Rant about Nations and War

Show recommendation for those into the whole “Middle Ages” stuff. Last week I binged The Spanish Princess which I expected to completely suck because I didn’t like the White Princess at all and I kind of thought I knew everything there was to know about Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII- but this show surprised me by being almost as good as The White Queen- which has my favorites- okay my one favorite Richard III- that horrible crook backed usuper and likely murderer of the princes in the Tower (although I’ve decided I think it was the Tudors)- it’s Shakespeares portrayal of this two year usuper king that makes me not like Shakespeare so much.
Feel like he’s a propagandist for the Tudors- but who wasn’t at the time?
All this Middle Age stuff- I’ve been reading books too- makes me really really grateful that we do not have an insane tyrant closed up in a castle beyond our reach that we can do nothing about while he destroys our lands and overtaxes the people….😂 right??
“A land of laws and not of men”? That’s us, isn’t it? Honestly I have a hard time defending this creed sometimes to my children. How proud they should be that we overthrew a monarchy and we almost the first ones to do it.
That the creators of our government foresaw the problems of all the power being concentrated into one group and thus divided the centers of power. Thank God for that! 🤦‍♀️At least they also knew that we would be our own destruction. Because that is human nature. We are not like the peaceful bonobos, we are warlike as chimps.
Anthropology taught me that. At the U of MN. They taught me we are screwed. Glad someone told me early.
I digress. Anyways, compared to the Middle East- with the notable exception of Israel- we are definitely better off.
And as the Art of War says “the best way to win a war is not to have one”. There is no practical advice in that book unless you are literally planning an invasion of a country or something. I thought I could use it as day to day sort of advice. Nope. It’s really mostly about war.