Protection

One of the first things that one seems to do after creating a city is protect it, by putting arms there or building a wall around it, Why is it they we take such a strong stance, even in the world today about protection. The United States boasts itself on having the strongest military in the world. I recently heard Francis Fukayama speak. Fukayama has written about the international political economy and the modern economic society. When I heard him speak he spoke about the world and economy in terms of multiculturalism. In Civilization we do not see so much the other civilizations interacting with one another other than in war or in trade. Only the leaders communicate with one another. Average Joe Smith in my Civilization does not have the ability to communicate to Average Joe Smith in the Roman Civilization.

According to Fukayama the United States Army equals that of all other armies in the World. This has never been the case the World’s history not for Rome or the Untied Kingdom during their reign and colonization of the world. Which made me think, if I made a military force that was bigger than all other forces in the game I would be unstoppable in the game. I could bully other civilizations into giving all of the resources and technology I need, I would have unlimited access to water and could most likely conquer any lands I wanted Today I think we place such an importance on military and military force because of the society, which we live. Because of this one of the first goals in Civilization is to create a strong, impenetrable city that cannot be taken over by raiders or opposing armies. Fukayama went on to say rather than putting all of our funding toward the military why not educate our selves on other cultures around us that pose to be a threat. Fukayama suggested why go to war right away with a nation that we know so little about, few speak the language of and understand. So, yes we can have walls that reach the sky and the strongest military in the world. However until we and all civilizations make and effort to understand the world around us intellectually before picking up the big guns and going in we will be vulnerable to attack until the end of time. I applied this idea to my game of civilization, while I cannot have all of my citizens directly communicate with other civilizations. But rather than having my first goal be military in my game I now devote half of my turns to creating technology and intellect.