by TheCollectivist » Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:37 pm
May 4312
Written by: Lyn Kopp, Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation
As some of you may have heard and are probably just as surprised as I am, apparently a wealthy aristocrat from Dorvik has invited us to set up a commune in their area. Herman Faust-Essen ("HFE"), the individual in question, seems to have a great admiration for our way of life and understandably would like it to be exported to his homeland - along with some others he knows of who share his sentiments.
Some people in his nation also have ill-feelings towards us, believing us to be "socialist nutters", "hippies" and "dangerous left-wing cultists". Of course we fit the definition of neither of these, apart from maybe "socialist nutters" if one considers council communism, or using workers' councils to manage the economy to be a "nutty" idea. Well, considering our GDP per capita is 86,934 HLR, our economics are hardly nutty, but they are also hardly left-wing either. While it is true we practice council communism, we do not permit deficit spending nor do we permit vacations, retirement or any significant departure from labour (except in cases of illness). Instead, all our able members are required to work 4-6 hours daily, 365 days a year. This system of work has proven to us to greatly improve worker productivity and with the added fact that the workers have a direct say in how their workplace is run, makes them feel - and rightfully so - that they are not only "cogs in the machine", but also the conductors. Some libertarians would be pleased of our gold reserves, which we invest in and maintain for reasons pertaining to steady state economics - we refuse to live outside our means.
The best way of describing our system on the political spectrum is to call it syncretic. We combine elements from the far-left, the far-right, whatever we feel is both morally just and feasible in practice. Do "hippies" support the death penalty? How about the total and complete banning of recreational drugs? What about an all-pervasive surveillance system that monitors virtually all facets of society, especially the people watching? Where would compulsory sterilization fit in left-right politics? Is our system cult-like? I don't think so. True, we are fairly isolated from the rest of society, at least physically, but our confederation hides very little secrets, if any. Some may even question whether or not our society fits into the communal definition. All our members have their own bathrooms, bedrooms, we very much value the ability for an individual to have solitude.
As a syncretic ideology, Ataraxianism fits under the same category of many fascist ideologies, which is an unfortunate side effect of the broad category that syncretic politics is. Are we fascists? No, we lack autocratic positions of power. We do very much restrict the power of the "state", which many Ataraxians believe to be merely a bureaucratic government that operates separately from its subjects, something we lack. I guess we're just weird, but in a world such as this, a world of such great suffering and misunderstanding, being weird is not necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, people have a right to see us as whatever they wish, we respect that. Our whole ideology is based around the principle of respecting the self-determination of other societies. We also respect the freedom of thought of our own members, without the ability to think freely, the creativity, the very part of the individual that makes them functionally unique is lost. We don't value individuality in the form of wearing different clothes and having wacky hair, but rather fostering critical thinking and analysis.
Back on the topic of self-determination, will we build communes in other nations? No. The legal, political and economic challenges would be far too great. While we are flattered by this Herman Faust-Essen's invitation, our homeland is Hutori and of course the Ataraxian Confederation, which Hutori has respected as an autonomous enclave. We have no interest in building "colonies", our range of communal development is here and here alone. That said, we encourage Herman Faust-Essen and others to form their own intentional communities, built ideally upon the embrace of science and of course workplace democracy. It is our intention to be a model for future communities.
Current party: Pragmatic Party (Indrala)
Political alignment: Centre
For: Defensive democracy, globalism, and humanism