “Do you know how dumb the average person is? Well, half of them are dumber than that.”
Most of the time when people are afraid of a governance guided by the majority of stakeholders, their true fear is of the stupidity of the average person.
While many smart people hold this fear, they typically find sneaky ways to avoid explicitly articulating it by, in place of straightforward intelligence tests, instituting policies like land-holding, sex, or race requirements for voting that align with their prejudices.
As dangerous as prejudiced voting policies are, policies that allow the party in control to design tests that “qualify” voters are equally dangerous. Historically, whenever intelligence tests have been used to filter voters for more than a few cycles, the assessments have devolved into tests of ideological alignment, leading to power consolidation.
Fear of unintelligent voters is largely misguided. Prediction markets, which aggregate the knowledge of large groups of people, almost always outperform individuals (and even experts!)—at least when the “predictors” are contributors and not just stakeholders (but more on that shortly). Long story short: Crowds are not that dumb and concerns about stakeholder intelligence are more an indicator of a leader’s pride when they compare themselves to the average population.
3. Inherent Instability: From coalition formation to vote trading, academics have found dozens of technical problems with generalist vote collecting. Just letting the majority have what they want can lead to the long-term breakdown of the fabric of a voting body, be it a nation or a family office.
While most of these fears are pedantic, popular vote systems almost always unintentionally promote power consolidation in a way that rewards the wrong metrics in individuals and parties. The tendency to drift toward power consolidation in one-man-one-vote systems is a genuine problem.
4. Fidelity of Vision: This is where perceived problems get really serious. Popular vote systems do almost nothing to protect the fidelity of whatever vision motivated the creation of the governing body (like liberty, equality, and fraternity) unless that vision is literally: “Do what the majority of stakeholders want whenever they want it.”
It is very rare that any government is set up with this vision. Usually governing systems are intended to ensure individual rights, help families live good lives, cure pediatric cancer, or at least not commit genocide … but just giving power to the majority does nothing to increase the probability of any of those things.
Fidelity of vision is uniquely problematic when you consider shifting intergenerational values. Three generations from now, your descendants’ opinions about the purpose of a family foundation—which you, personally, set up after years of backbreaking work—may be profoundly different from your own. This might not seem so bad if you assume that every generation is always better than the last—something easy to think if you frame this in the context of some of the United States’ founders being mortified by the idea of black or female voting—but that can seem a lot messier if you look at the fall of the Weimar Republic through the democratic election of Nazis.
When governing mandates are shaped by popular vote, it is in the best interests of powerful people to systematically indoctrinate young people—for example, by lobbying for educational systems to teach things other than fact and critical thought. Consider recent debates over how evolution education, critical race theory, and climate change should be taught in American public schools. While your perspective on which side you think is pushing for the truth will change depending on your political views, you can at least see that the fight is often politically motivated. If the victor of such struggles did not win the privilege of indoctrinating a generation of voters, there would be significantly less contention in these fights and people would be better able to optimize around truth rather than political power struggles. (This phenomenon is not unique to state-level politics; even in small family offices we have encountered factions incentivized to essentially brainwash their kids to vote as blocks.)
In the same vein, one-person-one-vote governments motivate the creation of “political media” in which powerful individuals use media channels to manipulate the opinions of stakeholders who don’t have time to become fully informed on issues. When you remove one-man-one-vote systems, much of the impetus for this form of population manipulation can be removed, which thereby lowers misinformation. If you are against brainwashing children and in favor of accurate news, you are against majoritarian democracy.
Finally, popular-vote-driven governments don’t engender investment or personal sacrifice. Why give your life savings to a charity if, within one generation, its entire value system and purpose may shift?
5. Missed Opportunity: Organizational behavior follows organizational governance and reward pathways. When your voting system rewards the most average of opinions, coalition building, and control over news media and educational systems, you relinquish most of your power to guide an organization to greatness.
There is much to be gained from systematically rewarding (in voting power) behaviors and ideological tendencies you want an organization to exhibit (from a multigenerational perspective), be those characteristics education, population growth, dedication to the faith, service to the organization, competence, or any myriad of other factors. For example, if you want an organization (like a religious institution) to grow, you could distribute voting power based on the number of new members someone brings in. If you wanted to ensure people have a vested interest in the financial health of a company, you can grant voting power based on percentage ownership.
Merely giving equal power to everyone feels like a waste as it rewards whatever group happens to have the most members.
In family offices with majoritarian systems, we have actually seen some family lines intentionally have more kids than they otherwise would in an effort to control family wealth. This is why votes in family offices usually split through family members, so if one brother has two kids and his sister has four, each parent will get one vote, the brother’s kids get 0.5 votes, and the sister’s kids get 0.25 votes).
[[1]](#_ftnref1) Graph from Roser, M. (2013, November 24). Global economic inequality. Our World in Data. from https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality
[[2]](#_ftnref2) Gwern. (2019, August 12). Does mouse utopia exist? Gwern.net. from https://www.gwern.net/Mouse-Utopia
[[3]](#_ftnref3) Melchor, A. (2022, May 2). Universe 25, 1968–1973. The Scientist Magazine. from https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/universe-25-1968-1973-69941
[[4]](#_ftnref4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
[[5]](#_ftnref5) Fessenden, M. (2015, February 26). How 1960s mouse utopias led to grim predictions for future of humanity. Smithsonian.com. from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-mouse-utopias-1960s-led-grim-predictions-humans-180954423/
[[6]](#_ftnref6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
[[7]](#_ftnref7) Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “Urbanization.” Our World in Data, 13 June 2018, https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization.
[[8]](#_ftnref8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori
[[9]](#_ftnref9) Pfaus, J. G., Erickson, K. A., & Talianakis, S. (2013). Somatosensory conditioning of sexual arousal and copulatory behavior in the male rat: A model of fetish development. Physiology & Behavior, 122, 1-7.
[[10]](#_ftnref10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutational_meltdown
[[11]](#_ftnref11) Hammock, J.R. (1971). Behavioral changes due to overpopulation in mice. from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Behavioral-changes-due-to-overpopulation-in-mice-Hammock/19a3aef98fda0e63b065da7deddd82655a185c1f?p2df, Kessler, A. (1931). Interplay between social ecology and physiology, genetics and population dynamics of mice. The Rockefeller University . from https://www.gwern.net/docs/biology/1966-kessler.pdf
[[12]](#_ftnref12) Shen, P.; Lavi, T.; Kivisild, T.; Chou, V.; Sengun, D.; Gefel, D.; Shpirer, I.; Woolf, E.; Hillel, J.; Feldman, M.W.; Oefner, P.J. (2004). “Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations From Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation”. Human Mutation. 24 (3): 248–260. doi:10.1002/humu.20077. PMID 15300852. S2CID 1571356.
[[13]](#_ftnref13) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRrFrx8-wEg&ab
[[14]](#_ftnref14) Specifically, Samaritans and Jews were rendered incompatible by their differing stances on where the Temple should be, which was necessarily different in groups living in two different Jewish states at a time when Judaism was both a governing structure and a religion.
[[15]](#_ftnref15) Urien-Lefranc, F. (n.d.). The good Samaritan: What was his religion and does it still exist? – re:online. RE. from https://www.reonline.org.uk/research/the-good-samaritan-what-was-his-religion-and-does-it-still-exist/
[[16]](#_ftnref16) https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/FC/FC2F5371043C48FDD95AEDE7B8A49624_Springmeier.-.Bloodlines.of.the.Illuminati.R.pdf
[[17]](#_ftnref17) Susanna, & Colm. (n.d.). The Irish Potato Famine and the murder of landlords. Enjoy Irish Culture. Retrieved December 24, 2022, from https://www.enjoy-irish-culture.com/Irish-potato-famine-murder.html
[[18]](#_ftnref18) The history place – Irish potato famine: Coffin ships. (2000). Retrieved December 24, 2022, from https://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/coffin.htm
[[19]](#_ftnref19) Cracked. The Dark Secret Behind Quirky Romantic Comedies – Manic Pixie Dream Girl Parody, 7 June 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hyIlrfGR5g.
[[20]](#_ftnref20) Hofstede, G. (2021, February 20) The 6 dimensions model of national culture by Geert Hofstede. Retrieved December 24, 2022, from https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/
[[21]](#_ftnref21) Akaliyski, P., Minkov, M., Li, J., Bond, M. H., & Gehrig, S. (2022). The weight of culture: Societal individualism and flexibility explain large global variations in obesity. Social Science & Medicine, 307, 115167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115167 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953622004737?dgcid=author
[[22]](#_ftnref22) Enomoto, C. E., & Geisler, K. R. (2017). Culture and plane crashes: A cross-country test of the Gladwell hypothesis. Economics & Sociology, 10(3), 281–293. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789x.2017/10-3/20 from https://www.economics-sociology.eu/files/24_20_455_Enomoto_Geisler.pdf
[[23]](#_ftnref23) Minkov, M., Blagoev, V., & Bond, M. H. (2014). Improving research in the emerging field of Cross-Cultural Sociogenetics. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(3), 336–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022114563612 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276384039_Improving_Research_in_the_Emerging_Field_of_Cross-Cultural_Sociogenetics_The_Case_of_Serotonin
[[24]](#_ftnref24) https://www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/bsad560/HofstedeUncertainityAvoidance.html
[[25]](#_ftnref25) Baker, D. S., & Carson, K. D. (2011). The two faces of uncertainty avoidance: Attachment and adaptation. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 12(2), 128–141.
[[26]](#_ftnref26) http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/uncertainty-avoidance-index/
[[27]](#_ftnref27) https://www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/bsad560/HofstedeUncertainityAvoidance.html
[[28]](#_ftnref28) Wiedenhaefer, R. M., Dastoor, B. R., Balloun, J., & Sosa-Fey, J. (2007). Ethno-psychological characteristics and terror-producing countries: Linking uncertainty avoidance to terrorist acts in the 1970s. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 30(9), 801–823. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100701514532 from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576100701514532
[[29]](#_ftnref29) https://www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/bsad560/HofstedeUncertainityAvoidance.html
[[30]](#_ftnref30) https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/
[[31]](#_ftnref31) Minkov, M., Blagoev, V., & Bond, M. H. (2014). Improving research in the emerging field of Cross-Cultural Sociogenetics. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(3), 336–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022114563612 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276384039_Improving_Research_in_the_Emerging_Field_of_Cross-Cultural_Sociogenetics_The_Case_of_Serotonin
[[32]](#_ftnref32) Cook, M. (2017). Ancient religions, modern politics: The Islamic case in comparative perspective. Princeton University Press.
[[33]](#_ftnref33) If it wasn’t for this addendum the most logical course of action would be to stay with the plane. Remember, this is a thought experiment not a guide for surviving in the desert.
[[34]](#_ftnref34) We mention evolution because it is relevant to almost anyone who holds this value set. Those who do not believe in evolution also likely believe God has absolute inherent value and therefore would probably not consider positive personal emotions as having inherent value in the first place, as a true believer’s objective function would naturally revolve around serving God.
[[35]](#_ftnref35) This thought experiment was inspired by one presented in Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making by Deborah Stone
[[36]](#_ftnref36) This is a Japanese term sometimes used interchangeably with “eighth-grader syndrome.” It is used to describe early teens who, through a desperate desire to stand out, have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. While this is a normal part of growing up, it is important not to build a lasting religious perspective around it.
[[37]](#_ftnref37) Image by Fred the Oyster, CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
[[38]](#_ftnref38) See: “Psychological Barriers to Evolutionary Psychology: Ideological Bias and Coalitional Adaptations” in Archives of Scientific Psychology
[[39]](#_ftnref39) As in: Samantha, from Sex in the City. We admit this dates us.
[[40]](#_ftnref40) This scenario was authored in part by Spencer Greenberg founder of ClearerThinking.org.
[[41]](#_ftnref41) The Calvinist tradition holds that it is for everyone to interpret the Bible themselves without outside influence and that a person cannot arrive at truth through someone’s external guidance. The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life presents a similar approach without assuming the supremacy of the Bible.
[[42]](#_ftnref42) “A quest to abolish taxes ends.” Altoona Mirror, Oct 11, 1996, p. 8
[[43]](#_ftnref43) “Long war against tax finally ends” The Intelligencer Record, Doylestown, Oct 10, 1996, Page A-12, Mylavaganam, R. (n.d.). The Holdeen Funds. Raja Mylvaganam: The holdeen funds. Retrieved December 18, 2022, from https://www.svabhinava.org/HinduChrist/RajaMylvaganam/Holdeen/index.php
[[44]](#_ftnref44) Allan Rappleyea and Henry C. Clark, for the petitioner T. (1975, February 19). Estate of holdeen v. commissioner. Legal research tools from Casetext. Retrieved December 18, 2022, from https://casetext.com/case/estate-of-holdeen-v-commissioner
[[45]](#_ftnref45) “A quest to abolish taxes ends.” Altoona Mirror, Oct 11, 1996, p. 8
[[46]](#_ftnref46) “A quest to abolish taxes ends.” Altoona Mirror, Oct 11, 1996, p. 8
[[47]](#_ftnref47) (2021, August 2). Lawyer’s dream of abolishing taxes has become a legal nightmare. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved December 18, 2022, from https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1994-02-27-9402270093-story.html
[[48]](#_ftnref48) “A quest to abolish taxes ends.” Altoona Mirror, Oct 11, 1996, p. 8
[[49]](#_ftnref49)Paul Collins (1970, January 1). Trust issues. Lapham’s Quarterly. Retrieved December 18, 2022, from https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/future/trust-issues
[[50]](#_ftnref50) If you are unfamiliar with what the private prison alternative system for kids is like, the movie and book Holes offers a pretty accurate—though sanitized—depiction. For example, in the real camps, kids mostly just slept outside on the ground covered in plastic sheets. Getting a building/cage with a roof to sleep in or a fruit to eat was always a special treat, yet in the books these things are normal.
[[51]](#_ftnref51) I think this is the most likely reason given some things that were said by staff at the camp and given the timeline of the events.
[[52]](#_ftnref52) Stalin or Mao could both work here depending on the stat source you use.
[[53]](#_ftnref53) @ne0liberal Neoliberal “The National Environmental Policy Act has come under fire for actually making it harder to do pro-environment projects. Here’s a thread of projects NEPA has delayed or killed, each one explicitly pro-environment (green energy, mass transit, env. rehabilitation/protection, etc.).” 02 Sep 2022. https://twitter.com/ne0liberal/status/1567155297826885637
[[54]](#_ftnref54) Myelination of the frontal lobe assists in inhibiting impulses generated by the older parts of our brains and is still ongoing in our teenage years, meaning that these ancient impulses have a less filtered expression in younger groups.
[[55]](#_ftnref55) Nikos-Rose, K. M. (2022, October 11). Most teen bullying occurs among peers climbing the social ladder. UC Davis. from https://www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/most-teen-bullying-occurs-among-peers-climbing-social-ladder
[[56]](#_ftnref56) There is such a thing as social status within large groups. Heck, there used to be a book—”Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage”—that cataloged the exact relative social status of the top thousand or so people in the U.K. Within a large company, people will know their relative status based on their positions. Within a nation, people know the difference between an incarcerated person and a state’s governor. That said, this kind of social status is different from the type discussed above in that it cannot be modified by individual interactions as it is instead “assigned” by some sort of governing body or larger system.
[[57]](#_ftnref57) When talking about middle and high school cliques, we default to the social groups that exist in 80s high school movies to ensure a shared reference point for our readers. If we referenced e-girls or emos, half our readers would have no reference point for what was going on, whereas if we reference “cool cheerleaders” we all get the idea even if cheerleaders have not been cool for decades.
[[58]](#_ftnref58)Buss, D. M., & von Hippel, W. (2018). Psychological barriers to evolutionary psychology: Ideological bias and coalitional adaptations. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 6(1), 148–158. https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000049
[[59]](#_ftnref59) While this is not a truism for every single male and female, it is true in the aggregate, which in turn affects social norms.
[[60]](#_ftnref60) Baumeister, R. F., Reynolds, T., Winegard, B., & Vohs, K. D. (2017). Competing for love: Applying sexual economics theory to mating contests. Journal of Economic Psychology, 63, 230–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.07.009
[[61]](#_ftnref61) Mast, M. S. (2002). Female Dominance Hierarchies: Are They Any Different from Males’? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(1), 29–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202281003
[[62]](#_ftnref62)Borkowska, B., & Pawlowski, B. (2011). Female voice frequency in the context of dominance and attractiveness perception. Animal Behaviour, 82(1), 55–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.03.024
[[63]](#_ftnref63)David-Barrett, T., Rotkirch, A., Carney, J., Behncke Izquierdo, I., Krems, J. A., Townley, D., McDaniell, E., Byrne-Smith, A., & Dunbar, R. I. (2015). Women favour dyadic relationships, but men prefer clubs: Cross-cultural evidence from Social Networking. PLOS ONE, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118329
[[64]](#_ftnref64) Simone and I debate how much. I argue only around 90%.
[[65]](#_ftnref65) Dobbin, F., & Kalev, A. (2022, December 13). Why diversity programs fail. Harvard Business Review. from https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail
[[66]](#_ftnref66) https://infiniteconversation.com/
[[67]](#_ftnref67) In case you are wondering whether monitoring employees at home improves efficiency, we ran tests on this and found A and B players to be more efficient when not closely monitored whereas mediocre and below-average employees perform far worse when not monitored. While workers may be slightly less productive when monitored due to additional social processing running in the back of their brain, it seems like mediocre and below-average employees take enough time to slack off when at home that the additional time spent working at a lower capacity makes up for this difference.
[[68]](#_ftnref68)Powell, K. L., Roberts, G., & Nettle, D. (2012). Eye images increase charitable donations: Evidence from an opportunistic field experiment in a supermarket. Ethology, 118(11), 1096–1101. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12011
[[69]](#_ftnref69) One reader said this child swapping practice was not well attested, so we investigated the issue and found it very well and multiply attested. Dismissing this because the only people who mention it are refugees is insane. Of course, people still living under a dictatorship are not going to record this practice.
[[70]](#_ftnref70) Tragedy of the commons issues are those in which you have to convince every individual actor in the system to make a decision in favor of the common good but not in the individual’s favor.
[[71]](#_ftnref71)Cortes, C., & Lawrence, N. D. (2021, September 20). Inconsistency in conference peer review: Revisiting the 2014 neurips experiment. arXiv.org. from https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.09774
[[72]](#_ftnref72) Silberzahn R, Uhlmann EL, Martin DP, et al. Many Analysts, One Data Set: Making Transparent How Variations in Analytic Choices Affect Results. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. 2018;1(3):337-356. doi:10.1177/2515245917747646
doi:10.1177/2515245917747646 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2515245917747646, Silberzahn, R., Uhlmann, E. Crowdsourced research: Many hands make tight work. Nature 526, 189–191 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/526189a
[[73]](#_ftnref73)Breznau, N., Rinke, E. M., Wuttke, A., Nguyen, H. H. V., Adem, M., Adriaans, J., Alvarez-Benjumea, A., Andersen, H. K., Auer, D., & Amie Bostic, P. (2022, October 28). Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty. PNAS 119, 44, from https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2203150119
[[74]](#_ftnref74) Camerer, Colin F.; Dreber, Anna; et al. (27 August 2018). “Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015” (PDF). Nature Human Behaviour. 2 (9): 637–644. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/4hmb6
[[75]](#_ftnref75)Patrick Collison, M. N. (2018, November 28). Science is getting less bang for its buck. The Atlantic. from https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/diminishing-returns-science/575665/
[[76]](#_ftnref76) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom#Extreme_pornography
[[77]](#_ftnref77) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0xUt9A1AXw&ab_channel=Task%26Purpose
[[78]](#_ftnref78)Afonso, A., Schuknecht, L. & Tanzi, V. Public sector efficiency: An international comparison. Public Choice 123, 321–347 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-005-7165-2, from https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp242.pdf
[[79]](#_ftnref79)Chu, J. S., & Evans, J. A. (2021). Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(41). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021636118
[[80]](#_ftnref80) By “mentally stable,” we refer to those past their angsty teen phase who have the mental stability required to achieve some level of success in life . . . outside of marrying into success, being an actor, or having some other career that doesn’t filter out crazy people.
[[81]](#_ftnref81) Luddites get their name from English textile workers who destroyed textile machinery in the early 19th century.
[[82]](#_ftnref82) Some instead will argue that “no country has achieved true communism yet” but that many countries are in a transitional state. This is also fairly silly, as generally speaking the governments they would point to as being in these transitional states are becoming less “communist” with countries like Sweden having a rapidly increasing Gini coefficient, not a decreasing one.
[[83]](#_ftnref83)Fazekas, Z., & Hatemi, P. K. (2020). Narcissism in political participation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(3), 347–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220919212
[[84]](#_ftnref84) Minarchism is the political philosophy that a state should be as small as possible and its only function should be the protection of individuals from aggression, theft, breach of contract, and fraud.
[[85]](#_ftnref85) “In fact, revolutions occur more often in middle-income countries than in the very poorest nations.” Goldstone, Jack A., ‘What causes revolutions?’, Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (New York, 2013; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 Jan. 2014), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199858507.003.0002, accessed 17 Dec. 2022.