tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post4812502415030834327..comments2024-01-04T06:27:01.723-06:00Comments on Troll Racials are Overpowered: Down the the Dictator, but not the extensive bureaucracy that maintains civilizationKlepsacovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07915576683657376929noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-67839340924171230292012-07-25T20:45:39.046-05:002012-07-25T20:45:39.046-05:00@Vlad: My thoughts exactly.
@Syl: I was going to ...@Vlad: My thoughts exactly.<br /><br />@Syl: I was going to respond to you with some of what Vlad has already said. We have a modern example of what happens when you just "remove the evil" from a country and have no valid plan to support it (America in Iraq).<br /><br />But more interesting is how this real world example ties directly back to what you've discussed here in the problem with good fiction. Our unwillingness to discuss it in the fiction speaks to our unwillingness to discuss it in the real world. "FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! YEAH!" ...no one knows more the price of that than those who suffer through it, and even they may have believed that "removal of evil" would bring about sunshine, chocolate covered rainbows, and gum drop meadows.<br /><br />Very good article. Also I haven't heard of Mistborn trilogy, @Cats. I'll look around for it sometime. I haven't read a good fiction book in quite a long time now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-77168643527089931802012-07-25T16:19:32.668-05:002012-07-25T16:19:32.668-05:00@Syl: I think dictator has a negative meaning atta...@Syl: I think dictator has a negative meaning attached because absolute power is so dangerous. Even a well-intentioned dictator can screw up, and with no counter-balance, screw up really big.<br /><br />@Feliz: It helped that we somehow managed to separate the concepts of "Nazi believer" and "Nazi Party member", since as we also saw in Iraq, the party of the dictator tends to run everything, so simply removing them destroys all institutions, even the necessary ones.<br /><br />@CATS: I'll check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.<br /><br />@vlad: It's worth considering that the mercenaries probably got their foodhold with little interference. Getting in a second time around would be more difficult. Stockholders might also have some objections to the sudden increase in cost, both for a second invasion and now knowing how much more native resistance there will be. Who knows, they might even insist on a less violent approach, focusing on the smaller deposits that can be gotten peacefully.<br /><br />@Tesh: Bingo. :)<br /><br />I got some of the idea from playing the TIE Fighter games years back, where you play as an Imperiel pilot, but rather than committing war crimes, you're tasked with rooting out pirates, terrorists, and traitors.<br /><br />I suspect the hero who thinks of the aftermath will do a lot more bribing than blasting. Buy off who you can, kill the true believers and loyalists, avoid all conflict with the guys who are just doing their jobs.<br /><br />@Hyperian: You've reminded me of how the Empire even planned to give the capitol to the Republic, because with the disease they'd released the management of it would bankrupt them or even cause a counter-revolution.Klepsacovichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07915576683657376929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-12591149439822236422012-07-25T12:00:48.030-05:002012-07-25T12:00:48.030-05:00Good use of the Star Wars Extended Universe. The E...Good use of the Star Wars Extended Universe. The Empire still ruled from Coruscant for 10 years after the Fall of the Emperor (until he comes back in clones) and it took thousands of lives, dozens of battles and again 10 years to force the Empire into a retreat. Defiantly no/ easy happy task. Good example of their is no happy ending in war.... most end with explosions and lots and lots of bloodHyperiannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-73350461232472537312012-07-25T11:50:05.324-05:002012-07-25T11:50:05.324-05:00Hrm... that "smuggler" sounds like Boost...Hrm... that "smuggler" sounds like Booster Terrik, or something spelled vaguely like that, probably arguing with Corran Horn. I love that they dug into the whole smuggling side of the Star Wars universe in the early EU novels. It dug a bit into the whole "does the Empire do good somewhere" angle, and that's fascinating stuff.<br /><br />I have a series of novels planned, and while taking down a corrupt empire is in the mix, the bulk of what happens is all about what happens when that power structure collapses. I do find it fascinating, digging into implications of in-the-moment heroism. Specifically, I'm looking at what someone does when he's really thinking through not just the defeat of the empire, but what comes next.<br /><br />It's far more interesting than rehashing the JRPG-flavored "plucky band of emo teens save the world and ignore the fallout".Teshhttp://tishtoshtesh.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-79820913886326353632012-07-25T10:23:16.421-05:002012-07-25T10:23:16.421-05:00"dictator falls, everyone lives happily ever ..."dictator falls, everyone lives happily ever after." Sounds like US foreign policy. <br /><br />Made me laugh in Avatar when Colonel Quaritch and his 'evil' forces were overthrown, and that was the end of the bad guys. DREAM ON!!! They would have come back with an army 10 times bigger and wiped out the natives, you can be sure of that. Profits before morals, every time.*vlad*noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-78041797057747667142012-07-25T08:14:55.790-05:002012-07-25T08:14:55.790-05:00Great article.
If you haven´t read it yet (and si...Great article.<br /><br />If you haven´t read it yet (and since you haven´t mentioned it in this post I guess you haven´t) I suggest that you should read the Mistborn trilogy, you will love it.CATSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-68761087746065431072012-07-25T07:31:01.919-05:002012-07-25T07:31:01.919-05:00The need and the downside of leaving the bureaucra...The need and the downside of leaving the bureaucracy in place can be studied by looking at post war Germany. Many Nazis were asked by the allies to remain in place in their mid level administrative positions. Many were ousted in the years following, especially if they had committed crimes. Others remained in place until retirement age. I am born a good time after the war, but sometimes a visit of government offices left me wondering if a particular official was still a follower of the Nazi's ways.<br /><br />Move forward 40 years after the Berlin Wall came down and you'll get an idea what happens the other way around. Many of the socialist bureaucrats were ousted and replaced by West Germans taking over the East German administration. They were able to import a functioning government, but were taken for a ride when it came to things specific to the East.Felizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02416762105560095609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5462978744516866472.post-33359989236856608872012-07-25T06:56:11.378-05:002012-07-25T06:56:11.378-05:00The purely negative meaning attached to 'dicta...The purely negative meaning attached to 'dictator' is understandable, since history has known some particularly ruthless and cruel examples - however dictatorship in itself isn't inherently bad. it's actually one way to organize and manage a social body (just like democracy is one model). as you rightly pointed out, dictatorships aren't therefore all 'evil'; they can potentially bring stability for example and not every dictatorship revolves around one absolute tyrant, either. think of Marocco - that country is doing pretty well with a dictator. if we consider social bodies in a wider sense, we have a lot of dictatorships (caretaker-ships?) in society and also in nature (I would dare say a family or pack can be a small example). not every dictator is Saddam Hussein.<br /><br />If you go and tear down a dictatorship because it's destructive and oppressive, you better have an alternative in mind, a backup plan; if you don't, you potentially toss an entire country into a dark abyss of chaos and civil war. as you said too, this doesn't mean the dictatorship was better, but one must always respect the fact that even the worst dictatorships created a form of stability and order some countries rely on. remove that without closely supporting and educating people and you might find yourself in the situation where you are more hated than loved for your freedom act.<br /><br />the side-effects are also quite intriguing...I think human history has shown that a common enemy out there can do wonders for inner stability and purpose, not that I need to tell you that. ;) so maybe as scary as it sounds, those who claim humanity needs wars and tyrants have a point - although I'd still like to think if every last person on earth reached a certain stage of errr...'enlightenment', we could overcome such primitive notions. but that is ofc utopia. movies like Equilibrium don't show that next stage because we clearly have no concrete idea or example of how that looks like.Sylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04473554645340972749noreply@blogger.com