Board Thread:Fiction Universe Discussion/@comment-5080468-20170728193412

Your reply to my question about surface borders is very interesting, so let's talk a bit about the "One Species, One Culture" trope if you have time.

The thing you are pointing out is but true. I'm trying to prevent it with Medwedia, too. Let's begin by showing a recap of pre-interstellar Medwedian history.


 * Medwedia was a normal country on the planet Ærd, just like France or Russia were on Earth. Ærd had (and still has) distinct Ursoid cultures and ethnicities, and there were other countries (the most important being Rodunia, Lumistan, Araz-Nul and Gargona).
 * During the "Great War of Planetary Unification", the Ursoid equivalent of WW3, Medwedia quickly captured and annexed the already weakened rest of the planet. Nuclear apocalypse could be prevented because Medwedia gradually weakened the other countries before the war and confiscated all nukes. De facto, it was not a voluntary unification into a new state but an annexation and absorption.
 * Shortly after the GWPU, interstellar travel started and colonies were built.

Now to the culture: due to Medwedian dominance, many elements of Medwedian culture spread on the planet. Not like "Everybody suddenly turning Medwedian" but like American and European pop culture is spreading over Africa and Asia. As the Medwedian dictatorship was (and still is, albeit not admitting it) goddamn racist and saw the Medwedian ethnicity as the superior of Ærd, nobody from the other countries could become a part of the elite. Still today, most high-ranking positions are clad by those ethnically Medwedian (there are some Rodunians, too, because the country historically had a good relationship to Medwedia and cultural similarities because it bordered it). Due to racist policies and breeding programs, approximately half of the population of Ærd is ethnically Medwedian now.

There still are other ethnicities and cultures and languages other than Medwedian being taught and used, but they are kept in the background. Religions other than Medwedian Orthodoxy are practiced, too, albeit illegally and on pain of the death penalty for heresy. The "One Species, One Culture" cliché is being artificially worked towards by the government, but it is not the natural state of the Ursoid civilization (I'm not saying "Medwedian" on purpose). Think of the Nazis trying to make everybody and everything Aryan, but on a larger scale, in more subtle ways and without sterilizations or concentration camps.

Instead of subjecting non-Medwedian ethnicities to genocide (after all, the Medwedian government is already committing genocide towards non-Ursoids), several things are done:


 * Propaganda. Let's begin with the name of the country, which did not change since it started out as a regional power in the pre-industrial era as a fusion of multiple kingdoms under one military junta. Medwedian culture is Medwedian culture. When alien tourists get to visit Ærd (this happens very, very rarely), they are only shown historically and ethnically Medwedian regions and cities or completely cleansed and assimilated parts of non-Medwedian regions such as Lumistan. Medwedian literature, music and art is encouraged and everybody is forced to learn the Medwedian language as their first one. When a delegation, let's say from the Stellar Union, visits the southern region of Kralland (which has never been part of Medwedia before the Great War of Planetary Unification), they are greeted by people wearing Medwedian folk costumes and eat Medwedian dishes.
 * Encouraging ethnical Medwedian reproduction. The ethnically Medwedian working class is severely encouraged if not forced to breed more than non-ethnical Medwedians (which are encouraged to stay modest, some regions even enacting one-child policies). Medwedian families get rewards and privileges per child born. Officers are promoted quicker or people accepted into the party easier if they are the eldest son of a large family, as it is believed that they learned responsibility and commanding in their childhood.
 * Encouraging assimilation of non-Medwedians into Medwediandom. As said before, non-Medwedians are not sterilized or gassed. Instead, propaganda encourages families to marry their daughters into Medwedian families. Many families choose to embrace Medwedian culture voluntarily as they want their children to have better career chances. Children of working-class families are not allowed to study and forced to undergo vocational training - exceptions are only made for very smart, Medwedian kids. The Medwedian language is the only official language of all provinces; anybody who does not know it well is disadvantaged. Some non-Medwedian parents choose to only talk to their own children in Medwedian, treating their own native languages as worthless, primitive dialects.
 * Social engineering in colonization. The government sends out large colony ships at a rate of one per week - it functions as a "sink" for the populations of Ærd and the old colonies, to prevent life becoming uncomfortable due to high population density. Of course, the Ministry of Colonization gets to choose which people get a ticket - every colony ship must be 80% Medwedian and the remaining minority is encouraged (another term for "forced under threats of being thrown out of the airlock") to fuse with the Medwedian majority. In the 100 most recently colonized systems, 92.7% of all residents consider themselves "ethnically Medwedian". Bingo!

Do you think that this is a realistic approach to the aspect of cultural (un)diversity? It must be considered that the Medwedian Democratic Federation is a totalitarian, dystopian dictatorship where thieves have their hands amputated and there are whole universities dedicated to inventing new methods of torture. Democratic societies will have much more cultural diversity and regionalism (albeit cultures will slowly fuse into the most popular one); I'm not even speaking about multi-species nations here!

Feel free to post your examples here! 