Easier to get some greats in there when there's a new president every 4/8 years. Kings tend to rule for longer.

And considering social relations were fixed during feudal times they hardly did anything at all. Every 5th king would have some battle where the armies never really fought each other full on because to do so would risk having your army routed and more or less gone after that point. Just make sure none of your lords get too big for their britches by making them fight amongst themselves for land constantly while the peasants are busy growing you food for some kickbacks. If you really had to go to a big dog war, you just borrow money from merchants you will never pay back and pay soldiers to go around posturing for you.

Our line is presidents is more powerful and dynamic precisely because social relations are unfixed and they are picked somewhat on merit rather than magical blood allowing them to arbitrate the intrinsic natural law of the universe, which the Earth is at the center of.

ssssoooo why do politics and presidents matter in general...?? I'm no genious or expert on either of the subjects, but they both just seem kinda, you know meaningless in my eyes, or i cojuld be completely wrong and just full of shit

Politics is the art if distributing power in any given society or collective body outside of the interpersonal zone. In case you didn't know. And I'm not sure what is more important than power.

knowledge, because with knowledge you realize that nobody really NEEDS power, we just crave it because we are frickle, maybe??

"There goes my people, I must follow them for I am there leader"

Keen insight

What is considered knowledge is fundamentally an issue of power. In a world where truth is relative, power is what determines what is true. Even all science and other areas of human mental activity (art, literary criticism, social sciences) reflect a particular set of values, norms, behaviors, etc, that are all dictated by power within society and the zeitgeist of the day....this is called a paradigm, and paradigms change with the development of power and politics. Not that politics control that, it is just part of it and where a lot of the conversation plays out.

This post was edited by Skinned on Feb 14 2015 12:22pm

ooohh, that gave me chills a lil when you said "power what determines what is true" gave me bloody goosebumps man :)! Like when that happens, means its the truth in my reality, or i'm full of shit who knows.... ahhh, so that would also explain why we are so declined in the arts these days, philosophy, and different norms of thinking because its out of the power balance, people are afraid of the norm, and they don't want us thinking for ourselves and realizing "hey, shit is REALLY jacked up and everything i've been taught my whole life or i think is real is just a kindergarten story"

I always liked this bit from A Song of Ice and Fire concerning power.

It isn't out of any grand conspiracy....it is because music, art, philosophy, and other important forms of mental activity aren't considered as important as the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math disciplines, and people want to spend focus more on that than anything else. This goes into the cultural values, norm, behaviors of the day, which value profit at the expense of humanity....our ethics of mild hedonism and being yourself and being happy is rooted in the consumerist and material culture, no matter how we paint it as individuals....and we are just doing it.

The sociological price of this is that now art programs, music programs, sports, access to literature books, etc, are restricted in the lower half of our public schools which leads to a positive feedback loop into complete nihilism and dejection in the part of society that cannot afford to have access to art, music, sports, literature, and because of this positive feedback loop, no male role models, no economic hope, nothing but tasting the crumbs of the trickledown while people above you on the social ladder blame you for your poverty of philosophy and culture. Meanwhile the arts, music, literature, philosophy, culture are reserved for those who can send their kids to private schools who know the value of a well-rounded liberal arts programs along with the value of creativity and confidence, because they are the managing class, while the lower end of socialization, as described before, is designed structurally not to be creative or confident. Every now and again exceptional individuals come about despite the sociological pressures against him or her, but the average person just languishes.

But there is no teleological goal in mind for why we do what we do...it is something that is just way out of our control I think. I mean I literally can't help but think, interact, and comprehend symbols except the way I do, and communication by definition is an exchange of symbols.

I'm getting pretty deep into my personal philosophy at this point, it is pre-work for an essay to apply for a grad school fellowship Kind of mentally exercising here before I do some real writing.



That is great!

This post was edited by Skinned on Feb 14 2015 12:44pm