Palladium Archive: The Answer is Better Gangs
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Palladium Archive: The Answer is Better Gangs
Seth Largo asks: what if the legitimate elements of society were better integrated with better gangs?
Palladium articles often open interesting threads to think about or discuss that we can't fully explore within the article. One that feels especially ripe for this is "The Answer Is Better Gangs" by Seth Largo, featured recently in PALLADIUM 11: Social Apocalypse.
It is the most natural thing in the world for young men to be initiated into brotherhoods of honor, power, and social standing in their teenage years, emerging a few years later as fully formed adults. They crave it. They crave it so much that the social form of the gang, which fills this niche, will exist outside the law if necessary. That's where most recognizable gangs exist today.
Seth Largo takes on this issue, looking at the sociology of gang kids in Los Angeles. As the initiatory charisma of mainstream society declines, even the cops are increasingly picking up gang-like behaviors like violent initiations and gang tattoos. Your first instinct might be to call for suppression of these behaviors, but that only seems to drive them further to the criminal fringes. Seth's article asks a more interesting question: what if the legitimate elements of society were better integrated with better gangs?
Everything from boy scouts to the army to college fraternities to social clubs used to be much more gang like. Today's youth don't have that as much. Is that why we turn to fringe ideologies, depression, drugs, and careerism? What kind of gang-like institutions could you build that could become a new mainstream? This deserves a lot more thought. We’d love to hear yours.
Read the article here: The Answer Is Better Gangs.
Subscribers to the early articles tier of the Palladium letter also received a full copy of the upcoming The Confucian Cure for Tiger Parenting by Peter Wei in their inboxes last week. Everyone else will see it on the website later this week.
Here’s what’s been on the front page lately:
Why I Built Zuzalu by Vitalik Buterin. Can online networks become viable communities and further their goals in the real world? I brought two hundred people together in Montenegro to find out.
The Wagnerization of Political Order by Alexander Gelland. Wagner Group arose out of Russia’s landscape of corruption, factionalism, and political fiefdoms. If similar conditions intensify in the West, powerful individuals will exploit the same opportunities.
PALLADIUM 11: Social Apocalypse. PALLADIUM 11: Social Apocalypse is now available to all Palladium members. Subscribe today to receive your copy of our fall 2023 print edition.
It’s Time For Greater San Francisco by Evan Zimmerman. The Bay Area is a regional economy hindered by fragmented local governments. The answer is consolidation into Greater San Francisco.
A New Cosmist Moment by Alexander Gelland. The Cosmists pursued visions of resurrection and immortality but ended up recuperated into Soviet ideology. Modern tech utopians are following in their footsteps.
That’s all for now.