"The Great Compression". Only catastrophe brings about meaningful social change. The data is compelling. And…

"The Great Compression". Only catastrophe brings about meaningful social change. The data is compelling. And the logic. Without catastrophe, social conformity and imitative rivalry are too strong to allow significant change. /1 https://t.co/QZPwjEyY2I https://t.co/V0XbOKeYJt

This is why I rarely engage in the team sports of debate on social media, or elsewhere. Debates (really imitative rivalry between teams) don't progress issues. In fact no reform of any kind historically has done that. Only catastrophe. /2

Also what I call 'reality-based politics'. Peoples' opinions turn out to be irrelevant to solving anything. Until those opinions get so far removed from reality, that reality smashes a society and forces them to correct course. /3

Like I Tweet about often, the relative peace and prosperity of the past 70 years were historically anomalous. Brought about by the Great Compression of the two world wars, and Spanish Flu. /4

Read the article, we're now at the tail end of the previous Great Compression. Why we're not fighting Covid, or climate change. Our social status games, our team sports, are back in the ascendancy. /5

That's the default state for all societies. The violence of team sports, the imitative rivalry on all issues. Only a new catastrophe will shift it meaningfully. /end