Inequality in nature is obvious. Some people are genetically luckier than other. They are more handsome, more beautiful, healthier, smarter, or born in the right family, country or city. It might look unfair, make some jealous but we can’t make everyone look ugly because you are ugly.
Nature seems to allocate more ressources to some parts, to some people or to some locations.
Let take the case of human body. The brain consumes 20% of the average 100 watts the body needs to keep running at rest, while the brain makes only 2% of the body mass.
Such unequal allocation of ressources is called natural inequality or utilitarian inequality, because the disproportionate resources allocated to the brain is used for the goods of the whole body.
Inequality is profitable to society in many ways. We are lucky Einstein didn’t have the same brain as Trump. We are lucky Usain Bolt is not built like Your uncle. We are lucky John Coltrane is more sensible than your Sunday lead singer. We are delighted that Lupita doesn’t look like your ex-girlfriend. We are lucky Michael Jackson walked the moon!
Deviation from standards are rare but often more profitable to society than the masses of averages.
If everyone was intellectually low like you, we won’t have the internet, the Iphone, Ford car, space ship, computer, nuclear bombs.
Do you want the whole world to look like Niger!? Poor and despicable because we want equality in the world !?
Let’s take the baobab. We are many to admire baobabs. They are huge, long live, make great landscapes and produce the best fibers with vitamin C. Imperial as they are, you’d be puzzled looking at the network of a baobab’s roots.
Baobabs develop tentacular roots that goes hundreds of meters around to seek water and nutrient to feed the huge tree. The first thing that would come to your mind looking at its roots is ‘Wow…that how empires work!’. They deploy tentacles far away to feed the empire.
Why am I writing all this?
To make the case for the necessity of empires. Like the brain, empires seems to consume more of the world ressources compared to their actual population and mass land seize.
However, you and me won’t be here without all the American empire innovations, without the British empires innovations, without the Greek and Roman Empire, without the Egyptians, the Malians, the Assyrians, the Edo, disproportionate contribution to humanity knowledge and technology pool!
Empires often become innovation center, data and command center to the benefit of the empire first then eventually trickledown to the rest of the world.
Without the over concentration of intelligence in Einstein small brain (literally, Einstein brain was smaller than average man brain) we won’t have had those 1905 to 1926 huge progress in physics.
Without the over concentration of ressources in Britain we might not have the industrial revolution.
At the end of the medieval age, 50% of scientists in the world were in Italy. In the 13th century, 80% of architects and philosophers in west Africa were in Timbuktu.
Without the over concentration of talent in Michael Jackson, we won’t ever have the moon walk, the best invention of the last 2000 years.
My point if you succeeded to follow me until this point is that empires needs resources far beyond their borders and more than their seize. The resources the hoard abroad contribute to innovations that trickle down to the rest of the world.
Therefore, my point is that we still need empires.
However, we need a model of John Rawls distributive justice to trickle the benefits of empire downwards. Otherwise we head back to feudalism.
Like alternation in local politics, alternance exist at the global level with the alternation of empires.
We are witnessing one right now.
(This article was first posted in my mind while bathing naked in virgin air at the mountain)