Exactly. The neat thing is, the same rules work down to a simple corporation. The CEO has to please the directors board, which have to please the investors, which need to please the consumers.

Yeah. In large companies, you rule through ruthlessness, not skill.

Anyone with vision and managerial skill will bail when faced with the backstabbing realities of power politics. It's why Woz and Jobs parted company.

Some CEOs do a complete reshuffle of the board of directors, precisely for the same reason as a new dictator starts killing family members and friends.

Another thing at corporate levels, they make investors meetings at very expensive places, so only the richest ones can attend.

Worst part is that big companies will form an unholy amalgam with government. The game of power will blend together, where now you'll see CEOs influencing government to their own ends, and government influencing business, and neither side giving a billionth of a fuck about anything except their personal enrichment... so can they really be said to be separate at all?

Anyway, the book gets kinda depressing as it breaks down all sorts of shitty despots' behavior, as some kind of inevitable outcome. But at the end it provides some practical approaches at trying to change the system itself, that will then steer the leaders to benefit the population, and not just a few individuals at the top. It suggests things for both corporations, and governments.

You could try pulling on these systems in lateral ways. After all, people with consciences far outnumber CEOs and warlords. There may be something that could be done. Of course, it's part of the game of thrones that you don't let the populace realize they hold the true power if only they could coordinate.

But maybe the internet will change things. It's getting really hard to direct the herd.

I think understanding power politics is a good first step.

I’m reminded of this video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

Yes, that's based on the book.

"Rules for Rulers", something like that, would have been the title of the book, but I think his editor preferred "The Dictator's Handbook".

A lot of criticism is people misinterpreting it as being prescriptive instead of descriptive. As if he was recommending that people act in a certain way.

And some more criticism is for that it would excuse terrible dictators, because "it wasn't their fault they were evil, the system required them to be evil." When in reality, it's that the system in place attracted (and rewarded) evil people.

Did the quadroon leave permanently?

@qatal zanjiun he was never here dipshit

@Deleted User that cant be true, he was hiding under the alias of a bot

That left...

Yes

Because i called him a bitchmade nigga

His emotion module got fried

That was the sargoy himself

Wasnt it

I mean trout is here

Why wouldnt the sargoy be

*kraut

Trout

@Kraut trout and tea

It’s kraut you retard

He now sleeps with the fishes

I think the internet may come up with something.

Cryptocurrencies are a good example of some nerds on the internet deciding there should be a way to wire money without government surveillance.

Nerds decided that they don't like search warrant abuse, and censorship, so they came up with mobile phone encryption that's so insanely secure that it would take until the heat death of the universe to crack it.

Nerds wanted to tear apart the code running on their systems but kept getting harassed by copyright... so they came together, invented copyleft, and completely rewrote all of humanity's most critical software from scratch in a couple decades in a way that turns copyright's power in on itself.

It seems that if the internet wants something, they will come up with some crazy hydra that cannot be killed.

What if they turn their cannons on despots and dictators?

I suspect it will happen. We already see attacks on the Great Firewall of China.

The trout and tea sleeps with the fishes

Captain cuck

Splitcuck

Haha

Yall remember that shit?

Id square with benjamin cause there is a chance he's a real nigga

But just trout would be unfair