Rules for Rulers - CGP Grey Reaction

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#history #reaction

[VloggingThroughHistory]

I apologize for the tiny black distraction on my screen during a few of these videos. I recorded several videos before traveling to Tennessee without realizing my mic was ever so slightly showing on the corner of the image.

[israelcowl]

Ending is my favorite part. "maybe you'll be different" and then the king winks and turns into the dictator. Gives me chills.

[MegaVidManiac]

Even though this video might not be directly about something historical, it can add depth to other videos about rulers throughout history. I think this fits perfectly for the channel. Good pick Chris.

[Judson]

In his podcast cgp grey mentioned that he was monitoring the ranking of the book in the amazon sales charts.
He was curios about the impact the video would have. Would nothing happen? Would it spike in the Top 1000? In the Top 100?
It got to place 1 in the non fiction charts and was sold out worldwide. He even got an Email from the publisher thanking him for forcing a reprint.

[EmZera]

Your first thought for a monarch who lost their "keys" was Nicholas II, as a Brit my mind went to Charles I or King John. The Barons war feels like a perfect example of Keys falling away, though the army remained, the regional leaders and the church which provided legitimacy to a national leader in those days had slipped away, backing another candidate who would treat them better, allowing them more freedom and more "treasure"

[ShadowOfCicero]

CGP did make a part 2 about the dynamics of dynasties. It would be a good addition.

[joem]

18:13 reminds me a lot of the Tropico game series. Managing key supporters in a Caribbean dictatorship, balancing your standing with the superpowers and so on. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.

[HappyMan]

More CGP Grey reactions are always welcome. His content is just so high-quality and does a great job covering on history while also mixing it with other topics.

[nathanakenson]

I highly recommend watching part 2 of CGP Grey's "Tiffany" video. Anyone who has ever studied history can relate so much to it. It's basically just a video about how he spent so much time researching for his Tiffany video, bought a bunch of expensive old books on the subject, and did a ton of research at the London Library... only to realize that he had gone down a series of wrong paths and wasted a tremendous amount of time and effort because one 18th century historian didn't do his research properly.

[epsilonunit]

Do you plan to do CGP Grey's "Someone dead ruined my life again." video? Sort of a part 2 to his tiffany video. It's also just hilarious, and as someone else in the comments said, I think you could add something to it.

edit: yeah this aged like milk

[andrewfelsher]

This is possibly my favorite CGP Grey video.

It's even better when you know that while producing the video, he was practicing the dialogue while playing thunder sounds as background noise in an office building. An office building where he shared a wall with some stereotypical business guy (i.e. "Synergy!").

[aarims]

When I clicked on this it said there were 52 views and the video was from 52 seconds ago. I find that weirdly satisfying.

[Jesus-gixd]

a video from cgp grey i think you would really like is someone dead ruined my life again. its about him researching his tale of tiffany video and the problems he runs into along the way. i think you could add something interesting to it.

[gunslinger]

"Control the coinage and the courts. Let the rabble have the rest."

- Frank Herbert, Dune

[economath]

[1:53] There's a phrase in politics that goes "Where you stand depends on where you sit." It was used in particular in 2009 when Obama had, as a U.S. senator, been critical of certain uses of executive power, only to do a 180 once he became the chief executive.

[heh]

At least about Napoleons Marshalls, I believe that for example Davout himself was doing his job very much for Napoleons loyalty, while for example Soult did the job for his own power, whereafter he took a lot of glory and eventually became the prime minister of France even (oh and it is Soult's birthday today frankly)

[LadyCroussetteHC]

Great! I really wanted to see more CGP Grey videos. I really recommend "Someone dead ruined my life again" like so many before me, as its the sequel to the Tiffany video and show how much of a hassle researching history can be (curious to see what you, an historian, think of that). Also, the videos "Who own the Statue of Liberty", which talk of the history of ownership of the island throughout history, and finally "The Race to win Staten Island".

[roastghost]

Rules for Rulers is probably the best video on the internet. CGP Grey is a scary good explainer of things.

[ahscott]

3 Keys to Power, Meiji Restoration edition:

1. Get the key supporters on your side: when the Satsuma and Choshu Domain samurai started their rebellion, they quickly took Kyoto and gained the support of the Emperor
2. Control the treasure: the new government invented a new currency, the Yen, under the pretense that a decimalized currency was easier for people to handle, but in reality it gave themselves authority to say what money is. They then proceeded to raise funds via conquest in later decades.
3. Minimize key supporters: once the new imperial government was established, former Samurai gradually lost their powers so they wouldn't be a threat to Meiji's control.

Also of note is that the old system fell when the wealth of the nation became independent of the citizens via trade deals with western powers.

[Anondod]

If you want to play around with this exact dynamic in a game, I highly recommend the 1978 boardgame Junta, which portrays it very well.

The game starts with one player as the president, with the others controlling the secret police or various military units. Everyone also has political influence with different factions, which sometimes comes with additional (potential) paramilitary forces.

Each round, the president receives a secret, randomized amount of money which they have to divide between themself and the other players. The president presents a division of money between the other players, who then vote according to their political influence. As the winner of the game is the one with the most money at the end, the president has to keep enough people happy enough to support them while grabbing as much as they can for themself.

If there's a coup there's a battle for control of various points of interest in the capital - the palace, the bank, the radio station and so on - and there's assassinations and various other shenanigans, but the core of the game is exactly about a ruler trying to keep enough key figures happy that they can stay in power.