Daistallia 2104
02-09-2008, 17:23
Knitting some odd randomish thoughts together here...
On the NS dervived facebook game nations part of my profile now reads:
All citizens of this country take a mandatory standardized test to evaluate their intelligence, and all those who do not score well enough are deported to other countries.
While this is not necessarily what I'd want IRL, it's an interesting question that sort of reminded me of Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age.
The world is divided into many phyles, also known as tribes. There are three Great Phyles; the Han (consisting of Han Chinese), the Neo-Victorians (consisting largely of Anglo-Saxons, but also accepting Indians, Africans, and others who identify with the culture), and Nippon (consisting of Japanese). The novel deliberately makes it ambiguous whether Hindustan (consisting of Hindu Indians) is a fourth Great Phyle or an association of microphyles. In addition to these larger phyles, there are countless smaller phyles. Membership in some phyles, such as the Han and Nipponese, has an ethnic requirement, but the Neo-Victorian phyle and many lesser phyles accept anyone who aspires to live according to the phyle's mores.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Setting
Finally, in a recent thread on taxat ion the subject of consent and the social contract came up.
So, if the world were divided up into distributed micronation like "phyles", where one had to both consent to the social contract of one's "nation" as well as recieve their consent, would the would be freer?
On the NS dervived facebook game nations part of my profile now reads:
All citizens of this country take a mandatory standardized test to evaluate their intelligence, and all those who do not score well enough are deported to other countries.
While this is not necessarily what I'd want IRL, it's an interesting question that sort of reminded me of Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age.
The world is divided into many phyles, also known as tribes. There are three Great Phyles; the Han (consisting of Han Chinese), the Neo-Victorians (consisting largely of Anglo-Saxons, but also accepting Indians, Africans, and others who identify with the culture), and Nippon (consisting of Japanese). The novel deliberately makes it ambiguous whether Hindustan (consisting of Hindu Indians) is a fourth Great Phyle or an association of microphyles. In addition to these larger phyles, there are countless smaller phyles. Membership in some phyles, such as the Han and Nipponese, has an ethnic requirement, but the Neo-Victorian phyle and many lesser phyles accept anyone who aspires to live according to the phyle's mores.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Setting
Finally, in a recent thread on taxat ion the subject of consent and the social contract came up.
So, if the world were divided up into distributed micronation like "phyles", where one had to both consent to the social contract of one's "nation" as well as recieve their consent, would the would be freer?