Or, perhaps not even as much of a ‘job’ as just an activity. Like, let’s get the lads together and go a-viking.

Comparable to, say … camping. You could gather some friends and go camping. And while you’re camping, you’re a camper. But that doesn’t mean being a camper is your job, and it’s definitely not a hereditary title.

People at the neck gusher memorial be like, “Hey, man. I was paid to show up and stand around for a few hours. Nobody said anything about cleaning. Cleaning costs extra.”

Not really. Along most major roads, if trees are close enough to even potentially be a problem, they will be trimmed by road crews.

It’s not because they get hit by trucks, it’s because they’re deliberately trimmed back to keep the road clear.

Really hard to build an empire without it.

Because to have an empire, you have to rule over a lot of people. Many of those people would rather not be ruled by you. If you want to force them to accept it anyway, you’re going to need some of that genocide, slavery, and especially bloodshed.

Though, I suppose, maybe 2/3 of those aren’t really necessary.

• Genocide probably isn’t absolutely necessary to empire-building. Definitely still have to kill lots of people, but there’s no particular reason you need to do so on the basis of race or ethnicity. (Though if you count cultural genocide as well, that may very well be necessary to build an empire. Difficult to bring diverse peoples under one banner without suppressing their cultural differences.)

• Slavery is a big probably. It certainly does help – after all, your growing empire will need lots of labor, and it’s unlikely you can afford to pay the going market rate for it. Plus, if you don’t use slavery, you’ll probably be out-competed by other potential empires that are using slavery and/or slavery-adjacent labor practices. But I suppose it’s not technically absolutely necessary. Theoretically, at least, you could build an empire without slavery.