Re: The joy of Democracy

On Sun, 3 Nov 2024, rbowman wrote:

On Sat, 2 Nov 2024 22:03:34 +0100, D wrote:
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I also have sometimes thought that one "super power" of christianity is
forgiveness and (in theory) an end to family feuds.
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If your ead Njals saga you can see the power of the family feud and how
damaging it can be to society when more and more people are dragged into
it.

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Jesse Byock is an archaeologist at UCLA and has focused on Iceland.
Iceland and its Things are sometimes held up as an example of a
libertarian society. In one of his books Byock characterized it as a
society of feuding farmers.

Yes, iceland is often used as an example of a libertarian society, but it can also be used to show that in some instances, libertarian societies tend to collapse into medieval fiefdoms, or, they are not able to defend themselves and are taken over by the biggest neighbour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield%E2%80%93McCoy_feud
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Feuds weren't limited to Iceland. I can understand feuds. No blood was
shed but after a perceived slight in the positioning in a funeral
procession my mother never spoke to my uncle again. Likewise, after a
disagreement about the care of their aged mother my father and uncle never
spoke to their sister again. It made Christmas interesting.
>
I'm not sure Christianity ever took completely in Germans where 'never
forget and never forgive' is more likely.

It is interesting how a religion needs to be watered with some blood before it starts to mellow. Islamd is 600 years behind christianity so I think they need a home grown crusade or two, before they start to mellow as well.