[Jesse]

In the vein of the grandiously named Generalissimo Talonius, I have decided to set to paper my political doctrine - Civitism. Civitas is a latin word meaning 'Community'.

Unlike his (no offense) rather short-sighted and national-based writings, I have decided to write mine in a series of essays on topics that are relevant.

Thus far, I've completed

On Order
On Youth
On Democracy

Those subjects that remain to be covered are:

On Expansion
On Theology and Worship
On The Right of Humanity
On The Community
On Education
On Industry
On Military Might
On Evolution
On Experimentation
On Mastering our Race


What others are necessary, in your opinion? I'll begin posting them as I feel comfortable with the form they've taken.

[enLight]

Sounds very interesting. I'm anxious to read what you have to say. I too am also contemplating writing my own political doctrine which has influences from:

The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

The Trouble with Democracy by William Gairdner

And maybe a little bit from The Closing of the American Mind by Allen Bloom

[Jesse]

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

As embarrasing to the unenlightened (read: influenced by the abominable movie) it may sound, that book has influenced me more than anything else!

[ZenWilsonian]

Where can I view your texts?

[Jesse]

I'll begin posting them when I feel I'm capable of defending them in debate.

[Vivisekt]

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

As embarrasing to the unenlightened (read: influenced by the abominable movie) it may sound, that book has influenced me more than anything else!

I liked the movie. Regardless of the bad acting and focus on special effects, and everything else that was terrible about it. What i liked about it was that the general air of the political organisim was preserved underneath the storyline, wether the director realized it or not.

And even in that small, dilluted state, it remains intoxicating! Like a first breath of clean air after living amongst smog for years.

More and more, i found myself reffering to that damned movie in political debates. Eventually, i bought the book.

And to tell you the truth, i'm glad that an americanized, shallow movie was released on the topic. It exposes Heinlein to a wider range of people. They see the movie, and they focus on the acting and the plot and the effects, and don't pay much concious attention to the politics going on in the background. In that respect, watching starship troopers is like watching master propaganda: The audience doesn't conciously realize the entirety of what they've just seen but they HAVE seen it, regardless.

[Jesse]

The movie was brilliant, but not due to its merits intellectually. It afforded a glimpse of a perfectly run society - one of flags and buntings hung from lamposts, of proper education, of uniformed servicepeople on the streets, of trust and friendship, of marvellous crisp uniforms and neatly trimmed black jackboots

[Vivisekt]

After reading all three of your essays, so far, i would have to say that i find the concept of Civitas as you describe it to be one of the most promising ideaologies that i've reviewed to date. That's saying something, considering i've researched a god damn lot of different ideaologies. You present a concept that is exceedingly similar to something i've been working on myself for a couple of years now.

It looks like i'm only going to be inclined to disagree with you on just a couple of points, overall:

1. I do not believe in the concept of total democracy. In my oppinion, it should be more like: Only Citizens can cast a vote or attain political office, but citizen vote only makes up something like 49% of the total decision on an issue, with 51% of that decision being made up of a council of elder Civitas citizens who have displayed supreme loyalty to the cause, profound selflessness, as well as superb logistical and reasoning skills, and of course, a life's worth of experience within the society. Say, thirty people with an elder age requirement of 50 years.

This council would have the final say on all matters in a crisis situation, or in the event of an exposed political conspiracy. The members of this council would have to volunteer to live the remainder of their lives under open scrutiny and security to avoid corruption. They would need to be observed via survellance twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and they would not be able to travel anywhere without several escorts in addition to normal security personnel (people who would be randomly selected each time from a large pool of potential Citizens who have training in counter-espionage and would be available for such a service).



Things you haven't touched upon yet, upon which we might differ:

2. Money. I don't like money or capitalisim, whatsoever. I don't think there should be such a thing. Wealth is divisive and whenever there is the potential to transfer a thing or amass a thing, there is potential for corruption and envy. People should definately be rewarded for their efforts, but i think that the state should automatically provide everyone with a nice residence and non transferrable, daily or weekly food-credits that would allow them to aquire sustanance.

Efforts should be rewarded directly with some sort of non-transferrable entertainment credit, instead of money. Perhaps people would be issued personal, non-transferrable, portable entertainment pads (like a palm pc or a notebook computer) that would encompass movies, music, and things of that nature, upon which they would be able to purchace time. Or perhaps allot house a couple of larger entertainment stations, and allow people to use them by spending entertainment credits.

Something like that. I've not been able to work out the specifics of such a system yet, but i'm sure you get the basic idea. I don't know if you will disagree here, but because it hasn't been covered, i mention it.


3. Education and Employment. I believe that all education should be completely free, including higher (specialized) education, like college. People should be able to study whatever they would like. Work would need to be seperated into several different industries. Example: Entertainment (art, movies, music, etc), Scientific (all science and all research), Fabrication (all construction and assembaly and matinence such as janitorial work), Production (all farming and food generation), and the State (government, school system, police, news media, law and punishment, military). I believe that comprehensive psychological, intellectual, and physical tests should be taken by people when they want to choose a profession, before schooling to ensure that the person is suited to perform it. Only citizens could vote, and only citizens could be members of the State.

Once a person has chosen a general industry of work and placed into it, they attend schooling to train. If, at a later point, they decide that they would like to do something different they again have the option to go back to school for whatever that is, provided they pass the psychological, intellectual, and physical requirement tests. People would be able to change industries like this several times over a lifespan - regulated by a minimum interval for change.


Like i said, despite having been thinking about this for several years, i've not set down anything concrete, but what you've been outlining with your Civitas essays is almost exactly what i have in mind, with the exception (mabye) of the above material.