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Even Jesus the Messiah of Christianity and the ultimate archetype of all that is good got angry and publicly denounced the religious leaders of his time period. Obviously those benefiting from the status quo are not going to agree with these revolutionary thinkers and will find such self-righteousness to be condescending. So who can judge between these opposing factions?

In the last lesson we spoke about the two leading political ideologies, liberalism and conservatism, and how they might be related to differences in common personality traits. This episode talks about how we talk about politics.

Which do you consider more important? Equality or Patriotism? Compassion or Societal Order? Which do you prefer, dogs or cats? 

Through personality tests and questions about preferences we can often tell which side of the political spectrum people fall into. When it comes to political ideologies, do you fall into the left also known as liberal, or the right, also known as conservative?

Whether in a galaxy far far away like Star Wars, or in the very near, very possible future like Black Mirror, science fiction deals with issues that we face in the here and now. Issues like race, politics, and religion might be too hot to discuss directly for a lot of us, but fictional realities allow us to take a step back and talk about what ifs. So let’s explore today’s world by looking at stories about tomorrow.

What does the third Star Wars film also known as Episode 6, the third Lord of the Rings, the Matrix trilogy, and the Lion King have in common?

In 1936 J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Luis flipped a coin to see which of them should write a space-travel story, and which should write a time-travel story. C.S. Luis went on to write the Chronicles of Narnia, and J.R.R. Tolkien went on to write the single most influential fantasy fiction trilogy, Lord of the Rings. Today let's look at Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and the Hunger Games. 

Developing games is fun but it takes a long time and a lot of work. But recently I found an easy way to take any great story from history or literature and make it into a simple game.

Have you ever had to make a life and death decision that could determine the fate of your nation? No? Well today you are King Henry V, and you are outnumbered five to one. What will you do?

Socrates pointed out that democracies don’t necessarily promote the best leaders, and Machiavelli pointed out that virtues don’t always lead to success. Ultimately we can see how this played out in history through Shakespeare’s historical dramas. Today we will take a look at Shakespeare’s young Christian leaders. One of his most tragic, Hamlet, and one of his most successful young leaders, King Henry V.

Let's look at what the famous Greek philosophers, Machiaveli from Italy, and Shakespeare have to say about great political leaders and how that would apply to today.