“Does it help you to know that you’ve ruined my day?” “It does, yes.” - Larry Niven

travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Government over large areas needs emotional ties. It also needs stability. Government by 50%-plus-one hasn’t enjoyed particularly stable politics—and it lasts only so long as the 50%-minus-one minority is willing to submit. Is heredity a rational way to choose leaders? It has this in its favor: the leader is known from an early age to be destined to rule, and can be educated to the job. Is that preferable to education based on how to get the job? Are elected officials better at governing, or at winning elections?

I need exercise and solitude. This time of confinement has threatened my sanity!