Government technology is a collective name for the tools that governments use to control resistance, rebellion, and revolution. Laws, police, courts, schools, central banks, prisons, executions, etc. are examples.(1)

It's fruitful to consider historical trends in wealth inequality as a function of how effective government technology is at the time. That is, rather than seeing social, cultural, economic factors as drivers, assume that the ruling class will take as much as they can without provoking uncontrollable resistance. The more inequality the more fierce the resistance and so the more effective government technology must be to maintain stability.

They never take less than they can for moral reasons. They never return anything unless they're forced to. American slavery, the limiting case of wealth inequality, didn't end because people finally realized it was evil. Everyone already knew it was evil. It ended because there was no way to maintain it in the face of massive resistance, both by slaves and, in the form of the civil war, by capitalists with enough foresight to see that capitalism was unsustainable if slavery was allowed to continue.(2) If they'd had sufficiently effective government technology slavery would never have ended. If they somehow develop it again they'll start enslaving people immediately.(3)

TLDR Riots work.

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Notes:

1. I learned about government technology from Steve Gallo's essential work on Gilded Age urban parks and commoning, in particular Parks Over Pasture: Enclosing the Commons in Postbellum New Orleans (https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537781421000566)

2. Steven Hahn's The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom is very good on the effects of slave rebellion and resistance on abolition. (https://www.worldcat.org/title/244628661).

3. The effectiveness of government tech isn't only intrinsic. It's a function not only of the intrinsic capabilities of the tools but also of the people being controlled. Government technology grows ineffective over time as its victims learn to thwart it. At one point the US government had sufficiently effective government tech to control literal slaves. It stopped working in mid-19th Century, but not because anyone got nice.

#Slavery #ChattelSlavery #SteveGallo #StevenHahn #GovernmentTechnology #Capitalism #Anarchism #SlaveRebellion

@DeliaChristina

Anything women-led is sensitive. Certain topics more so.

Bound to raise the hair of some of our otherwise red-blooded American white male. Some not so.. Hair raisings, are both hackles and whatever mightst don those now quivering heads..

For those who would occupy seats to the right of the aisle angina also ensuing.

#scotus #twitter #womensrights
#wasp #law #lawyers #aclu
#blackwomen #slaverebellion #slavery

@DeliaChristina I'm happy to report that this book is instantly available for checkout as an E-Book from the Santa Clara Library system, and it's amazing :)

"Wake: The Hidden History of Women Led Slave Revolts"

https://sccl.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=wake+history+of+women+led&searchType=smart

#BlackHistory #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #WomensHistory #History #SlaveRebellion #StayWoke #WokeUsedCorrectly

The birdsite flagged this post for 'sensitive' information. Consider it an incentive to buy this book. (It's illustrated!!)

#BlackHistory #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #WomensHistory #History #SlaveRebellion #StayWoke #WokeUsedCorrectly

https://archive.org/details/execrable

Report on the Execrable Conspiracy Carried Out by the Amina Negroes on the Danish Island of St. Jan in America, 1733 by Pierre J. Pannet; Aimery P. Caron; Arnold R. Highfield

Topics
#slaverevolt, #slaverebellion, #insurrection, #blackchattelslavery, #danishcolonialism, #danishimperialism, #frenchimperialism, #antiblackness, #stjan, #sanktjan, #saintjohn, #virginislands, #usvirginislands, #Caribbean, #Caribbeanhistory, #historyoftheCaribbean, #counterinsurgency, #CoralBay, #danishwestindies, #denmark

Christiansted: Antilles Press

https://archive.org/details/cinque-pamphlet

"The Real Charge is Slave Rebellion". - Ruchell Magee, "Cinque": An SDS Pamphlet by Ruchell "Cinque" Magee; Students for a Democratic Society

Topics
#SDS, #showtrials, #trials, #slaverebellion, #August7thMarinCountyCourthouseRebellion, #BlackAugust, #MarinCountyCourthouseRebellion, #August7, #August7th, #prisonrebellion, #prisoneractivism, #politicalprisoner, #politicalprisoners, #antiblackness, #unitedstatesofamerika

A 1972 SDS pamphlet released sometime before November 27 (when Cinque's trial was set to begin) of that year.