Rulers administer enjoyment to subjects until it is extinguished in fixed entertainments

Evidence

In general, common enmity is one of the most powerful means for motivating a number of individuals or groups to cling together. This common enmity is intensified if the common adversary is at the same time the common ruler. In a latent, certainly not in an overt and effective, form, this combination probably occurs everywhere: in some measure, in some respect, the ruler is almost always an adversary. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 333 (#complicates, via linked claim)

We encounter here a peculiar sociological form-type: where characteristics of an element can originate only in the relation between this and another element, and can derive their content and significance only from this relation; yet these characteristics come to be essential qualities of the element and no longer depend on any interaction. The fact that one is the ruler presupposes an object of one’s domination; yet the psychological reality can, to a certain extent, evade this conceptual necessity. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6725 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Shared enmity of a common ruler strongly binds groups together — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 333; Relational traits like rulership can detach from their needed counterpart and persist alone — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6725; Mass amusement functions as the modern catharsis that tragedy once provided (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Shared enmity of a common ruler strongly binds groups together #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 333
• Relational traits like rulership can detach from their needed counterpart and persist alone #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6725
• Mass amusement functions as the modern catharsis that tragedy once provided #expands (0.72)