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[Neruz]

Nah, most of the historians i've read generally accept that the bombs were unneccessary; Japan never expected to win the war. It's possible the bombs prevented the start of an invasion of the mainland, but unlikely, as records indicate the Japanese were already preparing to surrender when the bombs were dropped.

The bombs were definitely going to be dropped on someone though; we needed to do it at least once just to see what would happen. Doesn't matter how terrible something is; somone will do it at least once, even if only to see if it's really as bad as it's supposed to be.


So in that respect; at least we did it when the bombs were small, as opposed to holding on for a decade or two until they were bigger.

[Jackrabbit]

Nobody liked Stalin that much. Stalin wasn't a 'rule through niceness' person, he was a 'rule through the fact that the entire country is fucking terrified of me' person.

Worked too.

I'm willing to bet the whole place would have collapsed after a while. Internal strife, uprisings, him dying in secret and nobody being able to do anything. That sort of thing.

[Neruz]

Nobody liked Stalin that much. Stalin wasn't a 'rule through niceness' person, he was a 'rule through the fact that the entire country is fucking terrified of me' person.

Worked too.

I'm willing to bet the whole place would have collapsed after a while. Internal strife, uprisings, him dying in secret and nobody being able to do anything. That sort of thing.

Nothing lasts forever.

[Jackrabbit]

Least of all dictator shi -

Roman Empire.

Right.

[Neruz]

Hah, you think the Roman Empire is a good example of a lasting dictatorship? Try Egypt; that dictatorship went on for so long it turned into a monarchy.

Or how about England? Same deal; started as a dictatorship, turned into a monarchy, a monarchy which still exists today (although substantially less important than it was.)



Nothing wrong with dictatorships as a form of leadership; the problem is making sure you get the right dictator.

[Jackrabbit]

People.

Sometimes they make me sad.

[Tack]

Oh?

Why, Jackrabbit?

[Neruz]

People are annoying.

A person is often fine, it's people that suck.

[Jackrabbit]

Yes. What I meant was 'The People' sometimes make me sad.

So much is done in their name and I've never met any of them.

[Tack]

What? You mean rumors spread by "People"?

[Jackrabbit]

No, I was just channeling Terry Pratchett.

It's complicated. Go read Night Watch.

[Neruz]

What? You mean rumors spread by "People"?

A singular person is usually an intelligent and rational being (there are exceptions.)

Gather a bunch of persons however, and they become "The People" a mindless rabid mass of degenerate idiots bent on chaotic destruction and anarchic dissolution.


Persons are fine, People suck. People are why Dubya.



Worst part is, if you ever go trying to find this "The People", all you'll find are a bunch of Persons; they only turn into The People when you're not looking.

[Tack]

Read it, quoted it, eaten it for breakfast.

You know this, Jackrabbit.

How about you quote me the passage, or part of, so that it can magically pop into my brain, as long term memory so often manages to do?

[Jackrabbit]

Uh. Hold on a second.

Thank you internet!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There were plotters, there was no doubt about it.  Some had been ordinary people who’d had enough.  Some were young people with no money who objected to the fact that the world was run by old people who were rich.  Some were in it to get girls.  And some had been idiots as mad as Swing, with a view of the world just as rigid and unreal, who were on the side of what they called “The People.”  Vimes had spent his life on the streets and had met decent men, and fools, and people who’d steal a penny from a blind beggar, and people who performed silent miracles or desperate crimes every day behind the grubby windows of little houses, but he’d never met The People.

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case.  They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient.  The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and even distrustful of cleverness.  And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem:  it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up.

[Tack]

Ahhh...

I know it.

Something else to make you sad?