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Compromise and Dictatorship

Interesting reading about the lack of compromise and its relationship to dictatorship as Jared Diamond sees it. On a much smaller scale, in relationships between partners or parent and child, this seems to ring true. 

 Say in a bad marriage, there is no agreement on any issue whatsoever. This naturally leads to a severe imbalance of power with one ruling and the other ruled. When you add to that disparities in income potential and other constraints that limit the freedoms of each, the divergence only grows stronger. From a collaborative, egalitarian ideal of relationship we quickly devolve into something that does resemble a dictatorship. 

 In parent-child relationships the outcomes could be very dire for the child if an extreme, authoritarian, no-compromise parent refuses to listen to any views that contradict theirs. In either situation, it takes time for the the balance of power to skew until the relationship is irreparably damaged. So the ten year time-line that Diamond posits for America to turn into a dictatorship might be logical. 

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