Jasonia
How a Nation
Could and Should Be
by Jayson X
© 2007
Chapter One: King Jason's Constitution
In the year 1000, a king died,
leaving behind an eighteen-year-old son, Prince Jason. Prince Jason was far
from perfect, but he always tried to be as perfect as reason permitted,
especially in the moral sense of perfection. At the age of fourteen, Jason had
given up his inherited religion for a personal philosophy which based all
beliefs and actions on reason, compassion, and hope, rather than superstition,
selfishness, and/or despair. Jason was convinced that this personal philosophy
would help him, or anyone else who freely chose to embrace it, be as good and
happy as possible.
Note
the word freely. Jason was not
power-hungry. He just wanted to be as good and happy as possible. If that meant
being a lowly peasant, so be it. If that meant being king, so be it.
As
often happens when a king died back in those days, a civil war ensued. Power-hungry
men (and sometimes women) would murder for the throne. Jason's younger brother,
Prince Marcus, was such man. Although Jason had been officially declared the
legitimate successor by the king before the king's death, and although the
eldest prince was almost always first in line to be king according to tradition,
Marcus was able to convince many nobles to support his cause. Marcus openly
accused Jason of weakness, incompetence, and—perhaps most scandalous of
all—apostasy. Privately, though, he bribed many of his supporters with promises
of more riches and power.
So
Jason had a choice: He could fight to be king or let Marcus be king. Reason,
compassion, and hope made the choice an easy one. Jason was the legitimate
successor, Jason wanted what was best for all his countrymen, and Jason hoped
to make the world a better place. Therefore, he soon rallied his supporters,
had himself crowned King Jason I, and led the fight against the forces of
Marcus, who now called himself King Marcus I.
The
civil war was long and bloody, but, eventually, King Jason's side prevailed and
Marcus surrendered. What was King Jason to do with his evil brother? On one
hand, Marcus had surrendered, so it seemed wrong to kill him because he was a
helpless prisoner. He was also King Jason's brother, and King Jason hated to
kill anyone, especially a close relative. But on the other hand, Marcus was a
threat to King Jason and the kingdom while he remained alive. Whether
imprisoned or exiled, Marcus could, and almost certainly would try to, take
over the kingdom again.
King
Jason solved the problem by issuing The Edict of Equality. This law proclaimed
that all human beings are of equal value, no matter what. The young are as
valuable as the old, the strong as the weak, the rich as the poor, the healthy
as the sick, the smart as the stupid, the female as the male, the innocent as
the guilty, et cetera. Thus, according to this law, all people should be
treated equally by the law. The established law of the land used to be that
most murderers should be tortured and executed. But King Jason had outlawed
almost all forms of torture during the civil war because torture was cruel and
often counterproductive. He even contemplated outlawing execution because he
valued all life and sometimes the wrong person was executed. A dead person
cannot be brought back to life, even after she or he is proven innocent.
The
one form of torture King Jason still allowed was called limited whipping. Limited
whipping was when a convicted criminal was struck on the back less than forty
times with a humane whip. A whip is a cord or strip made out of leather or a
similar substance, but sometimes things like spikes, knots, and glass are added
to a whip to cause more pain or damage. A humane whip lacks those added things.
The
purpose of limited whipping was to punish criminals when it was impractical to
adequately fine or imprison them. King Jason thought that limited whipping was
more just than not punishing criminals and more merciful than harsher
punishments, which were very common in other kingdoms back then.
As
for executions, King Jason was not yet convinced that all of them were evil,
especially when they were quick and relatively painless. It seemed reasonable
to him that murders should be killed, just like thieves should be robbed. That
was justice. Furthermore, the possibility of execution was a strong deterrent
for many potential murderers, and it was less expensive and perhaps more
merciful to quickly execute a murderer than imprison him or her for life. King
Jason hoped, however, that someday his kingdom would progress to the point
where capital punishment would be unnecessary. Murders would probably never
cease as long as there were people, but perhaps the kingdom would become so
rich that all murderers could easily be imprisoned in humane prisons. In that
case, life imprisonment would probably be better than execution.
So
Marcus was quickly executed without torture in front of a few witnesses. King
Jason outlawed executions and whippings in front of large crowds, because
executions and whippings were to promote justice, not to be spectator sports. He
had always been sickened and saddened by the carnival atmosphere of such
gatherings. "Someone is being hurt here!" he felt like yelling at the
many jeering spectators. "He or she might even be innocent! We can never be
completely sure! The least you could do is somberly watch! Better yet, don't
watch at all, and let the executioner or whipper do his work!" As a
prince, he used to think, If I become
king, I will do away with such gatherings. They promote cruel, violent, and
callous attitudes. King Jason obviously kept that resolve.
King Jason ruled wisely for many
years, and his kingdom prospered. Compared to many other kingdoms, there was
relative peace and justice. In fact, many people in and around his kingdom
referred to the ruler as King Jason the Just, and King Jason felt extremely
honored by the title. He used to say, "Justice promotes peace, and peace
promotes prosperity." His kingdom was living proof of that.
At
the age of fifty when his formerly all-black beard was now half white, King
Jason began to implement a radical plan. He assembled all the ruling lords and
ladies of the kingdom, or at least their official representatives, together in
a large meeting hall. They sat on comfortable wooden benches, listening
attentively to their king's words as he spoke slowly and clearly behind a
large, ornate podium atop a long wooden stage: "My fellow countrymen, I am
growing old, and the end of my reign is in sight. I could die today, tomorrow,
or ten years from now. Who knows? What I do know is that civil war often follows
the death of a king—not just in this kingdom, but in every kingdom I know of. This
is wrong. Government was made for people; people were not made for government. Therefore,
we need a better system of government.
"I
have thought long and hard on this matter, and have come up with a two-stage
plan. The first stage is to develop a great assembly called the Congress, which
will eventually rule the kingdom. This kingdom belongs to its people, so its
people should rule it. They do not rule it when one man or woman gets lucky
enough to seize the throne; they rule it when they can choose their government
by electing representatives. That is what the Congress will be, an assembly of
representatives elected by the adult citizens of the kingdom. The people will
rule Congress, and Congress will rule the people. Thus, the people will
actually rule themselves.
"Our
kingdom is currently comprised of 100 fiefdoms. I propose that the adult
citizens of each fiefdom elect two representatives to the Congress. That way,
each fiefdom will be equally represented."
A
burly nobleman interrupted: "Excuse me, Your Highness, but that does not
seem quite fair. I come from a fiefdom with a larger-than-average population. Why
should my fiefdom only have two representatives when fiefdoms with much smaller
populations also have two?"
"That
is an excellent question, Lord Hybiscus. The fact is that Congress will be
comprised of two distinct assemblies. One of the two will be called the Senate,
and the Senate will consist of only two representatives from each fiefdom—no
more and no less. This way, in at least one of the two assemblies, all fiefdoms
will have equal power, and this is fair for the fiefdoms with smaller
populations.
"The
other assembly—that is the other part of Congress—will simply be called the
Council, and it is in the Council that fiefdoms will have representation in
proportion to their population."
The
king gestured to a map of the kingdom, hanging on the wall behind him to his
left. The map was made of wood, painted completely white except for black lines
and writing covered by a red grid. Being the height and length of two tall men,
it could clearly be seen by the entire audience.
"Please
observe the map of our glorious kingdom and note that it is crisscrossed with a
grid. Each square of the grid represents a potential voting district. Based on
this grid pattern, voting districts must be square or as close to square as
possible to avoid cheating. Immoral politicians could potentially divide
eligible voters into irregularly-shaped districts to give an unfair advantage
to a candidate in an election.
"Every
ten years, a census and subsequent redistricting will occur. All districts will
have at least 20,000 eligible voters, and no district will have more than
39,999. Ideally—although it is very unlikely—all districts will have 20,000
eligible voters.
"All
districts will be completely contained within their fiefdom. In other words, no
single district will be in two fiefdoms. This way, everyone knows what fiefdom
a Councilor is supposed to represent.
"The
arrangement of Congress I have proposed is fair to everyone. Large fiefdoms
cannot bully small fiefdoms in the Senate, yet large fiefdoms have more power
in the Council. For a bill (which is a proposed law) to become a law, it must
receive the majority vote of both parts of Congress. This way, to run the
kingdom, all fiefdoms much work together and, at times, compromise for the
greater good. Either the Senate or the Council can propose a bill, but both
assemblies must pass it for it to become the law of the land.
"The
Egyptians built the great pyramids! The Romans built a great empire! But we
shall build the first truly just nation! It will be called a democratic
republic, because democracy is when citizens rule themselves, and a republic is
when citizens are selected to represent their region in a national
government."
At
first there was stunned silence. Then the lords and ladies began to murmur. Next
came the questions. King Jason calmly and thoroughly answered them all. Among
other things, King Jason explained that the Senate will have two
representatives from each fiefdom for several reasons: 1) Being far away from
one's home fiefdom can be very lonely, and the other Senator can help ease the
homesickness. 2) One Senator can help the other think through issues and
champion the fiefdom's cause in Congress. 3) The other Senator can vote for an
absent Senator, because, occasionally, Senators will miss important votes due
to illness, injury, death, or some other cause. 4) More than two is
unnecessary, and it is good to save government money as much as reason permits.
All government officials should be paid fairly, not too much and not too
little. The more officials, the more the government must pay. The more the
government must pay, the more the whole kingdom must be taxed; and everyone
hates paying taxes.
King
Jason explained the rest of his two-stage plan. During Stage One, he would
develop the Congress but still rule as the king. The Congress would, thus, act
as an assembly of advisors forwarding the wishes of the people to the king, and
King Jason would probably enforce any law passed by Congress which did not
blatantly contradict reason, compassion, or hope. Once King Jason died or
retired, Stage Two would begin: Congress would take his place, and there would
never be a king or queen again in the kingdom.
While
he still lived, Congress would get in the habit of operating as it would when
it truly governed the kingdom. Every five years, fiefdoms would elect new
Senators and Councilors. The fiefdoms would hold such elections on a rotating
basis for two reasons: 1) The Congress should always have more veteran Senators
and Councilors than rookies, and 2) the kingdom would not be so focused on
national elections that it ignored other important matters. Thus, every year on
the first of November, one-fifth of the fiefdoms would elect their Congressional
representatives. After five years, all the fiefdoms would have voted, and the
rotation would start over. Lots would be chosen to establish the order of the
rotation in the first place.
Congress
would elect a National Representative, Ministers, and National Judges in the
following way. The Senate would provide a list of three eligible candidates,
and the Council would have to choose one of those candidates for the job. Like
candidates for the Senate and Council, these candidates had to be eighteen
years old or older, citizens of the kingdom, and living.
The
whole process, in any case, was limited to 120 days of vacancy. If the Senate
failed to provide the list in forty days, then the Council had forty days to
pick its own candidate without the approval of the Senate. Whomever the Council
picked would do the job. But if the Senate provided the list within forty days
and the Council did not pick from that list after having the list for another
forty days, then the Senate had forty more days to pick its own candidate
without the approval of the Council. (So that is 40 + 40 + 40 days for the
candidate to be selected by the Senate alone.) Whomever the Senate picked would
do the job.
The
National Representative would be the closest thing the kingdom would have to a
king. Her or his job was twofold. One aspect of the National Representative's job
was to represent the will of Congress when it was impractical for Congress to
handle a particular issue. For example, Congress would always be out of session
during the months of September, October, and November for two reasons: one, so
that Senators and Councilors running for reelection could campaign and, if they
won, celebrate their victories in their districts; and, two, to give Senators
and Councilors a much needed vacation. Suppose that an enemy kingdom invaded
during that time. The will of Congress would clearly be to stop the invasion,
if not also to invade the attacking kingdom. The National Representative would
carry out these duties until Congress could assemble and work out its own
policies.
Congress
and ordinary citizens did not have much reason to fear that the National
Representative would abuse his or her power, because she or he was directly
elected by Congress for a term of only five years, and (like all other
government officials) Congress could fire the National Representative for any reason
at any time. To avoid the National Representative acquiring too much power, he
or she was limited to one term for life. So the most any person could serve as
National Representative was five years.
The
other aspect of the National Representative's job was to represent the kingdom
to itself and the world, so she or he was like the chief ambassador of the
kingdom. The National Representative, therefore, gets his or her title from the
fact that she or he represents both Congress and the kingdom.
Ministers were citizens selected by
Congress to run an important aspect of the government, and they kept their job
until they died, retired, or were dismissed by Congress.
The Minister of the Army was the head of the National
Army. The National Army was the military force that primarily fought on the
ground. The Minister of the Navy was the head of the National Navy. The
National Navy was the military force that primarily fought on water. The
Minister of Police was the head of the National Police. The National Police
enforced national laws throughout the kingdom.
The Minister of Postal Services was the head of the
National Postal Service. The National Postal Service delivered letters and
packages throughout the kingdom and beyond. The Minister of the Treasury was
the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Department of the Treasury
collected taxes, monitored and distributed national funds, and created and
destroyed legal tender. The Minister of Transportation was the head of the
Department of Transportation. The Department of Transportation regulated
transportation in the kingdom. It was also responsible for building and
maintaining national roads, ports, channels, and bridges.
The Minister of Education was the head of the Department
of Education. The Department of Education oversaw all governmental educational
endeavors and ensured that all citizens received a quality education. The
Minister of Health was the head of the Department of Health. The Department of
Health promoted health among all citizens. It ensured that all citizens had
adequate medical services, all water and food consumed in the nation was safe,
and all manufactured products were safe. The Minister of Welfare was the head
of the Department of Welfare. The Department of Welfare ensured that all
citizens had at least the basic necessities of life, namely adequate water,
food, clothing, shelter, and sanitation.
The
Minister of Science was the head of the Department of Science. The Department
of Science was responsible for any scientific endeavors that Congress gave it,
including (but not limited to) medical research and exploration. The Minister
of Parks and Monuments was the head of the Department of National Parks and
Monuments. The Department of National Parks and Monuments created and maintained
all national parks and monuments. The Minister of Justice was head of the
Department of Justice. The Department of Justice ensured that all government
officials (especially the highest-ranking ones) obeyed national law and all
trials were just.
The
Minister of Intelligence was head of the Department of Intelligence. The
Department of Intelligence gathered information important to the survival and
wellbeing of the kingdom, and it forwarded this information to the appropriate
people. The Minister of Fair Elections was head of the Department of Fair
Elections. The Department of Fair Elections ensured that all elections were
fair and in accordance with Jasonian law.
In case of the removal of the National Representative
from office or his or her death, resignation, or inability to discharge the
powers and duties of her or his office, the highest ranking civil servant who
was able to serve as the National Representative would take over until the Congress
elected a new National Representative. The civil servants were ranked in this
order, the first being the highest: the National Representative, the Minister
of the Army, the Minister of the Navy, the Minister of Police, the Minister of
Postal Services, the Minister of the Treasury, the Minister of Transportation,
the Minister of Education, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Welfare, the
Minister of Science, the Minister of Parks and Monuments, the Minister of
Justice, the Minister of Intelligence, the Minister of Fair Elections.
The seven Supreme Court
Judges were chosen by Congress like the National Representative and Ministers. Like
the Ministers, they could serve until they died or retired, and they could be
dismissed by Congress for any reason at any time. Supreme Court Judges received
the same pay as Senators, Councilors, the National Representative, and
Ministers; and they had a similar political status. The Supreme Court had
supreme judicial authority throughout the kingdom. Its duty was to decide
individual court cases and to veto any law passed by Congress or any other
government entity that contradicted previous national laws. This way, there
were less ambiguity and no contradictions in the nation's laws. When a law was
vetoed by the Supreme Court, it had no power and could not be implemented. Instead,
Congress had the right to change the vetoed law, or to change the earlier law
or laws so that there was no contradiction. Once all contradictions were
removed, the Supreme Court had to authorize the new law.
The trial of all crimes, except for Supreme Court
proceedings and impeachments, was by three judges, certified by the Department
of Justice. Impeachment was when a Senator or Councilor was removed from office
for being corrupt, incompetent, or otherwise unable to do his or her job; and
such trials were held in the following way. If the majority of Congress
declared one of its members to be unfit for duty, an Impeachment Vote would be
held. The adult citizens of the Senator or Councilor's area would vote whether
or not to impeach, meaning to remove the politician from office immediately. If
the majority voted yes, then she or he was impeached. If the majority voted no,
then he or she was not impeached. A Replacement Election would be held within
forty days of impeachment to elect another Senator or Councilor to replace the
impeached politician for the remainder of the five-year term.
Regular trials—the ones with three judges—were held in
the fiefdom where the supposed crime was committed; but when not committed
within any state, the trial was held at such place or places as Congress
directed. King Jason said that he had contemplated trial by jury, yet he
thought that would be "time-consuming and often unjust. It would take a
very long time to pick a jury and to complete a trial, and we want trials to be
quick. Also, being ordinary citizens, jurors would not be well-trained in law. Thus,
it would be easy for them to be influenced by non-legal considerations, such as
the appearance and social status of the defendant, plaintiff, or the
lawyers."
King Jason added, "Justice is blind, so a court of
law should not be influenced by appearance and social status. It should only be
influenced by the facts and the law. Judges should be honest, intelligent, and
well-trained adult citizens who only focus on the facts and the law when in a
court of law.
"There are a few reasons I advocate three judges
instead of more or less. One judge is likely to be inept or corrupt, and two
judges can easily lead to a split decision. A split decision is bad because it
leaves the issue of guilt or innocence undecided, which is unjust. But if there
are three judges, at least two of the three are likely to be competent and
honest, and there will not be a split decision.
"Four
or more judges are just unnecessary. Also, judges do not grow on trees. There
should be enough to justly enforce the law in a speedy manner. Obviously, if a
trial requires less than four judges, there should be more judges available for
other trials."
Before any judge, especially a Supreme Court Judge,
assumed her or his office, he or she took the following oath: “I have been
selected from among my fellow citizens to serve them. Therefore, I do solemnly
promise that I will faithfully execute my office, and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the kingdom. I shall
not try to create legislation or misinterpret laws according to my personal
bias. Instead, I shall interpret laws according to the intent they were
written, even if I disapprove of the laws or their intent.”
This oath was similar to the one taken by every other
government official, including police, soldiers, public school teachers, postal
workers, Senators, Councilors, the National Representative, and Ministers: “I
have been selected from among my fellow citizens to serve them. Therefore, I do
solemnly promise that I will faithfully execute my office, and will, to the
best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the kingdom.
I know that the Congress represents the citizens of the kingdom. Therefore, I
shall always obey the collective will of the Congress.”
Supreme Court Judges, of course, were not necessarily
supposed to obey the collective will of Congress; they were always supposed to
follow the logic of the existing laws.
Soon after King Jason explained the
General Oath of the Kingdom, a matronly noble, Lady Orgonna, stood up and spoke
the thought that was on most minds in that great hall: "But what about our
land, property, and power? This Constitution of yours will make us all unnecessary!"
Murmurs
of agreement filled the air.
The
king stepped from behind the podium with open hands raised palms outward: "My
friends, my countrymen, change can be difficult. But change is also often good
and necessary. Those of you who, like me, are old enough to remember the last
civil war should surely perceive some wisdom in a democratically elected
government. Besides, what makes us aristocrats and everyone else peasants? In
most cases, our ancestors got lucky or did some deed to get more land, wealth,
and power. It was not anything we
did. We could have easily been born peasants!"
Lady
Orgonna protested, "But we weren't! God made us born nobles, not the
filthy peasants who work for us! Begging your pardon, sire, your Constitution
is unheard of and unnatural!"
Fire
flashed behind King Jason's eyes, but otherwise he kept a calm, smiling facade.
"Please sit down, Lady Orgonna." She complied. "I am proposing a
democratic republic. Democracy is not unheard of. Athens reached the height of her glory under
a democracy! A republic is not unheard of. Rome built a mighty empire under a republic!
"I
don't know exactly what you mean by 'unnatural.' Do you mean 'contrary to the
way things normally happen'? If so, then yes. The form of government I am
proposing is unusual, at least at this time in history. But if you mean 'evil,'
then no. A democratic republic is not evil. It is good, because it will do the
most good for the most people in the kingdom."
Lord
Hybiscus raised his hand to speak, but King Jason just looked at him and said,
"Please hold your questions and comments for a little while longer. There
are two more things I want to tell you. The first thing is that I want to
reassure you. As long as I live, you will keep your land, property, and
power—that is as long as you remain my loyal subjects. If you are treasonous,
then you will suffer the consequences of treason.
"Yes,
you will keep your land, property, and power, or at least much of your power. I
need you—the kingdom needs you—to
continue managing the peasants. The peasants will have the right to vote,
beginning this year; but they will not have the experience to run the fiefdoms
yet. You have that experience, and I want you to use it wisely.
"For
the foreseeable future, little will change. The aristocrats will pretty much do
what they have always done, and so will the peasants. However, I insist that
you treat the peasants more justly than ever. You are no longer their rulers;
you are now their employers. They are free to come and go from your estates as
they wish, and you may hire and fire them as you wish. But those who work for
you must have just hours, just working conditions, and a just wage.
"The
second thing I want to tell you is that early this morning, just moments after
this meeting began, I sent 1,000 messengers throughout the kingdom. Each
messenger has a copy of the Constitution of the Kingdom which I have been
telling you about. They are instructed to go to every city, town, and village;
summon the populace; read it; and explain it. They are also instructed to tell
the people that it is the law of the land, and that any citizen who illegally
opposes it is guilty of treason. I am sure that the vast majority of our people
will approve of the changes outlined in the Constitution, and remember that
they are the ones who constitute the local militias.
"So
do not fear. Be happy and wise. Support the Constitution, and keep your titles
of nobility, land, property, and power. We will all be happier if you do."
Chapter Two: Jasonia 1052-1152
The aforementioned meeting lasted
three days, with breaks from sleeping, eating, and the like. Then the nobles
and their envoys returned to their fiefdoms. By that time, practically the
whole kingdom knew about the Constitution and were either dreading or excited
about the upcoming elections. Most, being peasants, were excited, and so were
many merchants and craftsmen and some enlightened nobles. There were some
attempts at rebellion and assassination, yet King Jason overcame them all,
largely because he controlled the kingdom's civilian military groups.
Twenty
years before the meeting, King Jason had established militias in every city,
town, and village throughout the kingdom, and the law was that every adult
citizen within three miles of a militia center had to report for duty once a
week. The only exceptions were those in prison and those with special dispensations
from the government. Most special dispensations were given to the infirm and
those who had to care for them, women with children less than three years old,
and certain government officials such as police, soldiers, and sailors. Some
people had to protect the kingdom while the kingdom was preparing to protect
itself.
Usually
the militias would meet in an area with a large open building, like a barn or
town hall, and an open field for military exercises. The original purpose of
the militias was to supplement the kingdom's army and navy, but, within two
years, it seemed like the army and navy were just the tip of a mountain of
well-trained troops.
The
women, men, and teenagers who were able and willing to wield a sword or shoot a
bow were armed, and brought their weapons and other equipment to militia
meetings every Wednesday. There, they would learn and practice for combat. Those
convicted of violent crimes were generally not allowed to be auxiliary
soldiers, auxiliary sailors, or teachers. Instead, they were generally allowed
to help supply the militias.
The
other adults and teenagers had one of two other functions. They either made
equipment for the militia or they taught the children. From ages five to twelve, all children were
taught reading, writing, and math. Their education was generally very
practical. They read and wrote about parenting, government, morality, law,
health, science, and history. Math included adding, subtracting, multiplying,
dividing, algebra, and geometry. Younger children were played with and taught
things like shapes and colors.
Thus
began the first public education system in the whole world, and in King Jason's
lifetime, the literacy rate rose from approximately 5% to 40%. King Jason
promoted education because he knew that education, done properly, increased
intelligence, compassion, and prosperity.
The
penalty for shirking militia duty was a fine big enough to be inconvenient, but
not big enough to impoverish a family—at least after the first offense. The
fine was seldom needed, though, because of two reasons. First of all, militia
duty made sense, because the people of the kingdom knew from experience that
their armed forces were often insufficient without the militias to stop evil
invaders. Those who shirked militia duty were often openly snubbed by their
fellow citizens.
Secondly,
it was a relatively fun break in the week. The auxiliary soldiers and sailors
felt stronger and more confident, the suppliers felt useful and enjoyed working
together, and the teachers and students generally liked school. Even children
who disliked school loved to play with their classmates before and after it. The
younger children were lucky enough to play during it.
Since
the militias were established, the kingdom has remained unconquered, unlike the
other nations on the continent. Nearby nations knew that they would not be
attacked by the kingdom, unless they attacked the kingdom first; and attacking
the kingdom meant facing a whole population of well-trained and determined
patriots. The reward of such a conquest was just not worth the effort, even if
it were possible.
King Jason lived for twenty more
years, ruling wisely until the end. During that time, the citizens of the
kingdom learned how to elect their own officials, and the Constitution was
followed to the letter, except when the king overruled Congress. King Jason and
the Congress thought that they had made enough radical changes for awhile, so
they did not change much else in the people's daily lives. The quality of
public services generally improved, though. Almost no one minded that!
One
new and long-lasting change was the Fair Tax Act, which required all citizens
to pay exactly 20% of the wealth they acquired that year to the government, no
more and no less. Those who made $1,000,000 worth had to pay $200,000 worth
that year, and those who made $1,000 worth had to pay $200 worth. Ironically,
the poorest citizens benefited the most from this system. The government used
the tax money to provide them adequate water, food, shelter, clothing, and
medical care. Within a couple of years, hunger and homelessness were eliminated
in the kingdom. And the poor generally received the same quality healthcare as
the rich, which, from our modern perspective, was often not very good. But hey,
that was the Dark Ages!
Another
new and long-lasting change was the Percentage Funding System, a formalization
of the way the monarchy used to distribute funds. Every year, Congress would
divide the tax money collected the year before by giving certain percentages of
it to various government programs. The following percentages were typical of
the kingdom until the twentieth century. The Army received 21%, the Navy 10%,
the Police 11%, the Postal Service 0% because it was self-sufficient, Treasury
operations 5%, Transportation 8%, Education 10%, Health 10%, Welfare 10%,
Science 5%, Parks and Monuments 1%, Justice 5%, Intelligence 1%, Fair Elections
1%, disaster relief 1%, and miscellaneous expenses 1%. So the government
agencies were essentially told by the Congress, "Here is your goal, and
here is your money. Do what it takes to accomplish your goal." Being
reasonable, those goals were almost always accomplished, and the kingdom's
budget was almost always balanced.
Soon after the king's death, some
nobles, called Monarchists, attempted to restore the monarchy. But none of King
Jason's surviving four children would cooperate, and Congress quickly squashed
the rebellion, humanely executing its leaders.
During
the next 100 years, Congress made only a handful of noteworthy changes. They
declared that the kingdom should always be called a nation because it no longer
had a king, and the fiefdoms should always be called states to counteract any
lingering feudal tendencies. In the same year, Congress renamed the nation
Jasonia in honor of the accomplishments of the dead king.
The
biggest change during that time was the adoption of "The Universal List of
Human Rights" and "The Exceptions to The Universal List of Human
Rights." These two proclamations eventually became the basis of all
Jasonian law and culture.
The Universal List of Human Rights
Rights are what
creatures deserve because they make creatures as good and happy as possible. Listed
below are 24 rights which all human beings have, with some noted exceptions. Therefore,
all Jasonians shall henceforth live according to the following rights and their
exceptions.
1.
The right to have the means to live and be
healthy.
2.
The right to keep one’s life, freedom,
property, and job unless these things are taken
away for a just and legal reason.
3.
The right to do
whatever one wants if one does not obviously hurt another creature.
4.
The right to think, feel, and believe
whatever one wants.
5.
The right to kill whoever is literally
enslaving one, if that is the only way one can be free.
6.
The right to use non-abortive birth-control.
7.
The right to kill oneself.
8.
The right to assemble with others peacefully.
9.
The right to privacy in one’s home and
correspondence, unless the government of the nation one lives in has much
reason to suspect that one is doing something illegal.
10.
The right to leave one’s nation.
11.
The right to raise one’s child, unless one
cannot or refuses to adequately provide
for
the physical and emotional needs of the child.
12.
The right to work where one wants, if one can
get the job.
13.
The right to employ whom one wants, as long as
one does not enslave, or discriminate on the basis of age,
gender, race, ethnicity, social status, religion, political affiliation, or sexual
orientation.
14.
The right to at least the following six
exemptions from work without being fired or
losing regular pay: 1) sixteen hours a day unless there is an emergency, 2) twelve hours a day if
there is an emergency, 3) one complete day each week, 4) ten personal
days each year for sickness and/or family emergencies, 5) two weeks each year for
vacation, and 6) forty days after one's child is born.
15.
The right to petition one’s government without
being threatened or punished.
16.
The right to have the government that one
wants, if the majority of adults living in one’s
nation also want it.
17.
The right to be treated equally and
respectfully by the law.
18.
The right to be considered innocent until
proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
19.
The right to not be arrested without
sufficient reason.
20.
The right to know why one is being arrested
and imprisoned.
21.
The right to free and adequate legal counsel.
22.
The right to have a just and speedy
trial.
23.
The right to not have to testify
against oneself.
24. The right to leave the military permanently
after one has served a total of five years.
It does not matter if one is a draftee or volunteer.
The
Exceptions to The Universal List of Human Rights
The following are the exceptions to
The Universal List of Human Rights. Unless specified in this article, the
members of the particular group mentioned have all the other Universal Human
Rights. Moreover, as much as reason permits, they should be given the rights
that they do not have.
Children
who are not yet adolescents do not have Right 6 because they should not have
sex with anyone, Right 7 because they are too inexperienced to make such an
important and irreversible choice as suicide, Right 10 because their parents or
guardians should determine where they live, Right 11 because children are not
qualified to care for children as parents should, and Rights 12 and 13 because
they are too inexperienced to make important job decisions.
Adolescents have
all the rights except Right 7. Like children, they are too inexperienced to
make such an important and irreversible choice as suicide.
Fulltime
military personnel do not have Right 10 because the military might need them to
stay in their nation, Right 11 because the military might need them to leave
their children, Rights 12 and 13 because the military might need them to do a
job that they do not want to do and/or employ someone whom they do not want to
employ, and Right 14 because the military might need them to skip some of their
required leisure time.
Mentally
handicapped humans are people who will probably be less intelligent than an
average thirteen-year-old child until they die. They do not have Right 7
because they are too unintelligent to make such an important and irreversible
choice as suicide, Right 10 because their parents or guardians should determine
where they live, Right 11 because they are not qualified to care for children
as parents should, and Rights 12 and 13 because they are not intelligent enough
to make important job decisions.
Criminals
currently being punished do not have Right 10 because the government should
determine where they can live, Right 11 because they might not be able to care
for their children properly, Right 12 because their punishment might prevent
them from working where they want, and part 6 of Right 14 because they might
not be able to properly care for their child or co-parent due to their
imprisonment.
The
criminally insane are those who are likely to hurt someone because they are
mentally ill. They do not have Right 7 because they are too crazy to make such
an important and irreversible choice as suicide, Right 10 because they should
be confined to a jail or mental health facility, Right 11 because they might
not be able to care for their children properly, Rights 12 and 13 because their
employment decisions might have to be restricted for the benefit of everyone,
and part 6 of Right 14 because they might not be able to properly care for
their child or co-parent due to their situation.
Those
who are in solitary confinement for a just reason obviously do not have Right 8
during that time.
A human does not
necessarily have the right to dwell or work in a nation that does not legally
permit him or her to dwell or work there. The purpose of this exception is to
protect a nation against overpopulation and fighting between citizens and
immigrants. However, whenever a nation restricts immigration, it must be very
careful that it is restricting because doing so is best for everyone. A nation
should not restrict immigration because its citizens are greedy.
Lastly, although
children, adolescents, mentally handicapped adults, and the criminally insane
do not have the right to commit suicide, in some extreme cases they should be
euthanized. Also called “mercy killing,” euthanasia is the act of inducing a
painless death because the creature would be better off dead. It is common for
people to euthanize animals who are suffering greatly with no hope of cure.
Yes, a human life
is more valuable than an animal life, but that does not mean that humans should
have to suffer more. If anything, humans should suffer less. Therefore, if a
child, adolescent, mentally handicapped adult, or criminally insane person
wants to commit suicide and an official government trial formally decrees that
they would be better off dead, then they will be euthanized.
When is the life
of a child, adolescent, mentally handicapped adult, or criminally insane person
so horrible and the suffering it causes so great that death is preferable to
life? This is a difficult question for such a victim to answer by him or
herself. Therefore, the government of a nation should set up a trial to
determine if euthanasia is most humane for her or him. If both the victim and
the court agree that the victim should be euthanized, then the victim should be
euthanized.
In the event that
the victim is unable to speak for him or herself, the closest relative who
meets the following criteria should speak for her or him. The relative must be
alive, an adult, mentally competent, sane, and able and willing to speak for
the victim. The following should be used to determine the order of the closest
relative, the first being considered the most close and the last being
considered the least close: spouse, eldest parent, eldest sibling, eldest
child, closest friend.
The Universal List of Human Rights
and The Exceptions both mention birth-control. Back when these documents were
written, there were three major forms of birth-control in Jasonia: coitus interruptus, condoms made of linen or
animal intestine, and male sterilization. Due to the inaccessibility of their
gonads, females were not sterilized at first.
Male
sterilization was practiced by first anesthetizing the patient with a potent
cocktail of black henbane, opium, and hemlock. Then the testicles were removed,
and the wound was cauterized and sewn up. The procedure itself was not very
painful, but full recovery took about one week. Infections were rare. Jasonian
surgeons cleaned both their surgical tools and open wounds with distilled
alcohol, believing it be cleaner than water, beer, or wine.
Immigration
was also mentioned in The Universal List of Human Rights and The Exceptions. As
Jasonia grew in prosperity and freedom, more and more people wanted to
immigrate to it. The Jasonian Congress, though, wanted to regulate immigration
so that Jasonia would not become overcrowded or invaded from within. The
lessons of the Roman Empire, which had let barbarians in as immigrants only to
be destroyed by those same barbarians, was not forgotten.
Shortly
after its inception, the Democratic Republic of Jasonia built several
immigration camps, which were like minimum security jails, near all its outer
borders. Once caught, illegal aliens were taken to a camp near the border where
they had crossed. The penalty for illegal immigration was to spend one boring
year at an immigration camp. Most Jasonians viewed that immigration policy as
fair, and it certainly was effective. Few foreigners wanted to live in a boring
camp for a year, only to be returned to their nation of origin.
Of
course, immigration is a tricky issue. Sometimes a citizen wants a non-citizen
to move in with him or her. Congress declared in 1078 that a Jasonian citizen
could officially marry a foreigner if the foreigner lived with the citizen for
at least one year, the thinking being that if the two did not marry for the
right reason, the foreign spouse would greatly aggravate the citizen, which would
be just. People should not marry to help someone immigrate or make a profit. Failure
to successfully live together for at least one year earned a year jail time for
the citizen, and a year camp time and then expulsion for the foreign spouse.
A
citizen of Jasonia could also buy citizenship for any foreigner by paying 1/10th
of her or his (that is the citizen's) income. Congress's thinking on this
matter was that such a fee would be both fair and a strong deterrent to
importing too many unwanted foreigners.
There
was one other way that people could legally enter Jasonia. They could go
through an Office of Immigration and Visitation. Such offices were set up on
Jasonia's borders, especially along major roads and rivers. All a foreigner had
to do was go to an Immigration Office and declare his or her intention: whether
to stay for a day, a week, a year, for life, or whatever; and why. An
immigration officer then had a choice: send the foreigner back to where she or
he came from, or issue a Permit of Immigration or a Permit of Visitation. A
Permit of Immigration was written permission to live in Jasonia for life. Usually,
such permission was only given to highly educated individuals, because of their
value to society. A Permit of Visitation was written permission to stay in
Jasonia only for a certain period of time, either to work or just visit. Both
educated and uneducated were often given this latter permit, especially when Congress
declared a short-term labor shortage.
In 1111, the Department of Science
declared certain sterilization procedures "safe, effective, and relatively
painless for both males and females," and indeed they were. This
declaration led Congress to add a new paragraph after the fifth paragraph of
The Exceptions to The Universal List of Human Rights: "It is best if
mentally handicapped humans are sterilized in a safe and relatively painless
way when they are adolescents. There are two reasons for this: Many of them are
very likely to conceive mentally handicapped children, and none of them is
qualified to care for children as parents should."
In 1133, Congress abolished all
capital punishment and whipping in Jasonia, unless the National Representative
or Congress declared a state of emergency. Such a state of emergency had to be
renewed by Congress once a year or it was automatically nullified.
In 1152, Congress passed the Land
Tax Act. Every ten years, the value of each plot of land was assessed for
taxation. The greater the value, the greater the tax. The main purpose of this
act was to gently encourage people who owned too much land to sell some of
their land to those who needed it more. Within ten years, there were almost no
more tenant farmers or vast land-owners left in Jasonia. Almost every farmer
owned his or her own land, and wealthy Jasonians preferred in invest their
money in non-reality assets.
Jasonians often viewed
their nation
as an island of sanity and prosperity in an ocean of lunacy and
deprivation. They
generally liked to keep the ocean off their shore, but occasionally,
like a
tidal wave, they could not ignore the ocean altogether. Such was the
case in
1095 when Pope Urban II called for a war against the Muslims in and
around what
Christians call the Holy Land. The result was
the First Crusade. Masses of peasantry, led by Peter the Hermit, flooded
into Constantinople, supposedly to aid their Eastern Orthodox
Christian brethren, whom they despised as effeminate heretics.
Unlike
most (if not all) other nations of that time, Jasonia did not have an official
state religion. Congress's often-quoted policy was, "There are many
opinions about God, life after death, salvation, and other religious matters;
and no one can completely prove or disprove any of them. Therefore, people
should be allowed to believe whatever they want." One result of this
religious tolerance was a religiously diverse population. There were many Roman
Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Jews, pagans, Deists, agnostics, and atheists; and
there were even some Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, et cetera.
About
2,000 Jasonians—mostly Roman Catholics—responded to the Pope's plea. Their
fellow countrymen generally wagged their heads, thinking something like, This is evil. God (or the equivalent
thereof) is everywhere, so every land is a Holy Land.
Killing and conquering people of a different religion does not prove your
religion true and theirs false. It just proves that you can kill and conquer
them.
Yet
the First Crusade happened anyway, and the Turkish Muslims annihilated those
naive Christian peasants. In 1096, however, more organized Christian armies
invaded the Near East, working their way south
through Syria
and into Palestine,
taking Jerusalem
on July 15, 1099,
and massacring its inhabitants. The National Representative of the time, Wilma
Ofgeva, privately remarked, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old
boss." Publicly, she quoted Jesus to a joint session of Congress: "Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
Before the invention of the
printing press and almost universal literacy, Jasonia used the following system
for voting. Every state was divided up into counties for the sake of state
governments, which were modeled after the federal government with a State
Representative, State Congress, and State Supreme Court. Each county was
divided into districts of approximately 1,000 citizens.
For
every 1,000 citizens, Congress tried to ensure that there were three judges,
four police officers, three doctors (general practitioners), four nurses, and
two public lawyers. One of these public lawyers was generally the prosecuting
attorney and the other was generally the defending attorney, in court cases.
On
average, of the 984 left, approximately 400 were farmers, 200 were children,
150 were housewives or the equivalent thereof, 70 were builders, 70 were
merchants and/or artists, 50 were retired or jobless adults, 15 were
professional soldiers or sailors, 10 were other government workers, and 19 were
something else.
During
the annual elections, the three district judges would sit at a table in a
soundproof room. The judge sitting in the center would have a paper, quill, and
ink. On the paper was a list of all those running for office and room for tally
marks. A police officer would let in one voter at a time, close the door, and
wait outside. The center judge would then ask the voter whom she or he wanted
to vote for and write a tally mark under that candidate's name. Next, the
center judge would wait for the other two judges to agree with the recording of
the vote. Once all the judges agreed, the voter would be dismissed, and a new
voter could come in and vote. The judges and police officer were sworn to
secrecy about who voted for whom (or in the case of a referendum, what), and
the breaking of this secret was likely to lead to loss of job and a year of
jail time.
Once
the printing press was invented over a century later and almost all Jasonian
adults were literate, the voting process became even more anonymous, with the voter
just checking a box by his or her preferred candidates and referendum choices. The
judges merely handed the blank ballot to the voter, checked the voter's name
off the voter list, put the ballot into a secure box once the voter was
finished voting, and counted the ballots after the polls closed.
Peter Abelard (1079-1142) was a
French philosopher and theologian who applied the principles of ancient Greek
logic to Roman Catholic dogma. As a result, he was very controversial and
charged with heresy. Peter was supposed to be a celibate cleric, but he
impregnated Heloise, one of his students, and then secretly married her after
she bore him a child. Heloise's uncle responded by having the famous and
charismatic teacher castrated. After that, Peter became a monk, and Heloise
became a nun.
Many
Jasonians were shocked by these incidents. They generally thought that reason
and religion should compliment each other, so they were baffled by the heresy
charges. They were even more confused by the odd sexual antics. Peter chose to
marry secretly because he was supposed to be a celibate cleric, but why should
clerics be celibate anyway? Becoming ordained does not take away one's sex
drive, and having sexual intercourse does not generally change one for the
worse. In fact, it usually does more good than evil. Then there was the issue
of the castration. That seemed very immoral. "Let the man keep his job,
his lover, and his genitals!" said more than one Jasonian. "And let
Heloise be a normal wife with a normal husband, and stay out of the
nunnery!" But such ideas were, and still aren't, universally accepted
outside of Jasonia.
Chapter Three: Jasonia 1153-1300
On June 15, 1215, King John I was forced by his
barons to sign the "Magna Carta" ("Great Charter"). This
document guaranteed the rights of nobles and freemen from the arbitrary power
of the English monarchy. Among other things, it stated that there would be no
taxation without the agreement of a council of barons, and that there would be
no arrests, imprisonments, or punishments without a trial. Almost all Jasonians
who learned of the "Magna Carta" and the attending events thought
they were a step in the right direction for England. These Jasonians hoped, one
day, that such steps would lead England
and all other nations to be much more like Jasonia.
Mongol armies swept through nations
like tidal waves in the thirteenth century. They conquered China, Korea, Persia, Russia, and
many other lands. No one had ever seen such swift attacks. Mongol soldiers
traveled on strong desert horses in separate groups through a territory that
had been thoroughly scouted. Then the soldiers all came together at the site of
battle, usually attacking long before the locals were ready and from an
unexpected direction. Local resistance usually turned into panic even before
blood was spilled. Knowing that the Mongols would slaughter any resister,
settlement after settlement surrendered without a fight.
The
Jasonian
Congress had been aware of the ever-growing threat for over a year. The
Mongol reputation preceded them, and the Mongols gave Jasonia the usual
ultimatum: Surrender or die. There was little talk of surrender, though.
For
its own sake, Jasonia was not willing to fall; and for the sake of the
rest of Europe, it was willing to fight. No other nation, not
even the Holy Roman Empire, could stop the
Golden Horde, as the Mongol army was fearfully called. Jasonians
generally
preferred to die on their feet than live on their knees. "Live free or
die!" was their battle cry.
The
militias were summoned, and trenches and new forts were created along the
vulnerable regions of the eastern and southern border. The plan was to fight a
war of attrition with the Mongols with few pitched battles.
On
March 3, 1241, the
Golden Horde reached Jasonia. The short, lean Asiatic nomads in leather, metal,
fur, and wool were a dreadful sight, but the well-trained Jasonian militias
held their ground. Several groups of Mongols tried to cross various trenches. Sometimes
they were successful and sometimes not. But always, Mongols died, killed by
Jasonian spears, arrows, and swords. The Golden Horde also faced a less
conventional weapon: gunpowder!
Through
the course of its explorations, the Department of Science learned of the
substance from the Chinese in 1144. In a top secret program, the first cannons
were developed out of bronze and iron. Each of these fired hundreds of iron
pellets at the oncoming horsemen with great success. It took about 200 more
years for anyone outside of Jasonia to develop their own cannons.
The
Mongols lost about one-tenth of their horde at the borders, but they still rode
westward, planning to attack the settlements therein. All along the way,
though, in plains, mountains, and forests, the militia units attacked them
guerrilla-style. This soon took about another tenth of Mongol forces and made
for many sleepless nights. Truly the Mongols hated Jasonia! They killed every
Jasonian they could get their hands on, but, unlike other nations, the
resistance continued.
Sometimes
settlements were abandoned to the Mongols, yet none surrendered; and the
high-walled cities with their cannons and other defenses frustrated the
invaders. Sieges of Jasonian cities were almost impossible to maintain because
the Jasonians had destroyed almost all food outside of them and constantly
harassed vulnerable Mongols.
After
about forty days, the Mongol general, Sabutai, said enough, and the Mongols
left Jasonia forever for easier conquests. Jasonia rejoiced, but there was much
work to do. The dead were buried, emergency food was imported and gathered from
the forests and sea, and buildings and defenses were rebuilt. Victory Over the
Mongols Day is still celebrated in Jasonia every April with fireworks and
parties.
By 1284, the Mongol invasion was a
distant memory to most Jasonians, and the stage was set for one of the most
important inventions in Western civilization. Akkabar Ungerstine, a Jasonian
scribe at a heterodox Roman Catholic monastery, built the first printing press
with moveable type in Europe, hoping to
publish the Bible and other theological writings in Jasonian on a massive scale
to influence public opinion.
The
reigning Pope of Rome was outraged that "a heretic would print Holy
Scripture in a vulgar, un-Biblical language," but there was little he
could do. He could not excommunicate a man twice, and it was nearly impossible
at that time to sustain a crusade against Jasonia. So, although the Pope and
many European monarchs hated democracy and freedom of speech and religion, they
had to tolerate these so-called sins in Jasonia, much to the amusement of most
Jasonians.
Jasonians,
though, were never much for proselytizing. They generally believed (and still
believe) that a good example was (and is) the best sermon for everything,
including religion, morals, and politics. This attitude served them well during
the Dark Ages because it prevented Jasonia's many religious and political
enemies from becoming more agitated. If Jasonia actively promoted its secular,
humanistic ways to neighboring countries, nobles and clerics would have
probably organized enormous armies and successfully eradicated the Jasonian
Democratic Republic.
Many
foreign peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were already jealous of Jasonians
for their prosperity, equality, and freedom; and many foreign nobles and
clerics were worried that they would lose their power and status someday as a
result. Although some foreign nobles and clerics admired Jasonia greatly and
would have reformed their own nations accordingly if they could, most would
have preferred to destroy Jasonia than compete with it or become like it. For
them, widespread, active Jasonian proselytizing would have been the flame that
lit the gasoline of war.
To
make a long story short, Ungerstine's invention did help spread his religion a
little, but its impact on civilization was much greater. Literacy increased;
new scientific, philosophical, and political opinions were spread; and the
world beyond Jasonia took a giant step toward the Enlightenment.
The
most noticeable immediate effect in Jasonia of the Ungerstine's printing press
was the spread and ultimate triumph of the economic theories of Bertha
Belliburst, who advocated Limited Capitalism through books and pamphlets, most
notably Limited Capitalism Good. Unlimited
Capitalism Bad. Belliburst noted that the prevailing economic system in
Jasonia was characterized by a free competitive market with private and
corporate ownership of production and distribution. This was generally good,
she argued, because it encouraged innovation, competition, productive work, and
financial reward. Innovation brought new and often improved products and
methodologies, competition generally brought lower prices and better goods for
consumers, productive work kept people busy doing good instead of evil, and
financial reward was often just. Simply speaking, those who were smart, wise,
and diligent deserved and would earn more money than those who were
unintelligent, foolish, and/or lazy.
However,
Belliburst also argued that unlimited capitalism often leads to injustice. Some
people become very wealthy, while others stay very poor; and the rich often
oppress the poor. Therefore, the government of a nation must do three things: 1)
enforce decent working conditions for poor and middle class people, 2) keep
competition fair between individuals and companies by doing things like
breaking up monopolies, and 3) enforce a salary cap so that citizens can become
rich but not too rich.
This
latter doctrine was touted as the other end of the economic reform of 1032. Jasonia
already had a floor below which no citizen could pass because of poverty,
namely death through inadequate water, food, shelter, clothing, or medical
care. Now Jasonia needed a ceiling through which no citizen could pass because
of wealth. No citizen would be allowed to become so wealthy that she or he
gained too much power.
By
1294, Congress had instituted all of Belliburst's reforms with much public
support. The poorest Jasonians who could work but didn't for whatever reason
were guaranteed an unpleasant but subsistent life. This encouraged them to work
without allowing them to die.
The
government gave such citizens a concrete cell that was warm in the winter, cool
in the summer, and rainproof. Such welfare huts, as they were called, were
often grouped around a public well in or near a large city. The government also
gave them three wholesome but bland meals a day. The most common meal was
beans, bread, and a vitamin. (The Department of Science had developed the first
decent vitamins in 1215.) This same meal would be repeated for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner, day after day.
For
clothing, the poorest Jasonians—both male and female—could wear a government
issued shirt, pants, underwear, socks, shoes, and belt. Such shirts, pants,
underwear, and socks were all gray wool or cotton, depending on the season; the
shoes brown leather; and the belt a hemp rope.
Under
the Jasonian Universal Health Plan, the Jasonian government would pay up to a
certain amount per year for each citizen. That amount was the equivalent of 10,000
U.S. dollars in the year 2000. If medical costs exceeded that amount, then the
individual was responsible for paying the rest. Jasonians who disliked this
arrangement, believing that it was unfair to citizens who could not pay, could
donate money to the Jasonian Extreme Medical Cases Fund. Money from this fund
was used to pay for the medical care of poor Jasonians who had exceeded their
yearly medical coverage. The Jasonian Congress wanted to strike the right
balance between taking good care of most of its citizens without going bankrupt
caring for citizens whose medical costs were too high.
Welfare
was more pleasant for citizens past retirement age (65) and those who could not
work because of disabilities (the blind, the lame, the deaf, the mentally
handicapped, et cetera). Congress had officially decided back in 1074 that a
government should not either encourage or discourage retired or disabled
citizens to seek or avoid employment. As a result, Tier Two Welfare recipients,
as they were called, were given better food. A typical day's menu was something
like eggs, bacon, toast, a vitamin, and orange juice for breakfast; a turkey
sandwich, pasta salad, and milk for lunch; and pizza, lettuce salad, apple pie,
and milk for dinner. Furthermore, there were different meals on different days,
a privilege Tier One Welfare recipients could only envy.
Congress
also did everything within reason to help those in the Tier Two Welfare
Program. The blind were often given seeing-eye dogs; the lame canes, wheel
chairs, and artificial limbs; the deaf were taught sign language and how to
read lips; and the mentally handicapped were given voluntary tasks, such as
arts and crafts, to keep them happy.
Enough
about the floor that no Jasonian could go below. The ceiling that no Jasonian
could go above was a certain amount of money each year, the equivalent of 10,000,000
U.S. dollars in the year 2000. The Jasonian Congress wanted to encourage people
to work hard and to let them give sizable inheritances to their loved ones,
without allowing certain citizens to become too rich and, thus, too powerful. Any
Jasonian who acquired more than $10,000,000 in one year would have to give the
excess to government charities. Thus, if a Jasonian earned and/or inherited
$10,000,001 in one year, he or she would have to pay $1. If she or he earned or
inherited $50,000,000,000 in one year, he or she would have to pay
$49,990,000,000.
Jasonia
has been a democratic republic with a limited capitalist economy and a secular
government to this day. Moreover, the government programs mentioned in this
chapter are still successfully implemented.
Chapter Four: Jasonia 1301-1650
In late October of 1517, Martin Luther, a royally pissed-off Roman Catholic
monk and professor, posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in
Wittenberg, Germany, and officially began the Protestant Reformation, so called
because many European Christians protested certain Roman Catholic doctrines and
practices, and wanted to reform the Church. The Roman Catholic Church responded
with the Counter-Reformation. Thus, Christians began to torture and murder each
other in the name of the one they call the Prince of Peace, even more than they
usually did before. Soon, Europe had six large competing groups of Christians: Roman
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed/Calvinist/Presbyterian,
Anabaptist, and Anglican.
Jasonians,
as can be expected, were horrified by all the pointless bloodshed. They knew
from centuries of experience that a logically organized, humane, secular
society can easily accomodate many religious and ethnic groups, and that such
diversity is often a strength. Most other Europeans disagreed, however, largely
because each of them was convinced that they possessed the one true faith and
that other religions somehow threatened this faith.
What
could Jasonia do? The National Representative and Jasonian Congress offerred to
broker peace between the warring factions, but were barely given a chance. So
Jasonia enjoyed peace while most of Europe experienced upheavals.
English king, Henry VIII,
ironically fought both for and against embattled Roman Catholicism. For the
first thirty years of his life, he showed so much zeal for the outward
practices of that religion that, in 1521, Pope Leo X gave him the title of
"Defender of the Faith." However, in 1536 Henry declared himself the
supreme ruler of the Church of England so that he could officially divorce and
remarry. He eventually wed six different women:
Name Married
to Henry Why
Marriage Ended
Catherine of Aragon 1509-1533 Divorced
Anne Boleyn 1533-1536 Executed
Jane Seymour 1536-1537 Died
Anne of Cleves 1540 Divorced
Kathryn Howard 1540-1542 Executed
Katherine Parr 1543-1547 Widowed
What a scandalous record! agreed most Jasonians. He divorced twice to beget a male heir! How
much better is democracy, which does not depend on some queen to conceive. King
Henry VIII executed two of his wives for adultery, one of whom was probably
innocent! That's not just evil; that's stupid! Divorce your spouse for
adultery; don't execute him or her.
Speaking
of divorce, concenting adults should be legally allowed to marry and divorce
whenever they wish. If the Pope doesn't like it, one should not have to form
one's own church. Government should stay out of marriage and only intervene after
a divorce if asked by one of the two former spouses. A court can help the
divorced couple determine who gets what possessions and how they will care for their
children.
Since we are on the topic of marriage and children, it should be mentioned
that by the fourteenth century the following customs became commonplace in
Jasonia and still are to this day. Both women and men retained their full names
after marriage. So, if Jane Smith married John Doe, the wife was still called
Jane Smith, not Jane Doe. Previously, a Jasonian woman used to replace her
maiden name with her husband's surname, while the husband retained his name
intact. The purpose of the new custom was mainly to emphasize that men and
women are equals. A woman does not become the property of a man after marriage.
What about the children of
such a marriage? you ask. What is their last name? Because women must endure
pregnancy and childbirth, and because it is generally easier to prove who is a
child's mother than who is a child's father, a child kept the last name of her
or his mother. Let us suppose that Jane Smith and John Doe begot two children,
a boy and a girl. They named the former Zack and the latter Serena. The
children would be named Zack Smith and Serena Smith, even though their father,
who was still married to their mother, was John Doe.
Both Jasonian law and
custom tried to be fair to mother, father, and children. If they were married
to each other, both the father and mother had equal power over all their
children, whether biologically related to them or not. They both could reward,
punish, and generally raise the children as they saw fit within the limits of
Jasonian law. Spouses also had equal ownership over all possessions acquired
during their marriage, unless otherwise stated in a prenuptual agreement or a
particular possession obviously belonged to one spouse more than the other.
Suppose that a wife
decided to buy a horse. That horse belonged equally to her husband. Suppose
that a husband decided to buy a plow. That plow belonged equally to his wife. However,
spouses had exclusive ownership over things like the clothes they bought and
the art they made. If they were separated, divorced, or never married to each
other, both parents had generous visitation rights in regard to their biological
children, unless one or both were judged by a court of law to be too dangerous
for the children.
Usually in the case of a
divorce, both parents were allowed by law to see and care for their child 50%
of the time. They also were encouraged by law to work together to raise their
child in a way they both agreed with. However, one of the two parents was
designated by a court of three judges to be the primary caregiver. The role of
the primary caregiver was to be the deciding vote in the divorced family, and
the court would try to designate the best parent as the primary caregiver
without regard to gender, social position, wealth, or any other consideration.
Suppose that Jane Smith
and John Doe got divorced when Zack was seven and Serena was ten, and that Jane
was designated the primary caregiver. Suppose further that Jane wanted Zack and
Serena to go see a chiropractor because she was convinced that proper spinal
alignment would help them grow better, but John believed chiropractic care was
usually quackery and might damage the young, developing bodies of his children.
They discussed the situation thoroughly but still disagreed. That is a tie, one
vote to one. However, Jasonian law and custom made the primary caregiver's vote
count more, so Jane would get her way.
If two adults adopted a
child together, then that child was considered equally theirs as if she or he
were their biological child. Yet, if two adults created a family through
marriage in which one spouse was biologically related to a child and the other
was not (that is the other was a step-parent), the biological parent retained
complete parential authority over the child after a divorce but the step-parent
had none. Marriage created the step relationship, and divorce ended it.
Perhaps the
greatest Jasonian scientist of his day was Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus was
born in Wisdom City, Jasonia, in 1473. Intrigued by
the inability of contemporary European astronomers to agree on certain
phenomena, such as the ordering of the planets, Copernicus began questioning
the foundations of their beliefs about the structure of the universe. For over
a thousand years, most Europeans blindly accepted the theory of the Greek
astronomer Ptolemy as fact: The Earth was at the center of the universe and all
the planets, including the sun and moon, were attached to invisible celestial
spheres that rotated around the Earth. Yet, Copernicus found that this theory
did not adequately correspond to observed data. Harmonizing the theory with
facts was too difficult to be realistic. .
Fortunately, Copernicus lived in
Jasonia rather than some other European nation. Jasonian law allowed all
citizens to do whatever they wanted as long as they did not obviously hurt
someone else. In contrast, other European nations were basically theocracies
that generally forced their citizens to conform to the literal assertions of
the Bible and the wishes of the Pope of Rome. The Bible indicates that the
Earth is flat (Psalms 19:4, 24:1-2; Matt. 4:8; Rev. 7:1), the sun and moon revolve
around the Earth (Josh. 10:12-14; Psalms 19:4-6, 93:1, 104:5; Eccl. 5:1), the
Earth is the most important heavenly body in the universe (Gen. 1:1-2:1), and humanity
is the most important species (Gen. 1:26-30, 6:5-7; John 1:14). Simply speaking,
the Bible taught these things, and the Pope insisted that everyone believe
them.
Copernicus, however,
was free to think for himself and propagate his ideas. He correctly reasoned
that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the solar system, on the ground
that it was improbable that a large body such as the sun would revolve around a
small body like the Earth. Despite certain defects in his system, Copernicus's
theory easily explained the four seasons, equinoxes, and the peculiar motion of
some planets. In 1512, he published his theory in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, which was eventually banned by
the Roman Catholic Church for being dangerous and heretical. Copernicus went on
to write several other books, further justifying his heliocentric worldview and
mathematically proving the shape and approximate size of the Earth. He died a famous
and respected scientist and teacher.
Of course, not every great scientist of that time was born in
Jasonia. Some moved there. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy,
in 1564. As a young man, he attracted attention by disproving Aristotle, like
Copernicus disproved Ptolemy. Then, by carefully observing the sky with a
telescope, which was a new device in Europe,
he revolutionized astronomy, discovering four moons around Jupiter. In 1613,
his book Historia e dimostrazioni intorno
alle macchie solari, which strongly asserted the Copernican theory over the
Ptolemaic belief, was officially condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. Fortunately,
Galileo had the good sense to relocate to Jasonia before its publication, thus
avoiding possible imprisonment, torture, and death. He died a free and happy
Jasonian in 1650, a most worthy successor to Copernicus.
On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail
from Spain
with three small ships, staffed with crews of convicts who were willing to risk
a dangerous voyage in return for being released from jail. His goal was a
quicker route to the Indies. He discovered new
continents inhabited by Native Americans, instead. Columbus claimed the land for Spain, but on April 22, 1500, the
Portuguese navigator, Pedro Alvares Cabral, encountered the westernmost bulge
of South America and claimed that for Portugal. Europe had now begun to conquer the Earth. Pope Alexander
VI (1431-1503) decreed the "Line of Demarcation," which ran from the
North Pole to the South Pole in the middle of the Atlantic
Ocean. All non-Christian lands to the west were to be owned by Spain, and all
non-Christian lands to the east were to be owned by Portugal.
The
Jasonian Congress thought that exploration, settlement, and trade were usually
wonderful endeavors; but it officially condemned the "Line of
Demarcation" as absurd, arrogant, and insensitive to the rights of
countless people. After all, Alexander VI did not bother to consult with the
Native Americans, Chinese, Subcontinental Indians, Arabs, Africans, or other affected
peoples before he gave away their freedom and lands to Spain and Portugal. To
quote the twentieth century writer, Isaac Asimov, "It was a sign of Europe's vaulting ambition, and of its calm assumption
that non-Christians (and Christian heretics, for that matter) had no human
rights."
The National
Representative, Sonny Bogus, was dispatched to Rome for a conference between him, the Pope,
and representatives from Portugal
and Spain. National Representative Bogus made Jasonia's
position clear: "When a group of people live on a land for generations,
that land belongs to them and so do its resources. To take that land or the
resources therein without honest trade or purchase is stealing. It is just as
wrong if a Christian steals from a non-Christian as it is if a non-Christian
steals from a Christian. As sure as God is just, all thieves will be properly
punished—Christian thieves, non-Christian thieves; rich thieves, poor thieves;
noble thieves and ordained thieves.
".
. . Jasonia reserves the right to explore and trade in the new lands. Whatever nation
attacks a Jasonian outpost, ship, or citizen will be declaring war on Jasonia;
and Jasonia will respond with its full force. ". . . On the positive side,
Jasonia will gladly share its geographical discoveries with the Holy See, Spain, and Portugal, so
your maps will be accurate and current. Thus, you have nothing to lose from
letting Jasonia explore and trade in the New World,
and much to gain."
Jasonia probably could
not defeat the combined forces of the Pope, Spain, and Portugal, but
it could hurt them greatly. Because of Jasonia's military might, its offer to
share cartographical information, and the fact that Jasonia was known for
honoring its treaties and for being courteous, generous, and peaceful, the Pope
and the representatives agreed to allow Jasonia "to explore and trade in
the new lands." The Line of Demarcation remained, though. Congress authorized
several expeditions to both North and South America.
Within fifty years, 100 small Jasonian outposts were established throughout the
New World, especially on the eastern coast,
although some outposts were deep in the interior. Jasonian scientists studied
and learned from the Native Americans, determining that there were
approximately 54 million Native Americans at the time of Columbus. They learned about new plants and
animals, medicines, calendar systems, and building techniques.
In the meantime, Jasonian
ambassadors and traders made alliances and exchanged goods. To be frank, there
were not many goods that Jasonians wanted from the natives. So the Jasonians
just traded harmless things like cloth and beads for gold and things of
scientific value, such as seeds, rare animal skeletons, and fossils.
Jasonian methods were in sharp contrast with those of the
Portuguese and Spanish, who often murdered, enslaved, forcibly converted, and
stole from the natives. Christian
Europeans considered Native Americans savages, and in many cases most Jasonians
would agree. After all, the Aztecs regularly cut out people's beating hearts to
appease non-existent gods, and the natives of North
America were still in the Stone Age. However, Jasonians also
pointed out the savagery of the Portuguese and Spanish, in an effort to
encourage them to be more humane. These efforts had some positive effect
overall, but they did not completely stop European abuses. Eventually, the
Inca, Maya, and many other tribes were wiped out. There
are two kinds of evil: voluntary and involuntary. In general, Jasonia was only guilty
of the latter, whereas other European nations were guilty of both, at least in
the New World. Jasonian scientists eventually
came to the conclusion that Native American populations were being devastated
by European diseases such as smallpox, typhus, measles, influenza, bubonic
plague, mumps, yellow fever, and whooping cough. Millions of Native Americans
were dying, over 90% of the population in the hardest hit areas—much worse than
even the dreaded Black Death of medieval Europe. Jasonians were horrified at
the evil they had accidentally done, and, as a result, their Congress spent
much time and treasure to help the natives. In particular, they focused on
curing, or at least slowing the spread, of the most lethal disease, smallpox. Smallpox
was an extremely contagious viral disease that came in two forms. Variola major and Variola minor. V. major was the
more deadly form, often killing approximately 20 to 40 percent of its victims. V.
minor only killed 1%. In either case, many survivors were left blind in one
or both eyes from corneal ulcerations, and almost all had ugly pockmarks for
life. Fortunately,
Jasonia was the most technologically advanced nation the world had yet known,
at least in terms of medicine, so it was aware of inoculations. Inoculations
were practiced in India as early as 1000 B.C. The Indians rubbed pus into skin
lesions, and, latter, the Chinese blew powdered smallpox scabs up the noses of
healthy people. In both cases, most patients would develop a mild case of the
disease and be immune from then on. Such inoculations could control smallpox,
but they were problematic. About 2% of those inoculated died, and inoculated
people had to be seculed to prevent them from transmitting the disease to others. In 1570, a
young Jasonian girl named Ursula Regurgitatas was inoculated and suffered from
smallpox for forty days. Although she recovered, she was determined to discover
a better way to prevent the dreaded disease. At age fourteen, Regurgitatas
realized that people who caught cowpox while working with cows did not catch
smallpox. Cowpox is closely related to, but much milder than, smallpox. Regurgitatas
kept this information in mind throughout her years in medical school. After
becoming a doctor, a smallpox epidemic struck Reasonton, her hometown. The
young doctor advised that the healthy population be innoculated with cowpox
rather than smallpox. All those thusly innoculated had only a mild case of
cowpox and did not contract smallpox. Regurgitatas soon became
a national hero, and her finding was quickly put into effect in the New World, Europe,
and parts of Africa and Asia. Jasonian doctors, nurses, and diplomats spread
the good news of cowpox innoculations with missionary zeal. Millions of
people's lives have been saved and improved as a result. The last known case of
smallpox was in 1910 in the Belgian Congo. Jasonian
doctors also helped the Native Americans cope with the other aformentioned
European diseases with some success. They taught the natives to avoid typhus
with personal hygene, general cleanliness, and clean drinking water; to
minimize the danger of measles with proper nutrition and healthcare; to combat
bubonic plague with cats which ate disease-carrying vermin; to minimize the symptoms
of mumps with painkillers; to avoid yellow fever by controlling mosquitos with
insect repellent and screening houses; and to treat whooping cough with a
medicinal tea made of Sundews, a type of carnivorous plant found around the
Earth. The
general reaction of the Native Americans toward the Jasonians was anger
followed by thankfulness. They were angry that the Jasonians had helped infect
them. But they realized it was an accident, and they knew that the Jasonians
were sincerely regretful and doing their best to make amends. Jasonians were
often saving Native American lives. In
fact, Native Americans generally came to view Jasonians as friends and most
other Europeans as enemies. The other Europeans not only gave them terrible
diseases, they often murdered, enslaved, raped, robbed, and forcibly converted
them—practices which the Jasonians abhored. Many Jasonians even risked their
lives to protect Native Americans when it was reasonable to do so, but the
small number of Jasonians in the New World was not enough to effectively police
much of it. Back when the link between
European diseases and Native American illness was first discovered by Jasonian
scientists and doctors, there was a movement in Jasonia to withdrawal all
Jasonians from isolated lands such as the North and South America. The idea was
that fewer Europeans in such lands would mean fewer native lives ruined or
lost. Through its ambassadors, the Jasonian Congress discussed this possible
policy and the reasons behind it with other seafaring European nations. Such
nations were not inclined to agree. They preferred gaining potential riches,
land, and power, and spreading their religions, over protecting primitive,
non-Christian, and supposedly ignorant peoples. Once
Jasonians realized that other Europeans would spread disease with or without
Jasonians, Jasonians almost unanimously agreed that Jasonia should continue to
interact with isolated populations. They reasoned that such populations were
doomed to be exposed to European diseases anyway, so Jasonian doctors should be
available to help.
A
similar rationale was applied to other European evils inflicted upon isolated
populations (murder, enslavement, etcetera). Jasonians knew that they weren't
perfect, but they would probably do more good being involved with than staying
away from isolated populations. They could warn such people, help them defend
themselves, and teach them Jasonian values and technology when appropriate. To
a great extent, this is what Jasonia did, much to the disapproval of colonizing
European nations.
Chapter Five: Jasonia 1651-1861
Spain and Portugal had founded
colonies in newly discovered lands, and later France, the Netherlands, and
Britain did too. Jasonia stuck with just trading posts, arguing that a nation
should not colonize a land that was currently inhabited by other people. This
argument pricked the conscience of many Europeans but not enough to alter the
general policy of the aforementioned nations. As
usual, problems tortured Europe, but now their
colonies were involved as well. Organized religion censored the press and
speech, opposed religious toleration, supported the divine right of kings to
rule, and endorsed slavery. Nation fought nation for land and riches in both
the Old and New Worlds. Jasonians, however, found much to rejoice in. The Enlightenment
that had begun in Jasonia with the reign of its last and greatest king had
finally spread to many other nations. France had Voltaire and Rousseau;
and Holland had
merchants exercising most political power. Holland also published books that could not
be printed in other nations. Great
Britain developed its own Enlightenment, led
by people like John Locke and David Hume. Jasonians,
in general, rejoiced in the American Revolution. At last another nation was born
"hold[ing] these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure
these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers
from the Consent of the Governed." Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, and
Paine became celebrities throughout Jasonia. If only Great Britain were a true democracy,
the average Jasonian thought, the
Thirteen Colonies could vote to be an independent nation, and there would not
have to be this horrible revolution. Heck, maybe Great Britain would be such a
wonderful nation if it were democratic, that the Thirteen Colonies would be
eager to remain a part of it. Most
Jasonians were less impressed in 1787 with the United States Constitution,
because it endorsed slavery, withheld voting rights from women, and was not
very democratic even for those men who could vote. American voters could not
even directly elect their own senators. It was apparent, though, that much of
the U.S. Constitution was modeled after the Jasonian Constitution. So Jasonians
were still generally very fond of and fascinated by the U.S. To
the Jasonian way of thinking, the president of the United States was like a king whose
power was limited by four-year terms of office and a Congress. This was not
ideal, but it was a step in the right direction. It was better to be ruled by a
Congress than one person, because that one person would easily become an evil
dictator.
The United States was justified to
fight the war of 1812 because it had a right to protect its citizens, in this
case, its sailors whom Great
Britain was kidnapping into its own navy. But
was the United States justified to fight Mexico later that century? Most
contemporary Jasonians would hesitatingly answer yes. At the time Mexico gained its
independence from Spain in 1821, its most northeastern part, Texas, was
sparsely populated. The new Mexican government wanted many Mexican citizens to
settle this region for at least two reasons. One, it was concerned about losing
Texas to a
foreign power such as the ever-expanding United States. And two, large parts
of Texas were ruled by Native Americans who were often hostile to both Mexican
citizens and the Mexican government. The problem was that there was a lack of Hispanic
Mexicans settlers, so the Mexican government invited Americans to live in Texas provided they
become law-abiding citizens of Mexico.
One Mexican law insisted that all Mexican citizens be Roman Catholic, and
another insisted that slavery be abolished. Both laws would prove to be
unpopular among the new American settlers, who were mainly Protestants from
slave states. By 1834, there were
20,000 Americans in Texas
and only 5,000 Mexicans. The Mexican government's settlement policy was
backfiring. Most of these Americans naturally wanted to be part of the United
States. Besides the issues of religious intolerance and slavery, they resented
the intrusive but ineffective Mexican government, and the loss of earlier
privileges such as exemption from import duties. The straw that broke the
camel's back was when the republic of Mexico became a dictatorship under Santa
Anna. To
determine if the United States was justified in fighting the Mexican-American
War, which was fought over America's annexation of Texas, Jasonians who closely
followed world events had to ask themselves if Texas had the right to secede
from Mexico. Although almost all Jasonians detested slavery, they cherished
"the right to have the government that one wants, if the majority of
adults living in one’s nation also want it." The nation in question could
be a state large enough to become a nation. Texas certainly was such a state. Therefore,
as the British government should have done for the American colonies, the
Mexican government should have allowed the adult citizens of Texas to vote on
independence. Such a vote was not permitted, so the only recourse to secession
was revolution. History has often proven that those who are not allowed to vote
with ballots will often vote with weapons.
Texas won its
independence in 1836 and was annexed by the United States in 1845, becoming the
28th state in that republic. Mexico, however, still
considered Texas its territory. In
January 1846, the president of the United States sent troops to the Rio
Grande River to secure the Texas border. The traditional border between
Texas and the
rest of Mexico
had been the Nueces
River, approximately 150
miles north of the Rio Grande
River. The United States
preferred the boundary established by the Treaties of Velasco, which
formally
ended the Texas Revolution. This issue should have been settled by
letting all
the adult inhabitants living in the disputed area vote to be part of
Mexico or
Texas, but, alas, it was not. So yet another war was fought.
The
war ended in 1848. The United
States had clearly defeated Mexico and
gained undisputed control of Texas,
California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Mexico received
$18,250,000 in return.
The Mexican-American War was about
gaining and losing territory, and Jasonia has both gained and lost entire
states. Jasonians were and are generally proud of the rational, democratic, and
peaceful means their nation has handled annexation and secession.
In
1413, a neighboring nation to the south invaded Jasonia to steal Jasonian land
and wealth. Jasonia responded by routing the invaders, capturing their king,
and conquering their nation. The Jasonian Congress then decreed that the
offending nation would be governed by a Jasonian general for ten years and
developed into a democratic republic. The captured king would have to live out
his days in a semi-pleasant prison on an island off the coast of Jasonia. His crime was unjustly inciting a war against a
peaceful nation.
Ten
years passed, and the conquered nation was transformed into a democratic
republic. Yet the people of that nation were suspicious of democracy because it
seemed contrary to Christian teaching. God, not ordinary people, gives power to
governments, they reasoned. The Roman
Catholic Church hierarchy and neighboring monarchs agreed with this
undemocratic line of thinking, and their plotting and intrigues did much to
destabilize the young government.
In
order to avert a civil war, the Jasonian Congress gave each state in the
conquered nation three votes. The first vote was to determine if the conquered
wanted to be a democratic republic or a monarchy. Only three states, each near
the Jasonian border, voted for a democratic republic. So the Jasonian Congress
invited a noble family from England
which had promised favorable relations with Jasonia to rule the majority of the
conquered nation.
The
second vote was held only in the three pro-democracy states. They were given the
choice to either join Jasonia or to not join Jasonia. If they chose the latter,
they would then vote to become an independent democratic republic or remain
part of their former nation. Two of the three joined Jasonia and have happily
remained part of the Jasonian union to this day.
All adult citizens of the third state were
allowed and encouraged to choose to rejoin their former nation under the new
monarch with some unique regional democratic institutions or to exist
independently as a democratic republic. The majority of them chose the latter, and
their democratic republic lasted less than twelve years. The monarchical nation
re-conquered it, using God and traditional territorial boundaries as excuses. Because
both the kingdom and democratic republic were sovereign nations unallied with
Jasonia, Jasonia did not interfere.
Jasonia shrunk in 1616 when one of
its states, Stupidia, wanted to declare itself an autonomous Protestant nation
of the Calvinist variety. Most Jasonians thought that such a political
arrangement was unnecessary, but they admitted that it was Stupidia's
constitutional right. Article 1, Section 2 of the Jasonian constitution states,
To secede
from Jasonia, a state must be and do the following. One, it must have been part of Jasonia for at least five years.
Two, the majority of its federal senators
and councilors combined must voluntarily sign a declaration of independence. The declaration must state that
they want their nation to be independent
and why independence is desirable. Three, with the approval of both their state senate and state council, they
must read their declaration of independence
to both the federal senate and federal council. Four, their state must encourage and allow all its adult
citizens to vote to secede from the union, and the majority of them must voluntarily decide in favor of
secession. Thereafter, that state
will not be part of Jasonia unless it joins the union again according to Section 1 of this article.
The issue of secession was
foremost in Jasonian minds after news of the American Civil War reached
Jasonia. In 1861 eleven Southern states seceded from the United States
to form the Confederate States of America. They seceded for many
reasons, foremost of which was slavery. Southern whites wanted to keep slavery
for at least three reasons: It provided very cheap labor, it made even the
poorest whites feel at least a little superior, and most Southern whites did
not want millions of free blacks settling in their lands. They generally saw
Abraham Lincoln as a great threat to their "peculiar institution," so
they seceded soon after his election to the presidency. What was the average
freedom-loving Jasonian to think? On one hand, she or he believed that states
should have the freedom to secede from a union that no longer served their best
interest. On the other hand, the Southern states were mainly seceding from
their union to keep millions of their own people from having freedom. What
should the Northern states do? In 1860, the Jasonian Congress
approved a letter entitled "Amicable Advice from a Fellow Democracy."
This letter was sent to every high-ranking American politician and major
American newspaper:
Dear Americans:
It grieves the nation of Jasonia to see the
United States of America on the verge of civil
war. We do not intend to interfere with your internal affairs, but we do feel obliged to offer our thoughts on your
current crisis in case they may be of assistance.
As a fellow democracy, we have a great fondness for your nation and only want to see it prosper.
Jasonia is
both for the right of a state to secede from a union and for the right of every person to be free. We cherish both
rights and even believe that both are worth
sacrificing for. We will not here argue whether one is more important than the other. Instead, we will suggest what we
believe is the ideal course of action at this
critical time in American history.
One, set
all the slaves in your nation free, granting them full and immediate citizenship.
Two, insist
that a proper vote be taken by a state before it secedes from the union. This vote will obviously include all
former slaves who are of voting age.
Three, if a
seceding state follows these steps properly, then do not attack it. If a seceding state does not follow these steps
properly, then do attack it. In the former
case, it has obeyed federal law and followed proper procedure. In the latter case, it has not. Instead, it has
acted undemocratically, unjustly, and rebelliously.
It has acted like a criminal in need of punishment. The military must provide that punishment.
The
question arises: What should the North do if a Southern state or states lawfully secede and reinstate
slavery? This is a very challenging question to answer. On one hand, the North and the seceding state or
states will have become separate
nations, and it is usually best not to interfere with the internal matters of a foreign nation unless the true government of
that nation officially requests such interference.
On the other hand, slavery is very evil and should be stopped. We should treat others the way we want to
be treated, and almost everyone would hate
to be a slave.
Slavery is
evil for at least three reasons. One, all humans are intrinsically equal, as your own Declaration of Independence
gloriously asserts in its own way. Therefore,
one human should not own another. Two, because humans are rational creatures, they require more freedom than
slavery permits to be as good and happy
as possible. And three, slavery promotes many evils such as dehumanization, inequality, torture,
murder, and rape.
Whatever
the North decides to do in such a case, it should make sure that its motives are pure. It should not invade
to punish or reclaim territory that has lawfully
seceded. It should only invade to stop an intolerable evil. Before it chooses such an invasion, it should honestly
ask itself if it would be willing to invade
other enslaving nations, assuming that such invasions would probably be successful. If the honest answer is yes, then
why hasn't the United States
of America
invaded many enslaving nations already?
We wish you
well and are willing to assist you as much as reason permits.
Sincerely,
The
People of Jasonia as
Represented by Their Congress
Jasonia's amicable advice became a small part of the
discussion in the United States about slavery, secession, and civil war; but it
had little impact. Americans and Jasonians simply had different ways of
thinking, in general. Americans thought that Jasonians were too idealistic and
simplistic. Jasonians were convinced that the goal of human life is to be as
good and happy as possible, and they preferred to die trying to accomplish that
goal rather than live with some kind of evil compromise. Besides, they
reasoned, ultimately doing what is good benefits oneself. Doing good is good
for everyone, even the one who sacrifices to do it. Most
Jasonians were saddened but not surprised that their advice was largely
unheeded. They too had a saying like "You can lead a horse to water, but
you can't make him drink." Jasonians greatly respected human free will and
realized that they were imperfect. Perhaps what they disapproved of was somehow
right and they were too ignorant to understand why. In any case, trying to
control adults in foreign nations usually did more evil than good. The effort
to help foreigners was important, though. It fulfilled moral obligation, and
there was always a chance, however small, that it would work.
Chapter Six: Jasonia 1862-1897
In 1865 the Jasonian Congress passed the National Education Act (NEA). NEA
established compulsory education for all Jasonian citizens from the ages of
five to fifteen. Students ages five through eight attended grades one through
four at primary schools, students ages nine through twelve attended grades five
through eight at secondary schools, and students ages thirteen through fifteen
attended grades nine through eleven at tertiary schools. After age fifteen,
citizens could enter the workforce, go to a college prepatory school, or go
directly to college.
Citizens of any age could attend a college
prepatory school for free, as long as they were well behaved. Resembling
primary, secondary, and tertiary public schools, these college prepatory
schools were often called quaternary schools.
Jasonian colleges were
designed to give Jasonian adults specific skills to accomplish specific jobs,
jobs such as farmer, teacher, carpenter, mechanic, nurse, doctor, lawyer,
merchant, journalist, and publisher. Jasonians were expected to master broad
skills, that is skills necessary to be a productive citizen and applicable to
almost all jobs, in primary, secondary, tertiary, and, in many cases,
quaternary schools. There were no such things as undeclared or liberal arts
majors in Jasonian colleges. If a Jasonian past the age of fifteen did not know
what career to strive for, he or she would probably take career placement
courses in a quaternary school.
NEA also established the Three-Group Educational System
(TGES) for all tertiary public schools with over 100 students in the same grade.
So if there was a tertiary public school with 100 ninth graders, 131 tenth
graders, and 99 eleventh graders, then grades nine and ten would definitely be
divided into three groups, whereas grade eleven might not. The three groups were
Fast Learners, Medium Learners, and Slow Learners. Fast, medium, and slow refer
to how quickly students master academic concepts.
Based
on placement tests from the previous spring, students in grades six through
eleven were placed in one of three groups for math, Jasonian (i.e. reading,
writing, and speaking the Jasonian language), science, and foreign language
classes. Jasonians chose only these four subjects, because they were the most
academically challenging of all subjects and Jasonians did not want to
completely separate students on the basis of intellectual ability. Students
with different intellectual abilities were mixed together in all the other
classes so that they could become friends, help each other, and get used to
people who were different than themselves.
Faster
Learners were students who got a high grade
on the placement test for the subject in question (generally the top 10%),
Medium Learners were students who got a medium grade, and Slow Learners
were students who got a low grade (generally the bottom 10%). This
solution allowed teachers to teach students at the fastest pace students could
learn. Faster Learners were taught at a faster pace than Medium and Slow
Learners, and Slow Learners were taught at a slower pace than Fast and Medium
Learners.
At
least in math, Jasonian, science, and foreign language classes, this division
avoided having too many students not learn everything they should. Without this
division, the pace would be too slow for many of them, so they would be able to
learn much more information than was being presented; or the pace would be too
fast for many of them, so they would not understand all the information that was
being presented. Furthermore, when students are too smart or not smart enough
for a class, they tend to misbehave more, which upsets teachers and makes
learning difficult for all the students in the class. Students who are too
smart get bored because they are not being challenged enough, and students who
are not smart enough get bored because they do not understand everything that
is being taught. No matter what the cause of boredom, bored students often
misbehave to entertain themselves.
NEA
also established fair and user-friendly rules with fair and user-friendly
consequences for breaking those rules. In Jasonian public schools, students
could not misbehave so much that they learned very little and even greatly disrupted
the education of their peers. Every public school told its teachers something
like this: “These are the rules that you are expected to enforce, and here is
how you are expected to enforce them.” That took away much guess-work involved
for both teachers and students concerning rules and consequences. The result
was almost no confusion, chaos, unease, frustration, and anger.
The
Jasonian government realized that there would be some bad parents and bad
students, but it worked hard to make its public school system good. Parents and
students who complained about the Jasonian public school system—perhaps because
they considered it too strict or perhaps because they considered it too
flexible—were politely told something to this effect: “You are allowed to try to
change the public school system by petitioning the government or running for a
government office. If you choose not to do that or are unable to get the result
you want despite your efforts, you can always place your child in a private
school. Have a wonderful day.”
Sixth grade was deemed best to transition from non-grouping to grouping
education. Students would have had four years of primary school plus one year
of secondary school up to that point to be as smart and knowledgeable as
possible. That is five years to advance to the "best" group. Furthermore,
students were ten years old by the time they reached sixth grade, so they
should already have been aware that some people are generally more academically
gifted than others.
TGES relied on one
test for each subject, and the numbers generally told the truth. In the event
that the student did unusually poorly testing that day for some reason, a
make-up test could easily be arranged with the principal of the school. If the
result of the first test and the second test were basically the same—and they
almost always were—then the student truly got the deserved placement.
Occasionally, a
parent or guardian would argue that her or his child was smarter than he or she
tested, because the format of the test was incompatible with the student or the
student got too nervous. Most adult Jasonians agreed, though, that a student
who could not figure out how to do a simple multiple-choice test was almost
certainly not smart, and a student needed to learn to relax during stressful
situations. Doing poorly on a placement test was not the end of the world, and
life had far greater tests than any school. It was best to start developing
equanimity in the face of adversity while one was young. If a Jasonian child
did poorly on a placement test, she or he was generally encouraged to say to
him or herself, Oh well, I did my best. Hopefully
I will do better next year, but, in any case, I am a valuable member of this
community.
And students did
often move from one group to another from year to year, depending on how they
did on the placement tests. Natural ability and social circumstances aside, all
things were equal in the Jasonian public education. It was a true meritocracy
which prepared children to contribute to the larger meritocracy of Jasonia as
adults.
Beginning in fifth grade, TGES
testing was done every year after students completed almost one full year of
school. July first through the fifth were often designated TGES testing days.
School was held
year-round, but the school year officially began on the first of September,
unless it was a Sunday. In that case, school began on September 2. Students had
classes three weeks in a row with Sundays and some holidays off, and then they
had a week break. At the end of every three weeks, a progress report, which was
basically a report card, was sent home. Jasonian society encouraged parents to
monitor their child's academic progress and assist as necessary, so that every
student would do her or his best in every subject.
Simply speaking,
if they were in sixth through eleventh grade or a quaternary school, students
who scored in the top ten percent in a subject placement test attended a fast
class in that subject the next school year, students who scored in the bottom
ten percent in a subject attended a slow class, and students who scored in between
attended a medium class. So a student potentially could attend a fast math
class, a medium science class, and a slow language class.
The
following is a typical tertiary student schedule:
8:00-8:55
A.M. Slow Math
9:00-9:55
A.M. Medium Science
10:00-10:55
A.M. Fast Jasonian
11:00-11:55
A.M. Medium Other Language: Russian
12:00-12:30 P.M. lunch
12:35-1:30 P.M. Fine Arts: Sculpting
1:35-2:30 P.M. Civics
2:35-3:30 P.M. Health
3:35-4:30 P.M. Life Skills
Students were
differentiated (put into different classes because of academic ability) for the
more academically rigorous classes—classes such as Math, Science, Jasonian, and
Other Language. They were not differentiated for the less academically rigorous
classes. Thus, lunch (which really wasn't a class), Fine Arts, Civics, Health,
and Life Skills generally had students from all three groups. This allowed
students from different groups to get to know each other better. After all,
they were expected to eventually work together to make Jasonia prosper once
they were adults.
In Math, students
learned mathematics, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. In
Science, they learned to understand all aspects of life scientifically. They
studied anatomy, biology, geology, astronomy, sociology, psychology,
anthropology, archeology, paleontology, chemistry, and physics, among other
things.
Jasonian was the
name of the official language of Jasonia, so Jasonian students studied it like
British or American students study English. Other Language was a non-Jasonian
tongue. The most common foreign languages studied in Jasonian public school
were Russian, French, English, Spanish, and Latin. But many students studied
other languages, including Greek, Arabic, and Chinese.
Fine Arts was
actually a series of classes. In first grade, all students took drawing,
painting, and sculpting; in second, drama; in third, singing; in fourth,
orchestra; and every year after that, whatever Fine Arts class they wanted.
Students did not
take a formal history class, although history was generally valued by Jasonians.
Instead, they took a Civics class, which taught students what they needed to
know to function well in and contribute the most to society. Civics did include
some history and geography, so that students would know what Jasonia was and
would not be ignorant about the rest of the world. But the main thrust of Civics
was law and social responsibility. Jasonians believed it was foolish to expect
citizens to understand the law of a nation without schools formally teaching
it. In other advanced nations, most people did not understand the law well or
the exact consequences of breaking a law, because they were never formally
taught it.
Why should one
neighbor have to ask another neighbor if something is legal or not? And then,
if the act is illegal, why should one neighbor have to ask another neighbor
what would happen to him or her if she or he broke the law? "No one should
be ignorant of the law in the nation that he or she has lived in all of her or
his life! Where there is a decent public school system, ignorance of the law is
the fault of the government, not the citizen!" Or so argued famed Jasonian
educator, Zippy Postuli, who is often considered the father of the NEA reforms.
Health class often
began with a lesson and always included a physical activity. The lesson taught
students how to be healthy. For example, in the lower grades, the students were
taught how to brush their teeth, eat a balanced meal, and resolve simple
conflicts. In the upper grades, they were taught the complexities of nutrition,
exercise, childcare, first aid, and interpersonal communication. The physical
activity gave students at least thirty minutes of challenging exercise each
day. They played Jasonian rugby, soccer, tug-of-war, dodge ball, capture the
flag, and volleyball. They also did swimming, track and field, obstacle
courses, and rock climbing.
Besides the absence of
differentiation, there were many differences between primary school, and
secondary and tertiary schools. The primary school day was shorter, lasting
only from 9:00 A.M. to 3:15
P.M. The primary schools had Recess, because they gave the students thirty
minutes of unstructured playtime each day. The primary school classes were
fixed, meaning that every group of students stayed together throughout the
entire school day. If students X, Y, and Z were in Math together, they would
also be in Science and Recess together.
Lastly,
a teacher's aide would accompany each group of students to every class. The
purpose of this was to keep students from misbehaving in the hallways or
getting lost. Once in the classroom, the teacher's aide would assist the
instructor as needed. Like secondary and tertiary schools, each subject was
taught by a specialist.
The
following is a typical primary school schedule:
9:00-9:45
A.M. Math
9:45-10:30
A.M. Science
10:30-11:15 A.M. Reading and Speaking
Jasonian
11:15 A.M.-12:00 P.M. Other Language: Russian
12:00-12:30 P.M. Lunch
12:30-1:00 A.M. Recess
1:00-1:45 P.M. Singing
1:45-2:30 P.M. Civics
or Health
2:30-3:15 P.M. Writing
Jasonian
Note that the primary schools had Reading and Speaking Jasonian
as well as Writing Jasonian. After primary school, these two courses were
combined into one class (Jasonian), and Life Skills was added to the curriculum.
The theory was that primary students needed to devout more time to learning the
basics of reading, speaking, and writing than older students. Once they mastered
the basics, a single native language class would suffice to improve their
abilities.
As for Life Skills,
it taught students about various careers and how to excel in them. For
instance, one week they might learn about an aspect of national defense, while
another week they might learn how to type on a keyboard. The purpose of Life
Skills was twofold: to teach students a variety of skills so that they could do
and respect many jobs in Jasonia, and to help the students evaluate the best
job for themselves.
A diploma is a certificate issued
by a school indicating that a certain course of study has been successfully
completed, and all levels of Jasonian education had diplomas. There were
primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and college diplomas. There were even
fast, medium, and slow versions of the secondary and tertiary diplomas, because
secondary and tertiary public schools were designed to accommodate almost all
students, regardless of intellectual ability and work ethic. Only the extremely
mentally or physically disabled could not attend a regular public school, but
there were one-on-one tutors and other types of schools for them. These tutors
and alternative schools were paid for by the government, either partially or
completely.
From
secondary and tertiary schools, a Jasonian could graduate with a fast, medium,
or slow diploma. The diploma's designation was based on the type of courses a
student successfully completed on average. If a student took a variety of
differentiated classes, then a mathematical equation was used to determine the
type of diploma. Fast = 5, Mostly Fast = 4, Medium = 3, Mostly Slow = 2, and
Slow = 1.
Suppose
a student passed the required 24 differentiated classes in tertiary school. If five
of those were fast classes, twelve medium, and seven slow, then the formula
would look like this: (5 x 5) + (12 x 3) + (7 x 1) = 68. 68 ÷ 24 = 2.8. 2.8
would be rounded up to three, so the student would graduate with a medium tertiary
diploma, assuming that he or she also passed the required non-differentiated
courses and met attendance standards.
How
did a student successfully complete a course? For fast and medium courses, a
student would first have to get into the course through placement testing. Then
she or he would have to finish the course with a grade point average of 70 or
above. To successfully complete a slow course, a student only had to attend at
least 70 percent of classes in that course during the school year. Most
Jasonians thought that students in the slow classes were lazy, apathetic,
and/or intellectually challenged, and they hoped that such students would at
least learn the basics and graduate from tertiary school on schedule.
What
happened if a student failed a fast or medium course? To receive credit, a
student had to attend at least 70 percent of classes in that course during the
school year. If the attendance criterion was met, a student would receive a
medium class credit instead of a fast class credit for failing a fast class,
and a student would receive a slow class credit instead of a medium class credit
for failing a medium class.
Two
advantages of this system were that students were rewarded for passing the
placement test and, in general, students did not have to repeat grades. Most
Jasonians believed that if a student was smart enough to pass a placement test
into a fast or medium class, then he or she deserved some kind of credit for
her or his academic ability; and the higher the placement score, the higher the
credit the student deserved. If a student failed a fast or medium class, it was
probably not the failure of the test to predict the student's academic ability.
Rather, it was because the student did not work hard enough or the student had
some kind of problem that detracted from his or her educational performance. Perhaps
the student was frequently sick or was grieving the loss of a loved one.
Jasonian
public school students were seldom encouraged to repeat a grade. Making a
student repeat a grade was generally viewed as humiliating, a waste of time,
and in some cases dangerous. It was humiliating to be much older than one's
peers because one failed to meet a certain academic standard. This
unnecessarily made a student appear lazy, apathetic, and/or mentally challenged
to her or his peers and, perhaps, to him or herself. At least in the Jasonian
public school system, students were of the same age in each grade and very
likely to graduate on time.
Repeating
a grade was a waste of time because, in most cases, if a student was lazy,
apathetic, and/or mentally challenged one year, she or he would probably be
lazy, apathetic, and/or mentally challenged the next year. The student could
fix his or her own laziness and/or apathy whether she or he repeated a year of
school or not, but, as American comedian Ron White said, "You can't fix
stupid." Mentally challenged is just a nice way of saying stupid.
As
for being dangerous, it was dangerous for students of widely different age
groups to go to the same school because of the difference in size and
disposition. A fifteen-year-old bully would probably hurt many of his or her
ten-year-old classmates. And Jasonians knew that children tend to have a stronger
sex drive during puberty, so it is not good to regularly expose naive eleven
years olds to a horny sixteen-year-old classmate.
Simply
speaking, the only time a Jasonian student repeated a grade in the public
school system was when she or he did not attend the required amount of school
days in a given school year.
How were Jasonian public schools
funded? They have been funded the same way since 1865. NEA standardized
government funding for public schools by providing the equivalent of 5,000 U.S.
dollars in 2000 each year for every student enrolled in a school. So if a
school had 200 students enrolled, it would receive the equivalent of $1,000,000
from the federal government for all its operating expenses. That government
money would be raised through taxes, not bake sales or bonds.
However,
people could freely donate and raise money for local schools. One or more
individuals could give enough money to a school to offer an extra class or
sports program, or to build a new facility, if the regular $5,000 per student
was not enough.
Not everyone was completely
satisfied with the Jasonian public school system, which is why many Jasonian
towns and cities had at least one private school. Often a parent would send his
or her child to a private school to receive religious indoctrination or to be
educated according to an unusual method, such as that used in modern Montessori
schools. In that case, the $5,000 went directly to the private school in which
the student was enrolled. The parents of a home-schooled child would receive a
$5,000 rebate on their taxes to educate the child at home, if they had paid
$5,000 in taxes that year. If they paid less, they would receive less. For
example, suppose that the two parents of a child paid a combined total of
$4,392.50 in taxes that year and chose to home-school her or him. In that case,
they would only receive $4,392.50 back in taxes to educate their child.
Jasonians
generally respected the right of parents to raise their children as they
desire, so Jasonians supported the right to private school education. However,
Jasonians also realized that children need to be protected from incompetent
parents and incompetent private schools. Thus, all students being educated in
private schools and at home were given the Minimum Competency Test (MCT)
sometime each year in July. The
MCT was a test that most public school students could pass. It focused on
reading, writing, mathematics, and simple facts such as King Jason I was the
last king of Jasonia. There was also an MCT for every age including and between
five and fifteen. So a home-schooled student who was thirteen years old on the
day of the test would take the MCT for Thirteen Year Olds. If a student failed
the MCT, the Jasonian government would investigate to determine whether or not
the student was receiving an adequate education. If the government determined
that the student was not receiving an adequate education, the student might be
forced to attend the closest public school.
This period of time in history gave
rise to another aspect of Jasonian public education, but one that was separate
from the sweeping NEA reforms. Most Jasonians were fascinated by news about the
United States of America,
so it is not surprising that they took great interest in American President
Benjamin Harrison's endorsement in 1892 of the American Pledge of Allegiance. Written
by socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy earlier that year, the
Pledge was marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of
the New World. The original Pledge was as
follows:
I
pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all.
The
Jasonian Congress thought that a pledge of allegiance was a good idea, because
it could be used to efficiently teach national virtues and promote Jasonian
unity. However, they tweaked the American Pledge, and thus was born the Jasonian
Pledge of Allegiance:
All people are of equal worth and
great value, so I promise to value other people and myself equally and greatly.
Everyone can do something, but no
one can do everything. So I promise to always do my best for everyone's sake.
Jasonians
were very conscious that their nation was just one of many nations, all of them
imperfect, although some more so than others. They also were very aware that,
depending on how they were born and raised, they might not be Jasonian. They
had a great chance of being Chinese, Egyptian, Mexican, or whatever. It was the
awareness of these things plus a love for all people that accounts for the
universal nature of the Jasonian Pledge.
Starting
in 1895, the Jasonian Pledge was being recited in all public schools in Jasonia
at the beginning of the school day. The United States soon followed
Jasonia's example, using its pledge in American public schools.
The educational system was not
the only thing reformed during this time in Jasonian history. The militia
system was also restructured. The Industrial Revolution had made most jobs much
more specialized. Most older adults had to focus on things like running
factories and research facilities, and more professional soldiers and sailors
were needed to operate complex military equipment. Therefore, Congress decreed
that all citizens of sound mind and
body had to serve in either the army or navy for two years, generally from the
week after their eighteenth birthday until the week after their twenthieth
birthday. This way, young adults had the opportunity to serve their nation in
the military, and older adults did not have to serve in the militias. The
militias were not totally disbanded, though. A strong national guard was
maintained to suppliment the regular army and navy in the event of a national
emergency. Some
people might suspect that the average Jasonian youth would hate this
arrangement. After all, the military is generally not the most enjoyable place
for eighteen and nineteen year olds. Such people are thinking about the
military of most nations, though. The military of Jasonia was less rigid
socially than other conventional Western militaries. For example, it had equal
numbers of men and women, and its members were free to date each other as they
pleased. There was no restriction on who could have a romantic relationship
with whom in the military, as long as the dating was respectful, age
appropriate, and off-duty. Most Jasonians wholeheartedly agreed with the goal
of the military too. It was a purely defensive and egalitarian institution. No
one could avoid the draft, unless they failed psychological or physical
requirements. One
invention that aided military life was the birth-control pill. Primarily
developed in 1866 by Jasonian scientist Buroni Burangus, the first
birth-control pill became widely available in Jasonia after five years of
careful government testing. It was soon offered for free to all female members
of the newly reformed military as a way to help them avoid pregnancy until their
two-year military commitment ended. The results were generally successful,
although the amount of hormone in the pill had to be lowered to avoid some
unpleasant side effects such as dizziness, severe nausea, vomiting, and stomach
pain. The revolutionary contraception was
not without its critics. The Pope of Rome declared it "a heretical
rejection of God's command to 'Be fruitful and multipy.'" Most Jasonians
generally dismissed the Pope's criticism as being ignorant and reactionary,
wondering why people should obey commands about sex and marriage from a man who
is supposedly never going to have sex or get married. They also ignored other
religious leaders with similar sentiments. The
Daily Umblra, the largest newspaper in Jasonia at the time, published a
well-received editorial, famously proclaiming, "Let them have their own
babies if they want! We won't have babies for them!" The Jasonian Congress
was farsighted enough, though, to realize that an oral contraceptive might
increase promiscuity and, thus, increase sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore,
it greatly expanded efforts to educate the general public about sex and VD. Below
is a pamphlet that was distributed by the Jasonian government to every
household in the nation in 1872.
A DECREE ON SEX BY THE JASONIAN CONGRESS
ISSUED ON APRIL 2, 1872
Extramarital sex means having sex with someone who is not
one’s spouse. One’s spouse is the person to whom one is married. Thus,
extramarital sex can be a form of fornication as well as adultery. Fornication
is sex between two people who are not married to anyone, and adultery is one of
two things: sex between a married and unmarried person, or sex between two
married people who are not married to each other.
Fornication and adultery are often
problematic, because they often cause unwanted pregnancy, spread venereal
disease, and hurt people emotionally. In fact, the Jasonian Congress believes
that adultery is evil. (Simply speaking, fornication is good if it avoids the
aforementioned problems, and it is evil if it does not.)
No matter
what a philosophy or religion teaches about fornication and adultery, many of
its adherents will do these deeds. Therefore, with the guidance of top ethicists,
physicians, and psychologists, the Jasonian Congress offers the following rules
to help fornicators and adulterers be the best people they can be.
1.
Only have sex with someone who agrees to have sex with
you and is an appropriate age for you.
2.
Make certain that you are using adequate and
non-abortive birth-control if pregnancy is likely.
3.
Tell your potential lover that you have a venereal
disease (if you know that you have one) before you do a major sexual deed with
him or her. A major sexual deed is coitus, sodomy, or oral sex.
4.
Be honest and straightforward about your expectations
for the relationship. For example, you should clearly state whether you expect
more than sexual gratification or not, and you should not lie about being
monogamous.
5.
If you are unfaithful to someone you said you would be
faithful to, you should tell her or him about your unfaithfulness within 24
hours of being unfaithful or as soon as possible.
6.
Know and trust your lover enough to reciprocate these
considerations. In other words, you should only have sex with someone whom you
have much reason to believe will use adequate and non-abortive birth-control if
pregnancy is likely, tell you that he or she has a venereal disease (if she or he
knows that he or she has one) before she or he does a major sexual deed with
you, is being honest and straightforward about his or her expectations for the
relationship, and is not lying and will not lie about being monogamous.
7.
Keep the number of sexual partners you have small. This
practice helps one avoid getting and spreading venereal diseases, having
unwanted pregnancies, and hurting people’s feelings. Hurt feelings, in sexual
matters, often destroy good relationships and lead to violence.
As can be expected, this
was a controversial decree. However, it was generally well received because
most Jasonians thought it timely, true, and helpful, and it showed that their Congressional
representatives cared enough about them to risk a political faux pas for the
public good. Only fourteen nationwide decrees have ever been issued by Congress
in all of Jasonian history, and only one other was about sex. The rest were
about a variety of other pressing national issues.
Chapter Seven: Jasonia 1898-1917
All mortal humans are a mixture
of good and evil to varying degrees, but most people do not want to believe they might be more evil than good overall.
Americans are no exception. Long before the beginning of the United States,
American colonists started stealing land from and murdering Native Americans,
justifying it as God's will; despite the fact that, if God exists, God always
(or almost always) remains hidden and silent. It seems impossible to determine
for certain God's will on any matter, including territorial conquest. They
also enslaved, beat, murdered, and raped African Americans, preaching from
their pulpits the Biblical justification of such heinous acts. The
justifications for enslavement and beating inadvertently promoted the murder and
rape as well, because it is much easier to murder and rape someone if one can
enslave and beat her or him. One has almost complete control over one's slave;
and beating, like murder, is a form of violence. A severe beating can even
cause murder. One
might expect Americans to become more much moral after they had established
reasonable national boundaries and emancipated their slaves. Sadly, this was
not the case, although most Americans still considered (and consider)
themselves morally superior to the rest of humanity. Most Jasonians were not surprised to
learn that the United States had declared war on Spain for supposedly blowing
up the American battleship, the USS Maine,
in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. It
shouldn't have been there in the first place, they thought. Obviously, it was a ploy so that the United
States could justify attacking Spain and taking Spanish land for itself. Certainly
the Cubans deserved an independent nation if that is what they desired, and
Spain had brutalized Cuba to keep it. But if the United States is determined to
liberate nations, it should completely liberate them, not make them U.S.
puppets or possessions. Jasonian
concerns were justified as the United States severely limited Cuban
independence and enslaved the Philipines. The Filipinos just exchanged one oppressive
foreign ruler for another. Greed for land, wealth, and prestige often seems to
motivate Americans more than the desire to help the less fortunate, although
the latter is usually the excuse Americans use to wage war. Most villains want
to believe they are relatively good people, and most fools want to believe they
are wise. So the villains get the fools to fight for a supposedly noble cause. "Remember
the Maine!"
Jasonians remembered the Maine in
1916 when the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies. Historians
and politicians say that there were many causes for "the War to End All
War." Most Jasonians believed (and still believe) that the main causes
were greed and stupidity. England and France had large, lucrative empires, and
Germany and Austria-Hungary wanted the same. The former wanted to keep what
they had stolen, and the latter wanted to steal it for themselves. The other nations
involved in the war were secondary players who were sucked into the fighting
for various reasons such as treaties. As for stupidity, it was stupid to fight
for the greed and supposed honor of one's nation, but that is what millions of
men did on both sides of the conflict. The only reason a human should fight a
war is to promote the general happiness of all creatures, including all humans.
As the old Jasonian proverb says, "Doing good is doing what is best for
everyone, and doing evil is doing what is not best for everyone." The
wise nation was like Jasonia, which stayed out of the war and let the greedy
nations destroy each other. The United States was a foolish nation because it
entered the war on the Allied side, supposedly to "make the world safe for
democracy." The irony is that the United States helped the Allies win,
oppress Germany, and set the stage for the rise of fascism, which is exact
opposite of democracy! If the United
States stayed out of World War I, agreed most Jasonians, there probably would not have been a World
War II. The Allied and Central Powers
would have either fought each other to a stalemate or been too exhausted to be
very oppressive victors. The colonies of the combatants would also have been
freed a generation earlier, because the mother countries would have lacked the
means to keep them. Why
did the United States actually enter the war? Were England and France really
more virtuous than Germany and Austria-Hungary? England and France were
democracies, and Germany and Austria-Hungary were monarchies. But England and
France had vast overseas colonies where the inhabitants were oppressed,
exploited, and not allowed to govern themselves. Germany and Austria-Hungary
would have probably done the same if given the chance, but the facts still
remain: Simply speaking, England and France allowed democracy for their own
people and denied it to millions of foreigners; Germany and Austria-Hungary
only denied their own people democracy. The
United States also fought for the right of freedom of the seas. In practice,
this meant that rich Americans had the right to sell supplies to warring
nations and get richer, even if they put the lives of their poorer, ocean-going
workers in danger. In the beginning of World War I, American businessmen
happily profited from selling weapons to both sides of the conflict, yet the
British had a much more powerful navy than the Germans, at least above the
waves. So the British were able to effectively keep American ships from trading
with Germany. Americans did not complain much about freedom of the seas then! Germany
could not compete with Britain above the waves, but it could compete below. German
submarines sank ships coming to and from Britain, effectively hurting Britain's
war effort. This time, though, Americans did complain—a lot. They especially
howled when a German submarine sank the British—that's right, British—passenger liner, Lusitania, off the coast of Ireland, on
May 7, 1915. One thousand one hundred ninety-eight people were killed,
including 128 Americans. Oh, the Americans protested this supposed injustice,
even though there is strong evidence that the Lusitania was actually smuggling arms to Britain and the German
government had warned everyone, especially the people of the United States,
that it might sink any ships going to and from its enemy's homeland. What
was the average Jasonian to make of these facts? Well, being educated in
history, he or she concluded that most influential Americans were a greedy and
warlike people who hated to be left out of a fight that probably would profit
them in the end. They were also hypocrits who liked the soothe their consciences
by saying that they were fighting for liberty, democracy, morality, and the end
of war. What an irony! Don't
misunderstand Jasonia, now. It's not that the United States is morally inferior
than the average nation. It's just that the United States is about morally
equal to the average nation. Forget all the hoopla about "inalienable
rights," and the historical actions of the United States generally make much
more sense. The United States is just another imperfect nation made up of
imperfect people on an imperfect planet in an imperfect universe. The
famous twenthieth century Jasonian philosopher, Ashkabittle, summarized the
Jasonian thought toward the United States:
It's too bad that the United States
didn't just admit the truth to itself. It is about as good and evil as its enemies. Only then will the United States
live up to the best of its
magnificent principles and promote 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' for all people, because all
people—even foreigners—'are created equal.'
Then the American flag will truly represent 'liberty and justice for all.'
Jasonian opinion toward the major warring
nations of the first world war can be
thusly
summarized:
1. Britain and France were
wrong to have built large, overseas empires that exploited natives. They should have been content with just ruling
their homelands and practicing
fair trade and scientific exploration.
2. Germany and Austria-Hungary
were wrong to have started the conflict by declaring
war and attacking first. They also should have been content with just ruling their homelands and practicing
fair trade and scientific exploration.
3. The United States was wrong
to have entered the conflict. It should have been thankful that it could stay out of it. The American government
should have allowed its citizens to
trade and travel to and from warring nations, but it should not have guaranteed their safety. If someone
voluntarily chooses to enter a warzone,
then she or he must be willing to risk his or her life.
4. In short, every nation
involved in the conflict was neither completely right nor completely wrong. They were like animals
fighting for territory, power, a warped sense
of honor, and/or survival.
As the firestorm of war
swept around Jasonia, foreign diplomats from both factions repeatedly tried to
force Jasonia to enter the fight on their side. However, the Jasonian people
and their Congress just said, "No!" Jasonia wanted happiness and
justice, and that is what they got for themselves. Most of the rest of Europe,
though, got the exact opposite.
Trying
to goad the Jasonians into fighting, more than one foreign diplomat said
something to the effect that Jasonia could do more good by being more involved
in the war. To this, the Jasonian government replied that Jasonia could do the
most good by 1) providing a good example of how a nation should be, namely
peaceful unless truly forced to fight, and 2) being available to broker peace
between the warring sides.
1901 was an important year in Jasonian history. That was the year when the
Jasonian Congress finally passed a bill that had been debated periodically for
hundreds of years. This bill officially established the Jasonian Language
Council as a government entity. The J.L.C. began in the fourteenth century when
a group of Jasonian language scholars decided to make the first Jasonian
dictionary. Once the dictionary was finished, the J.L.C. decided to have only
ten permanent members who would improve the dictionary every year. If one of
those ten died, the other nine would select another scholar to take the
deceased's place, thus always maintaining the number of ten. Over time, the J.L.C. became the
authoritative source for everything regarding Jasonian. Grammar, punctuation,
spelling, vocabulary, and definitions were their domain. Every year they would
add new words, and every year they would subtract unnecessary words. They would
occasionally change other aspects of the language too. To keep Jasonian stable
and to avoid extreme changes, at least nine out of the ten J.L.C. members had
to agree on a change for it to become offical. The end result of these policies
was that Jasonian became the most logical, simple, and understandable language
ever spoken by an entire nation. In time, it even became an almost universal
language for business, philosophy, and science. The
J.L.C. members were not snobby, though. They realized that a living language
often changes naturally and that people like to develop and use slang. They
simply insisted that their version of Jasonian should be the Jasonian spoken on
official occasions, such as when the Jasonian Congress wrote a law, teachers
and politicians spoke as part of their job, or serious journalists reported
news. Sometimes, the J.L.C. even adopted changes introduced by unscholarly
Jasonians. The J.L.C. just strove to make Jasonian as perfect as possible,
regardless of the origin of linguistic changes. Starting
in 1901, the ten J.L.C. members were officially selected by the Jasonian Congress,
although the Congress always agreed with the recommendation of the majority of
the remaining J.L.C. members. The new J.L.C. worked all year round and were
paid the equivalent of 40,000 U.S. dollars in the year 2000 for their effort. This
change further refined and promoted Jasonian.
Chapter Eight: Jasonia 1918-1938
Russia did not do well, overall, in World War I. By mid-1915, most Russians
knew that their nation was losing because many of their leaders were
incompetent or treasonous. In March of 1917, the Czar's troops refused to stop
rioters in Petrograd (a.k.a. St. Petersburg), and the Czar abdicated. A
provisional democratic government was established, but it made one fatal
mistake: It wanted to stay loyal to the Allied cause and keep fighting in the
war. The Russian people only wanted food and peace, though, and the Communists,
then called the Bolsheviks, promised to give them just that. Communist leaders such
as Vladimir Lenin came close to successfully starting a Marxist revolution, but
in a surprising twist of events, the Russian people generally sided with the
Jasonovich Party. The Jasonovich Party wanted Russia to become more like its
neighbor, Jasonia. Instead of monarchy, it would promote democracy; instead of
socialism, it would embrace limited capitalism; and instead of exporting
revolution or getting entangled in unnecessary wars, it would mind its own
business. By
1919, Russia was well on its way to becoming its own distinct version of Jasonia,
and the Russian people generally very happy. Other nations followed Russia's
example over the course of the twentieth century, including Mongolia, China,
Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Venezuala, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hugary,
Czeckoslavakia, Germany, Angola, and Mozambique. Despite opposition from more capitalistic
nations, these often bloodless revolutions proved generally successful and are still
going on to this day. Jasonians
rejoiced. They believed that Jasonia had found what was close to being the best
economic and political system for a modern nation, so they were happy that
others were now as fortunate. Furthermore, they had closer allies than ever
before. Now more than ever, Jasonia could work with other nations to benefit
life on Earth. The world was finally figuring out after almost 1,000 years that
humans did not have to oppress and murder each other. They could happily live
in peace! Humans would always be imperfect, but they acted much better in a relatively
perfect polical and economic system.
World
War I ended in 1918 with a complete Allied victory and harsh penalties for
Germany. The United States soon returned to isolationism in which, according to
most Jasonians, it should have stayed. Then the stock market crashed in New
York in 1929, signaling the Great Depression.
The
Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world
that began in 1929 and lasted until about
1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. . . .
[B]y late 1932 . . . [stock prices] had dropped
to only about 20 percent of their value in 1929. Besides ruining many thousands of individual investors, this
precipitous decline in the value of assets greatly
strained banks and other financial institutions, particularly those holding stocks in their portfolios. Many banks were consequently forced into insolvency; by 1933, 11,000 of the United States'
25,000 banks had failed. The failure of so many
banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of
spending and demand and hence of production,
thus aggravating the downward spiral. The result was drastically falling output and drastically rising
unemployment; by 1932, U.S.
manufacturing output had fallen to
54 percent of its 1929 level, and unemployment had risen to between 12 and 15 million workers, or
25-30 percent of the work force.
The
Great Depression began in the United
States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump owing to the
special and intimate relationships that had
been forged between the United
States and European economies after World War I. The United States had emerged from the
war as the major creditor and financier
of postwar Europe, whose national economies
had been greatly weakened by the war
itself, by war debts, and, in the case of Germany and other defeated nations, by the need to pay war
reparations. So once the American economy
slumped and the flow of American investment credits to Europe
dried up, prosperity tended to collapse
there as well. The Depression hit hardest those nations that were most deeply indebted to the United States,
i.e., Germany
and Great Britain. In Germany,
unemployment rose sharply beginning in late 1929, and by early 1932 it had reached 6 million workers, or 25
percent of the work force. Britain was
less severely affected, but its industrial and export sectors remained seriously depressed until
World War II. Many other countries had been affected
by the slump by 1931. . . .
The
Great Depression had important consequences in the political sphere. In the United States, economic distress
led to the election of the Democrat Franklin
D. Roosevelt to the presidency in late 1932. Roosevelt
introduced a number of major changes
in the structure of the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public-works
projects to promote a recovery.
But despite this active intervention, mass unemployment and economic stagnation continued, though on a somewhat
reduced scale, with about 15 percent of
the work force still unemployed in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. After that, unemployment dropped rapidly as
American factories were flooded with orders
from overseas for armaments and munitions. The depression ended completely soon after the United States'
entry into World War II in 1941. In [much
of] Europe, the Great Depression strengthened
extremist forces and lowered the
prestige of liberal democracy. In Germany,
economic distress directly
contributed to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The Nazis' public- works projects and their rapid expansion
of munitions production ended the Depression
there by 1936. At least in part, the Great
Depression was caused by underlying weaknesses
and imbalances within the U.S.
economy that had been obscured by the
boom psychology and speculative euphoria of the 1920s. The Depression exposed those weaknesses, as it did the
inability of the nation's political and financial
institutions to cope with the vicious downward economic cycle that had set in by 1930 (
www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/about.htm
(12/5/06)).
Although
the Great Depression negatively affected Jasonia and the other Jasonian nation
at that time, Russia,
Jasonians did not suffer much and their economy quickly recovered. The same can
be said for the Russians. The reason for these benign effects is that the
limited capitalist economy is less connected to market forces. The richest
citizens have less money to buy and lose stocks. Thus, when they make poor
investment choices, perhaps by doing the equivalent of gambling on the stock
market, which was popular in the 1920s United States, they do less harm. The
wealth of Jasonian nations tends to steadily increase over time, neither
rapidly rising nor falling. The end result benefits all citizens. Every Jasonian citizen
can get rich, although most do not. But the poorest always have enough food,
shelter, and clothing. They also usually have adequate medical care. Such was
certainly not true with those nations hardest hit by the Great Depression,
where starvation, homelessness, and untreated medical problems greatly increased. The most affluent Jasonians
could never reach the level of individual wealth of, say, the wealthiest
Americans, but they happily accepted their lot in general. After all, they were
still rich, they realized that the system was fair and beneficial to all, and
they were actually thankful for the salary cap. It allowed them to become rich
without becoming super-greedy, which is a form of evil.
Chapter Nine: Jasonia 1939-1945
How foolish can people get? Perhaps the best answer to that question are
three words: The Maginot Line. A masterpiece of static defense, the Maginot
Line was a formidable barrier of concrete fortifications built by the French
along the German border. The French were rightly convinced that it would stop a
direct German invasion and allow them time to mobilize their army for a
counterattack. The problem was—and this is tragically hillarious—that the
Germans did not directly attack the Maginot Line with anything but a decoy
force. Instead, it swept through Belgium much like it did during World War I.,
except this time it quickly conquered France! How
foolish! Germany invaded Belgium on August 3, 1914, to avoid the heavily
defended Franco-German border; and then Germany invaded Belgium on September 1,
1939, to avoid the Maginot Line! Who would not have predicted that? The answer:
the French leadership of the 1930s. The
British attempted to help the French but were too late. The Germans drove the
bulk of British forces back to the Atlantic coast where only about half of them
were stealthily shipped back to England. The rest died or were captured. Germany was now free
to conquer most of Europe. With peace-loving Jasonia on its eastern border,
Germany could focus on the north, south, and east. In 1940, they conquered
Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, and Hungary; in
1941, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Bessarabia; in 1942,
Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and European Turkey. In 1943, Germany finally conquered
its greatest European enemy, England, along with the rest of the British Isles
and Iceland. Although large portions of the British Empire remained under
British control, the motherland was now ruled by the Nazis, and Hitler's goal
of ruling the entire world seemed closer than ever. The only nations in Europe
not ruled by the Nazis at this time were Italy, which was a fascist ally;
Albania, which was conquered by Italy in 1939; and Jasonia, Russia, Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania. The
first reaction of most Jasonians to World War II was, "Oh boy, here they
go again." Then Nazi Germany successfully conquered most of Europe, and
unlike Napoleonic France, was in a position to hold it indefinitely. The
Jasonian reaction changed to surprise: "Well, I guess one nation could
theoretically rule all of Europe. We had better watch out." This
surprise was slowly changed to disbelief and then extreme concern as rumors of
Nazi crimes against humanity reached Jasonia, which had a large population of
Jews, Gypsies, and other groups targeted by the Holocaust. There was even talk
of invading Nazi-occupied areas to stop the slaughter and free the victims. However,
Jasonia had outlived much European cruelty in its almost-1,000 year history by
being wise while its neighbors were foolish. Why intervene much to stop the
Holocaust when Jasonia did not intervene much during the Medieval witch hunts,
the Inquisition, the Native American genocide and land grab, and the African
slave trade? Most Jasonians believed that Christian Europe would always murder
and exploit one group or another, regardless of what Jasonia did. Besides, the
Holocaust remained rumors to most Jasonians, and the scale of murder was
unknown even to the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Nazi tyranny, whom
Jasonia temporarilly welcomed with open arms. The debate about attacking the Third
Reich was abruptly ended.on August 8, 1944, when Axis troops blizkrieged across
the western border of Jasonia. In response, Jasonia initiated a secret,
long-idle plan which startled the world with a lesson on the advantages of
preparing for war in times of peace. During the 1920s, Jasonian scientists covertly
invented two revolutionary weapons: the atomic bomb and a long-range missile to
deliver it. Knowing Hitler's lust for conquest, Jasonia prepared a retaliatory
surprise if Germany invaded. On August 9, most of the
Axis army was obliterated within just twenty miles of the German border along
with the ten largest German cities, including Berlin. Hitler and most of the
highest-ranking Nazi leadership were instantly killed. Over the course of
the following week, Jasonian jet fighters and jet bombers (two more secret
weapons developed before World War II) dropped millions of leaflets over
Germany. The most common said the following in German: On one side, "Do
not attack Jasonia, because Jasonia will defend itself!" And on the other,
"Democracy is better than Fascism. Limited capitalism is better than
murder and slavery. No race is the master race."
The Germans were in no position to
oppose
the Jasonians. Native populations in German-controlled areas retook their
national governments, and Germany was in chaos. Thousands of Pro-Nazis murdered
thousands Anti-Nazis and vice versa. By November 1944, the starvation and
lawlessness were so extreme in Germany that the Jasonian Congress authorized an
unprecedented humanitarian military intervention. Two hundred thousand Jasonian
troops invaded Germany and set up a military dictatorship. Within ten years,
Jasonia rebuilt much of Germany and established a stable and benevolent
democracy. Two years after that, the last Jasonian forces withdrew. The Jasonian invasion proved beyond
any reasonable doubt the ugly truth of the Holocaust, as Jasonian forces discovered
many concentration camps full of dead bodies. The Allied and Jasonian nations
were terribly saddened by the plight of all the victims of the Holocaust,
especially the Jews; and the British were eager to give half of Palestine to
the Jews so that they could have a homeland. Jasonia remained unsupportive of
the British proposal, though, proclaiming that the Palestinians were the rightful
owners of all of Palestine, and neither the British nor the Jews should take
away their land. Many
Zionists countered that God had given Palestine to the Jews and that it had
been settled and ruled by Jews for hundreds of years. The Jasonian leadership
responded that there was virtually no evidence that God had given Palestine to
the Jews any more than that God had given it to the Palestinians. Just because the
Bible records the act does not make the act true. In any case, the Jews had
long settled elsewhere and the Palestinians had occupied Palestine for over
1,900 years. One thousand nine hundred years is enough time for one group to
rightfully take ownership of an area of land from another group. Given
Jasonian power and prestige at this time, the British eventually agreed not to
give part of Palestine to the Jews. Perhaps much trouble was averted involving
Jews, Arabs, and various nations. In any case, most of the surviving Jews
settled throughout the world, particularly in North America and receptive parts
of Europe, including Jasonia. Many Jews also emigrated to Palestine. Those who
tried to steal land from the Palestinians were killed, imprisoned, or deported.
But those who bought land and respected the locals were generally allowed to
stay. Jasonia officially supported the peaceful settlers, but it basically let
the Palestinians and Jews work out matters themselves. As the
Jasonian national representative, Percival Flabbergast, said at the time,
"Jasonia is officially a secular nation, not a Jewish, Christian, or
Muslim nation. This is just one more reason why it should not side with either
Jews, Christians, or Muslims on the issue of Palestine. We wish that those
peoples would learn to live according to the better tenents of their respective
religions and share the supposedly holy places fairly. Yet if they want to kill
each other over the land that they believe is holy, we will not stop
them."
World War II officially ended on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese Empire
unconditionally surrendered to the United States, following the nuclear
annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many Jasonians were upset and
frightened that a non-Jasonian nation could develop the then ultimate weapon. Yet
the Jasonian Congress declared that the Golden Rule applied even when it was
inconvenient. If Jasonia was willing to develop nuclear weapons, then it must
be willing to let other nations develop nuclear weapons too. Two
devastating world wars in less than forty years made the leading nations of Earth
eager for more peace and prosperity. To achieve these goals, the victorious
Allied and Jasonian powers established the United Nations (U.N.) in 1945. Perhaps
the greatest Jasonian contribution to the U.N. was the End of War Treaty
(E.W.T.). At first, the United States, Britain, and France refused to seriously
consider the idea because it would greatly restrict their imperialism. They
eventually agreed to accept the treaty, however, for both moral and practical
reasons. It
was moral because it promoted equality, justice, and respect between all
nations, and it was practical for two reasons. One, unless they accepted the E.W.T.
as part of the U.N. charter, they would obviously be hypocritial and imperialistic;
and, two, the Jasonian nations would not join the U.N., meaning that the U.N.
would be missing three major world powers: Jasonia, Russia, and (once it
regained its strength) Germany. The U.N. could not possibly claim to represent
practically the whole world without the Jasonian nations. The E.W.T. was developed
from a treatise called "How to Stop War Forever," which was the
brainchild of the Jasonian Peace Commission, a team of 25 Jasonian leaders,
intellectuals, and specialists. Here, in its original form, is the document:
How
to Basically Stop War Forever
by
the Jasonian Peace Commission
completed
on August 7, 1942
Perhaps the greatest evil to
afflict humanity is war. It forces good people to kill other good people;
wastes valuable resources; poisons land, water, and air; promotes rape,
robbery, mental illness, dehumanization, and slavery; and makes sad and angry
victims for generations to come. These victims usually want revenge, and the
desire for revenge often starts a new war.
Some
people will argue that war is the law of God and Nature. Humans have always
fought each other, and God does not stop it. Furthermore, Nature seems to be
based on survival of the fittest. Simply speaking, in war the fittest wins, and
the least fit loses.
We
believe, however, that if God exists, God does not stop war for a good reason: God
has given us humans the ability to stop war by ourselves. We are blessed with
the intelligence, compassion, and other resources necessary to stop murdering
each other.
The question
arises, though, Why does God not just stop us? After all, if God is our Divine
Parent, isn't it God's duty to stop us from killing each other? A human parent
should be punished for allowing one of her or his children to murder another. The
most likely answer is that God put us in this life to develop into morally
superior creatures. This universe is thus a factory for true heroes, saints if
you will. Forcing people to conform to morality will not produce saints. People
have to choose to be moral themselves. Then in the next life, God can joyfully
and justly reward the saints. (Please note that by the word "saint"
we mean people who choose to be relatively good rather than relatively evil.)
As for Nature, we
are convinced that human beings did evolve from animals and that animals do
operate according to the survival of the fittest—two doctrines that Charles Darwin
taught so well. Yet, though we came from animals, we are not just animals. Our
intellectual and emotional abilities are greater than any other species on this
planet. We have the ability to cure diseases; make computers, telephones,
rockets, and atomic energy; and grow abundant, healthy, and genetically
enhanced crops. We also have the ability to put those things to good use, as so
many saintly people throughout history have shown us.
We should go
beyond the animalistic version of survival of the fittest and should take
control of our own evolution. The animalistic version of survival of the
fittest—what Darwin
called natural selection—is a brutal and wasteful process. It often involves
enduring starvation, disease, pain, and killing. It always involves genetic
mutation, and most genetic mutations are unproductive. Only a small fraction of
naturally occurring genetic mutations actually help a species reproduce and
survive. Most make the mutated individual's life more difficult, if not
impossible.
We should embrace a
new version of survival of the fittest. With science, we should develop
healthier and happier people; and with education, we should develop morally
superior people. Instead of letting less fit humans die before they reproduce,
we can help them understand—in a gentle and respectful way—that they should
choose to not reproduce. We can even help them to succeed in not reproducing
once they have made their decision.
For example,
suppose that two mentally handicapped adults want to have sex. Who can blame
them? Practically everyone wants to have sex. However, mentally handicapped
people should not reproduce for two reasons: One, they are very likely to beget
a mentally handicapped child, or at least a child with mentally handicapped
genes which will probably manifest themselves in a future generation; and two,
they are not qualified to care for children as human parents should. Therefore,
the friends, family, or government of the mentally handicapped couple should
gently and respectfully encourage them to choose to not beget children. And
once the couple make that choice (assuming they do), then their friends, family,
or government should pay for their sterilization or birth-control, if the
couple cannot do so themselves.
Please realize
that we are not advocating forced sterilization. Forced sterilization would
probably cause more problems than it fixes. All people, even those who should
not procreate, should have the freedom to beget children. Taking away that
freedom will cause much resentment, because the urge to have children is very
strong in many people and practically everyone wants freedom.
Lastly, before we
explain our plan for stopping all war forever, we want to refute one final
argument for war. Some people actually argue that war is good for reasons other
than it determines the survival of the fittest. Such people argue that war
promotes the economy, scientific advances, and (believe it or not) virtue. Yet,
just like we humans can have survival of the fittest without war, we can have
these other things too.
Yes, war can
restart a stalled economy, as World War II did for the United States of America
during the Great Depression. However, so too can sensible government programs,
wise investing, and hard work. Surely we do not need war to do these things. Education
will do. Furthermore, war tends to destroy more economies than it helps. The U.S. economy
benefited from World War II, but the economies of Germany, Japan, France, England, the Netherlands, Greece, and Italy did not.
Yes, war often
encourages scientific advances. During war or when preparing for war, nations often
develop more deadly tanks, planes, guns, and bombs. But how do those things
directly benefit ordinary citizens? They usually only indirectly benefit them
by making their nation stronger militarily. More practical scientific advances
tend to be peaceful rather than militaristic endeavors. Telephones, cars,
computers, and most medicines were developed to help humanity, not to fight
wars. In fact, one could argue that they were developed despite wars.
What about the
virtues that war encourages in people: dedication, hard work, physical fitness,
mental toughness, loyalty, bravery, and self-sacrifice? These virtues can be
cultivated without killing people. They can even be cultivated with other
important virtues, such as compassion for all people, without war. With war, it
is almost impossible to cultivate them without teaching hatred for some people,
namely one's enemies.
Now that we have
firmly established the obvious—war is a great evil that should be stopped—allow
us to describe our plan for stopping war forever.
Step
One: Set proper political boundaries.
A respected,
international organization, such as a League of Nations that equally represents
every nation on Earth, should draw the permanent political boundaries between
all nations, because one frequent source of war is territorial disputes. The
organization should start with a map of the world that shows the dominant
languages of geographic areas. Since language usually indicates natural
cultural and patriotic compatibility, this is a good place to start. During
this initial phase, let the area where people speak German be called Germany,
English England, Polish Poland, Spanish Spain, Turkish Turkey, Arabic Arabia,
Kurdish Kurdistan, Chinese China, Japanese Japan, Swahili Swahililand, et
cetera.
This initial
division is obviously imperfect, although it is a good start. One of its flaws
is that, in some cases, it groups together large numbers of incompatible
people. For example, Americans do not want to be part of England even
though they speak English, and Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims probably do not
want to belong to the same nation even if both groups speak Arabic. Thus, the
initial divisions should be divided further to accommodate problematic
religious, political, and other cultural differences.
What is left is an
almost perfect division of nations. The main problem is the large pockets of
minority groups in majority lands, when the minorities and the majorities are
traditional enemies. If the arrangement is detrimental to either the minority
or the majority group, then a peaceful and unforced relocation should be
offered. If two nations border each other and are traditional enemies, and if
both these nations have large groups of each others' people in their
borders—which is often the case—then they should encourage a trade of land and
people. Notice we wrote encourage. Neither nation should force this trade.
Take the example
of Nation A and Nation B. The people of those two nations generally hate each
other, yet each has citizens that would be better off in the other nation. The
people of Nation A generally follow Religion A, and the people of Nation B
generally follow Religion B. But Nation A has thousands of people who practice
Religion B, and Nation B has thousands of people who practice Religion A. To
solve this problem, the governments of both nations should peacefully encourage
its problematic minorities to trade land with each other. The Religion B farmer
in Nation A should trade fields with a Religion A farmer in Nation B. The Religion
A homeowner in Nation B should trade houses with the Religion B homeowner in Nation
A.
What about a
situation in which two nations border each other but do not have an equal
amount of minority citizens or land to trade? The nations should trade what
minority citizens and land they can, until one nation has no more minority land
or citizens to trade. Then the nation with surplus minority citizens and land
should trade with its majority citizens where it borders on the other nation. For
example, suppose that there are more Serbian people and land in Croatia than
there are Croatian people and land in Serbia. The two nations should
trade their minority people and land until Croatia has no more Serbian people
or land to trade. That is when Croatia
shrinks until all the Serbs in Croatia
who are willing to relocate to Serbia
have done so. Obviously, Croatia's
shrinkage will be on its border with Serbia, because it is giving land
to Serbia
to accommodate the influx of Serbs.
What should a
government do with minority citizens if they refuse to relocate? First of all,
the government has to decide if it wants to encourage the minority citizens to
relocate or not. Many governments value their minority citizens. Second, a
government should respect the right of all its citizens to live where they
want, even its minority citizens. Yet, if a government wants a minority group
to relocate, it can do at least two nonviolent, respectful things. (Note that a
government should never be violent or disrespectful toward its law-abiding citizens,
even when they are problematic minorities.)
The first thing is
that the government can increase taxes on the minority group to a reasonable
but uncomfortable level. Muslim empires did this to their Christian subjects in
the past with much success. Some Christians kept their faith, but most
converted to Islam. They metaphorically moved from one religion to another.
The second thing
is that the government can pay for moving expenses and provide positive
incentives. These positive incentives might take the form of money. For
example, the government might pay a reluctant minority family a substantial sum
to relocate. In any case, though, the government should make sure that the
unwanted minority citizen has an appropriate place to relocate, because it would
not be fair to make him or her homeless.
Step
Two: Protect the borders at all cost.
Once
all political borders are as perfect as possible, the nations of the world must
protect them at all cost. The cardinal rule is that no nation may invade a
nation without the consent of the aforementioned international organization. Therefore,
if Germany
shoots a rocket into France,
France
may shoot a rocket into Germany;
but it may not send troops, unless it gets the international organization's
approval. If Germany does send troops, the rest of the world should defend
France, and the damage that German troops did to France during that war should
be done to Germany. Furthermore, the German leadership, in particular, should
be punished because the leaders made the decision and, in many cases, forced
the ones they led to invade. They might have even organized a military draft.
The
rule is that the retaliation should be roughly equal so that the conflict does
not escalate. This is the old principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth. The principle can be brutal, but it is just, because it punishes people
as they deserve, not too much and not too little. In this case, the people
being punished will be whole nations, and if this system is wisely and
consistently enforced, no nation will invade another. Thus, there will never be
another war between nations again.
One
important point to mention is that the international organization must be
extremely fair and wise. It must successfully prevent unjust situations happening
before one nation has a good reason to invade another, and it must seek just
and effective diplomatic solutions to crises or potential crises to avoid
giving nations rationales for invading. If the German government is not doing
enough to stop its people from launching rockets into France, then
the international organization can vote to impose economic sanctions or even
the removal of the German government. In the latter case, it can organize a
large army made up of a majority of nations to invade, occupy, and reconstruct Germany. It can
even establish a German government that is guaranteed to do what it should to
stop its people from attacking France.
Here is a hypothetical but probable
situation. Suppose that Nation C believes that Nation D is developing nuclear
weapons and wants to stop Nation D. What should happen is that Nation C should
bring its concern to the international organization. The international
organization should then investigate the charge. If proven true, the
international organization should do what is appropriate. Suppose that the
appropriate response is to insist that Nation D's government stop its nuclear
weapons program, and suppose further that Nation D's government refused to do
so. In that case, the international organization should probably authorize an
international invasion, occupation, and reconstruction of Nation D.
Some
might argue that the result of an invasion by Nation C and an invasion led by
the international organization would be the same, but they would not. Nation C
basically represents just its own interests, but the international organization
represents the whole world. If Nation C invades Nation D with just a few
allies, then the average citizen of Nation D is likely to believe that Nation C
is wrong and her or his nation is being victimized. But if the international
organization invades, the average citizen of Nation D is likely to believe that
his or her government is wrong and her or his nation is being fixed. Moreover,
what he or she believes is also likely to be what most others in the
international community will believe in this case.
Step
Three: Promote just representative government.
Human
beings will always find something to fight over. If it is not political
borders, it might be the distribution of wealth within a nation. In order to
avoid the need for civil war, the international organization should promote
just representative government.
Step
Four: Occasionally, the international organization
will
have to reorganize political borders.
People
are dynamic. They are always changing, and that means that the borders of one
century might not be best for the next century. Suppose, for instance, that a
new religious group becomes prominent in a nation, and they want to be separate
from that nation or the majority wants to be separated from them. In such a
case, the international organization should reorganize that nation into two
nations. The one nation will consist of traditional citizens, and the other
nation will consist of members of the new religion.
Any such political
changes should be determined through a democratic means. Let us just say that
if 51% or more of adult voters in a group want to be separated from the other
group and both groups are at least 10% of a nation's population, then the nation
should be divided into two, although not necessary two halves of equal size.
Of course, the
opposite could happen. The dividing factors between two nations could diminish
so much that the two nations want to become one. In such a case, both nations
should hold a vote. If the majority of adults in both nations vote to end their
separation, the two nations should become one. And, led by the international
organization, the whole world should recognize the new and enlarged nation.
Nations might
choose to merge for economic reasons. For example, one nation might have a
natural resource such as oil and another nation might have a geographic
resource such as ocean access. In that case, they might choose to become one
nation for convenience and profit.
Such a merger, of
course, would be accomplished through democratic means, and it could easily be
reversed through democratic means. There should be no need for a civil war. If
at least 10% of a nation's population wants to break off from a nation, then it
should be allowed to do so.
Step
Five: Restrict immigration.
Immigration
is when one person moves from one nation to another. A nation should guard its
borders so that unwanted immigrants cannot enter. Unwanted immigration could be
like an invasion, because unwanted immigrants might come to dominate an area
outside of their nation and, thus, claim it for their nation. A similar case
happened in Texas
in the nineteenth century. Mexico
encouraged Americans to settle the Texas
area, hoping that the Americans would become loyal Mexican citizens. However,
the American citizens eventually revolted against the Mexican government and
set up the Republic
of Texas. Then this
republic later joined the United
States.
Nations
can accept immigrants, but if they do, they must also accept the risk of
immigration. Therefore, if someone wants to immigrate to a nation, she or he
should sign a contract with the legitimate government of that nation. The
contract should state the rights, responsibilities, and time of stay. Perhaps
the rights and responsibilities will be those of a full citizen, or perhaps the
immigrant will not be allowed to participate in the political process. Perhaps
the time of stay will be indefinite, or perhaps it will be until a construction
project or university education is completed.
Illegal
immigrants and their children can always be forcefully returned to their
country of origin. So too can immigrants who break their contracts with the
government of the nation into which they moved.
Step
Six: Retaliate for weaker nations.
Not
all nations are of equal strength. Some have strong militaries, and others do
not. Some have nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons; and others do not. If
a stronger nation attacks a weaker nation without just cause, the nations of
the world, led by the international organization, should retaliate for the weaker
nation.
For
example, suppose that Jasonia dropped a nuclear bomb on the capital of Italy for an
unacceptable reason. The international organization should get another nation
with nuclear weapons to drop a nuclear bomb on the capital of Jasonia, because Italy does not
have nuclear weapons. That way, justice is served, and other nations are not
likely to attack as Jasonia did.
Chapter Nine: Jasonia 1946-The present
Since the E.W.T. and the founding of the U.N., there has been almost no war
between nations. Only three nations invaded three other nations on three
different continents during the ensuing years. In each case, an international
coalition of nations, directed by the U.N., repulsed the invaders and damaged the
invading nation approximately as much as it damaged the nation it invaded. Also,
in two out of those three cases, the U.N. coalition changed the leadership of
the invading nation, replacing it with a benign democracy. The former leaders
were imprisoned for life, convicted of multiple murders. Starting unjust wars
causes multiple murders.
Civil wars were much more
common than international wars, because the U.N. was usually reluctant to
intervene in an internal struggle. Sometimes, though, the U.N. would vote to
stop a civil war for humanitarian reasons. For instance, it stopped genocides
in Cambodia and Rwanda. Despite the relative commonality of civil wars compared
to international wars, the number of civil wars greatly dropped over the
decades, and peace became the rule on Earth rather than the exception.
Some people used to worry that humanity would stagnate or be bored without
war. Yet, the opposite happened. Humanity poured its wealth and effort into becoming
more good and happy. The result was a relatively virtuous and joyful world
society. Hunger, crime, disease, and depression were almost eliminated, and
humanity, in its new and improved form, began to settle its solar system and
beyond. Instead of bringing war and destruction to new worlds, it brought peace
and creation. King Jason's goal of building the first truly just nation
evolved into building the first truly just Earth. From there, his goal might
evolve into building the first truly just galaxy.
