Board Thread:Fiction Universe Discussion/@comment-5080468-20170729214359

I have not marked out the events prior to the Great War of Planetary Unification.

Medwedia's rise to power would happen after the industrial revolution; it would have built a major colonial empire by the invention of the airplane. Maybe it could slowly infiltrate and weaken other, especially smaller states, over the course of the two-three centuries that followed? The motto of this policy would be "Let's quickly invade a small country here, let's bribe the government of another one into joining the MDF, etc...". I haven't even defined the time period between the foundation of Medwedia and planetary unification yet!

The topic of this essay will be the Medwedian political ideology and Medwedia's rise from a young regional power to a global player on Ærd - I would like to elaborate the events that would lead to Medwedia's domination over the planet together with you.

What I know is that Medwedia originated from small kingdoms, duchies and counties located on a northern continent which appeared during the Ursoid equivalent of the Middle Ages and kept eachother in ever-changing alliances and wars. States split and merged; the wars became much bloodier with the invention of firearms. A very large war similar to the Thirty Years' War emerged in today's central Medwedia between the Duchy of Medwed, Kingdom of Tullemark, Kingdom of Waidawiek and several others. This happened in a time period that technologically corresponded to Earth's late 18th century. At that time, the Lower Sagittarius Arm was considered a wilderness full of developing civilizations not worthy uplifting or intervening into; literally nobody was aware of the civilization forming on a planet eerily similar to Earth in size and climate. The states laid siege and destabilized eachother; no winner emerged because they were locked in a system of alliances of equal strength. As the population lost trust their kings, the military commanders of several states met secretly and forged a conspiracy. They sparked a military and civilian rebellion in the city of Medwed - now the capital of Medwedia. It quickly spread to the other countries; the armies arrested their own kings, who were summarily executed. The conspiring commanders, who had orchestrated everything, immediately declared peace and united the countries under a common military junta, the Medwedian Confederation. Medwed was chosen as the capital because it was the place of meeting for the conspiring generals and marshals and the birthplace of Medwedia - compare with the Weimar Republic (the key difference being that Weimar was not chosen as capital because it was too small; it made sense to keep Berlin, which had been a capital for a long time).

The military junta (called "Council of the Governors", because every member of the junta was assigned as Governor to his home kingdom) chose the Governor of Medwedland, Marshal Thorwald Olsen, as their Chief and gave him absolute powers; his orders could only be neutralized by a 2/3 veto. Within weeks of the formation of the confederation, Marshal Thorwald Olsen displaced the rest of the junta and proclaimed the Medwedian Democratic Federation, making himself President. Nothing stood in his way now; he altered the constitution and fused the old aristocracy with a new elite that he chose personally, drawing from


 * his military friends and those who helped with the assasination of the junta,
 * ultraconservative but not royalist members of the clergy
 * the wealthy non-aristocracy.

These four ingredients - aristocracy, bourgeoise, clergy and military - have shaped the Medwedian Democratic Federation until today, some scholars calling them "The Four Pillars of Medwedia". The ingredients were used to cook the soup that residents of Medwedia are still eating today.

As you can see, the revolution was not a socialist one. The junta was drawn by a common thirst for might and power - the commanding officers saw their kings as obstacles to the fulfillment of their perverted and militarized versions of a state. Olsen and his companions did not want to liberate the people but to oppress them in new ways, enriching themselves and satisfying their thirst for pride and glory. They all had a maniacal complex of "being second" - in an absolute monarchy, the king is always the first person, no matter how much power he has. His ministers, adjutants and generals, who do much more constructive work, are kept in the background.

Olsen's personal vision of a state was based around a highly stratified system of rigidly separated classes; this is the state of Medwedia right now that took many decades of work. One of the head elements of Olsen's ideology is the following sentence:

"Every citizen should know his place in the society and not question it. Ideally, one's role should be clarified at birth. This is the standard all states do strive towards, and one of the element of utopia."

- Opening of the 3rd chapter, On Statehood, T. Olsen

You can see what I'm slowly moving toward - the Medwedian social, cultural and political conservatism that is usually taken to the outermost extreme. But more about that later. First, let's return to our friend Thorwald Olsen, the first Medwedian dictator. In his 15-year rule, he wrote many political tractats that formed the Medwedian ideology. The most important of them has been quoted here; by law, it is mandatory lecture in gymnasiums and lyceums (eight-year schools and vocational schools do not teach politics to "not litter the heads of workers with unneeded knowledge", more later). Olsen did not have much to reform; most of the old structures were either destroyed or fused into federal ones following the foundation of the Federation. He managed to increase social inequality and stiffen the classes, but the reaching of the current state of Medwedian society took much longer. President Thorwald Olsen was an intelligent man, but he did not predict the future and its technologies - in a time period which corresponded with the Terran early classicism, there were better things to do than imagine giant interstellar empires. However, he knew the unpredictability of the future and as such wrote his books as simply and vaguely as possible in a language that could be understood by young university students. Olsen stayed a healthy man and woke up early in the morning until the very end; he surprisingly died of a stroke three days after his 72nd birthday. His vice-president, Edmund Abengaard Wornov, who came from the southern province of Tayrmark, assumed power. Wornov was unprepared for his office, having kept himself in the background and only taking unimportant decisions or travelling the country on Olsen's behalf to speak with local farmers and landlords.

Abengaard formed the 400-seat Folksdag as an advisory body; as he did not have as much authority as the later dictators and as such could not prevent the formation of different political parties, not used to executing those he does not like even though he was technically allowed to do so. The Medwedisk Folksparti, the only legal party today, quickly dominated the parliament. Abengaard's rule was the time when Medwedia was closest to becoming a democracy, a much weaker state. Abengaard fell from a cliff during a visit to a mountain province; it is rumoured that he was pushed off it by a party official. The question whether it all was an asassination is one of the most heavily-guarded secrets of Medwedia now; due to the events, Abengaard has been "erased from history" and removed from encyclopedias and textbooks. Even the current president does not know about Abengaard's existence.

Albert Melnik, a general of the army of Tullemark in the war, took power. He was the chief of the Medwedisk Folksparti and immediately banned the other parties; all of their members were impaled publicily on the Presidental Square in Medwed. This begun the tradition of excessive brutality and mass executions all future Medwedian dictators would use; some consider Albert Melnik as the first modern Medwedian ruler, the two before him being an avantgardist and somebody who was rather forced than wanted to rule the country, respectively. The Medwedisk Folksparti's rise to the party organ of the government is Petersen's work. Some consider Melnik to be more important than Thorwald Olsen himself!

The three first rulers are enough to explain Medwedia's early history. All subsequent dictators up to the current one, Theodor Lynden Frankenstein, are essentially copies of Melnik, each one making more elaborate and intricate policies and dividing the poor and the rich even further. There were no changes - only improvements or evolutions of the original ideological base. Olsen's book is law. Turned into a set of dogmata, it has shaped Medwedia over seven and a half centuries. The most Presidents could do was to interprete Olsen's work in their own ways, but there were no changes in the political course. Ever. No changes at all. Nein. Nyet. Niente. Not in Medwedia.

Why?

Ultraconservatism, already mentioned in this essay, is the answer. It is one of the main elements of Medwedia's ideology. Olsen was an avantgardist who hated change; he saw change and improvement as a necessary evil in the process of the formation of an utopia. Why should an utopia, a perfect state, change? All utopias are and must be ultraconservative, according to Thorwald Olsen.

Just like post-scarcity and the abolition of money are ideals communist states are working towards more or less asymptotically, the ultraconservative utopia in which there is no need for change and society and culture stay the same for millenia is what Medwedia is working towards more or less asymptotically. Just like the Soviets on Earth predicted the abolition of money to happen in 1980, the Medwedisk Folksparti predicted the national utopia to be reached first by 2400, then by 2550, then by 2800. Now, the promised date has been postponed to the year 3200.

Ultraconservatism, influenced by the four groups Olsen chose for his elite formation, was established by Olsen as a vehicle for preserving and enforcing his teachings. A bit like Hari Seldon's elaborate psychohistoric plan but still different (I enjoyed the Foundation, but it was surprisingly long, one of the classic "Epic SF" genre novels.). The aristocracy was not removed but accepted into the elite on ground of Olsen's personal conservatism and to preserve and magnify the culture of class division; the wealthy were chosen for the same reason. The clergy was chosen to extert conservative influence as it fused into the new elite and to allow the transformation of religion into a propaganda tool. Thorwald Olsen was a devout follower of Medwedian Orthodoxy amd a friend of the Patriarch.

Olsen made his legacy live on without even intending it! He did not know that his book "On Statehood" would become the political bible of Medwedia!

We have now examined the motivation for Ultraconservatism. Now let's look into the culture of class division and totalitarianism, which is tightly interweaved with the conservatism, before coming to the conclusion of this essay.

Why did Olsen want class division and dictatorship? And why did he mandate state-imposed hierarchization and classification of the population rather than lassez-faire capitalism, which would essentially lead to the same purpose?

To make the state a more stable, latent and conservative one! Societies in which homeless men can become wealthy tycoons are too fluent - everybody works towards their ideals and finding personal luck rather than productively benefitting the state. Democracies are unsuitable for fulfilling long-term goals such as Olsen's ideological agenda. Of course, Olsen's primary motivation for establishing an authoritarian state rather than a democratic one was his afromentioned desire for power, but it fulfilled a deeper purpose Olsen sometimes mentioned, too!

A dictatorship, provided that it is stable and does not get replaced by a different regime every 20 years - a dictatorship reinforced by many social policies such as Medwedia - can preserve an ideology for a long time. The Soviet Union was the closest Earthly state to Medwedia in terms of structure (ideologically, it was the exact opposite), and it could preserve a dogmatic ideology based on Marx's and Engels' works until the Perestroika, at the same time not isolating itself like North Korea but maintaining its role as a planetary-level equivalent of a "hyperpower". Medwedia uses class division for multiple purposes.

First of all, to suppress the striving towards personal fulfillment and emphasize working towards the good of the group. Somebody who does not know the possibility of becoming indefinitely successfull and instead knows that there is an official ceiling he can not surpass has less personal aspirations, for personal aspirations arise from the desire of becoming wealthy. It is easier to persuade them to sacrifice themselves in the favor of the greater good of the society. This is a point in which Medwedian ideology gets close to the left side, while it is technically considered to be far-right. No, Medwedia is not fascist - it is a different type of far-right that has few things in common with fascism and nazism (it only shares some methods such as eugenics or aggressive war culture). To comprehend the difference between Nazism and the Medwedian ideology, three- or even four-dimensional political spectrums would be needed. I can just tell you that Medwedia is not fascist.

Second of all, to stabilize the conservative state of the government. Democracies are in a state of constant change, turmoil and revolution - the only difference from failed states such as Columbia being the fact that those revolutions are legally mandated, started and ended by the people themselves, peaceful, tightly controlled and limited in their extents. To connect with the above aspect - most politicians usually do not work for the greater good but for personal enrichment, such as Mr. Trump does. It is not something that they should be blamed or punished for but the nature of democracy. Democracy, just like dictatorship, has its advantages and drawbacks. After all, there are powerful democratic nations in the Gigaquadrant, France being the prime example.

Finally and most importantly, to easen and effectivize national development and the everyday processes countries such as Medwedia, France or the DCP undergo daily. The "small things" that are somehow similar everywhere. I'm talking about building apartment houses, piloting spaceships (or city buses), growing and harvesting vegetables and growing and slaughtering cattle, developing new methods of propulsion or serving drinks in bars and recess rooms of office buildings. There also must be people who are in charge of the general completion of these things, but these groups must be separated. A school janitor can not be tasked with creating new hygienic laws or controlling the budget of the Intergalactic Work Union of the Janitors but the head chairman of said organization can not be made to mop classrooms every day.

Entirely different levels of intelligence, cultural parameters and skill sets are needed for these activities! Let's compare France with Medwedia: in France, most children probably spend years choosing their profession, with special classes devoted to it. Extensive testing determines whether a kid will be sent to university or undergo vocational training. This leads to higher bias towards the academic career, which offers more respect and a higher standard of life; tradesmen and workers (skilled and unskilled) are literally running out of apprentices and successors. The state is forced to pick the dumbest and worst-behaving children to undergo training in vocational jobs, which leads to a loss of quality in those jobs, a subsequent loss of respect towards people employed in them and as such reinforces the policy of the state of forcing the worst people to these low-rated professions. This form of work distribution allows every child to unwind their character and pursue their interests, as guaranteed in most democracies, but has a complex of disadvantages I described in the last five sentences.

It is tolerable for open-minded civilizations with loosely defined goals such as France but not suitable under any conditions for Medwedia and similar states that work towards the fulfillment of clear ideological tasks and must rapidly expand and produce resources, especially for war, at a high rate. Here, the government must intervene and create a system which streamlines the process of work distribution. Simply said: in Medwedia, the son of a baker becomes a baker. The son of an unskilled worker will tend factory machines or fusion reactors of spaceships his whole life, the son of an engineer will probably become an engineer and the son of a minister will hold a high-ranking governmental position or become a commanding officer of the armed forces. This is enforced by the law.

"Prerequisites for the granting to the son of a family an official permission to undergo higher education, namely study the sciences at an University, Academy or Institute or attend an Officer Academy or learn Higher Vocations equal in status to universitary professions specified by the Vocation Law are, as decided by the will of the People:


 * a.) a sufficing level of intelligence that shall be determined in examinatio if im doubt;
 * b.) a fitting personal character, natural tendence towards wisdom and wish to learn and contribute productively towards Medwedian ideals and use the knowledge given honestly and to the good of the Medwedian people and nation;
 * c.) suiting monetary affluency and
 * d.) the posession of completed academic diplomae of the afromentioned forms of education by at least one member of the family"

- Federal Education Law, §12a

I understand that Medwedian judicial language is hard to decipher and archaic (the original Medwedian text is even more complicated) but undoubtedly - there is a law that prohibits children of parents who do not have higher education (and are therefore poor and vice versa) to go to university and encourages sons to pursue their parents' interests. This is also another manifestation of the Medwedian Ultraconservatism, on the level of an individual and his family. Because of this law and of social conventions and customs that support it, the future role of a child is known at birth. No mental resources and no time is wasted for the determination of one's profession. As a second obstacle that prevents families which are poor but somehow have managed to marry with members of the academia from sustaining their status, all grammar schools and universities have a governmentally mandated price floor. Free 8-year old schools as well as vocational schools do not teach anything not directly related to the profession the students are to attain. No art, no music, no literature except for a small set of propaganda books written specially for workers. Only reading, writing, simple arithmetic and accounting and the manual skills needed such as woodworking or butchering pigs. Girls learn how to cook, sew and obey their husbands. Boys get a life's worth of PE during their mandatory three-year military service and preparatory camps held in the summer holidays.

These policies of course were met with some resistance from the working classes in the first century of the Federation's existence and again when the planetary post-industrial and electronic age was reached and allowed some Medwedians have insight into the more liberal lives of the citizens of other countries. All protests were silenced brutally by the police. Those who accidentally spoke a single sentence about their percieved disadvantages of the system during common meals were arrested and had their tongues ripped out by torturers if they did not just disappear. This forced reeducation and training of the plebs, which was also carried out in other fields, was necessary but successful.

The modern Medwedian worker does not question his purpose - he really does not do this. He does not even think about doing this and supports the system (if he even has the mental capability to comprehend politics and rate the actions of those who govern him). He only knows the skills he needs for the fulfillment of his tasks and pursues his mission until death. Academics and the ruling elite are entirely different worlds of "incredibly busy people doing incredibly complicated things". The Medwedian worker finds a vent for his stress and aggression in the national hate for aliens or in the enjoyment of public executions and massacres. Doctored footage of battles or endless news about the successes in colonization are his entertainment. The Medwedian worker is one of the products of century-long hard work.

Now that we have described the reasoning behind the Medwedian class division and its reinforcement by the government, we must draw the conclusion and synthesis of the essay. It must be noted that it does not highlight even a small fraction of the life and history of Medwedia; do not let me mislead you with its extent! I could keep writing about Medwedia for hours and hours.

One last question arises: what is the name of the Medwedian ideology? There is none. The absence of a clear definition and name is part of the ideology. It must be noted that Medwedia developed into a totalitarian, somewhat exotically totalitarian dictatorship while other countries of Ærd developed into more "normal" forms of government, whether democratic or non-democratic. The multiparty episode only lasted for several years - ideologies could not form in that time, especially considering the fact that the "parties" except for the Medwedisk Folksparti were not clearly defined and more similar to the factions of the Frankfurt parliament of 1848. A name is only needed to differentiate in competition, and Medwedia, not fearing competition within itself, did not need a name for its ideology. Propaganda media usually uses terms such as "The Light of Civilization" when speaking about the conversion of other species to Medwedian culture, Medwedian ideology and Medwedian ways of life. Civilizations such as the Talven Empire, which have different political beliefs, are referred to as "Barbarians" or "Savages" even if more advanced, although Medwedian xenophobia and racism also plays a role in this.

However, for external, especially out-of-character use, I recommend the term "Ultraconservative National Utopism". It is somewhat bulky but does the best job at describing the Medwedian ideology.

I thank you for reading this excruciably long and hard-to-digest essay and am looking forward to your responses. As mentioned above, I request that you use your political knowledge to assist me in drawing a realistic history of pre-Planetary Unification Ærd. I hope that we will both profit from this discussion and that our essays will benefit many users of the wiki, inspiring them to develop their own unique concepts. 