Ruling – Page 7 – Everything

Ruling

In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?

Jan 172022
 

Punishment deters less the few who suffer it than the many who fear that they might.

Jan 122022
 

Every great racket begins as a business, becomes a movement, and eventually degenerates into a cause.

Jan 062022
 

The ideal subject population must be able to absorb the regime’s propaganda as well as willing to believe it — credulous, but literate.

Dec 272021
 

There is a limit to the number of people who can be sanely ruled under a single polity, a Dunbar’s Number for governance. It is probably greater than 150 and certainly less than 300 million.

Oct 262021
 

A philosopher once noted that jaywalking could be prevented by executing offenders. This may not be a point in favor of executions for jaywalking; but it is certainly a point in favor of executions.