Снег. Keeps the dream alive.

Oh, good old japanese animation. Some love it, some adore it, some hate it and some don't care. Japanese cartoons sometimes have interesting moralities. They often highlight things that are often dropped by the European and American producers. This time I stumbled across a show called Legends of Galactic Heroes. It is a very old show that started airing in 1988. Nevertheless it is definitely worth watching. The story revolves around the space war between two intergalactic nations and people who aren't into sci-fi might start smirking at this point: "Ha, yet again, some crazy bullshit from those Japanese. Why don't they make something decent for once?" What you people forget is that a fantastic setting gives producers more freedom in what they do because they aren't being bound by audience's understanding of the real world. And in Legends of Galactic Heroes this definitely pays off. Imagine this, 2 nations: one democratic republic, another a monarchy similar to late 19th century Prussia/Germany. And yet the storyline twists such that a democratic nation falls into disarray as it slowly dotes and decays because of internal affairs, corruptions and economical crisis while a clever dictator on the other side of the galaxy passes clever laws, gives more rights to his subjects and maintains stability and economic growth in the country.

And then people start to sway and wonder: "Is democracy really that good? Maybe we need a dictator like in that country far-far away who will do things right!" Oh, the irony. I think I heard this somewhere in a country U as it looks at what's happening in a country R.

The things get better as a wise man responds: "It really doesn't matter whether you have dictatorship or democracy. Both of these states are equivalent if running properly. But I tell you this, their leader is a genius. He is a man who appears once in hundreds of centuries. But will his children and children of his children follow his path? Will they be as skillful and intelligent? Will they share his ideals and goals? Unlikely. What will happen to the nation if he disappears?"

Spot on. Because in a democratic society the country is managed by people with different goals and ideals, the likelihood of it declining to complete chaos is far lower than in an autocratic government where so much pressure is on a single individual who controls everything.

This is not War and Peace by Tolstoi. This is far from being a political bible but Legends of Galactic Heroes is really worth a watch if you are into this sort of thing.