They only ever behaved because there was a boot on their proverbial necks.
Actually, this sounds like a pretty good universal rule. People only ever behave as long as they're forced to by either government repression or strong social mores.
One of the most important lines in modern Western writing came from fucking Office Space, and it describes every element of human behavior filtered through their job:
That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, ...that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
People will always work the barest minimum to not get in trouble. Once you take away that threat, they will regress and regress until they hit little more than an animal.
Yes as a safety measure, but his point is some will always need it more than others. Historically we've seen where many places in the west had draconian rules that went away over time because some peoples don't need it - but then we forgot why we ever had those rules in the first place, and act like everyone else on the planet is the same. The west in its own cultural success failed to recognize its superiority.
It's the "strong men create good times" cycle. Strong norms create times in which people start to believe that those strong norms aren't actually necessary.
Actually, this sounds like a pretty good universal rule. People only ever behave as long as they're forced to by either government repression or strong social mores.
“ The human mind is never better disposed to gratitude and attachment than when softened by fear.” —Sir Charles James Napier
One of the most important lines in modern Western writing came from fucking Office Space, and it describes every element of human behavior filtered through their job:
People will always work the barest minimum to not get in trouble. Once you take away that threat, they will regress and regress until they hit little more than an animal.
Yes as a safety measure, but his point is some will always need it more than others. Historically we've seen where many places in the west had draconian rules that went away over time because some peoples don't need it - but then we forgot why we ever had those rules in the first place, and act like everyone else on the planet is the same. The west in its own cultural success failed to recognize its superiority.
Christianity changed the genetic destiny of Europeans, but our failure to recognize that is fatal to our efforts in other countries.
It's the "strong men create good times" cycle. Strong norms create times in which people start to believe that those strong norms aren't actually necessary.