fandomhigh | Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 14, Thursday, 4-14

"Welcome back," Alex said, sipping her tea as the students filed into the room. "This is our last regular class together. Next week is your final." Which she had yet to write, and would need to consider carefully.

"So, for this week, we'll take it easy. Part of this week will be review -- if there's anything you'd like to cover again, we can. Beyond that, though, there's just one discussion topic, but it's a little big, so hopefully there's room for us to dive in."

Another sip of tea. "Last week, we talked about finding yourself a successor. This week, we're going to talk about the other half of turning over your empire. Let's say this is the last day of your reign, and you are such an incredible ruler that you managed to accomplish every last thing your heart desired. This also means you're superhuman, and possibly magic, but this is just a thought experiment, and we're going somewhere with this."

"The point is: what does this perfect empire of yours look like? You solved all the problems you wanted to address. Society is running in exactly the way you would have hoped. What exactly does that look like, for you? When they build monuments to you, what kind of accomplishments will they list? What is it that you did for this country?"

She shrugged. "I just want to see how it is that you're defining success."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You accomplished everything you could have wanted. Hooray! What does that look like, anyway? Be as specific or vague as you like.

"There would be peace," Faramir said, there was no doubt or pause to come up with this and for an instant he wondered about the weekend where he had felt an inkling that perhaps this was not impossible. "Our enemies would be vanquished and treaties would be made with those open to a more peaceful solution. Gondor would be safe for citizens and travellers alike. The foodstores would be filled to the brim so none would need worry for winter."

He hesitated before continuing, he would blame the admission on his wariness after a long day's travel though he would not deny the truth of his words. "And on a rather more self-centred note, I would hope that my people would think of me kindly and remember me as a fair ruler."

"If you accomplished peace, I hardly imagine they'd do anything else," Alex said gently. "Especially as you've taken care to provide food to the needy, for winter."

Edited 2011-04-15 02:47 (UTC)

"It is fair," Katniss said quietly. With it being the second-to-last class, she not only was realizing that her time in Fandom (and alive) was limited, but that she owed Professor Cabot an invitation and explanation. "People are not commodities. The economy is even. The rich are hard-fought wealthy, not just treated well because of where they live or who they were born, necessarily. No one is hungry. Justice is actually justice, not whim."

She shrugged. "It would be a place where no one could complain about the government legitimately."

"So the rich have earned their fortunes, and not by exploiting those in their employ," she summarized. "Fair living conditions, and everyone has the same rights as everyone else."

Lots of societies preached that. Few followed through.

"It wouldn't be an empire," Tahiri said with a wry smile, although the vague notion kept stirring in the back of her mind: maybe empire wasn't always necessarily that bad. "And I wouldn't want monuments built to me. But it would be . . . protected, if not always peaceful, and a place where different cultures feel that they can learn to get along. I have absolutely no illusions that I could accomplish that kind of harmony in my lifetime, but I'd like to know I've laid the groundwork for it."

"It's okay to be unrealistic," Alex said. "This is about what you'd like, regardless of how difficult it might be, asking the world to comply. And you would ask different people to at least tolerate one another's existences, regardless of whether they get along?"

"That's the least I can ask," Tahiri answered. "I was raised by a tribe that gave the human colonists on my planet good reason to fear them, and through some, um, complicated circumstances I'm a part of another pretty scary culture. If there was ever anything I would use my status to do, I'd use myself as an example of that."

Alex was nodding her agreement. "Put a human face on something people consider to be 'other,'" she said. "It's easiest to combat prejudice when you present people with someone they can't dehumanize. Someone they know and understand."

"I'd like to think they can't," Tahiri replied with a flash of humor. "I guess you could call it a textbook case of leading by example."

Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 14, Thursday, 4-14

Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14

Re: Discussion - Your Vision of Success - NAT14