Commentary: Game of Thrones Shows the Problems of Centralized Power

by Daniel Buck   Recently, Barry Brownstein wrote a piece on how Game of Thrones acts as an advertisement for capitalism. He proposed that the show is representative of a feudalistic Europe: poor and economically stagnant. Were it not for the Enlightenment and the birth of free enterprise, the Western world would have remained as such. Continuing on that theme, there is another defense for capitalism within the show that directly addresses the rise in popularity of centralized theories of government in the West. The show acts almost as a thought experiment for what happens when imperfect human beings vie for control in a power vacuum and subsequently attain their goal. In Game of Thrones, we see that no single individual is fit for the Iron Throne, the seat of absolute power, just as no individual or committee is fit to rule a centralized government in the real world. Each character’s assumption of the throne exposes a unique political problem for centralized power, one that both populism and socialism fail to address. The Problem of Evil Pick almost any character in the show, and the problem of their rule is apparent. Let’s start with the obvious examples. The adolescent Joffrey…

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Commentary: Game of Thrones Might Be the Greatest Advertisement for Capitalism Ever Written

by Barry Brownstein   Consider these numbers. The final season of Game of Thrones cost about $100 million to film. In 1300, the entire medieval English real GDP was only 40 million English pounds. Game of Thrones doesn’t hide the desperate poverty of common people living in a fantasy version of medieval times. We see rulers indifferent to the filth, disease, and starvation endured by the average individual. Citizens are treated as objects put on earth to better the lives of their rulers. Game of Thrones could be the greatest advertisement ever written for capitalism. For the curious, an obvious question is, How did we progress from the poverty of Westeros to modern society? Redistribution of Wealth Game of Thrones poses a few answers to that question. Thrones is mostly about conquest and the redistribution of wealth, not the creation of wealth. Sadly, that is what modern politics has become. Politicians battle over how to legally steal from one group to benefit government and those they favor. The end of grinding poverty didn’t occur when a medieval version of “Bernie Sanders” redistributed wealth from the rich to the poor. What, then, has improved the lives of billions since medieval times?…

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Commentary: What Game of Thrones Teaches Us about Government Spending and Crazy Tax Schemes

by Jonathan Miltimore   I thought it was a joke when I saw a headline stating that Gavin Newsom, California’s new governor, was proposing a tax on drinking water. Surely this was a clever bit of satire penned by someone at The Babylon Bee or The Onion. Alas, the proposal is real, and the details of the tax can be found here and here. Taxing Human Nature Part of the reason I thought the headline was satire is that it reminded me of a line from George R.R. Martin’s book A Game of Thrones. In the series, we see at various times the rulers of King’s Landing (the capital of Westeros) attempt to deny or profit from people’s ordinary habits. Early in the story, King Robert’s brother, Lord Renly, mentions how his brother Stannis once proposed regulating prostitution, which Renly said prompted the king to jest that perhaps Stannis would like to regulate “eating, sh*tting, and breathing while he was at it.” To Robert, a man of great appetite, the idea of banning or taxing basic human functions is laughable and absurd. Yet later in the story (spoiler alert!), after Robert is dead, slain by the Lannisters, Tyrion Lannister, the clever…

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Game of Thrones Season 7 Recap (SPOILERS)

  It’s almost hard to talk about Game Of Thrones in anything resembling a succinct manner these days. The show is so expansive, and the fans are so deeply involved with theories, that even the smallest of points seem to require hours of debate. Therefore, recapping an entire season seems frankly exhausting. But I’m going to try it out here by focusing on some of the biggest moments, both experienced and yet to come. Obviously, many spoilers follow.   The Coolest Moments Arya Meets Nymeria – Pretty much all Thrones fans want more of the direwolves, and Arya’s had been missing for more or less the entire duration of the show. In the books, there are occasional references to an unusually intelligent wolf leading a giant pack, and it’s assumed that it’s Nymeria. Early in this season, Arya collided with some form of this mini-narrative, and came face-to-face with her old Direwolf, Nymeria. Even cooler: Nymeria refused the offer to reunite and took off on her own path, prompting Arya to sadly (but also approvingly?) gasp, “that’s not you.” It’s actually kind of sad – but the callback behind it was fantastic. It had to do with Ned Stark, who…

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