Pragmatic Villainy: Difference between revisions

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== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', Cornelia tries to fight the drug trade because the drugs hurt productivity among the conquered Japanese.

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* One of the wackiest versions of this, This Troper read (he forgets where) was a Japanese Army officer in [[World War II]] who learned of one of those stupid "The Jews are going to [[Take Over the World]]" [[Conspiracy Theories]], and believed every word of it. And befriended the Jews on the grounds of, [[Fridge Brilliance|"Those must be great guys to cozy up to."]]

* This is common among [[The Empire|empires]] who will often protect the peasants in their domain from robbers-because someone has to pay taxes after all.

**One Roman emperor regularly chided his Procurators,"~~Sheer~~ the sheep, don't slaughter them", meaning if you charge to much in taxes your subjects will be destitute next year and there will be no more revenue. Not all Emperors had that much good sense and at many times in Roman history the government treated the people like a strangler vine treats a tree.

** One Roman emperor regularly chided his Procurators, "Shear the sheep, don't slaughter them", meaning if you charge too much in taxes your subjects will be destitute next year and there will be no more revenue. Not all Emperors had that much good sense and at many times in Roman history the government treated the people like a strangler vine treats a tree.

***This is a specific example of what political scientists call "stationary banditry". It recurs time and again and cynics say it is the origin of government (indeed it is almost certainly one of them) as we know it. A plunderer will realize that it is more profitable to park himself on a rich territory and take protection fees than to go raiding. The disadvantage of having to prove oneself in warfare is made up for by the regular income and dispensing with the inconveniences of nomadic life. After a generation or two the stationary bandit will often partially [[Going Native|go native]] and simply be an [[Blue Blood|aristocrat]] assuming success. Stationary bandits come from a variety of sources. The more "popular" (if that is the word) warlords of the Chinese Civil War would qualify. As would the House of Sforza which were once [[Private Military Contractors|Condottieri]] that arranged a coup in an Italian city-state.

*** This is a specific example of what political scientists call "stationary banditry". It recurs time and again and cynics say it is the origin of government (indeed it is almost certainly one of them) as we know it. A plunderer will realize that it is more profitable to park himself on a rich territory and take protection fees than to go raiding. The disadvantage of having to prove oneself in warfare is made up for by the regular income and dispensing with the inconveniences of nomadic life. After a generation or two the stationary bandit will often partially [[Going Native|go native]] and simply be an [[Blue Blood|aristocrat]] assuming success. Stationary bandits come from a variety of sources. The more "popular" (if that is the word) warlords of the Chinese Civil War would qualify, as would the House of Sforza which were once [[Private Military Contractors|Condottieri]] that arranged a coup in an Italian city-state.

* Religious freedom (as opposed to governmental indifference) did not at first begin as a high-minded belief in the dignity of man or his right to make his own mistakes or whatever. It began when the rulers of Europe realized that while having theological debates in a Seminary was fun for those with a bent that way, doing it with musket balls was getting nowhere. And that everyone wanted to get on with important things like making money and amassing power. While it is true there were Philosophers who thought force was the wrong way to go about convincing people those were comparatively rare for a long time. It was only after force was found useless that it became a popular ideal.

* Abolitionism was a zig-zag. It was popular as early as the eighteenth century, and traces of it are found in the Christian Middle Ages: some [[Your Mileage May Vary|might argue]] that there were hints of it even before. But it did not come to fruition until the Commercial and Industrial revolutions made voluntary labor more profitable anyway. On the other hand a lot of abolitionists had no gain and considerable sacrifice for it. And of course slavery is not really going away so long as someone is tempted to get free labor and strong enough to carry out his desire. It has been pushed out of respectable society into being the mark of criminality or barbarism at least. But it has to be admitted that a large part of the reason is that it is less practical economically.