Thread by @patrissimo

Imagine a world where the best weapons are swords, which are rare. An elite class of samurai form & ally with the wealthy/powerful to lord it over all.

Then a Remington-Gutenberg invents the $99 sword. Chaos reigns as people are sliced and stabbed left & right.

https://twitter.com/jowens510/status/1161848461110571008

Some civilians show great skill, and civilian/samurai duels reveal that some samurai were weak, just coasting on their monopoly.

But looking at skill turns out to be old-style thinking. The real story is in the shift from elegant duels to disordered mobs.

For it turns out that numbers beat skill and offense beats defense. You can block 100 times, but take one slice to the neck and it's over.

So the shift is no simple disruption of the elite samurai incumbents. The entire style and nature of battles has changed.

And it's fucking scary. The mob is tetchy and random. It kills for things the samurai let slide. It's hard to predict and impossible to bribe. Few ordinary citizens had liked the previous power structure, of course, but that didn't mean they wanted this.

Amidst in the chaos, a samurai named @jowens510 cries:

How to "duel" a samurai in the streets.
1) Don't.
2) No seriously, don't.
3) At least ask for a private sparring match first.
4) Or use the formal challenge ritual, accepting a "decline" response.

https://twitter.com/jowens510/status/1161848461110571008

One can easily understand such a request, and as easily see its futility. Of course the former elite would like to the enforce the rules. But armed mobs don't, sadly, listen to polite requests to follow anachronistic processes. We must adapt instead.

What does that adaptation look like? What will come after the streets run red with blood, after the pointless deaths, the universal fear, the upending of tradition? Will it end (please yes), and what will the new world look like?

This, I ask you now.

???