They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Enough, already, with getting involved with other people’s wars in Third World hellholes.
If the Russians want to finish bankrupting themselves by trying to prop up their puppet Assad, why on Earth would we want to get in their way? Wasn’t it propping up their various pet despots all around the Third World that did for the Soviet regime?
Well at least we are keeping the crony class happy.
“We’ve always been at war with Eurasia!” is just cliché at this point, isn’t it?
The parallels with Rome are amazing.
First republic became empire. Ceasers mistress ripped Cicero’s tongue from his severed head…
Then, the currency debasement, the entitlement schemes and the destruction of society and economy proceeded.
Until it all collapsed and took over 1000 years to recover.
Overstretch,
Incidentally, my brother was approached a few weeks back to see if he could house refugees, and how many he could accommodate.
I don’t recall any mention of how long for.