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C00002 00002	politi[s87,jmc]		Notes on politics
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politi[s87,jmc]		Notes on politics

I have come increasingly to believe that many important aspects of
politics have a strongly psychological component.  Specifically,
the intensity of conflict is related to psychology.

Here are some remarks.

1. Humans are sociobiologically rather quarrelsome.  Modern Western
society, especially American middle class society, is far more peaceful
than the norm.  To put it in old-fashioned terms, sins of quarrelsomeness
are well suppressed.

2. Political life is more peaceful, the lower on the size scale one
goes.  Municipalities don't invade each other; in the whole history
of the United States, there have never been armed conflicts between
the police forces of neighboring towns or cities.

This peacefulness might be explained in several alternate ways.

	a. Small numbers of people, especially when personal acquaintance
is possible, are less inclined to get violent.

	b. Municipal issues are less divisive.

	c. The national authorities are good at suppressing municipal
conflict.

	d. People's emotions are most aroused by the most global issues.
I lean to some variant of this last explanation.  It suggests that if
we had world government, politics would be extremely intense at the
world level.

assassination plots - small scale