If You're Virtually Fed-Up

I found this on another blog... this site lets you create your own government. I haven't fully explored it yet, just a quick glance, but it looks kind of cool. Of course, so does smoking cigarettes, but hey, it's okay to try it once, aye? You can quit anytime, right?

The site says:

NationStates is a free nation simulation game. Build a nation and run it according to your own warped political ideals. Create a Utopian paradise for society's less fortunate or a totalitarian corporate police state. Care for your people or deliberately oppress them. Join the United Nations or remain a rogue state. It's really up to you.

Of course, it's hard to determine how to define the winner. I mean, is a super-powerful tyrannical regime that crushes its enemies considered a winner? Is a blissful little oasis of healthy, happy, altruistic humanists that is subsequently bombed into oblivion considered a loser?

It harkens back to Paradise Lost. "Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven," wrote Milton, discussing what we now describe as "quality of life" issues.

Oh well. All I can say at this point is, when the revolution comes, the lobbyists are gonna be the first ones up against the wall.