|
|||||||||||
| About | World | Mission | Tech | Ship | Locker | Crew | Marines | Planets | Home | ||
The State of the Planet:
After the great war and the fall, much changes has be wrought upon the planet. The great nations of the East and West have be reemerged as minor players on the world stage. North America is backward frontier again, populated by fiercely independent states supporting an 1930s technological level. The East is even worse. Whole areas are still wilderness. No country was left untouched by the massive pandemics that circled the globe, one after another in the years that followed the war. Earth's population is slowly approaching five hundred million. Another one hundred thousand live in spinhabs and outposts in space near the home world. The colonies on Tau Ceti and Epsilon Erandi are once again in contact with the mother world, but they are technologically well below the earth, existing in a state not seen on earth in several hundred years.
Politics:
For the first time in its turbulent history, Earth has a single government. That government is not the product of peaceful cooperation, but rather from conquest. The re-enlightenment started in Europe over 150 years ago. The unification of Europe began five generations ago under the banner of Marshal Phillippe Alcevada. Alcevada was one of a hundred warlords in central Europe who had a religious and political epiphany and saw that it was his duty to reunify Europe. After a string of brilliant victories, he had conquered most of western Europe. His wise administration of the conquered territories lead to economic prosperity, and soon many other statelets joined Alcevada's blossoming empire.
Phillippe was succeeded by his son Ernesto in a bloodless coup, and if anything, the son was a more brilliant politician. All of Europe and much of Asia minor fell under the political control of the Empire. Ernesto spent most of his long rule acquiring new territory. His forward looking, pro-technology attitudes and tolerance for disparate cultures gave his government significant political and technological advantage over his opponents. He ruled for 60 years, during which he transformed the territory he controlled from a patchwork of baronies and microstates into a single nation of enlightened laws, secular, democratic government and economic success. At the same time, he used his secret police to stamp out the influence of the Luddite movement and reign in the power of some of the more radical religious factions. Toward the end of his life, Ernesto selected his adopted son, Hector, to succeed him as 'president'.
Hector was more a politician and administrator than his adoptive father, and raised with the pre-collapse ideals of individual liberty and democratic, secular government, he fought hard to put those ideals into practice, despite resistance from the very army that had put the Alcevada family into power. A parliament was formed under his leadership, and Hector was elected president 'for life'. Hector was succeeded by his son Phillip Alcevada in 2368 when Hector announced his retirement.
Phillip was elected to office by an overwhelming majority in the poplar election. Phillip's formal education has been primarily as scientist, though he has proven to be an able administrator. He has made it a policy to transfer as much power as possible from himself to the planetary parliament, though he still retains the 'special emergency powers' that allow him to govern by decree. Phillipe is a superb public speaker and is known as a man with 'vision'. He has been the staunchest supporter of the space program from it's first inception and takes personal interest in it's operations.
Currently, the government of Earth is composed of the president (Alcevada), the Parliament and the people. The parliament has representatives from each of the main districts of the planet. Much of the current government is local, but that local government must operate under the principles of the concordat that specifies the rights and responsibilities of every citizen. Each citizen has a vote, but the government is of the republican form of democracy. Laws are made by parliamentary representatives and approved by the president.
Alcevada's liberalization of politics has been a two edged sword. While it has brought about a move towards true democracy, it has also allowed reactionary forces to participate in government. The current government is a coalition of right wing technocrats who think that Alcevada should be made emperor, educated literati who support total democracy and the end of 'special powers' and various reactionary groups with various religious leanings, including anti-technology Luddites who seek to end all technological advances and dismantle the central government.
Culture:
One of the ways in which the government has sought to insure it's reforms and prevent a repeat of the last war is through the creation of a single planetary culture. Because English was already well on it's way to becoming the new lingua franca, it has been recognized as the only official language. However, English has been simplified in both spelling and grammar to make it much easier to learn, and the result is known as 'Anglish', a phonetical version of English with much simplified grammar. It is the only language taught in schools, used in government and published in books. The government has also used it's influence in the school system to promulgate it's ideas about culture, individual rights and responsibilities and secularism. To this end, it has been very successful. The fact that many blame 'multi-culturalism' for the last war has also gone a long way toward the formation of a single planetary culture.
Religion:
For much of the population, religion continues to play an important role. The major religions continue, although Judaism and Islam are both in decline - probably because of their close association with the start of the war and the destruction of Medina, Mecca and Jerusalem. Several new religions have sprouted up post-collapse. Two of the most important have the same root. In the immediate day of the collapse, many saw it as a sign of God's displeasure - that man had gotten 'too big for his britches' and thus needed a lesson. They argued that man was meant to live as in the bible. Technology was bad and needed to be destroyed. A faction of this group broke away and argued that it was not technology, but man's turning away from God that had brought about the collapse, and that those who survived were meant to go on as God's chosen - to advance mankind, but only to the greater glory of God. The central government views religion with a great deal of suspicion. Religion has been a reactionary force in recent history, and the Luddite fundamentalist movement that arose after the collapse probably extended dark period by 100 years with their book burnings and trials and persecution of literate people and 'satanically-influenced'. Most of the modern religions have tried to recast themselves as strictly spiritual movements, but amongst most of the literati, religion is viewed force for regression, not progress.
Economics:
Capitalism is the order of the day because it unleashes the potential of the individual. But realizing that a large economic gap leads to political instability, there government supports a large number of social services. However able citizens who receive assistance are required to work for their benefits because it is 'a citizens duty'. The government is by far the largest employer.
Military:
The Earth military has shrunk to a rather small force of long term professionals. They are primarily employed as counter-insurgency forces to quell small trouble spots beyond the capability of the local police forces, but more so these days they are used as a pool of highly trained and disciplined personnel available for any emergency such as an earthquake, flood, etc. As a result, the army has large quick deployment assets, but has lost most of it's war fighting capability beyond anything by small unit operations. The entire Concordiat military is less than 100,000 men and women. But that body represents some of the most highly skilled people, and also those most loyal to the present government and its ideals.
Judicial:
Criminal violations are tried by a court of judges. In felony trials, the panel is made up of three professional judges, and four civilians ones, or in misdemeanor courts, one professional judge and two civilians. Punishment is swift and sure, and focusing on reformation. There is no death penalty, but severe offenders can be sentences to 'trasportation' to one of the uncivilized areas.
In the case of civil trials, judgements are rendered by a board of abitration. For cases of libel, slander and similar personal crimes, dueling is permitted and ecouraged. This has the effect of limiting cases of personal injury as not many are willing to risk their life in a libel suit. Dueling is by sword or single shot, smooth bore pistol. Champions may be employed, but the involed parties receive the same injuries as their champion, and a random element is introduced into every duel (for example, flipping a coin to see who shoots first in a pistol duel).
Manifest Destiny:
This is a general attitude that it is man's responsibility to colonize the galaxy. Part of the new, forward-looking attitudes that Alcevada has tried to instill is the idea that we must spread out. All of humanities eggs must not be kept in one basket, nor must her technology. There is also a sense of a 'civilized man's burden' - that the people of Earth have a responsibility to find and uplift all of the old colony worlds and to insure that the new human culture is propagated throughout human space.
Naturally, not everyone agrees with this.
'Sensitives':
One of the unique aspects of the Concordiat is the acknowledged existince of so call 'sensitives' - humans with extra sensory persecption (ESP). Both the United States and the Soviet Union persued research into telepathy and similar abilities during the Cold War. The US program met with little support, but the Soviet program achieve some minor successes - sucessful enough to survive the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The Russian program if anything became more aggressive, with anyone showing any potential secretly induced to join the highly classified program. Even kidnapping was used to obtain especially promising individuals, and those possesing the desired traits were interbred and even genetically modified in an attempt to increase any psionic abilities.
The program met with limited success and showed that the brreding program was resulting in an increased rate of people born with the desired traits, but the great collapse ended the formal program. This did not, however, end the sensitives. Cut off in their remote and secret facility, the pool of sensatives continued to interbreed and increase the likelihood of psionic abilities, however the population also began to suffer from the deleteriouys effects of interbreeding.
By the time of the establishment of the Concordiat under Alcevida, there was a fairly stable, if feral, population of 'sensitives' located at Plesetsk, Russia. These were moved to a new facility on the island of Gibralter, which remains the main training and living facility for 'sensatives'.
Psionically talented individuals are closely monitored by the Concordiat, and their movement is restricted. However, they receive excellent treatment and are assigned to important government duties. Due to the process of centuries of inbreeding, the typical sensitive will frequently have poor health, mental instability and even physical deformaties. Strangley, extra fingers or toes are extremely common among sensitives, occuring in about 90% of the population. Bipolarism, schizophrenia, OCD, chronic depression, anarexia and paranoia are all common among sensatives, and the suicide rate is alarmingly high. Most sensitives manifest their 'talent' at puberty, and the average age of sensitives is only 19 years of age, compared to the population as a whole with an average age of 31.
The most common sensitive talents are telempathy and telepathy, but these talents are often unpredictible and unreliable. Claravoyance and claraudience have also been reported, but the government keeps details on sensitives restricted.