![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"Gabe, you are evil and Machiavellian. And that's not where I was intending to go with this discussion. Nonetheless, that IS an interesting idea."
Yep, we're back to discussing Jewish history -- we've finished the Purim stuff, so we're back to normal stuff.
Where "normal" is defined as students considering the instability engendered by having a monotheistic, anti-syncretic region of an empire which is bound together by syncretic polytheism. In which Rome has control of this region, but it's an ongoing potential source of conflict. But, of course, you couldn't abandon it, even if you wanted to, because that would be a show of weakness, and it would encourage other parts of the empire to break away.
Gabe's suggested solution: Rome should have funded and supported an underground anti-Roman organization, and encouraged and nurtured them to take anti-Roman violent acts, giving Rome an excuse to come in with their whole military and raze the place, squashing the potential instability under sheer military might.
After that, we ended up on another tangent, discussing what the mentality of suicide bombers was, and how they justified their own actions to themselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the leaders of tomorrow. Seriously, this is a good thing. They don't support the use of agent provocateurs or suicide bombers, but they want to understand how other people WOULD use them, and how to recognize and work against it.
There was a bit of an argument, however, about whether you should use an agent who know's he or she is working for you, who you extract before crushing the resistance movement, or just use a dupe who you kill along with everyone else.
I think I'm going to have to get a few Dover thrift editions of The Prince to hand out to my class. Although I'm not sure there's much in there they haven't figured out, already. . .
Yep, we're back to discussing Jewish history -- we've finished the Purim stuff, so we're back to normal stuff.
Where "normal" is defined as students considering the instability engendered by having a monotheistic, anti-syncretic region of an empire which is bound together by syncretic polytheism. In which Rome has control of this region, but it's an ongoing potential source of conflict. But, of course, you couldn't abandon it, even if you wanted to, because that would be a show of weakness, and it would encourage other parts of the empire to break away.
Gabe's suggested solution: Rome should have funded and supported an underground anti-Roman organization, and encouraged and nurtured them to take anti-Roman violent acts, giving Rome an excuse to come in with their whole military and raze the place, squashing the potential instability under sheer military might.
After that, we ended up on another tangent, discussing what the mentality of suicide bombers was, and how they justified their own actions to themselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the leaders of tomorrow. Seriously, this is a good thing. They don't support the use of agent provocateurs or suicide bombers, but they want to understand how other people WOULD use them, and how to recognize and work against it.
There was a bit of an argument, however, about whether you should use an agent who know's he or she is working for you, who you extract before crushing the resistance movement, or just use a dupe who you kill along with everyone else.
I think I'm going to have to get a few Dover thrift editions of The Prince to hand out to my class. Although I'm not sure there's much in there they haven't figured out, already. . .