Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:518:Ultima Ratio Regum (Mike Lorrey)

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Snow Crash page for Le Belliqueux

Stephensonia

In war, Neal knows to bring out the big guns: Now Hiro Sees a nameplate tacked onto the control panel.REASON
verson 1.0B7
Gatling-type 3-mm hypervelocity railgun system
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION--NOT FOR FIELD USE
DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
--ULTIMA RATIO REGUM--* "Fucking recoil pushed us halfway to China," Fisheye says appreciatively.

"Did you do that? What just happened?" Eliot says.

"I did it. With Reason. See it fires these teeny little metal splinters. They go real fast -- more energy than a rifle bullet. Depleted Uranium." ...*

Authored Entries

Description

Latin for "The Last Argument of Kings", Ultima Ratio Regum was Engraved/Cast on all of Louis XIV's cannon. This is a simple declaratory statement that reflects that ultimately, in the anarchical world of society between sovereigns, force is the ultimate final arbiter when parties cannot agree to ajudicate conflicts or contracts, and there is no international court in which sovereigns can have their pleadings heard by an impartial arbiter. On the Battlefield, God is the final arbiter, although several have remarked that, "God favors those with the most Divisions."

Quotes

Ambrose Bierce: "CANNON, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries." Frederick the Great**: "Do not forget your dogs of war, your big guns, which are the most - to- be respected arguments of the rights of kings."

As in Snow Crash

In a world like that of Snow Crash, when individuals and corporations have reclaimed sovereignty from bankrupt governments, the tools of asserting that sovereignty, defending it, must ultimately come to bear.

This lesson was not forgotten by the founders of the United States government. Founded on the principle that all individuals are sovereigns who delegate some powers to government in order to protect others, cannon were widely owned in early America, by merchant ship owners, large land owners, and prosperous communities, to support town militia units. This is why there were no limits on private ownership of cannon until the 1930's, and still today they can be owned in the US by those who go through the proper background checks and certifications.
Le Belliqueux

"When the people own the guns, the government properly fears the people. When government owns the guns, the people fear their government." - Anon

LE BELLIQUEUX
(The Warlike One)
Though made after the death of Louis XIV,
they are still ornamented in the style of his
regime. Besides the royal arms, the first
reinforce bears the famous device of the
"Sun King" with his motto, Nec pluribus impar.
"Not unequal to many" was Louis' roundabout
way of describing himself as a match for any
number of adversaries. On the chase is the
inscription Ultima ratio regum, "the last
argument of kings," widely used on European
ordinance during this age of royal absolutism.

Author Paul Blackstock in his seminal OSS work on Propaganda says: "Propaganda in the context of political warfare, has been termed "the planned dissemination of news, information, special arguments, and appeals designed to influence the beliefs, thoughts, and actions of a specific group." The relationship of the rational use of force to persuasion is symbolized in the Latin motto which Louis XIV had inscribed on his canons ultima ratio regum (the last argument of kings). Curiously enough, Soviet theory and practice subscribe to the same principle "persuasion first, coercion afterward." Persuasion may thus be likened to Santayana's characterization of love an ultraviolet angel at one end of the spectrum and a red devil at the other; it has been defined as "the act of influencing the mind by arguments and reasons."

(see: Blackstock, Paul, "Propaganda, Violence and Manipulative Persuasion", Quadrangle Books, 1964)

In this, we see that before Cromwell and his allies employed Ultima Ratio Regum, they regularly issued libels and broadsides, i.e. pamphlets, to the populace to argue their points of propaganda. See Pamphleteering for more.