Your personal kingdom-nation

[Atreides]

Imagine it's the age of the classical empires (Greece, Egypt, China etc). You, the new leader of a small kingdom-nation that is on the verge of greatness have the opportunity to establish the laws, values and customs of your culture.

 

What would you emphasise in your kingdom-nation that will continue to evolve into the present day? Remember, it has to be reasonable for that time and sustainable for future generations. How do you imagine your society-nation will turn out in the present day?

 

 

I'll start things off by proposing my own:

 

Overall closer to Greek civilisation.

 

-Central government that coordinates projects of local governments (such as irrigation, financial systems like currency, trade, standards of measurement etc).

-Promotion based on merit rather than inheritance.

-Emphasis on minimal standard of education for everyone.

-Engineering, mathematics and art development in higher institutes of learning.

-Well funded and developed military primarily as deterrant. Mostly elite units (vs large enlisting) trained and well armed, possibly with developments from engineering institutes of learning.

-Rather than conquering, expansion is encouraged to be by other areas wanting to be part of the nation because of better standards of living/culture.

[Calax]

Me? I'd just use my future knowlege to kick the crap out of everybody who even came near me. It should be noted that promotion in the greek civilization was not based on merit, rather it was based on property (land, not goods). I'd try for a benevolent dictatorship with equal opportunity enslavement of my enemies.

[Darque]

Let's see...

 

My Empire would be a movable caste system where each caste worked to support the other castes. Warrior - Worker - Priest/Sage

 

Science/Technological advances would be the main focus, and we'd quickly develop primative lightning guns and steam tanks

 

then I'd take over the world

 

Note: Ancient Egypt had knowledge of electricity and a primitive idea of how to create it/direct it... and ancient Rome had developed the steam engine.

[Cantousent]

"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.

 

"Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh itself from business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own.

 

"If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger. In proof of this it may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes. Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, because we have at once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our citizens by land upon a hundred different services; so that, wherever they engage with some such fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands of our entire people. And yet if with habits not of labour but of ease, and courage not of art but of nature, we are still willing to encounter danger, we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of hardships in anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as those who are never free from them.

 

"Nor are these the only points in which our city is worthy of admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the Athenians, who, fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality.

 

"In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere boast thrown out for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state acquired by these habits proves. For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such is the Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer in her cause.

 

"Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose, and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have made her, men whose fame, unlike that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate with their deserts. And if a test of worth be wanted, it is to be found in their closing scene, and this not only in cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their having any. For there is justice in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as an individual. But none of these allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be desired than any personal blessings, and reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully determined to accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance, and to let their wishes wait; and while committing to hope the uncertainty of final success, in the business before them they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to face, and after one brief moment, while at the summit of their fortune, escaped, not from their fear, but from their glory.

 

"So died these men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country, though these would furnish a valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the present, you must yourselves realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her from day to day, till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her greatness shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty, and a keen feeling of honour in action that men were enabled to win all this, and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to deprive their country of their valour, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer. For this offering of their lives made in common by them all they each of them individually received that renown which never grows old, and for a sepulchre, not so much that in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest of shrines wherein their glory is laid up to be eternally remembered upon every occasion on which deed or story shall call for its commemoration. For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart. These take as your model and, judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war. For it is not the miserable that would most justly be unsparing of their lives; these have nothing to hope for: it is rather they to whom continued life may bring reverses as yet unknown, and to whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in its consequences. And surely, to a man of spirit, the degradation of cowardice must be immeasurably more grievous than the unfelt death which strikes him in the midst of his strength and patriotism!

 

"Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer to the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is subject; but fortunate indeed are they who draw for their lot a death so glorious as that which has caused your mourning, and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed. Still I know that this is a hard saying, especially when those are in question of whom you will constantly be reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of which once you also boasted: for grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed. Yet you who are still of an age to beget children must bear up in the hope of having others in their stead; not only will they help you to forget those whom you have lost, but will be to the state at once a reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or just policy be expected of the citizen who does not, like his fellows, bring to the decision the interests and apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have passed your prime must congratulate yourselves with the thought that the best part of your life was fortunate, and that the brief span that remains will be cheered by the fame of the departed. For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness.

 

"Turning to the sons or brothers of the dead, I see an arduous struggle before you. When a man is gone, all are wont to praise him, and should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still find it difficult not merely to overtake, but even to approach their renown. The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our path are honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. On the other hand, if I must say anything on the subject of female excellence to those of you who will now be in widowhood, it will be all comprised in this brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men, whether for good or for bad.

 

"My task is now finished. I have performed it to the best of my ability, and in word, at least, the requirements of the law are now satisfied. If deeds be in question, those who are here interred have received part of their honours already, and for the rest, their children will be brought up till manhood at the public expense: the state thus offers a valuable prize, as the garland of victory in this race of valour, for the reward both of those who have fallen and their survivors. And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.

 

"And now that you have brought to a close your lamentations for your relatives, you may depart." Pericles of Athens

[EnderAndrew]

My Republic would be similiar to the US as a blend of socialism and capitalism save that it would be a proper Democracy.

 

The following changes would come into play:

 

All members of Congress would be well paid, however they would be forbidden to accept one penny from lobbyists. There would be no private campaign funds either. All parties running for office with enough signatures receive equal government funding for campaigns.

 

Welfare would be more accessible, however at the same time it would be contigent on entering an appropriate program to help the end-user get off of welfare. Need childcare? It's provided. Need transportation? Here's a bus pass. Have a drug problem? Here's rehab. Need training in a job skill? Here's vocational grants.

 

Our entire concept of prison would be completely reworked. Our "criminal justice" system creates more criminals than we rehabilitate. People serving life sentences would be in completely different prisons than those serving shorter sentences. Good behavior is rewarded with lower security prisons, more freedoms, etc. Drug rehab, job training, and counseling would be a major part of the prison system. Futhermore, the weight rooms would be taken out, and gourmet food would be brought in. Fat, placated prisoners are less violent than testerone-producing ones.

 

A new simplified tax code would step in with a flat tax, abolishing all previous tax laws. Cutting through the red tape of the IRS actually frees up a bunch of money overnight. With fewer laws, there are fewer loopholes. Forcing the wealthy to actually pay taxes would also fix most budget problems.

 

Next, we would institute new tariffs and refuse economic aid and partnership to countries that refuse to combat piracy of our intellectual property. The US for example produces the intellectual property for the world, but no one outside of the US actually pays for it. Imagine what this could do for our trade deficit?

 

Next there would be a "tariff" on labor. Companies that outsource labor to other countries will be taxed.

 

Lastly, the minimum wage would be raised to $7.50/hr for all adults and $6.00 for students, or people pulling social security. You can't live making $5.15 an hour. You just can't. To curb potential inflation, at the same time we temporarily cut the federal interest rates, allowing companies to borrow the initial extra money they'd need to pay in payroll. In the end, as employees have more money in their pocket, they will spend it, thus encouraging economic growth.

 

I should run for President.

[EnderAndrew]

Let's play a game of sorts.

 

http://www.nationstates.net/

 

You signup for free. You don't even have to give them an email address.

 

You create a nation and answer a few quick questions about what type of government you want. You can create a flag for your nation. Each day issues pop up in your nation. How you respond to these issues changes the economy, morale, rights and standing of your nation.

 

Your nation can belong to a region, where an regional delegate can be elected to the UN. Every person who endorses the regional delegate effectively gives that delegate their vote in the UN.

 

In the UN, thousands of votes are cast to enact laws that affect all members of the UN.

 

I just created a nation called West-Denmark. They wouldn't let me reuse my former name of West Denmark, hence the dash. Then join the Obsidian region.

 

Let the politics, roleplaying and nation simulating begin.

[Weiser_Cain]

Kill all undesirables and control breeding as much as possible, only those physically impressive, very attractive, or very intelligent would be allowed to breed and become a part of the upper class. Among the surplus population any that qualify can try to prove their worth and join the elite (by being adopted by whatever family that their talents match), whereupon they are educated and provided for by the state, and serve as officials generals and other assorted important position depending on their abilities and talents. Military prowesses, both physical and mental are paramount. Perfection in mind and body are the ideal. All art focuses obsessively on human beauty. Lots of sex. Architecture leans more towards fortification than decoration.

[Gorth]

Let's play a game of sorts.

 

http://www.nationstates.net/

 

You signup for free.  You don't even have to give them an email address.

Nationstates is hilarious, at least for a while until the events gets recycled

 

Unfortunately, my old country (Gorthovania) doesn't exist anymore in the region of The Black Isle...

 

(your country goes poof, if you don't make decisions for more than a month)

[Commissar]

Let's play a game of sorts.

 

http://www.nationstates.net/

 

You signup for free.  You don't even have to give them an email address.

Nationstates is hilarious, at least for a while until the events gets recycled

 

Unfortunately, my old country (Gorthovania) doesn't exist anymore in the region of The Black Isle...

 

(your country goes poof, if you don't make decisions for more than a month)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So start up again, and join Obsidian!

[Gorth]

Let's play a game of sorts.

 

http://www.nationstates.net/

 

You signup for free.  You don't even have to give them an email address.

Nationstates is hilarious, at least for a while until the events gets recycled

 

Unfortunately, my old country (Gorthovania) doesn't exist anymore in the region of The Black Isle...

 

(your country goes poof, if you don't make decisions for more than a month)

So start up again, and join Obsidian!

I just lodged a request there, to see if is possible to get it restored :cool:

[Weiser_Cain]

Ok I'm bored with that, anyone know a real game like this? I remember playing some game where I went around discovering the wheel, etc...

[alanschu]

I joined.

 

The Democratic Republic of Allanitar

[EnderAndrew]

Ok I'm bored with that, anyone know a real game like this? I remember playing some game where I went around discovering the wheel, etc...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean like Civilization?

 

You must resist the tempation to play Civ.

 

http://www.civanon.org/

[Darque]

I think I tried that a long time ago... got kinda boring

[EnderAndrew]

They've gone from 90 issues to around 190 which helps.

 

You can go into settings and select how often you want to deal with new issues.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Absolute monarchy.

[Calax]

Location: The North Pacific

 

The Grand Duchy of Kethares is a tiny, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its absence of drug laws. Its compassionate, cynical population of 5 million are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

 

The large, corrupt government devotes most of its attentions to Social Welfare, with areas such as Law & Order and Defence receiving almost no funds by comparison. The average income tax rate is 26%, but much higher for the wealthy. A small but healthy private sector is led by the Furniture Restoration industry, followed by Retail and Trout Farming.

 

Crime is relatively low. Kethares's national animal is the tiger, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the duke.

 

 

Boy does this seem odd, it's a compationate but corrupt nation! AND IT'S MINE!

It's an ittty bitty island in the North Pacific if you must know, the type america likes to blow up with Atomic tests.

[Weiser_Cain]

I thought that was france.

[EnderAndrew]

The Rogue Nation of West Denmark is a huge, economically powerful nation, remarkable for its complete lack of prisons. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 326 million enjoy extensive civil freedoms, particularly in social issues, while business tends to be more regulated.

 

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, liberal government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Social Welfare, Education, and the Environment. The average income tax rate is 98%. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising fourteen-year-old boys selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

 

The only places to see snuzzlemuffs now are at local zoos, smoking is banned in public areas, torture is commonly used to extract information from suspected criminals, and city sidewalks are crowded with overweight people. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is relatively low. West Denmark's national animal is the snuzzlemuff, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its currency is the cold one.

[alanschu]

326 million people? Didn't you just have 5???

[EnderAndrew]

They reactivated my old account.

[alanschu]

That's quite the tax rate you have going there.

 

Don't know if Allanitar agrees with your complete control over your economy though, while I do like the strong social support net.

[Calax]

I beat him with 26 but the rich people have to pay more

[alanschu]

My Tax Rate is 15%

[EnderAndrew]

My old account I almost intentionally tried to run into the ground. I made decisions based on what the Beer Party would do if they got into power.