> From: Mark Galeotti
> >For most people 'like the ancient Persians' means
> nothing, so it is a useless comparison;
>
> Really! But same with Romans then.
Hardly. Everyone knows about the Romans from school, and from TV, films, etc. Ancient Persians? Nothing. School doesn't touch it, a couple of historical films have them as "the enemy".
> Most people know
> very little, and that mostly wrong, so that'd be a
> useless analogy.
So what if it's wrong? As long as its a clear, consistent image, that's all we need. Cavemen hunting dinosaurs comes in the same category: yes, it's wrong, but we all have the same image, we all know the heroine's wearing a fur bikini.
> With Persians, people might actually study up on
> that to get more into it,
No, that's missing the entire point. If they were willing to read up anything, they'd be reading up *Lunars*. The whole point of using the analogy in the first place is to get the description across in under 10 seconds with no reading necessary.
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