oo4. ♙ accidental video

[escapedpandora]

[The feed starts up black, and then you can see that the black is actually a nose nudging at the camera... and as the nose moves further away from the camera, you can see a puppy, looking happy and licking at the NV with tail wagging. It looks like it's on a desk filled with books, in a brightly lit room

Comments

Voice:

[makes_asteroids]

Because people are fickle, at least in terms of why governments change.

Studying political science or history?

Voice:

[escapedpandora]

[He might sound pretty embarrassed since, wow, how many people managed to see that?]

Both. I couldn't really understand one without the other, I guess. Figured it would be easier to try and tackle both at the same time, but... it's kind of hard to understand.

Re: Voice:

[makes_asteroids]

Yes, they are - and you're correct in that they have to be understood together but I think you may be tackling a bit much at once.

Governments are set up by people to accomplish different things. Some are governments 'of the people' - meaning they serve the interests of the population under them and help provide for them. Others claim to be for the people but in reality merely serve the interests of a few. People, who like to blame others for their actions, change governments through various means when they no longer people the government is serving them - or when a small group wants to seize power. There are many different countries simple because countries tend to be defined by people with similar cultures - those that speak and read the same language or share the same religion generally - because people believe those like themselves are to be trusted and the 'other' is not.

[escapedpandora]

That's...

[He's struggling to figure all of this out.]

I guess that's what people around here mean by xenophobia. I... kinda understand, I guess. But with so many countries... don't they see it as just that many different enemies, then? It just seems counterproductive to want another government when there's already fully-functional ones that would take people in... unless the cultures there hate everyone, I guess. Then I can't imagine that the government there would be nice... or fully-functional.

[makes_asteroids]

Yes, that's what they mean.

There are some cultures that do hate everyone who is 'Other', however.

In some cases, yes there are that many enemies, in others, there are allies.

Basically, there are three 'types' of government, each with their own problems - a monarchy, a democracy, and a dictatorship. A monarchy is run by a ruling class and tends to be the oldest form of government on record. A democracy takes a good deal more work and you often have problems with corruption, but they are generally easier to change. a dictatorship is a country run by one person or a small group of people - these have their own problems, the greatest of which is that you have a lot of power handed to a very small number and most dictators do not actually care about their people. [Says the former dictator who DID care for his.] Some people - and I mean group of people rather than individuals - prefer one style over another.

[escapedpandora]

[Thiiiiis is where you lose him.]

How would you even begin to determine the ruling class for a monarchy, anyway? Or with a dictatorship? I figured voting people into positions of power would work, but that's more a democracy idea... even if those people in positions of power choose the next candidates.

[makes_asteroids]

In most monarchies, the ruling case was those who were best educated and had the most economic power. In Europe the noble class started at those who had the most property, and could basically bully the surrounding people into doing what they said. In return the peasants where protected from those outside who would steal their crops or livestock - or people. Because the noble class believed themselves to be better than the peasants, they married into their own social group and power was passed through marriage, birth, and death.

In a dictatorship either the person or group is voted to power and then they seize all power over government or they simply come in and take over.

[escapedpandora]

That doesn't seem fair. Richest and best educated? That's already a better lot in life than most people in this world's history, why go for more?

...Guess I understand the dictatorship thing, then. [Since that happened once in his world... although it wasn't to take over the government, it was just the topple the previous one.]

[makes_asteroids]

No, it isn't fair. Life isn't fair, sadly. But not all of the noble class where bad people - some did, truly care about their people. They built with them, fought and bled with them, went hungry when they did, and died with them. Others were just in it for themselves and didn't care if they broke their people in the process.

Sometimes a dictatorship works. The country I was living in, Genosha, was one. It was better than what had been in place before and the man who ran things was moving it towards a democracy, although it would have taken a long time before that happened. The country was just annihilated first.

What's the next question?

[escapedpandora]

Next question...? Oh!

[He has so many questions, but he doesn't want to be a bother...]

Can... can the United Nations be a question all by itself? Sorry if I'm just taking up your time, though!

[makes_asteroids]

You aren't taking up time I'm not willing to give.

Yes, the United Nations is a question in and of its self. What do you need to know?

[escapedpandora]

Thanks. This... I guess this is just really hard to understand just from books.

Um, it seems like the closest thing this world has to a world government, or law. But... it doesn't really do anything? I mean, it has laws, but other countries can break them without much consequences, and then it can't even influence other countries to recognize each other?

And all those languages! How do they even get anything done with so many languages?

[makes_asteroids]

It's really hard to understand unless you've lived it really. Been involved in politics for a long period of time.

Well, the UN can issue guidelines and orders and yes, there are consequences to breaking them but the UN is more about peace keeping and humanitarian efforts - when they can be bothered - than actual governing. They are some help but as often when you have a varied group of people in a large group, little is done because people are too busy arguing with each other.

Most languages stem from a family of languages. French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese are all 'Romance languages' and have a heavy base in Latin. But yes, they can and often are a challenge.

[escapedpandora]

So it's not actually a stable form of government?

[He's noting that down, so there might be scribbling noises as he writes.]

But I read... there's more languages than there are countries in this world. That's got to make the UN meetings hard if they have people from all those countries...

[That also brings up the question as to why everyone can understand each other in SP, but he doesn't want to bring that up until he's got a good theory for it.]

[makes_asteroids]

No, it's not. It's a 'peacekeeping body' but it rather fails at that.

[He waits, allowing for note taking.]

There are - many more, and several dialects of each language often times. There are translators there however to help everyone along, and in politics it's often helpful if you know more than one or two.

[escapedpandora]

I guess it's a little like the 'world trade organization'. I can't seem to figure out the significance of that one, either. It seems to just be there to appease people rather than do anything.

...Wow, multi-lingual?

[The word's obviously strange to him. There were only two languages where he was from, one from each world.]