[SIZE=+1]Continuous Democracy - The Best Plausible Timeline?
This timeline might be the best plausible one - or, at least, it's probably as good as you can get.
Most of you have been aiming for nasty TLs. This tries to be the TL with the best tech and general prosperity. It's not just about ballot boxes, of course, but what Greeks called thalassocracy, which has become bound up with democratic culture both in classical and modern times.
Thalassocracy's a Greek word that referred to the Cretan style of culture and empire and government. Thalassa was the Greek word for water, so it's rule by water - except it wasn't just rule, but also trade. Crete emphasized big fleets and trade and settlement and ethnic cleansing over big armies and imperial conquest. It was also entrepreneurial, liberal, and egalitarian. And, the combination of enterprise, smallish land armies, and lots of trade money meant high tech. Does that sound atall familiar?
But, don't worry - all boring, peaceful, fluffy bunny it ain't. Thalassocracies are hardly short on war and controversy and fun - today we're engaged in three countries at once. And, of course, there'll be conversion by the sword / catapult / gun / missile / whatever.
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This timeline might be the best plausible one - or, at least, it's probably as good as you can get.
Most of you have been aiming for nasty TLs. This tries to be the TL with the best tech and general prosperity. It's not just about ballot boxes, of course, but what Greeks called thalassocracy, which has become bound up with democratic culture both in classical and modern times.
Thalassocracy's a Greek word that referred to the Cretan style of culture and empire and government. Thalassa was the Greek word for water, so it's rule by water - except it wasn't just rule, but also trade. Crete emphasized big fleets and trade and settlement and ethnic cleansing over big armies and imperial conquest. It was also entrepreneurial, liberal, and egalitarian. And, the combination of enterprise, smallish land armies, and lots of trade money meant high tech. Does that sound atall familiar?
But, don't worry - all boring, peaceful, fluffy bunny it ain't. Thalassocracies are hardly short on war and controversy and fun - today we're engaged in three countries at once. And, of course, there'll be conversion by the sword / catapult / gun / missile / whatever.
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