Raison d'État on Nostr: Societies that were recently decentralised and free but are undergoing centralisation ...

Societies that were recently decentralised and free but are undergoing centralisation and loss of freedom are the engines of conquest and colonisation.

- The Norse after the arrival of Christianity (and its ideological justifications for Absolute Monarchy).

- The Arabs under Mohammed.

- The Spanish after the unification of Castille, Aragon and Navarre.

- The English and Scots after the end of the Stuart dynasty, during the descent into bureaucratic Absolutism.

These societies had old, barbarian loyalty and virtue, combined with new, civilised mass recruitment and central coordination.

Such things are neccessarily unstable over time.

Westerners are at the opposite end of the cycle now - weak mean with all the civilised vices, yet unable to coordinate effectively (and, in fact, actively prevented from doing so).