10 March

There’s an old (sexist) saying that if you have people by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. There’s real wisdom there I think, notice how people rarely agree on major issues, and yet society today is the most peaceful time in history? I think that’s because agreement has 2 big meanings - agree on ideas (rarely happens), and agreement as in legal agreement - mutual obligation. Our society is absolutely chock-full of the second type of agreement. Every time you buy something, or hire somebody, or install a new household device, etc. etc., you set up a new obligation and therefore agreement between you and other parties. You don’t have to agree on anything else, but you will follow the terms of that agreement because otherwise neither gets what they want. Multiply those agreements/obligations enough, and you get a society so mutually implicated in each other’s obligations, that you get what we see today - peace.