fandomhigh | Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 1, Thursday, 1-6

"Welcome to class," she said, flipping her files shut and glancing around the room. "My name is Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot. You can call me Alex, or if you'd rather, Miss Cabot is fine. This class is called Nation Building and the Origin of Government."

"I had a whole detailed explanation for what I'd like to do with this class, what the topic means to me, and how we should think about government. I was going to start today by reading that off to all of you, but I've just changed my mind." She straightened up, walking briskly over to the chalkboard and drawing a squarish shape on it. "Instead, today we're going to dive in with a thought experiment. We'll deal with technicalities later on."

She turned around and tapped her knuckles on the board, in the center of the shape. "Congratulations," she said. "This is a country, and it has just been entrusted -- in its entirety -- to you. It's a decent size, and it even comes with its own population. However, there is absolutely no civic infrastructure. There are businesses, but all of those are privately run. What I'm trying to say is that there is no government whatsoever. No publicly funded services, no mayors or governors, and no organization. Except, of course, for you.

"In other words, you're running the show. You can declare yourself Grand High Emperor for Life, or El Jefe, or whatever strikes your fancy. You can rename the capital city after yourself. You can blow the whole of the country's limited funds on hiring harem girls or cabana boys to dance for you. You can even paint yourself naked and run down the street.

"Before you get carried away, I'd like to point out that doing the above won't leave you much time until someone more sensible assassinates you and does all of the things you were supposed to be doing. So let's take it as a given that you decide to be a responsible leader who gives a damn about your constituents. Which is good, because they're going to need a lot from you." She dusted her hands off. "So. What's first? I'd like you to tell me what your number one priority is, and why."

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Warren nodded.

"A bit of both," he admitted. "Pharmaceuticals are something that the government needs to keep an eye on, really. If Worthington Labs comes out with something that they think is a cure for... something that plagues a growing chunk of the population, we can't just stick in on the market whenever the feel like. There are a lot of regulations for something like that, and for good reason."

But once the government had approved that cure for mutancy... man, they were all over it, weren't they?

"For very good reason," Alex agreed. "The government has a vested interest in knowing that its people are safe, and that medications have been tested before they're released to the general public. I wish I could say government interference was always benevolent, but unfortunately, there's usually politics at work there, too."

"Yeah," Warren replied, his tone going a little wry. "I know. Especially if something's been developed that they feel could give them the upper hand somewhere."

Mutants were so much easier to control when they weren't mutants anymore, for a start. Warren had heard the murmurings about the possibility of using the cure as a weapon against mutants before he'd taken off, so to speak.

There was a laundry list of reasons why he was in no hurry to go back home.

"There's that, too," Alex said, her own expression souring. "Sometimes, the government's interests are in sustaining its own power, and not in helping its people."

"I guess... that kind of depends on the government's definition of 'people,' too."

Warren didn't sound bitter. Honest. This was his 'productive classroom discussion' voice.

"They could be doing something sick and underhanded, but that's totally okay, so long as the majority thinks that they're doing it for the good of... well, the majority, mostly."

His 'productive classroom discussion' tone pretty much screamed that he was not going to be that kind of government, for the purposes of this semester.

Alex nodded. "Sometimes, the government need to listen to the majority," she said. "And sometimes, government needs to protect the minority from the majority."

She hadn't heard much about the mutant struggle, but that wasn't exactly the first group of people that a government had classified as subhuman.

Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 1, Thursday, 1-6

Re: Discussion: Intros, Background, Suggestions - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Intros, Background, Suggestions - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Intros, Background, Suggestions - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Intros, Background, Suggestions - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Intros, Background, Suggestions - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Intros, Background, Suggestions - NAT01