# Domination of the Draka movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508 "2005-09-13T23:03:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508/21 "2005-09-16T02:03:34Z")
Here’s a good review of the Domination series by John J. Reilly\* (warning: spoilers): [http://www.johnreilly.info/draka.htm](http://www.johnreilly.info/draka.htm) \*Conservative Catholic intellectual, has websites with pages of essays on alternate history, eschatology, world government, much more – [http://www.johnreilly.info/](http://www.johnreilly.info/). ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508/22 "2005-09-16T02:23:03Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > Thanks, **Brain Glutton**. Again, I haven’t read the books–they sound incredibly depressing and bleak–so I can’t really comment on them. Regardless of how “practical” the system Stirling created is, he did indeed paint a very bleak picture of life in the Domination, with _Under The Yoke_ (post- WW II-analog consolidation of conquered Europe) probably being the best example, and the Draka conquest of India in _The Stone Dogs_ (and assimiliation, as told through the eyes of an Alliance agent captured “behind-the-lines”) being a close runner up. > [@Larry Borgia](#): > > Obviously I can’t say that such a society is impossible, just that it’s very implausible. I don’t think slave societies would be good at innovation and research, and modern warfare is one by the side with the best tech, not the fiercest soldiers. A fact clearly acknowledged by the characters in Stirlings works; if the Domination were ever to become content just with what it has, then it would probably begin stagnating technologically very quickly; but their hatred of the “damyanks” and an almost pathological need (inculcated into their society over generations by Nietzschan philosophy) to, well, _dominate_ everything they can (land, space, planets, people, etc) drives the Domination to innovate and research; it’s how they developed superior biotechnology, in order to conquer and pacify Africa. > [@Larry Borgia](#): > > Again, I haven’t read the books. Now, I’m curious. Maybe I’ll give them a shot. If you do, make sure you read the appendices in the back of the books. Stirling’s Domination may not be the most plausible alt world ever created, but the man did put some thought into it. > [@Larry Borgia](#): > > As far as the OP, I think the problem with filming an alternate history is that it would require too much exposition, especially when the key pivots occur so long before the action of the film. That’s why I think a mini-series may actually be the better way to go with something like this. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508/23 "2005-09-16T02:52:58Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > A fact clearly acknowledged by the characters in Stirlings works; if the Domination were ever to become content just with what it has, then it would probably begin stagnating technologically very quickly; but their hatred of the “damyanks” and an almost pathological need (inculcated into their society over generations by Nietzschan philosophy) to, well, _dominate_ everything they can (land, space, planets, people, etc) drives the Domination to innovate and research; it’s how they developed superior biotechnology, in order to conquer and pacify Africa. That reminds me of (another) glaringly _ad hoc_ fudge – a society with that philosophy would be about as likely to develop “a Conservancy Directorate to minimize civilization’s burden on nature” as the Nazis were to develop new advances in Talmudic scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508/24 "2005-09-16T03:07:07Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > That reminds me of (another) glaringly _ad hoc_ fudge – a society with that philosophy would be about as likely to develop “a Conservancy Directorate to minimize civilization’s burden on nature” as the Nazis were to develop new advances in Talmudic scholarship. The whole Nietzchan thing is just their belief in their inherent superiority, that they are the ubermensch meant to rule the land and all other men; I don’t necessarily see how that precludes them from being adequate (even superior) stewards of the land than capitalist/liberal democratic societies. Considering that a healthy chunk of the Domination’s Citizens are descended from plantation-owning agrarian aristocrats, I can readily see how they _might_ be better stewards of the land than a society comprised of and descended from robber-baron capitalist industrialists. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508/25 "2005-09-16T03:25:14Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > That reminds me of (another) glaringly _ad hoc_ fudge – a society with that philosophy would be about as likely to develop “a Conservancy Directorate to minimize civilization’s burden on nature” as the Nazis were to develop new advances in Talmudic scholarship. Well, the Draka accept industrialization as necessary, but they look at the world through the eyes of a country gentry who love hunting (often taking on dangerous game with spears) and want to pass their estates down to their children in the same condition. They want big, unspoiled countryside everywhere to hunt in, and big green estates (worked by serfs) to live on. Major factory zones (worked by serfs) are tucked well away from the major cities so Citizens don’t have to see them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/domination-of-the-draka-movie/321508.md?page=1)