Is democracy worth it? (Fallout New Vegas)
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- Democracy is often seen as a corrupt institution; non-representative, vested interests prying apart public utilities, and crippled by career politicians.
These things may be true but what's also true is that it's the only system that guarantees legal #equality between citizens and ensures they have rights to free speech and free association. Without democracy, tyranny is a real possibility.
The New California Republic in Fallout New Vegas is a complicated bear. It aims to represent millions of people but it isn't doing a good job of it. There are many mouths to feed, security concerns, not enough energy alternatives and an overtaxed economy. Its army is in near constant conflict with other governments like the fascist Caesar's Legion and the xenophobic Brotherhood of Steel.
Still, it's one of the best hopes for the world. They share a common vision of a united country and while they may be mired in corruption and bureaucracy, there are thousands of good people working within to make their government a place for all people to come together.
#Democracy is the only way this will work for them. They vote for leaders that share their values and protect their freedoms. They share a tolerance for alternate ways of life and have a future that they are all working towards together. This vision will outlast all of them - the democracy is more important than its leaders.
Will the NCR fail? It constantly does. Will it collapse? Eventually, perhaps. But it won't be from a tyrannical grab of power and the oppression of their own people. Democracy may not protect them from bad decisions or disaster, but it will protect them from the worst of themselves. And democracies last longer than any other form of government.
As we'll discuss next time, fascism does the opposite. Effective, responsive, homogenous, and self-defeating for its monstrous behaviour.
Honestly, one of the NCR soldiers put it best. I cant remember her name, but I remember the quote.
“Towns and villages in the wasteland are mostly just trying to survive. The NCR gives them a shot at something greater.”
In the other endings, the future of the Mojave is hung on a cross or in a cold, steel grave after being hit with a 9mm, courtesy of RobCo.
This is an excellent observation. It's easy to dunk on the NCR for being corrupt and ineffective - but it is actually trying to do the job. And a chance at making things better for everyone is better than none at all.
“When tyranny become law, rebellion becomes duty.”
Great vid, man!
Thanks very much :D
Found your channel on fnv Reddit. Will be waiting for the next one. Amazing job
Thanks! Next one is up. Should have "libertarianism" soon too
@@gonzophilosophy 👍🏻 nice
something i just noticed, isnt all the disadvantages of democracy just as or even more so prevalent in fascism? I mean corruption is possible under dictatorship. inequality is worse under fascism. and even in a dictatorship the majority can still harass minorities.
You are 100% correct. Fascism comes built in with all the downsides of democracy with none of the safeguards. When both systems are fully corrupt, they're both equally bad but it is much harder to subvert a democracy than a fascist state.
We're much better of being democratic - by the time it becomes tyranny, it won't be democracy anymore. Fascism is bad for everyone from the start.
amazing job. dont stop
Thanks very much! Fascism in fallout new vegas is coming out very soon! :D
Fallout New Vegas is one of the worst contexts to defend democracy (via NCR that is)
0) FNV is the worst context to give this because it is the type of game where it presents the flaws of systems as they are, and what remains is that it is up to the player's aesthetic biases to choose which faction to pick. In addition to this, players can well see in the game how a position they wouldn't symphatize with is perfectly reasonable, insofar as they can properly empathize with the roleplaying element. If anything, a game like FNV *enhances* a person's abstraction capabilities and *fortifies* the fact that picking names like democracy or tyranny is the worst thing you can do to describe these political systems.
1) just because democracy says "government by public election" doesn't mean that it is a) fair b) transparent and c) non-exploitable (Kimball has been the president of the NCR for *quite* a while)
2) you can imagine instances where a categorical monarchy might be fairer than democracy (A democracy with fraudulent elections vs a monarchy with well developed institutions and freedom of speech)
3) It is evident that the word democracy doesn't mean a thing unless you fill it with a myriad of concepts that supplement it. Thus the weight of the determination set by the word democracy becomes less important.
In FNV, many "local" areas are playing a game of cat and mouse between themselves,NCR, Legion etc. I believe the best choices one makes in FNV (and in life) are the ones that elevate the individuals into a better intellectual level such that i) they can better see through the ideology that determines the truths in their life, leading to ii) recognizing problems in a way that is not encumbered by prejudice. There are plenty of good people in all camps, just like there are elements of truth within both camps such that the ideology so skillfully abuses at will to manipulate. Utopia in Fallout New Vegas wouldn't be for one side to absorb the other, declaring supremacy worthy of song (until 2 generations later that is), it would be for these men and women to bring into question what their identities, roles, relatives and rulers require of them, critizise them, and understand the proper conditions of civilisation, survival and society in the post apolcayptia.
You make some really good points about this and I am going to discuss in it the next few videos. Broadly speaking, Caesar's legion is the worst of all choices and the Followers / free (non Mr House) city state New Vegas is one of the best. The challenge though is sustainability - NCR has the best prospects into the long term IF they can be improved. In a lot of ways though, Mr House's low-key dictatorship has a lot of long term benefits too.
To be discussed in the next 3-4 videos :D
Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Really good analysis
Now I try to be unbiased and fair about my own content but I think you might be 100% correct
interesting
Thanks!
I love a good American accent done by a non-american
Just wait until I do my best Harry Truman impression
@@gonzophilosophy can't wait 😂
Hey mate, not bad work here. Fyi, i stopped at around 5 minutes - it irks me a bit that you don't acknowledge all your presented 'democracy disadvantages ' are possible, all the way to worse in other organised systems of government. Maybe you were going to get to it.
On a technical note the sounds levels between bits are way off.
Good work otherwise.
Thanks for your commentary - I agree with a lot of what you've said. I'm trying to produce this particular run of videos much faster so there is a drop in quality in terms of completeness of discussion and sound quality. Even in this video I re-wrote the text a half dozen times and re-did the audio as many too. I'll have to be more mindful of the sound levels for next time if they're that distracting though. Thanks for the constructive feedback :)
I recommend you to read No Treason(Lysander Spooner) and Democracy, the God that failed(Hans-Hermann Hoppe)
Only about 10 percent of the American population lives here in the West
So you're saying I got some of my statistics wrong? :P
@@gonzophilosophy lmao, you were clearly satirical. Some woke kids might get mad tho
Let's hope nobody sees a geographical hot take as a serious piece of business
Yeah. Most of that to my knowledge is due to the government owning most of the land in the west for wildlife conservation, nuke testing, stuff like that.