Free Money!

Get your attention?

This was posted on another livejournal. In essence, if you bought a CD (or tape or record) between 1995 and 2000, you're entitled to money from a price fixing lawsuit. (5-20 dollars).

You don't even need to produce receipts, just to swear that you aren't perjuring yourself.

Is this cool, or what?

Benevolent Despots

Authors from Pratchett to Brin to Weber to Wil McCarthy (just read Collapsium, ultrahigh science and the solar system is ruled by a Tongan Queen, hence this topic) have all noted one interesting fact about the human condition:

We all seem to have a section of the brain labeled "Kings: what a good idea!" ;-)

Autocracy is a potent idea, made more so by the seeming ability to perfect it's flaws. If we could just choose the right person and make sure that the right person continued to be chosen, then surely life would be better under a single leader.

We'd have unity of vision, fewer political squabbles, less red-tape (decree cuts down on bureaucracy), policy unswayed by temporary popular opinion, someone else to take up the burden of decision making for us (deny the appeal of that some days, I dare you)...

...and if worst came to worst, we'd have the perfect person to blame.;-) If you're talking about a really useful autocrat, you aren't talking about the ultimate leader, but the ultimate servant, responsible for all the people and also responsible to all the people.

We could do a lot worse. Looking at the current GOP leadership, we are doing a lot worse. I'd take a Philosopher King over Bush any day. ;-) The one current hurdle is just a matter of figuring out "Who guards the guards?", so that leaders like Nero get culled early and often.

None of the ideas I've mentioned above are new. I've read them all somewhere. Tonight, however, a new idea about the seeming desire for monarchy popped into my head and I'm feeling proud enough to share it:

People want a King because it allows them not to feel inadequate about their own lives. If someone else is born on the top rung, you don't have to feel bad about not getting there. Everyone likes to say "I could run things better than the President" but by saying that, you beg the question "So why aren't you President, then?" If there's a King, you can answer that question without feeling like an under-achiever.

Be they shepherds or figureheads, mankind has lived with various types of monarchy for millennia. It's a part of who we are. As things stand now, Democracies and Republics are the best possible recourse against the abuses of tyranny...but how long can we really hold out against such ingrained historical patterns before we decide to assume another hierarchical pyramid as our governing structure?

Let's just hope the next one sets something other than bloodline or ruthlessness as the criterion for living on the pinnacle.

There is one other thing that causes the idea of Monarchy to appeal to us: "If one arbitrary person is going to be in charge...why not me?" It's the selfish version of societal construction ala tabula rasa.

I certainly wouldn't mind giving "Unconstrained World Ruler" a shot.

...would you?
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In other news, FTL has suffered another blow as the speed of gravity has been pretty firmly nailed down to a snail-paced 'c'. Good thing David Weber ret-conned his FTL recon drones before this got out or the obsolescent technobabble could have gotten embarrassing.

...and just as my nose and throat start to settle down a bit, my entire upper tendon system flares up in revolt. All ten fingers and one wrist are giving me a really good idea what old-age and arthritis are going to be like. Not. Fun. At. All. I love the way it flares and wanes. Yesterday: a few wrist twinges, today: totally awful. So much for the curative powers of bed-rest. I even took a nap today!

Here's hoping for tomorrow, when I tackle the new scanner at the old homestead.

Whine, whine whine...