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You don't want your representatives taking to fisticuffs over name-calling...
Well, no. But then again, maybe.
Aztec society was very structured and hierarchical. They made war continually but did so in a stylised form: that of the "Flower War", where only a few of the nobility would actually fight. Trained up for the purpose and in pairs sworn to die together, only members of the leading classes would do battle, after trading insults and accompanied by musical instruments playing. Battle would be short and the weaker side would surrender and be taken prisoner, to be sacrificed later to the gods.
This allowed the majority of society to continue in peace, with minimal damage to the social fabric. Sounds a bit like Jeux Sans Frontières directed by Sam Raimi. Bush and Saddam, for example, could have squared up, with a select retinue drawn from the privileged classes, and settled their argument quickly, without the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
It is also argued that this system allowed something analogous to the neverending War With Eurasia or an ongoing Wag The Dog scenario. That suggests it could sit comfortably in our contemporary international politics.
Of course, Berlusconi's rudeness seemed to serve no useful purpose and it seems unlikely that he would be capable of altruistic behaviour to promote the common weal. |
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