{"id":1717557,"date":"2022-10-31T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T10:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1717557"},"modified":"2022-10-31T06:33:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T10:33:37","slug":"what-were-all-missing-about-hbos-house-of-the-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-were-all-missing-about-hbos-house-of-the-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"What We\u2019re All Missing About HBO\u2019s \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-were-all-missing-about-hbos-house-of-the-dragon%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1717557&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/house-of-the-dragon-wealth-prosperity-2.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><strong>The first season of HBO\u2019s \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d is over, and the \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d prequel has not disappointed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Based on George R. R. Martin\u2019s novel \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Fire-Blood-George-R-Martin\/dp\/B002V1QLC2?crid=Z6L2LPLYHSS1&#038;keywords=Fire+%26+Blood&#038;qid=1665751763&#038;qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjQ4IiwicXNhIjoiMi4xNCIsInFzcCI6IjEuOTIifQ%3D%3D&#038;sprefix=,aps,551&#038;sr=8-2&#038;linkCode=sl1&#038;tag=feeonline-20&#038;linkId=aedbf2c7b161cc0edbef821dc685e1df&#038;language=en_US&#038;ref_=as_li_ss_tl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fire &#038; Blood,<\/a>\u201d the series depicts House Targaryen\u2019s efforts to rule the Seven Kingdoms amid its internal power struggles. The story takes place about 170 years before the events depicted in \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and centers on Rhaenyra Targaryen (Eve Best), a princess who\u2019s named heir to the Iron Throne by her ailing father King Viserys (Paddy Considine).<\/p>\n<p>This puts her at odds with her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) and later her infant brother, who also have claims to the throne.<\/p>\n<p>While I was initially skeptical that\u201d House of the Dragon\u201d would bring back the magic of Westeros, the series has lived up to the hype (so far). The show\u2019s writing and acting are superb, and just like GoT, the series explores power and morality through the gritty lens of realism.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s conveyed not just through the show\u2019s sex and violence, but also the promise that the hero might actually not win or may not do the right thing. \u201cHouse of the Dragon,\u201d like \u201cGoT,\u201d is \u201cThe Godfather\u201d of epic fantasy.<\/p>\n<p>Viewers may be pleased to notice that, with the exception of the size of Targaryen dragons, almost nothing has changed in the Seven Kingdoms between shows. Armies still fight with swords and arrows. Most of the people are still poor. Soldiers ride horses. Farming is presumably the primary occupation for the vast majority of people who are not lords or ladies.<\/p>\n<p>To understand why so little has changed in Westeros, one need only look to our own world. Though many of us have personally witnessed massive change and innovation in our lifetimes, this was the exception, not the rule, in history.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/how-game-of-thrones-revolutionized-tv\/\"><strong>RELATED: HOW \u2018GAME OF THRONES\u2019 CHANGED TV<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Economist Brad Delong has noted that the <a href=\"http:\/\/holtz.org\/Library\/Social%20Science\/Economics\/Estimating%20World%20GDP%20by%20DeLong\/Estimating%20World%20GDP.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">standard of living didn\u2019t change<\/a> much for most of the last 2,000 years, and GDP figures from Our World in Data confirm this.<\/p>\n<p>In 1 AD, the GDP of the entire world was less than $182 billion (in 2011 US dollars). A thousand years later, global GDP was higher, but not by much\u2014an estimated $210 billion. A few hundred years later, the world\u2019s GDP was actually lower. Four hundred years after that, in 1700, the world\u2019s total GDP was still only about $640 billion.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the world had changed very little over a period of 1,700 years, at least in terms of material wealth.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CkBRIgMJDyr\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That changed the next century, however.<\/p>\n<p>By 1820, global GDP had increased to $1.2 trillion. By 1870 it was $2 trillion. On the eve of World War I, global GDP was $4.74 trillion and by1950, despite the two most catastrophic and deadly wars in human history, it was up to $9 trillion. By 1998, it was $58 trillion and by 2013 it was $101 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence for this miraculous growth in wealth is visible all around us.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Automobiles<\/li>\n<li>Laundry machines<\/li>\n<li>Smart phones<\/li>\n<li>TVs<\/li>\n<li>Microwaves<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most middle-class families own goods that were scarcely imaginable a century ago. Things as vital as toilet paper, toothpaste, and hot showers are available to most of the people in the world.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no coincidence that the rise in material wealth the world witnessed over the last 250 years coincided with the global rise of capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>When Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, he offered the world a roadmap to wealth creation. It was surprisingly simple. Peace and trade\u2014not brute force, coercion, or the yolk of slavery\u2014was the formula.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLittle else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things,\u201d Smith wrote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adamsmith.org\/the-theory-of-moral-sentiments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Theory of Moral Sentiments.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The formula might be simple, but its execution is not. The world of Westeros shows us why.<\/p>\n<p>While many of the characters in \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d are interesting, and some are even good, it\u2019s impossible to miss that Westeros is a land defined by war, injustice, power and plunder.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/econpop-andrew-heaton-humor-promote-free-markets\/\"><strong>RELATED: ANDREW HEATON USES HUMOR TO PREACH FREE MARKETS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the first season of \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d we see the Crown is basically bankrupt. King Robert is spending money the Crown doesn\u2019t have, and \u201cbeggaring\u201d the realm in the process, placing an immense burden on his people (who will eventually be the ones to pay off the Crown\u2019s debts). Over the course of eight seasons, viewers witness what is largely a bloody power struggle to rule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d offers its own examples. We quickly see that the Crown is a source of aggression, not benevolence. In the very first episode, Daemon Targaryen, the king\u2019s brother, descends on Flea Bottom (the most poverty-stricken party of King\u2019s Landing) with his Gold Cloaks (i.e. the city watch) to bring \u201claw and order\u201d to the district.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy brother\u2019s city has fallen into squalor. Crime of every breed has been allowed to thrive,\u201d he says. \u201cNo longer. Beginning tonight, King\u2019s Landing will learn to fear the color gold.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CjzBqHMLQTc\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In the darkness, men are accused by the <a href=\"https:\/\/awoiaf.westeros.org\/index.php\/City_Watch_of_King%27s_Landing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Gold Cloaks<\/a>\u2014\u201dthief!\u201d \u201craper!\u201d\u2014and rounded up. They are not tried, but executed on the spot. Daemon himself takes at least one man\u2019s head. All it requires is the accusation from a Gold Cloak.<\/p>\n<p>While there is some fuss the next day over Daemon\u2019s actions, the king\u2019s council ultimately overlooks the carnage, reasoning that Daemon\u2019s actions, draconian though they may be, project strength and power.<\/p>\n<p>This is why nothing changes in Westeros. It\u2019s a land where power rules and <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/rights-and-non-rights-a-simple-way-to-distinguish-the-two\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">individual rights<\/a> do not exist. Whatever wealth people manage to accumulate can simply be taken from them by anyone\u2014whether it be their lord, pirates, or the Crown itself\u2014who has more power than they do.<\/p>\n<p>The king\u2019s justice is rarely to be found.<\/p>\n<p>Smith was correct when he observed that the formula to wealth creation is surprisingly simple: easy taxes, peace and the adequate administration of justice. But Westeros shows us this isn\u2019t easy to achieve, especially where power is concentrated and those who wield it are rarely held accountable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jon Miltimore is the managing editor of Fee.org. This article <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/why-nothing-in-westeros-ever-changes-besides-the-size-of-the-dragons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">originally appeared at that site.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first season of HBO\u2019s \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d is over, and the \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d prequel has not disappointed. Based on George R. R. Martin\u2019s novel \u201cFire &#038; Blood,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1717560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1717557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1717557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1717560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}