One Vague Thought About the Emergence and Spreading of Social Knowledge

Well, I was listening to Enya's track called Boudica and from there I wondered to the Wikipedia page, where it said that the Boudica was a queen that led an uprising against the Romans.



It kind of occurred to me that in the medieval ages the queens and kings were practically local warlords, analogues to modern day corporate players, because if they were not waging wars against other kings/queens, they were suppressing the rest of the population, literally robbing them by using violence (so called taxes---to the local mafia boss).

On the other hand, some of them, after having enough tough times with equal matches,i.e. other warlords, seem to start doing "humane" things. Now, one of the questions that came to my mind is that given the state of medicine in middle ages, many of the people might just die before gaining the smartness, knowledge, how to live happily and in prosperity (in terms of health and wealth).

For example, if we look at average modern time humans, then given "enough" power,  they act like mini-dictators or just think that they can get away with abusing or bullying everyone else without suffering the consequences. I do not believe in God, but if he existed as an entity, then even he suffers the consequences, because he does have to cope with the result of his deeds. Screw things up and You have to use the screwed up things for attaining Your own goals..So, back to topic, some of the minidictator-humans are eager to actually implement their dictatorship ambitions by attending in corporate power-struggles and climbing the ladder, but the ones that do not, are no better.

Also, when one looks at what happens in the United States army(Iraq, Afghanistan), then the youngest ones make the most ruthless killers and torturers, probably, because they just don't yet fully understand, how their deeds look in the background of the rest of their lives, family members, etc., and then, when they arrive home from Iraq or Afghanistan, and have the moment of comparison, many of them are deeply depressed, etc.. But in Iraq, they don't mind that much. They just do what's told and feel good about doing a "good job".

It seems to be in line with a claim that it takes smartness to be "good". After all, one does have to know, what pleases and disturbs others in order to be good to them. Being delicate does take a mental effort.

Given a fact that it also takes time to get to know, and observe, social processes (think politics, masses of a given culture in a given time, etc.), then the knowledge about social processes diminishes quite easily. But isn't that the case with all knowledge? How many of You is able to understand Albert Einstein's theory of relativity?