Dinh AaronMk

When will I do the thing?

Taking bets on when the thing will be done

Objective fact and sympathy/empathy--let us discuss difficult subjects with both!

<Snipped quote by Lurking Shadow>

The problem with the Socrates quote is... well, lets pull it out of its context. Socrates in this particular situation isn't necessarily the philosopher himself, but a character in Plato's Republic, where Plato's concept of an ideal society is developed. It's based on the idea that you can create a meritocratic natural order, where an upper level of "Philosopher Kings" can be nurtured to rule.

The problem is that you cannot make a meritocratic natural order. Plato's Republic amounted to saying "It would be great if we always made worthy people into Kings, so we should do that", which is nice sounding, but it's quite Utopian in reality to expect an aristocracy to work that way. Whatever problems democracy has regarding education, dictatorship also has. If the history of Kings and Dictators was a history of meritocracy, sure, we could stick with it. But in reality that history is a history of Carlos IIs and Neros.

In a democracy, the failures can at least be rectified by the reaction of the populous. With Monarchy you have to hope that the next role of the dice is a good one, whereas in a democracy the population itself can intervene through... democracy. And it has worked out that way. Buchanan, the 15th President of the US, is considered the most incompetent in American history. He is directly followed by Abraham Lincoln, who is often rated our best President. Democracy is a good system because it is reactive like that.

@Vilageidiotx

If you're going to analyze history through the lens of basic Hegelian Dialectics, then democracy has the benefit the action-reaction-synthesis of history is carried out relatively faster as opposed to having to raise an army to wage a bloody year, two, or three year war against the present ruler to affect the change you want to see when said ruler is unresponsive to the needs of the populace and society in general. That is provided you're not willing to wait for the kings equally insulated son or next of kin is any better.

The danger in democracy I feel is increasing insulation and isolation of the leaders we elect, and not the system itself. Democracy kind of has that benefit of the resources spread over a larger base so no group is any stronger than the other and it can act with stability without a succession war kicking up every other succession period.

Children of the Greatfather

Ayyy, I hope this is good herr googs

Hider

Realm Name:
Apossimos, the province of

Realm Master:
Kephale Josiario Presach

Master's Biography:
Josario Presach was born into the powerful Presach family in the province of Apossimos, a relatively powerful province in the late Thalasian Empire. For generations the Presach family has derived wealth and power from the wide range of property and prestige it has managed to acquire and hold within the Thalasian imperial structure in the passed two-hundred years. Holding what the family often lauds as “uncountable acreages” or privately held farm-land and an army of serfs, it is really the second stronger family in the province.

Never the less, Josario was born into a life of extreme wealth as the third of ten siblings, his eldest brother passed away from illness at the age of thirteen and his next oldest sibling was his sister Calavinia, so the honor of the next in line to inheriting the family estate passed to him.

According to imperial rights he – along with all of the imperial aristocracy – was pressed into military service to the Empire, and he with the rest of the young nobility and aristocracy of the realm joined the coveted and stratified imperial cavalry. His military career was marked with considerable danger and bravery as he was sent to the southern frontier to swat back at the barbarian cavalry that for the passed eighty years has been raiding and biting at the heels of the Empire by raiding its slavery and ivory caravans from the far-south.

In one recorded and praised circumstance Josario and his unit was ambushed in the red cliffed deserts by a band of dark-skinned mercenaries. The enemy riders, number over three times the imperial force's size assailed the imperial ranks from their head and their flank. When the dust settled it was only Josario who survived holding his hand to his chest, an enemy sword had struck half his left hand from his body and he rode to his unit's destination with a bandage around his wounded hand and a bouquet of barbarian heads held in the other.

On part of his injury and to reward Josario's abilities he was moved to a purely administrative post at the distant outpost he was headed to on the insistence of its fort commander. At the age of only twenty-six he became that officer's sub leftenant, charged with managing the fort's staff and duties of the soldiery on behalf of his commanding officer.

When he turned thirty he heard word from home that his father Barachius Presarch had fallen ill. Having served his time in service to the imperial crown he was given leave and he arrived home in time to see his ailing father on his death bed. A day later he passed and Josario took the reigns of administrating his family holdings.

At the age of thirty-one he married his wife Carolina, who was nineteen at the time. They had three sons: Hakial, Petroclius, and Jussiah.

At forty-nine the old Kephale of the province died, and being a head of a recognized major family in the province was invited to the Conclave of Ministers for the province and elected as the new magistrate for the province.

Realm History:
The province of Apossimos is one of the oldest provinces of the Thalasan Empire, but not belonging to the original Thalasan kingdom is not subject to the imperial law that only Thalasans shall live in the core lands of the Empire. Apossimos also has the distinction has having the richest farm-land in the central Empire and its long rocky coast is broken by numerous shallow rivers flowing from the interior mountains that mark the provinces southern border; which has been a bounty for the provinces early history as it shielded the empire from the warlike barbarians to the far south. It is however notable that for all this the Thalasan people have had a long historical stigma with the region, even if they continually show their loyalty and appreciation for the Empire. The issue is a combination of history and Imperial law.

During the formative stages of the early empire over a millennium ago the province of Apossimos was the center for the rival kingdom of Apossima. The relationship between the kingdom then and the kingdom of the Thalasans was so tense that it was said that when the Thalasans conquered the territory the court magi of the ruling king cast a curse that a great plague will sweep Thalasa should even one of the king's subjects manage to cross the Rumer River forming the border between the Empire. As response the Thalasans conducted a wide-spread campaign of terror and butchery that swept the kingdom killing every man, woman, and child they could find in the conquered province. The ancient Apossima people who had lived there for so long were either killed in such volume the rivers ran red with blood for years as the soil bled the blood it had taken in and the people of the defeated kingdom fled in droves west-ward into mysterious distant lands. Making the situation tougher, the kingdom passed laws forbidding Apossimans from crossing the river Rumer which was expanded in subsequent years to include all non-Thalasans in a strict policy of internal segregation.

Thus barred from the wealth of the Purple Lands of the Thalasan kingdom future imperial subjects seeking bountiful bottom land and rich timbered forests slowly migrated to Apossimos to establish new lives. This process of gradual resettlement rejuvenated the emptied territory which had been slowly settled by ethnic Thalasans. This made for a rowdy, almost frontier culture in the interior of the Empire that reconstructed the Apossiman culture anew.

At a time corresponding with the Thalasan invasion of the northern lands across the sea a curious cult made its appearance in Apossimos. Proclaiming a One God enveloped in the Cloak of Truth, the cult masters who proclaimed their faith made the claim that their god was the father of all life and denounced the superiority of the Sun and Moon cults of the Thalasan people.

Originally disparaged as displaced Born from the north, the curious cult and its native followers migrated throughout the Empire until settling in the internally frontier Apossimos. But their reality is that they were not northerners, but far westerners who themselves were seeking accommodation from and safety from their own homeland where they had been lead out by a Walking King who lead them out of a land ravaged by drought, plague, and invasion far to the west and south.

With many of the imperial provinces at the time housing populations far more established and the Purple Lands off limits to all foreigners the displaced peoples arrived by sea to Apossimos, hop-scotching the heartland to seek settlement.

Hesitantly recognizing the new people, the imperial magistrate of the province at the time – the Kephale – permitted the refugees to settle in his province and offered them land in the mountain interior to live. The Walking King was permitted to keep his honorary title, but had to pledge subservience to the administrative office.

The Walking King as a title was purely honorary, and the real rank was Hakohen Ghadhoul, or the High Priest. The High Priest who had lead his people is often simply referred to as Haron.

For the next several centuries the monotheistic cult and its people lived peacefully in the interior. Further refugees who had heard of the resettlement made their way eastward to Apossimos and integrated themselves within the stripped provincial community. Despite their new homes in the rocky mountain foothills the population thrived, having one advantage most the rest of the population of the province lacked: literacy. As a core tenant of their faith the practitioners had to learn to read to write and they offered this to anyone fore free; and many who came to them to learn the skills and advantages of even basic literacy came to convert in the end, having had the cloak of wisdom wrapped around them and filled with its warmth.

The name given to these people has changed over the centuries, called neutrally as the Shepards, Sephards, or the Apollimites they were else derogatorily derided as the Ghouls or the Wordy Men. But despite the jealousy and hate levee'd against them their population soon grew to prominence and some four-hundred years after the Thalasan failures in the Born lands had infiltrated and assumed office in provincial office.

The Shepards, becoming a full-blown aristocratic class came to enjoy the privileges of and becoming party to the duties and rights of the title. The families who got into political power began using their power and influence to acquire land and ships which they used for trade and commercial activity. The province soon came to a golden age unseen since the exterminate of its original inhabitants.

Realm Seat:
Pollus Apossimos

Realm Boundaries/Location:
Master Googer, I require an outside map if I'm going to fill this role!

Children of the Greatfather

Googer booger, can I do some Non Born in the mystical non-Born lands somewhere in the south.

kkthnx lub u

2020, a reminder

I can't wait until all the old women who still write checks finally die off.

tfw the Michigan Secretary of State still expects me to write checks to pay for my license plate renewals.

It's literally the only reason I still have to remember how to write checks.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

<Snipped quote by mdk>

Jeb!

@Vilageidiotx

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@mdk You aren't morally obligated to vote for either of them.

If you vote for Clinton you have to accept her moral obligations. Perhaps the continuation of failing foreign policy in Syria, probably her failure to enforce tax reforms ect.

If you vote for Trump you have to accept his moral obligations. Splitting up families with illegal immigrants, worsening an already substandard healthcare situation or whatever else he does.

The point is whichever side you pick, you ARE complicit and you shouldn't be shielded from that (morally) by an attitude of 'thats just his politics'.

In a perfect world there would be better candidates, but in a perfect world I wouldn't need to worry overmuch about morality.

@Penny

In a perfect world we would've googled Bookchin and made Democracy more than a decision making process.

All About Sneks

Snake?
Snake!

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

<Snipped quote by mdk>

Ah, shooter is from the St Louis area. No surprise then, that's how they shake hands on the other side of the state.

@Vilageidiotx

The happening... Begins?