Technology, wealth and equality

It seems to me that a wealthy society will tend to be an egalitarian one.   The reason runs through technology.  For a society to be wealthy, it needs sophisticated technology.   Sophisticated technology implies specialized knowledge.   To keep the society running, individuals need to be able to come together to bring their individual knowledge and intelligence to bear on solving problems.   For these conversations to be productive, each individual needs to be able to take a role that is commensurate with their level of knowledge, not with their position in a hierarchy.

 

Malcom Gladwell, in one of his books, told the story of how a Korean airplane was flown into a mountain because the rules of conversation in Korea is that the people lower in the hierarchy could not correct the superior -- so the person who knew there was a problem could only hint to the lead pilot about it.   This is a pretty graphic example of why the opposite of an egalitarian society doesn't work well in a high tech environment.

 

 

Inclusion vs exclusion

One thing that I feel like I see in history is that societies that tend to include outgroups tend to be the winners in conflicts.  If this is actually so, I can think of a couple of reasons why it could be so.

 

One is common cause.   Societies that are richer tend to be more inclusive.  I put this down to human nature -- when life is going well for people, they tend to be more likely to be nice to people.   Societies that are richer also tend to win conflicts.

 

Another possible cause is that societies that are more creative tend to win conflicts.   When there are more different cultures and world views being brought to a problem, the odds of finding a creative and better solution go way up.

 

The first reason isn't in & of itself a reason to welcome strangers, but the second reason is.   Even without conflict, a society that is more creative is more likely to do well.