I'm replying in a new window because it's impossible to reply directly to your message, John.

You've just precisely described the only path to survival in a world of predators. The Melians who would have acquiesced while preparing for what came next are those who would have dismantled their internal 'victim' structure to become shadowy players. They would have used the contract, the facade of adherence, as a weapon of concealment. Thank you for confirming that sovereignty begins with the cunning of those who no longer believe the master's narrative.

Does realism consist of calculating carefully so that the system endures, or is calculation itself at the service of a biological predation of which we are all the driving force?

As long as the individual doesn't transmute their own insatiable hunger, they will mechanically produce the same system, regardless of the name given to it (democracy, monarchy, stock market management). Is it truly possible to believe that real change can be achieved through a vote? Or does it operate in the organic relationship that one maintains with one's own needs and fears?