Peasants could match the medieval Kings of Europe in a lot of ways. The force Kings could apply without using peasants was limited to knights that were dispersed across the country and a small number of professional guards/soldiers. The weapons these forces used were more powerful than the peasants but could be overcome through sheer numbers. If the peasants withheld their labour, the Kings would starve and the kingdom would fall apart.
Most states now have a large professional police force and military that is extremely well equipped with weapons and intelligence that modern peasantry cannot come close to matching. These forces are mobile enough to deploy rapidly throughout the jurisdiction. And the labour of the peasants has largely been offshored or supplanted with temporary foreign work.
Kings were right to fear peasants in the past because the peasants represented a credible threat. This is no longer the case in the modern world. We are entirely at the mercy of those in power to play by our imaginary rules for democracy. If those in power choose to ignore those rules, the rest of us peasants have very little effective recourse.
The pandemic showed we just have to stop going to work in great enough numbers. I know it’s a pipe dream, we’re too divided, there’s too many that would betray their class, etc etc., but theoretically we do have recourse. Even mass unionization would help.
Peasants could match the medieval Kings of Europe in a lot of ways. The force Kings could apply without using peasants was limited to knights that were dispersed across the country and a small number of professional guards/soldiers. The weapons these forces used were more powerful than the peasants but could be overcome through sheer numbers. If the peasants withheld their labour, the Kings would starve and the kingdom would fall apart.
Most states now have a large professional police force and military that is extremely well equipped with weapons and intelligence that modern peasantry cannot come close to matching. These forces are mobile enough to deploy rapidly throughout the jurisdiction. And the labour of the peasants has largely been offshored or supplanted with temporary foreign work.
Kings were right to fear peasants in the past because the peasants represented a credible threat. This is no longer the case in the modern world. We are entirely at the mercy of those in power to play by our imaginary rules for democracy. If those in power choose to ignore those rules, the rest of us peasants have very little effective recourse.
The pandemic showed we just have to stop going to work in great enough numbers. I know it’s a pipe dream, we’re too divided, there’s too many that would betray their class, etc etc., but theoretically we do have recourse. Even mass unionization would help.