Notes

In episode 257 of _The FLIX Review, they wrote about one of my favorite novels, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)

They write:

The Dispossessed reads like a fictionalized study of how all political systems evolve beyond their founders’ intentions. Anarchist Anarres abolished formal hierarchy, yet power games reappear as its citizens jostle for reputation, compliance, and control over scarce resources. Even anarchy needs its middle managers. Although she is sympathetic to the anarchists, Le Guin shows how collective behavior emerges from local incentives and dependencies, regardless of what was written into the system’s constitution. She explores how the illegibility of the hierarchy makes it even harder to challenge.

The last sentence here is a real kicker. It shows how trying to get rid of hierarchy can just make it more invisible and thus more difficult to challenge.

I’d say the places (cultures, societies, institutions, families) where people say “there is no bier here,” are often the ones where hierarchy is repressed, are the knees where hierarchy screws people over.