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Re: (TFT) first Saturday in May?
" The other way of destroying envy is, when either violence or a natural death carries off those of your rivals who, on seeing you acquire such reputation and greatness, cannot patiently bear your being more distinguished than themselves.
If men of this kind live in a corrupt city (read country today), where education has not been able to infuse any spirit of good into their minds, it is impossible that they should be restrained by any chance, but they would be willing rather to see their country ruined than not to attain their purpose, or not to satisfy their perverse natures.
To overcome such envy, there is no other remedy but the death of those who harbor it.
And, when fortune is so propitious to a man of "virtue (Figure seeking Experience Points)" as to deliver him from such rivals by their natural death, he becomes glorious without violence, and may then display his "virtue" to its full extent without hindrance and without offence to anybody.
But, when he has not such good fortune, he must strive nevertheless by all possible means to overcome this difficulty, and relieve himself of such rivals BEFORE attempting any enterprise. "
People freak out about Machiavellianism.
IMO mainly because it works.
But "should" it work? They cry.
Foster in '41's "Masters of Political Thought" wrote of "The Prince"
He speaks about how technical information in a book can be "reverse engineered", sometimes for immoral purposes.
He then goes on to say;
" It is conceivable that a political handbook might be merely technical in this sense; and that it might merely lay down the rules by which power could be most readily acquired and maintained, leaving it to another kind of knowledge to determine on what occasions it was allowable, or in accordance with virtue, to apply these rules.
Machiavelli states that virtue lies in man striving towards the ends of success, power and fame.
I call these happiness, fortune and fame.
When the man says "virtue" he means the sum of those qualities, whatever they may be, which tend to make someone successful, powerful and famous.
This is Figures going after experience points, and there's more than one way to get them.
I know of one emperor of Rome what fought in the coliseum, and a hand full of warrior kings that came up hard but in general it's not fair to base the experience system off of combat. (or a system of trade off of english measure)
So players get to choose their experience ratios, and experience points they receive are allotted accordingly.
Societies, and on a scale step smaller governments, are largely defined by the experience ratios they are designed to serve.
These ratios are the foundation for the "happiness" formula, which determines revolution, moral, Figure "will" checks and saving rolls for things like disease.
The more people who see or hear about the experience the more Fame.
The coliseum, The battle of Badon Hill, televised event, world-wide televised event, The Black Plague, etc.
The more you get paid (in whatever unit of power expressed in the culture) the more Fortune.
Obvious.
Happiness is a kind of catch all.
I use it for the less base motivations.
This one is easier to define by example than anything else owing to its catch-all nature.
I'll talk about happiness more later, but for now let's just say that when people are motivated by more "noble" motives than the base or selfish motives, they become harder to control as a population and your working with "the Discourses", but when the bulk of the population is working toward base or selfish motivations it requires a prince-like tyrant to assert control.
Super-villains like the dark lord are purely selfish, but still seek after fame, fortune and happiness; the antithesis of super-hero.
The more servile the population, and the more generations they have been in this condition, the harder they are to "free" so that they might possess the virtue to rule themselves, and the more "free" a people, the harder they are to control in large groups.
So is Machiavelli correct, and empire is the sign of a healthy state, or was Plato correct in asserting that it is a sign of corruption?
I think those questions are for the GM to decide for themselves.
See also - 'The Sources of Soviet Conduct' by X (George F. Kennan, July 1947) for questions as to how a great Republic should deal with a mighty Princedom.
Of course, I don't fully agree...
On the walking gaits of Hymenopterans. (see Chitin for mass combat)
It seems the vast majority of insects follow the same gate pattern.
The front pair of legs only reach forward, the middle pair act as fulcrums, only raising and lowering, and the rear pair push.
Since no more than two legs are ever lifted at one time, and the leg directly behind a raised leg is always held down in support (the opposite foreleg in the case of hind-legs) the gate has a wavelike motion.
Think centipedes.
Here's some cruising flight speeds for a few insects;
Housefly - 5 mph
Butterfly, Wasp - 12 mph
Hornet, Honey Bee - 13 mph
Horse Fly, Dragonfly, Hawkmoth - 25 mph
Mosquitoes are so small and light that they set up harmonic vibrations in the air that they match inside their thorax thereby riding air pressure somewhat and alleviating some of the work required via muscles and nerves.
Thus the "buzz" or "humm".
Here are some jumping distances;
Springtail - 8"
Flea Beetle - 10"
Leafhopper, Tree Hopper, Flea - 12"
1/2 grown Grasshopper - 20"
Field Cricket - 24"
Half a hex - 26"
Grasshopper - 30"
Did you know that aphids give birth live until the same "internal light clock" that sets off plant cycles tells the last generation of the autumn to lay eggs?
*.^.#. Indeed!
Okay, this is from Jack Finney 'I'm Scared' 1951... ish.
" Haven't you noticed on the part of nearly everyone you know, a growing rebellion of the PRESENT?
And an increasing longing for the past?
I have.
Never before in all my long life have I heard so many people wish that they lived "at the turn of the century," or "when life was simpler," or "worth living," or "when you could bring children into the world and count on the future," or simply "in the good old days."
People didn't talk that way when I was young!
The present was a glorious time!
But they talk that way now."
Duh!
"The present was a glorious time!"
Dummy!
Lol! GREAT story!
Let me point out the modern penchant for escapism has left "the good old days" FAR behind!
Think "the good old future days" which is basically religious.
Now...
< clears throat >
A hum, hum, hum...
< sings >
Jojo was a man WHO said he was a lover
But he knew it wouldn't last.
Jojo left his home in Tucson, AZ. For some California grass.
(Humbolt!)
Get BACK!
Get BACK!
Get back to where you once belong...
Get back me droogies!
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