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@TallSimon@mstdn.ca

2026-09-29 12:02 UTC

@corbden@defcon.social Reading Patricia Crone's "Pre-Industrial Societies" (and feeling like the last person in the world to have done so) I was struck by this passage in the chapter "Bourgeoisie": "All those who had to work with their hands were despised, pre-industrial elites all over the world being united in their contempt for the 'vile and mechanical world of labour'. (One Thalassius was refused entry to the Senate in fourth-century Constantinople on the grounds that he owned a knife factory and was suspected of having worked in it himself: the prejudice had far more intercultural intelligibility than did the institution from which he was excluded.)" I realized that this is an old, old pattern. Having been raised in a family of doers, knowing how to take a fair crack at anything has always been a point of pride. I deeply underestimated how much understanding the details and basic craftman's competence marked me as a peasant.

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  • @TallSimon@mstdn.ca 2026-09-29 12:14

    @corbden@defcon.social So could we be getting the pre-industrial elite prejudice forced upon us by the AI bros? Maybe there is a sincere belief in their tiny brains that everyone would be happier, relieved of their basic competence to enjoy the bland, branded world of the managerial class. Why should they believe otherwise, I suppose: we have been rewarding managers more richly than the actual productive people* for quite some time (even if we discount the traditional managerial opportunities for corrupt acquisition). It could also be why, at its core, the current generation of AI is so atrociously engineered. The functionally incompetent managers have finally gotten enough 💰️ that they can build this robot with feet of clay and the poor labourer, never mind society as a whole, feels powerless to oppose it. *ETA: this depends, of course, on the definition of "manager". A farmer could also be a "manager" of crops and livestock. Perhaps it's social position versus technical knowledge as source of income.

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