#142 - The Dictator's Handbook by Swampside Chats
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We go on yet another forced march, this time we learn the rules of the game from "The Dictator's Handbook," by Bruce Bueno De Mesquita and Alastair Smith.

Great discussion about a bleak book that's basically the PUA guide to politics, it seems, with an outlook that the hosts have (extremely qualified) respect for.

  • aramettigo [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    which is why ezri mentioned anarchist sympathies from reading it

    Yeah, remember them saying that, which is very interesting. planning to listen to the episode again before starting on the book.

    I guess I'm thinking about the episode in the context of all these new technologies of group control, so effective at preventing any non-approved organizing, and wondering if these technologies would stop any disintegration from below in ways that weren't possible before.

    The systemization of politics, as outlined in the book and kind of admired on the episode, would not be a good development imo in ossified liberal democracies with constitutions written in the early 20th century.

      • aramettigo [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah, I'm open to that being the case.

        But why were the hosts on the pod making such a big deal about the book then? was kind to surprised to see it came out in 2011, translated to chinese in 2014. I'm really gonna have to read it lol.

        • comi [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I got the sense it was heavily mathed out, which is always a weakness of nerds, lol:) I suspect it showed that there is game theory equilibrium of such system (which can one easily observe in usa, but whatevs)

          • aramettigo [none/use name]
            ·
            3 years ago

            heavily mathed out, which is always a weakness of nerds

            :michael-laugh: true that. I wonder if the book was controversial when it came out.