Interesting Journal Entry

[Thunderfall]

Check out this interesting conversation between a father and two sons about the Democracy government in Civilization II. The journal entry was written by J. Bradford DeLong, professor of Economics at Berkeley.

 

[Grey Fox]

Interesting text. I don't like the comments after though...

 

[insurgent]

lol
That's why we're Civilization fanatics, you know?

Didn't bother reading the comments...

 

[Richard III]

Well!

J Bradford DeLong is one of the bright lights of the liberal economic world (and that's high praise, considering my feelings on the liberal economic world...). I often read his site for stuff on macroeconomics and other subjects; his take on economic history is fairly direct, uncluttered, ideologically open and realistic compared to many other authors in the subject. And his stuff on information economics is - in my view - wrong but well above the standard for that area.

I expected his kid to have more insight. And to play civ3.

Pity.

R.III

 

[Eugenevdebs]

I don't want to get political, but I have little restraint: Iraq is not representative of its people and in fact deprives its citizens of life, liberty, and probably happiness (death and slavery often cause unhappiness) regularly. In this Lockean view, we have to regard Iraq as a failed state and not the result of a successful social contract.

The articulate response to this seems to be "Aaargh! boom! crash!", but the practical question that his kid brought up still remains: sure, there is no moral question of preemptive war in a computer game. But there is also no question of whether real people will be destroyed by real nuclear weapons.

I will keep my mouth shut so that this doesn't become political any further.

 

[cavemanf16]

In response to eugenevdebs...

We need to remember however that Most of those Middle Eastern people's regard their kings and dictators as Allah's chosen ruler over them. That's my basic understanding of how Islam works in a general sense. So for us to try and install a democratic or republic process of governement is folly.

I do however believe it is VERY important for us to protect ourselves and our allies such as Israel. With nut jobs like Saddam and Arafat in power who continually are promoting killing Jews and hating Americans just to hate those who aren't like them, we do however have a moral obligation to get such leaders out of their position of power.

 

[Håkon]

Here's another text. This time his twelve-year-old son says that Fundamentalism is a good government for the 21st Century (in CivII, that is). It's only nine lines, though.

 

[playshogi]

Originally posted by cavemanf16
In response to eugenevdebs...

We need to remember however that Most of those Middle Eastern people's regard their kings and dictators as Allah's chosen ruler over them.

So, it is the USA's divine right to help Allah choose their new leaders

 

[Agamemnus]

Originally Posted By George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, in the New York Times

The terrible illumination of these events has also brought new clarity to America's role in the world. In great tragedy, we have also seen great opportunities. We must have the wisdom and courage to seize these opportunities.

America's greatest opportunity is to create a balance of world power that favors human freedom. We will use our position of unparalleled strength and influence to build an atmosphere of international order and openness in which progress and liberty can flourish in many nations. A peaceful world of growing freedom serves American long-term interests, reflects enduring American ideals and unites America's allies. We defend this peace by opposing and preventing violence by terrorists and outlaw regimes. We preserve this peace by building good relations among the world's great powers and we extend this peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent.