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Groups > rec.arts.sf.written > #442075
| From | Don Kuenz <garbage@crcomp.net> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | rec.arts.sf.written |
| Subject | Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes |
| Date | 2016-06-14 16:19 +0000 |
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <20160614a@crcomp.net> (permalink) |
| References | <njn232$ipo$1@dont-email.me> |
Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> wrote:
> One common theme in the apocalypse books that I have been reading is
> how quickly things go bad. I guess that is an expansion of the
> old saying, "any society is three meals away from anarchy". I am
> wondering how many bad actors are being kept in place by the rule
> of law. And prisons.
There is a computer game named Hammurabi. [1] In the game the player is
a king. The king is constantly confronted by hungry masses. The game's
focus on food takes all of the fun out of being a king, for me. YMMV.
Bread and circuses was how the Roman poet Juvenal
characterized the imperial leadership's way of
placating the masses. [2]
... In the middle of March 1793, ... The cost of bread leaped
from its normal price of 2-1/2 to 3 sous per pound to 5 sous
per pound, and the price of meat tripled. The laboring poor
and the beggars of Paris and other cities had long ago
proved to themselves that they could do without meat during
long periods and so the rise of veal from 6 sous a pound to
18 sous was not a calamity, but bread at 5 sous a pound meant
near starvation. ... To meet other expenses each person in
the average family of four had to reduce his daily intake of
bread to 4 ounces. He could also have one bowl of meatless
soup a day, but nothing else.
People in Paris responding to the situation by looting
and recurring invasions of the Convention Hall. ...
As prices shot upward (in the closing days of December
1795 bread sold at 80 livres [1600 sous] per pound), the
elderly and persons living on fixed pensions gradually sold
off all their belongings and waited for death. With increasing
frequency the old and the retired sought release by drowning
in the Seine. This was the Paris of the common people in 1795.
But there was another side - the Paris of the newly rich
bourgeoisie for whom the wild inflation had created fortunes
far greater than those accumulated by former kings and nobles.
These were the manufacturers of munitions, the contractors who
supplied, at ever-escalating prices, every item that could be
consumed, destroyed, or worn by an army; the new bankers, the
foreign exchange sharpers who played the money market on
margin; the successful stock riggers and the hundreds of
speculators in every commodity needed so desperately by a
disadvantaged population. [3]
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather
than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual
myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged
also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to
others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the
poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich."
- John Kenneth Galbraith
Note.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamurabi
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circus
3. http://preview.tinyurl.com/hcnrekz
--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU
A Follower of Goddard
And a rising Astrogator
Were agreed that superthermics
Was a spatial hot pertater.
They reached a Super-Nova
On a bicycle named Beta
And I'd tell you more about it
But they fused with all the data.
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_Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-13 14:38 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-13 19:09 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Robert Bannister <robban@clubtelco.com> - 2016-06-14 10:49 +0800
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-14 14:14 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2016-06-13 20:06 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-06-14 03:27 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-14 14:14 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-14 14:16 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Don Kuenz <garbage@crcomp.net> - 2016-06-14 16:19 +0000
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2016-06-14 14:16 -0400
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Mart van de Wege <mvdwege@gmail.com> - 2016-06-14 08:40 +0200
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes David Harmon <source@netcom.com> - 2016-06-14 16:56 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2016-06-14 17:22 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2016-06-14 20:03 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> - 2016-06-14 20:46 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-06-15 02:20 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes David Harmon <source@netcom.com> - 2016-06-15 23:52 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2016-06-14 20:26 -0400
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-14 20:50 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-06-14 21:03 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-14 21:06 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Robert Bannister <robban@clubtelco.com> - 2016-06-15 11:55 +0800
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2016-06-15 06:11 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-15 11:59 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> - 2016-06-18 17:47 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> - 2016-06-18 19:05 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-18 21:31 -0600
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-06-18 23:06 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2016-06-19 04:12 -0400
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2016-06-18 22:37 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-19 09:42 -0600
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2016-06-19 09:12 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> - 2016-06-19 07:08 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-20 18:36 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-20 18:40 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> - 2016-06-20 17:42 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-06-20 19:34 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> - 2016-06-20 21:17 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-21 14:26 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2016-06-21 15:31 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-06-20 23:19 -0600
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Don Kuenz <garbage@crcomp.net> - 2016-06-27 15:17 +0000
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-06-28 01:24 -0600
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-06-20 23:20 -0600
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes -dsr- <dsr-usenet@randomstring.org> - 2016-06-22 12:50 -0400
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-22 14:20 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-22 13:38 -0600
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Mart van de Wege <mvdwege@gmail.com> - 2016-06-19 22:29 +0200
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-15 14:11 -0500
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-06-16 02:15 -0700
Re: _Once Upon an Apocalypse: Book 1 - The Journey Home (Volume 1)_ by Jeff Motes Lynn McGuire <lmc@winsim.com> - 2016-06-16 13:21 -0500
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