I majored in Russian history in college, with an emphasis on the Soviet period, so...sort of!
This one is more drawing on elite college admissions processes in America, though.
There's always later for the ACLU. I suspect this fundraiser (maybe not the How to Be a Better Dictator phase of it, but the fics-for-donations bit) will be ongoing as long as Trump is president.
Psh, you are so honest, you could have just emailed me your receipt for a month and been all "Here! Totally donated this 100% because of you. Now write me a fic!" You will never make it as a dictator, you just don't have the mendacity.
Really though, I think I could probably stretch to writing you a thing on general principles. :)
It's cheaper than creating a heavily armed secret police, too!
It's always cheaper when you can get people to police each other. Not to mention themselves.
What dictator can argue with that kind of cost-effectiveness?
I have to say, from your analysis, President Snow does not sound like he knows how to budget. If he's paying for schools, is he at least getting decent indoctrination out of them?
Not as far as I can see. President Snow ought to read 1984 and learn some important lessons about the value of rewriting history. His schools should put way less emphasis on the failed rebellion 75 years ago - why mention it at all, honestly? that just reminds people that rebellion is possible - and construct an alternative history of Panem that will make children yearn to serve their glorious nation.
We don't really get a good picture of the schools, do we? I mean, we know they exist and they teach a version of the Dark Days. Probably another wasted propaganda opportunity for the Snow regime.
Your course in better dictatoring continues to be of the highest quality.
The schools are definitely a wasted opportunity. Apparently they actually teach some stuff about the revolution, and honestly, I think President Snow and his predecessors would have been much smarter to officially ignore it as soon as possible and let it die out of living memory. What's the point of being a dictator if you don't even try to rewrite history?
Revolution? What revolution? No one has ever revolted against the authority of the Capitol, and if they did, it was a sad little thing that didn't get very far, and definitely has nothing to do with the Hunger Games.
I know we've discussed this before and I don't have anything new to add, but HONESTLY, SNOW. Linking the Hunger Games directly to a moldy old rebellion that didn't even succeed, and explicitly framing them as punishment (who needs to punish rebels who aren't even alive anymore and were just a lot of mad cranks and whiners to begin with?) just gives a whole load of significance to both the Games AND the historical rebellion that is NOT HELPFUL to the Snow regime.
You don't even have to rewrite history, per se. You just have to apply a heavy coat of gloss. Though probably ignoring the old rebels' existence entirely is a better bet than including them in a wacky 200-word "Colorful Panem!" textbook sidebar in between confusingly-worded pages about the development of the district system and the heroic volunteer effort to repair the railroads following a cataclysmic setback that was no one's fault in particular
( ... )
The cataclysmic setback was clearly an aftershock of the disasters that destroyed the world in the first place. Clearly!
Or! Or! Maybe the textbooks could blame it all on District 13 saboteurs, who snuck into Panem and caused CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION until the rulers of Panem were forced to take action to protect their people. That way, it's all blamed on an outside source - no homegrown rebels at all! - but also preserves the story of District 13's destruction. The warning is less obvious in this presentation, but it should still be clear to potential rebels.
I've been thinking about posting it to AO3, but maybe I ought to wait till it stops growing. It would be awkward to put it up there and then read a bit farther and realize that I really ought to insert a chapter about something-or-other.
Oh, yes! I've been wanting to link people to this, and an AO3 post would be much simpler than a LJ tag. There are plenty of WIPs on AO3, so that shouldn't stop you (and with this kind of format I don't think adding pieces non-chronologically is that important), but if you'd rather wait, that works too.
This is really good. Feels very informed by the poli sci lit on authoritarian regimes. But like, real good. I'd love to see this in a companion novel or something of Hunger Games.
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This one is more drawing on elite college admissions processes in America, though.
There's always later for the ACLU. I suspect this fundraiser (maybe not the How to Be a Better Dictator phase of it, but the fics-for-donations bit) will be ongoing as long as Trump is president.
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(I'm at $100/mo tho...)
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Really though, I think I could probably stretch to writing you a thing on general principles. :)
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Nice.
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It's always cheaper when you can get people to police each other. Not to mention themselves.
What dictator can argue with that kind of cost-effectiveness?
I have to say, from your analysis, President Snow does not sound like he knows how to budget. If he's paying for schools, is he at least getting decent indoctrination out of them?
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Your course in better dictatoring continues to be of the highest quality.
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Revolution? What revolution? No one has ever revolted against the authority of the Capitol, and if they did, it was a sad little thing that didn't get very far, and definitely has nothing to do with the Hunger Games.
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You don't even have to rewrite history, per se. You just have to apply a heavy coat of gloss. Though probably ignoring the old rebels' existence entirely is a better bet than including them in a wacky 200-word "Colorful Panem!" textbook sidebar in between confusingly-worded pages about the development of the district system and the heroic volunteer effort to repair the railroads following a cataclysmic setback that was no one's fault in particular ( ... )
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Or! Or! Maybe the textbooks could blame it all on District 13 saboteurs, who snuck into Panem and caused CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION until the rulers of Panem were forced to take action to protect their people. That way, it's all blamed on an outside source - no homegrown rebels at all! - but also preserves the story of District 13's destruction. The warning is less obvious in this presentation, but it should still be clear to potential rebels.
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