> Frankly, I think this is dogma that is not born out by the fact that
> the longest-lived societies in human history have been (sometimes
> extremely) authoritarian, whereas historical examples of
> nonauthoritarian societies are slim to none. (By "society" I mean
> "large society.")
Sure, but they were dealing with relatively unchanging societies: the details may have differed, but the structure of society and of the external world changed rather slowly. Ever since the industrial revolution, that has no longer been the case.