The Higher The Body Count, The More Popular The President

By on April 12, 2012 in News 18

Noticed via OrgTheory:

The finding is simple. War casualties, as a fraction of the population, positively correlate with how historians rate presidents. More death = better presidents. The regression model includes some controls, like economic growth. This is consistent with sociological research on state building, which has traditionally linked wars, bureaucratic growth, and tax collection.

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  • Liam_McGonagle

    If only the chairmen from the national political parties could leverage this insight into the campaigning process, the circle would be complete.

    Show of hands here, but who HONESTLY wouldn’t pay good money to see GOP and DNC nominees fight each other to death in an armed cage match for the presidency?

    • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

      Sure, if we still had good money…

    • Monkey See Monkey Do

      With their hands tied behind their back and blades taped around their toes. :)

    • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

      I like that better than the present farce
      but I’d like to see them fight each other to death in an armed cage
      period.

    • Eric_D_Read

      If it accomplished nothing else, candidates would get a lot younger in a hurry.

  • Dusty Dusterson II

     Nifty graph.

    I also have a graph proving that the decline in piracy is associated with an increase in worldwide temperatures.

    • LanceHardpound

      No.
      I’m willing to bet that what you actually have is a graph showing that temperatures have increased and that piracy has declined. I don’t think the graph would prove any sort of association between the two.

  • Wifh

    mmm… blood

  • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

    I think that Calypso_1 might agree with me that this effect is consistent with some of the ideas presented in _The Lucifer Principle_ .

    • Calypso_1

      indubitably

      • Monkey See Monkey Do

        You Luciferian?

        • Calypso_1

          From whence & what knowlege of such comes your desire to know?

          • Monkey See Monkey Do

            Curiously prying. I would assume you aren’t though.

          • Calypso_1

            Curiosity and assumption are easy enough to work with.

          • http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

            But what of false light and true darkness?

          • Calypso_1

            Those born of true darkness do not fall into the shadow of false light.

  • DeepCough

    Kill one man, you’re murderer. Kill a million men, and you’re up for re-election.

    • Eric_D_Read

      Kill them all and you become god.