NationStates Jolt Archive

14 July 14 R.A.

"...this has been a message from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints..." the television announced in the background, another advertisement for a free copy of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Mormonism had become big in Wintermore, bigger than the Church of Dana in some places.

While Alexander Lyman certainly found the commercials rather annoying, he didn't care much rather people listened to Jesus or Dana. It was all equally non-sense to any rational mind, or so he believed. Which isn't to say that Mr. Lyman was not a believer in anything.

Lyman, a lawyer, had a house full of books and pamphlets by the Order of the Invisible Hand. He wasn't a member of the secret society per se. He felt neither the need nor the desire to hide his beliefs. However, he cherished every word they published and hoped, as did their leadership, that they might get at least equal status with the garbage being peddled by the Churches.

He looked at the phone as he turned off the television and prepared to go to work. He had sent notive to the Order, through some people he knew, to say he wished to represent them in their upcoming announced legal battle to be recognizd as a religion in the Resurgent Dream. He was eagerly awaiting the return call.

Evyn Lloyd drove his truck through the crowd of protesters. Men and women from the Cattle Protection Society of Farinor had gathered outside Joshi's Steakhouse, holdsing signs and chanting slogans against the killing and eating of cattle. Evyn honked loudly, backing up to the restaurant loading dock as usual. "Damned lunatics." Evyn muttered as he got down from the truck, taking the paperwork over to the small man coming out the back. "I'm trying to run a business here. I've been shipping beef from Shieldcrest to Farinor my whole life. Never had troubles before."

"Yeah..." Alapp Joshi commented. "I wish when the Danaan Church was the established church in more than just name. They never threatened a man's livelihood. It's not just going on down here, either. Alcohol in Shieldcrest, pork in Selinia, religious nuts make it hard to carry out commerce anywhere. The whole country outright banned some products."

"Yeah, I know." Evyn said. "I really wish they'd do away with all this religious non-sense altogether. The Danaan Church is just as bad as anything about abortion and similar matters. I think the country would be better off if we got rid of all the damned priests of all kinds."

"I hear you, brother. I hear you." Alapp commented, signing the forms.

“… with talks ongoing there has been no word yet from the Lavenrunzian destroyer. The lack of news on the diplomatic front and an unconfirmed rumour that the third fleet of the Marine is missing from its Naval base in Hoek van Holland sent the Amsterdam Exchange Index down zero-point-three points. Knootian Defence Contractor Thalys rose…”

The Knootian holovision, especially KNN, had a quicker pace then Danaan TV. Flashes of images and split-second impressions of a situation were supported by strains of music passing by and a running commentary that took much prior knowledge of the situation for granted. Watching the domestic KNN was something that took getting used to. It required a keen mind, a quick eye, and a passion for the hype of the moment.

David Davinci didn’t much like KNN, and the Pink Bunny Cola Incorporated exec.switched it off as soon as it became clear to him that his mention as the new SLP candidate to be State-Secretary of Foreign Economic Policy would not make the KNN headlines.

Instead, the aged Knootian chose to watch a relaxing documentary on 17th century Lavenrunzian art, glancing at the display with casual interest as one of his servants brought in a cup of coffee and his mail. Behind him, flames were licking at the chimney of a cosy fireplace

The art documentary murmured in the background as Davinci perused the incoming messages on his data padd. Most of it was dull, company stuff. He spent about five minutes glancing over the information sent to him by Pink Bunny Cola Incorporated before it bored him.

A message sent him informing him of Alexander Lymans' situation piqued his particular interest.

“Interesting, very interesting”, he mumbled to himself. A chance to prove oneself useful to the Order, an excuse to undertake on a fun trip to an interesting country, to make a difference. Or at least it would be mildly entertaining.

“Jonathan?”, he said with a light, unassuming voice. He did not turn his head to address the man who was cleaning one of the vases in the next room.

“Yes, Sir?”, the man asked, pausing his work.

“Please tell my secretary to cancel my appointments for the next three days or so, and have her book the first flight to the Resurgent Dream. Also tell James I shan’t be expecting him to cook dinner tonight.”

The man raised an eyebrow. This was an unusual request, even from Davinci.

“Of course Sir. Will this trip be business or pleasure?”

David paused to think, amused by the choice he turned to look at his servant, smiling.

“Both.”

Davinci arrived at Wallace International Airport in Fireforge, the Resurgent Dream. Stepping out of the airplane, he might have been disappointed to find that the people currently in this airport did not live up to the legendery Danaan diversity. The great majority of them were human. The great majority of them had fair-skin (Relative to the full range of human complexion, they weren't particularly fair for Europeans). It seemed there was even a slight majority with red-hair. Of course, there were Fae and Elves and other human races present, going about their business without the slightest sign of prejudice.

Signs directed Davinci to his luggage in the very large airport. He saw a man holding a sign with his name on it down near the pick-up location. The man was short and stocky with bright redhair, looking to be in his early forties.

Davinci waved, smiling a little bit paternalistic as always, but warm and with good intentions. As he looked around, he was a bit disappointed, secretly, by how much this airport looked like Schiphol so far. Aside from architectural differences, the nation seemed to be as multicultural as the DDR, but not moreso. Te number of elves was smaller, the number of other non-humans slightly larger. And although there were a few exotic examples, they were not much to gape at for the well-travelled Knootian gentleman.

Davinci approached the man with the sign and spoke some words of thanks for picking him up, extending his hand and introducing himself.

The man introduced himself as William Connery and helped Davinci to the car. As they drove through the streets, things began to look much more diverse. Animalistic Pooka played in the streets even as serious looking Trolls looked on in bemusement. Plump Boggans hurried busily about the streets as knobby Nockers cursed about this or that. Connery pulled Davinci up to a house on the outskirts of town. He led him inside and put his bags away before showing him into a living room where nine humans and one Neko were sitting. "Mr. Davinci, allow me to introduce Mr. Lloyd, Miss Bush, Mrs. Nehru, Dr. Wallace, Mr. Karamanlis, Miss O'Higgins, Dr. Van Buren, Miss Walker, Mrs. Goldman, and Miss Okada."

“A pleasure to meet you all”, Davinci said with a pleasant voice. Davinci introduced himself properly to the men and women in the living room, shaking hands while always bowing just a little out of respect. After these preliminaries, he settled down.

“I must say I was pleasantly surprised by your letter”, the Knootian said as soon as the opportunity arose. “I am, of course, familiar with the idea of applying for status of the Order as an officially recognised religion. It is, I think, a very wise strategy even if it is rather distasteful to equate the Market with religion”, he grinned paternalistically, “but I would not have thought that this would pose any particular problems in the Danaan High Kingdom?”

He looked around, not at anyone in particular.

OOC: sorry. I guess I could have done this earlier.

"It poses a very large problem, actually." Dr. Van Buren said. "Unfortunately, we live in one of the most superstitious (by which I mean religious) nations in the world. The idea of replacing deistic notions with market ones is going to be something of a hard sell."

"There is, of course, no danger of the Order ever becoming illegal. Freedom of speech is held sacrosanct here." clarified Miss Bush. "However, legality and recognition as a religion are not the same thing. The benefits we would like the Order to have are tax exempt status, excused school absences on days of religious significance (we have considered Adam Smith's birthday) and a number of other specific benefits."

Mrs. Nehru smiled. "We have laid out the question, in its narrowest formulation at least. Hopefully, we can move from here to reducing superstition more generally as well. WHat do you think?"

David had frowned for most of the time, but when Bush mentioned that they had considered Adam Smiths birthday he broke into a smile.

“Well, these are certainly creative ideas – but if I may be allowed to speak some words of caution, we must not, I think, forget the real mission. The Order is not trying to start an actual religion with the Church of Freedom – we are trying to get the truth out and in order to do that we must compete on even ground on the Market of ideologies. Be forewarned that you should not get too comfortable playing religion”, he looked serious – which was very uncharacteristic for him – “lest the Order actually become a religion instead of an organisation devoted to the Truth about the Market.”

Van Buren snorted a little. "This was the idea of your leadership, if I might remind you. So what do you plan to do now that you're here?"

The tone of the room seemed irritated. People were looking at Davinci intently. No one seemed particularly disposed to humor his paternalistic style much. They were all "free thinkers" after all.

“I’m here to help”, he said simply. “I understood that there were some difficulties, as you explained, and my network and my resources are at your disposal”, he said with a slight nod of his head.

“I’m not a legal expert, I must confess, but I know people who are. And as a candidate for a junior ministerial position I will be in an excellent position to lobby the Knootian government to take action as well.”

Okada, the Kitsune, nodded her head. "I don't believe that will be necessary. Any pressure from the Knootian government will merely go to strengthen the case of those who falsely claim the Order is merely an instrument of the Knootian state."

The Knootian frowned.

“Well, that is understandable. If there is any other way I can be of service, though, I'll gladly oblidge…”

Goldman nodded. "We need expert testimony, of course. We have several points which can help us gain recognition as a religion. For one, we have to demonstrate that the claim that there is no God is logically prior to the claim that the economy should be organized into a free Market in the Order's worldview. We also have to argue that the Order is effectively treated as a religion by the rest of the world. Furthermore, it would help to establish that the Order has definitively taught that the universe is uncreated, that there is no such thing as an immortal soul, and that it has addressed the question of ontological freedom of the will. Have you addressed the question of ontological freedom of the will?"

Davinci nodded back to Goldma.

"I can arrange for expert testimony on all these issues. I’m sure a good story about ontological freedom of the will is also possible", he said with a contented smile. "If I can make some calls from here I will arrange for it immediately."

***

In the days that followed, Davinci made up for his lack of knowledge about the nature of ontological freedom of the will by assembling a rather impressive team of people to tackle the Resurgent Dream legal system. Lawyers both Knootian and domestic, a philosopher, a Church of Freedom minister, and several others. Together, these people locked themselves into a rented office to think up a strategy. For several days it was quiet…

OOC: my apathy is wholly to blame for the lapse in postage here. :(

The Order of the Invisible Hand was recognized as a religion at the hearing. Correspondingly, the Order was guaranteed tax exempt status so long as it refrained from openly supporting any political party or candidate.