What Have The Romans... - Monty Python's Life of Brian

> Where do you think the things people today spend all their time politicking on would rank? I realize "politicking" is often used in a derogatory sense, and perhaps that's how you mean it here, but there is a whole lot of plain-old-politics that takes place on a regular basis which has good overlap with those issues you hinted at. Things like: planning and building infrastructure, making sure people do not go hungry or thirsty and that they have places to live, having common laws, etc. A list kind of like "what have the Romans ever done for us?"[1]. Certainly, politics/politicking can also have an amplifying effect on the bad stuff too, as you mention. I suppose my main issue with what you say is the bit starting: "politics invariably turns into a viral team sport ..." I don't see it as invariable. The pendulum has been swinging that direction recently, and I don't like it either, but I don't see it as a one-way road to doom. Though I respect if you do feel that way, of course! ---- Aside: Your comment led me to read a bit about history, and I found on Wikipedia[2]: "According to a 2021 study, Franz Ferdinand's absence was key to the breakdown of diplomacy and escalation into war, as Ferdinand had been the most powerful and effective proponent for peace in Vienna." Like you, I had the "an otherwise irrelevant Archduke" idea in my head, but I guess now I'm not so sure. So, thanks for the indirect new info (: [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

The breadth and depth of Roman bureaucracy and government always amazes me. The contrast between the corruption / at times cut throat politics at the top / end of the republic, and at the same time serious efforts to maintain a reasonable and functional government structure that spans massive areas and many cultures and even attempts to reduce corruption at times is very interesting. For many people at one point or another conquered, the question of "what have the Romans done for us" must have been a real topic of discussion. [VIDEO]

It's a Monty Python reference[0], not a power grab. The article lists out all the great things core has done. [0] [VIDEO]

Different people, different time, different ethics. Also none of the things mentioned finance themselves. [VIDEO]

> the answer was: "HTML5 gave us the <strong> tag to replace <b>" i bet the question was: "what has HTML5 done for us?" [VIDEO]

Do you have the same concerns and vocalize them when you get gifts on christmas, also? He payed the price to write this book (and maybe got salary for his work), so you can have it for free. Sorry, but your comment seems awfully misguided. (assuming you celebrate christmas) EDIT: instead of dismissing it directly, how does actually reading some parts of it first sound like? Ah, and dismissing an important argument with "excluding open source" is not a good way to actually find truth. Because if excluding this argument means changing the question and scrambling the context too much, the answer to this modified questions does not reflect reality that much: [VIDEO]

What Have The Romans ever done for us? [VIDEO] Colonisation was wholly inevitable . Japan, as per your example, had a big freak out when Perry forced them open - realised that "dutch studies" were a matter of national security - and modernised at absolute breakneck pace as they happened to have had all the social structures already in place to accomplish this. And no sooner had they closed the gap that they turned around and became ruthless colonisers themselves. Such was the game for all of human history until the 20th century.

Other than a demonstration that the new experimental launch vehicle worked? Sure, shame nobody took him up on the offer a free launch, but I kinda understand why people didn’t want to risk its maiden flight. (Something something Romans: [VIDEO] ).