one of the wildest things about history is how random dudes could just, like, talk to kings and sultans and emperors and get...
one of the wildest things about history is how random dudes could just, like, talk to kings and sultans and emperors and get stuff. Like, part of the Fall of Constantinople – an event with world-changing implications – was that a dude named Orban went up to the Ottoman Sultan like “hey Sultan, I super-duper promise you that if you give me absurd amounts of money and resources I can build you the biggest fuckin cannon you’ve ever seen” and he said yes.
We Used To Have Efficient Government Procurement Processes
Like the fucked up thing about the Alexander the Great/Diogenes interaction story wasn’t Diogenes’ sauciness, it was that the conqueror of the world came to town and was like “I gotta meet this one homeless weirdo I’ve been hearing about”
if there’s a homeless weirdo famous enough that you’ve heard of him in your distant palace, wouldn’t you
In fairness a lot of people made a point to get headbutted by Wesley Willis