The ever interesting Lee Harris tops himself in his most recent TCS article.  There's a trait in many of my favorite pieces of his that reminds me of cellular automata - he dissects and identifies base, simple nuances in human nature and shows how that protocol scaled up forms the basis for large segments of society & history -

Much can be learned about a society by observing what it is prepared to laugh at. If it laughs and mocks at cripples, but does not dare to make fun of those in positions of authority, then you will have a very different society than one in which even the most powerful may be publicly ridiculed by those who have the talent and inclination to do so... That is why the spirit of satire is interlinked with the social conditions that produce free societies -- the right "to take liberties" with those in authority by ridiculing them is, I submit, the unsuspected source of those three great social virtues: liberty, fraternity, and equality.

And it's within the realm of laughter and conviviality that Harris finds the kernel of democracy itself and a truth overlooked by so many -

Unfortunately, most modern intellectuals, when they envision an egalitarian society, think of it in Marxist terms. They wish to see an equality in terms of material wealth and resources...But the state, in taking on this function, immediately creates an elite ruling class whose job is to make everyone else equal -- a task that immediately provides this class with ample opportunities to prove the logic that governed Orwell's Animal Farm: "All animals are equal; but some are more equal than others." In the Soviet experiment, for example, all the old class divisions were immediately replaced by new divisions based on an individual's position within the Party hierarchy. This new privileged class, however, was not based on economic power, but on the power to intimidate and to frighten those who happened to be beneath them in the hierarchy -- and such power is not something to joke about. It is unwise to tease and taunt a man who can send you to Siberia, or liquidate your entire family.

To be egalitarian isn't - as Harris points out - to be of equal wealth.   It's equal, mutual recognition of each other's faults and surviving, nay thriving, on a good natured ribbing.  The Boss who outlaws at-his-expense humor by his subordinates is on an organizational downward spiral.   The one who's able to laugh when they throw out a good one will get the extra mile from the team.  Harris sums it all up -

...It is not wealth that produces human dignity; it is the feisty independence of spirit.

It's been a long time since I've sat and thought about a sentence like that.   The necessary artifact of "independence of spirit" - when processed through the machinery of capitalism - is wealth for all and greater wealth for sum.   However, that's the effect, not the source of the stability in societies which blend private property with democracy.

When we see/hear Donald Trump readily joke about his hair or Bill Gates make his annual video parodies they acknowledge a wider brotherhood of a different sort - they are clearly expending effort for a relatively sophisticated product (a good joke!) common to all.  Had either Bill or Donald dismissfully uttered "let them eat cake" the central role of fraternity would quickly become clear in our attitudes towards their wealth.  Hegelian dignity and recognition - once described in terms of primitive master / slave dichotomies continues to reign supreme in our post modern age.