Is ANY form of govenrment workable? [View all]

[Binkie The Clown]

I was pondering the nature of government as it relates to the nature of the human mind and it occurred to me that any form of government works fine for a small enough tribal group. Tribes of a couple hundred people with a strong charismatic leader work; small tribes with completely democratic decision making work; a small enough tribe can work with utter anarchy. While a small tribe that shares the same culture and beliefs can thrive with a communal structure, communalism does not scale up beyond 150 or 200 people in the commune.

So I begin to suspect that any group of humans larger than 200 members is inherently ungovernable by its very nature. Likewise, any group of any size where the overarching philosophy among members differs significantly is inherently ungovernable.

A small enough group has no problem interacting with minorities because the group is small enough it has no minorities. A small cohesive doesn't argue about religious beliefs because they all share the same religious beliefs. If they didn't the group would not be cohesive.

Mankind evolved in tribal groups where all members of the group share the same goals, beliefs, rule enforcement methods, philosophies, diet, music, entertainment, art, etc. Yes, conflicts arise, but there are mutually agreed upon methods to resolve those conflicts. To an outsider, a given tribal norm may appear "barbaric" or "cruel", but the fact that the tribe survives means that it "works". What does it mean to say a tribe's way of life works? It means that it enables the tribe, as a unit, to survive.

We all want a better society, but the question that's been nagging on my mind lately is, can a "better" society ever survive? Does what we like to think of as a "better" government even work (in the sense of "work" defined above)?

What I think I know for sure is that:

Democracy works on a small scale, but on a large scale, it doesn't work. (Trump is a case in point. And don't say it "could" work. The fact is, it doesn't work.)

Socialism works on a small scale, but on a large scale, it doesn't work.

Communism, or Communalism, works on a small scale, but on a large scale, it doesn't work.

Dictatorship works on a small scale, but on a large scale, it doesn't work.

Anarchy works on a very small scale, but on a large scale, it fails utterly.

Perhaps mankind, by steering itself toward self-destruction, is correcting the problem by setting the stage to restructure itself into small, isolated, governable-sized tribal units.