ClippingKK

It was not only the economic incentives that were destroyed. The political changes that had started to take place also went into reverse. The power of chiefs and traditional rulers, which had previously been in decline, was strengthened, because part of the project of creating a cheap labor force was to remove private property in land.

In fact, the black workers were purposefully kept unskilled and were barred from high-skill occupations so that skilled white workers would not face competition and could enjoy high wages. In South Africa black Africans were indeed “trapped” in the traditional economy, in the Homelands.

Books also undermine the power of those who control oral knowledge, since they make that knowledge readily available to anyone who can master literacy. This threatened to undermine the existing status quo, where knowledge was controlled by elites. The Ottoman sultans and religious establishment feared the creative destruction that would result. Their solution was to forbid printing.

因为法家制度虽然成功使得秦国崛起，并且成为天下最强的大国，可是秦国大国崛起后，真是使秦国人民站起来，再也不能坐下了，他们必须不停地干活。国家的强大是需要和国民的尊严并存的，而且我们可以讲，在现代应该既追求国民的尊严，也追求国家的强大

然而无论出身如何卑贱，宦官一旦被皇帝宠信，权倾一时，就常常会忘乎所以，做出一些糟糕透顶的事。对此，当然不能用“阶级分析”说事：因为他们是穷苦出身，就会为穷人维权。宦官如此，朝官亦然，程度不同而已。“布衣卿相”绝不是“代表布衣的卿相”。从常识判断，皇权爪牙对无缘皇宠的百姓（“布衣卿相”对一般的“布衣”），比贵族对自己的附庸更无情，这不说是规律，也应是大概率现象

我一向认为，中华文明数千年，最深刻的变化就是走进帝制的“周秦之变”和走出帝制的“三千年未有之变”

我们不要以今推古，想当然地认为不搞“右派”的自由放任，就是“左派”的福利国家。桑弘羊和商鞅、韩非一样，自由、福利都不给，他们是反对济贫，而支持惩贫的。桑弘羊是强国主义者，但是这个强国家并不是为人民服务的，而是为皇帝服务的

The effort to build and consolidate absolutism in Spain was massively aided by the discovery of precious metals in the Americas.