Society

"We are all communists with our closest friends, and feudal lords when dealing with small children. It is very hard to imagine a society where people wouldn’t be both" David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years. One of the things I like about this line is its implicit question: which model of social organisation is the one with a larger gravitational pull upon your imagination? Which is to say: do you find yourself thinking about your fellow citizens as friends, or children? (Or indeed: would you prefer a society in which you were treated as a friend, or a child?)