The Servile State

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1. svieiraAug 2026
   Some thinkers believe you have to encourage the people in the system and change the system to make it harder to do the wrong thing. Some reading on the topic includes:

   * The canonical book on the subject - The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64882

   * https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/06/what-is-distr...

   * https://practicaldistributism.com/distributism-basics/

   And not directly related, but full of mineable thoughts, the papal encyclicals of the last 100 years on economy, including Rerum Novarum (https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/docum...), Quadragesimo Anno (https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/docume...), Centesimus Annus (https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/d...), and the very latest Magnifica Humanitas (https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/docume...)

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2. svieiraJun 2024
   This is the right answer. The author calls it out subtly too:

   > the gap between the lower gentry and upper yeomanry isn’t very large, and most families are able to support themselves with only minimal assistance.

   For those who want to fall down the rabbit hole see:

   1. The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64882 2. https://distributistreview.com/archive/an-introduction-to-di...

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3. ThorentisMay 2020
   I did indeed have medieval serfs and particular feudal society in mind in my comment, and meant 500-600 years ago by "a few". I probbaly should have said "several".

   The feudal system is often given a bad wrap, but after reading "The Servile State" (a critique of modern capitalism) I actually think we have much to learn from it that we have lost.

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4. einhverfrSep 2013
   Forcible wealth redistribution is a bad thing. Worse, when it has been done, it is done in a band-aid approach. Let's subsidize subsistence as a way to chain people to job searches. No thank you.

   But having said that, I think it is reasonable for encouraging a sane wealth distribution to be a part of public policy. This doesn't have to be done through taxes just for owning something. It could be taxes on renting something for example, unless that is a rent to own agreement. The idea would be simply encouraging ownership to align with utilization rather than life-long renting as the norm.

   I would recommend reading some conservative alternatives like Chesterton's "An Outline of Sanity" or Belloc's "The Servile State" for alternatives that are more historically grounded.

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5. einhverfrAug 2013
   > Encoding your own mail means that you are playing by rules of the game NSA has set up.

   well, actually, I was talking about encoding other people's email, for a fee. The goal is to change the game and change the rules. The NSA has created this market. Let's use this to reshape the game.

   > If you encode your communications there is a barrier that they will break down directly by making you disclose the keys while threatening with Tax audits, jail time etc.

   This is true, so the game is not just to get your own keys taken care of but everyone else's and locate the business in a country that will be better interested and able to stand up to NSA interests here.

   > Or by breaking down encryption commications. They are the largest employer of IT/Security/Cryptographers on the face of the earth.

   Again true, which is why the game has to change.

   > So the only way to do this is to make them not play their game.

   So the new game is to make sure as much traffic as possible is encrypted. All of the above take time. They could bug the end points, they could break down the encryption with massively parallel supercomputers. They could threaten individual users of the service.

   So the game is to make sure that everyone encrypts everything every time (or at least that enough do to make individualized efforts prohibitive on a dragnet scale).

   We know they don't like that game. They've been trying to get control over all encryption since the days of Clinton but they haven't yet.

   > Frankly whole cancerous security apparatus has been fueled by privatized sector just like the one with privatized jail system.

   Very true. BTW, read "The Servile State" by Hilaire Belloc if you want a really depressing read....

   > Sad to say this but there only way I can see this being resolved is political/etc. Start websites cover the stories. Find methods of figuring out whether they are listening to you or not. For example set up fake drug deals so you can draw them on fact of monitoring your communications. Sue them every instance you find them breaking down your doors. Yeah I know it is not pleasant.

   If someone wants to, great. I am not in the US at the moment so my options are more limited.

   > Also make working for contractors of NSA and being employee of NSA being a very unpatriotic and scummy thing to do - akin to digging around underwear drawer of your next door granny neighbor.

   How do we do that? How many of us know such contractors?

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6. einhverfrJun 2013
   Read "The Servile State" by Hilaire Belloc for where this is leading ;-)

   For lower classes, prison (and prison servitude) is becoming the safety net.

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