Also,
if you look at humankind and human evolution into civilization at a large scale, then the transition from a feudal system with it's aristocracy and nepotism rule into democracy has spawned a more dominant method to gain an edge for successful survival. We now have deceit and especially corruption as the main parasitic form for catering to special interests and egocentric living.
Energy companies have for decades used corruption as an easy broker into huge profits, but this also creates tension and opposition from the populations over time, because of the obvious imbalances it brings with it.
We see consequences of the rampant corruption in society by increasingly complicated and encompassing legislation, regulations to stem loopholes. Then we see increased resource spending on judicial processes with lawyers battling out the ever dynamic laws, and special interests investing into circumventing judicial systems, laws etc. It all amounts to a huge parasitic part of society, sapping resources and increasing burdens on it's components - not adding to productivity in any sense.
The whole approach is flawed, since punitive measures do not hinder risk-takers or outweigh the benefits to the risk of easy profits. We all see the results of deceit in democracy, like corruption - and "we sense" there is something behind decisions, favours and other imbalances that are created. This again spurs a flurry of conspiracy theories, some valid while others ineptly inaccurate fantasies. The whole society becomes paranoid, with facets fighting each other for gain of power, influence and the corruption revenues. In earlier times, the power was structured like in feudal hierarchies, and rule was forced upon everyone.
What technology today offers civilization is to remove the trust-models "from the trust of humans", and onto reliable platforms which are not open to deceit or corruption, as long as the model itself is open and trusted. This also makes the models much more flexible and efficient, as well as making society as a whole more geared towards production and improvement - resulting in more riches, potential and value for everyone. This also removes more of the risk for most catastrophic conflicts, since regression to too much of a lower level is prohibitively costly and not in anyone's interests.
This makes technology the solution, and shows some of the flaws of the "democratic peace theory" which is centre-piece for the neo-conservatives. Their flaw is that, as I've pointed out, current democracy is structurally open to corruption/deceit - and factually is ridden with this flaw today.
The way to evolve for the future is through levering technology and securing the structural integrity of our models for society, by moving the trust-models from the grasps of those who are prone to corruption and onto a trustworthy platform. This does increase efficiency and prosper for all of society - and the world - as well as empowers the individuals in a way which avoids much of the conflict and tension we see today as well as reduces the unnecessary costs attributable to these imbalances on civilization. It also simplifies life by instead of enlarging legislation, it nullifies attempts of corruption by removing the possibility of the deceit and parasitic behaviour; ultimately decreasing the need for exaggerated punitive reaction and costs.
