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.
Bruce Schneier pretty much summed up the problem with today’s media and what happens when people are into Doomscrolling.
https://www.ted.com/talks/bruce_schneier_the_security_mirage
I’ve heard doomscrolling also referred to as ‘doom porn.’ It has the same, furtive, must hide and look feel to a lot of it.
It’s why it is so important to wait at least 24 hours before starting to riot or chop heads when the media reports “XYZ happened, caused by PDQ” (usually referring to ‘some poor do-gooding person of color’ being waxed by ‘some badthink Nazi racist Cop.’)
Yeah, sounds bad what the media is saying about this incident… Until the truth comes out within 24 hours that what the media and what the mob are reporting happened only happened in a Disneyish interpretation of the facts (Disney: The characters are the same, but the story has been changed to whatever we say it is – aka “The Little Mermaid” (who in the original story, dies alone, pining for her prince, who left her for some local royalty.))
Doom Porn, Doom Scrolling. Both epic phrases for the same concept.