Melancton

Yeah, my name has troube when the rues are appied in either this cub or the No T Cub.

Heroes ike you and ightning ad, or viains ike Stit Man and ex uthor may sound a bit siy, but this cub apparenty made me Mean. That is reay ame, since I am not a viain. Oh We.

Got it!

*runs into the now-empty offices to look for the file*

My pleasure, Forbin. We are just chatting here, having a good time.

I think the striking thing is not that the Founders and the subsequent Nation never did anything wrong, it is that they did so much RIGHT. Especially so by comparison.

I will just leave it at that, lest I go too far afield. I simply feel that while the United States is not perfect, Nobody Does It Better.

That area of conflict had plenty of acts on both sides that are nothing to be proud of. But let us be clear that the context for what you are talking about is open war, not the rules for a civil government in time of peace. What is proper in war takes us pretty far afield from the topic at hand. I will simply note that the expression "War is Hell" has been diluted--- war is every horror imaginable to the greatest measure, like Hell itself, which is why it should be avoided whenever possible.

It was offered to George Washington to become King, and he refused, which is more pertinent to the topic at hand. He also declined to serve more than two terms as President, though he likely could have served as long as he had desired. He was not perfect, nor did he do everything right, but he did so much so well that he has also been called "the Indispensible Man," without whom our democratic republic would have foundered.

To the point, Washington led the nation through a time of mortal perils and did not establish himself as a dictator, although he could have. In Praetoria, Marcus Cole did become such a dictator.

Fortunately for all of us, Cole is a fictitious character and Washington was not.

A thoughtful post, Dementor.

I think it leaves us in the territory of the quote that "Democracy is the worst form of government possible, except for all the others." The United States has a series of checks and balances designed to keep power from getting too concentrated while still allowing legitimate governmental function such as you describe. The Automobile of State will swerve from side to side upon occasion but pretty much gets us down the road well, or as much as is possible given the condition of humans. Eventually, we tend to get things right, but it has been rough sledding in some patches.

Obviously we cannot cover every situation or detail, and I don't want to delve into Spoilers as such, but I think the canary in the mine for the Cole regime, as it were, is the treatment of dissent. Just reading the inscription for the statue of "Mother" Tilman and of Cole himself, one gets the feeling that there will be a problem if one dissents, much as expressed in this dialogue between El Zorro (in his secret identity) and a political activist:

Charlotte Taylor Wilson: You don't really believe the people are happy!

Don Diego: All I know is the soldiers are quite happy shooting the people who say the people are not happy.

There is more to it than that, obviously, but your points are well taken.

...thus re-enacting the Warner Brothers scene in which Sylvester the Cat's parachute lands him gently within the walls of the Dog Pound. Sufferin' Succotash!

Did hilarity likewise ensue for you?

I would just add this note. The notion that "Not every choice can be divided into Black and White" does not prove the notion that "No choice can be divided into Black and White."

Liberty is an unalienable right endowed by the Creator. This Truth is self-evident.

Evil is evil, regardless of intent. Motive as justification in the desire to help will only take you so far. Cole's beliefs, as you have described them, do not justify his actions. Taking away an unalienable right is simply evil, not just an interesting philosophy, and it will get a revolution started on you.

You can name any number of dictators that, it could be argued, earnestly and sincerely felt they were doing good by savagely suppressing Liberty. Indeed, many earnestly felt that the wholesale execution of certain "sub-humans" was the best chance for happiness and success for society as a whole. Further, by pronouncing them to be "non-persons" and thus "not human," they tried to get around those pesky self-evident Truths.

Fortunately for us, this is just a game. For a lot of folks, however, altruistic dictators parked them in early graves for the "betterment of society." We call those well-intentioned tyrants evil.

Well met, good sir.

I am reminded of the July 4th scene in "The Great Escape" in which the 3 Americans are celebrating with vodka they have distilled themselves. The English all join in. The English CO takes a sip of the homemade spirits and asks the party's hosts, "So... how are you all getting along over there now?" It was a charming moment.

To invoke John Cleese, the relationship got better.

As for myself, I have a strong affinity for "the Special Relationship." On 9/11, the British band that usually played "God Save the Queen" near the US Embassy played the Star-Spangled Banner, which was greatly appreciated.

Good on the Brits.

I think the moat was what caused the Resistance to form. It was the final straw!

I am struck by how much this sounds like the arguments AGAINST American independence: The "wild Indians running amok," chaos, famine and pestilence--- all because we left the sheltering arms of the beneficent King.

I have no doubt that like college professors who alter the scenario should you successfully answer, the Devs will ultimately force us to blow up busloads of nuns and orphan children as the only option at some point so that "moral ambiguity" reigns supreme. That will be too bad.

At least this is just a game.

A couple of pertinent quotes then:

"Unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast and that the once-happy plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"

George Washington in a letter to a friend

"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event which is in the hands of God."

George Washington, Constitutional Convention, 1787

SS, you can add them to your Chat window or others. Right click on the tab, select Edit and look for the entry line that appears to have nothing written on it, highlight that line and add it to the window using Add. At least that way you will have a record you refer to.

Now, WHY the name appears as a complete blank, I dunno, but it works when you add " " to the window.