Reply #27: Thank You For The Kind Words, Ma'am

[The Magistrate]

You will be aware my expectations for human-kind run pretty low, but it does seem an enduring lesson of history that people do by and large prefer peace and prosperity to war and destitution, and will opt for the former decisively if given half a chance to do so by conditions around them. Generally matters like this are a question of getting leaders and hot-heads out of the path of the herd, which will tend to its affairs quite nicely without their interference....