Post by Brandon O'Brien on Sept 13, 2010 22:33:20 GMT -5
It is important for any simulation to have a clear presentation of itself in order that the rest of the community and any visitors and new citizens may properly understand and imagine the cultural simulation behind the political.
To this end, various markers are important in describing a local culture. While the Socialist Republic of Eire is a fictional nation with a fictional territory and a fictional culture, it is rooted in the culture of the 1920's Irish Civil War that happened on Terra (the SRE is currently planning to claim land on the fictional planet of Micras, and so mentions of Terra or its inhabitants are generally treated as fiction, but for our real life Terran personas, the comparison is apt). Visually, it is easier to understand the standard of living if one were to immerse themselves in films detailing Irish life in the subsequent decades.
Two of the most visually stunning are Angela's Ashes and Magdalene Sisters.
Of primary importance is to understand that the SRE, while rooted in this appropriation of historical culture, sees that culture through a Marxist, socialist lens, and so the overt religiosity of the two movies mentioned is taken for granted as being absent in the daily public life of the average Eirenn citizen.
Officially, while preserving the right to privately worship as one sees fit, the SRE government is active in suppressing public displays of religiosity and reinforces a secular humanist view in its schools. Brandon O'Brien's "Fundamental Law on the Obligations of the Government to its Citizens" found in the McDermott Library is of primary interest for anyone trying to understand the underlying philosophical idea behind the O'Brien government.
It cannot be said that the SRE openly promotes an impoverished, third-world existence, but it must be understood and respected that the SRE has, as part of its narrated fictional history, a bloody revolution that culminated in a power bid between two men--Brandon O'Brien (socialist) and Anthony Collins (anarchist)--that terminated only in June of 2010. With this understanding, the SRE is understandably a little weary and run down. Additionally, while the SRE promotes national and civic pride in its military, the military is only about 25,000 men. The "National Service for State Security" (An tSeirbhís Náisiúnta um Shlándáil Stáit, ASNSS) makes up not only the local police (Shlanstait), they also form the core of the reservists in the army (An tSeirbhis Naisiunta). As such, the SRE operates on a basis that is more or less a militaristic police state, as the SNSS receives its training in the same camps as the formal military (the OE).
Reflective of this, in the eventual claim to the MCS by the government, pockets of rebellion will be marked, and subsequent narratives concerning the reclamation and pacification of those regions written.
Economically, the SRE is understandably fractured. Much of its industry will have fallen into rebel hands, with only those important to the narrative of the rise of the socialists being held by the current government. Additionally, Eire is not as industrialized as most other nations. Its historical narrative is importantly lacking an evolution of the Anglacht beyond a feudal model, and so roughly 60-70% of the total population of Eire is considered to be employed in agricultural labor, with the remaining population being divided between industry and military/government service. As such, the SRE is focusing on the expansion of heavy industry, and is making the reclamation of their lost industrial centers a top priority.
To this end, various markers are important in describing a local culture. While the Socialist Republic of Eire is a fictional nation with a fictional territory and a fictional culture, it is rooted in the culture of the 1920's Irish Civil War that happened on Terra (the SRE is currently planning to claim land on the fictional planet of Micras, and so mentions of Terra or its inhabitants are generally treated as fiction, but for our real life Terran personas, the comparison is apt). Visually, it is easier to understand the standard of living if one were to immerse themselves in films detailing Irish life in the subsequent decades.
Two of the most visually stunning are Angela's Ashes and Magdalene Sisters.
Of primary importance is to understand that the SRE, while rooted in this appropriation of historical culture, sees that culture through a Marxist, socialist lens, and so the overt religiosity of the two movies mentioned is taken for granted as being absent in the daily public life of the average Eirenn citizen.
Officially, while preserving the right to privately worship as one sees fit, the SRE government is active in suppressing public displays of religiosity and reinforces a secular humanist view in its schools. Brandon O'Brien's "Fundamental Law on the Obligations of the Government to its Citizens" found in the McDermott Library is of primary interest for anyone trying to understand the underlying philosophical idea behind the O'Brien government.
It cannot be said that the SRE openly promotes an impoverished, third-world existence, but it must be understood and respected that the SRE has, as part of its narrated fictional history, a bloody revolution that culminated in a power bid between two men--Brandon O'Brien (socialist) and Anthony Collins (anarchist)--that terminated only in June of 2010. With this understanding, the SRE is understandably a little weary and run down. Additionally, while the SRE promotes national and civic pride in its military, the military is only about 25,000 men. The "National Service for State Security" (An tSeirbhís Náisiúnta um Shlándáil Stáit, ASNSS) makes up not only the local police (Shlanstait), they also form the core of the reservists in the army (An tSeirbhis Naisiunta). As such, the SRE operates on a basis that is more or less a militaristic police state, as the SNSS receives its training in the same camps as the formal military (the OE).
Reflective of this, in the eventual claim to the MCS by the government, pockets of rebellion will be marked, and subsequent narratives concerning the reclamation and pacification of those regions written.
Economically, the SRE is understandably fractured. Much of its industry will have fallen into rebel hands, with only those important to the narrative of the rise of the socialists being held by the current government. Additionally, Eire is not as industrialized as most other nations. Its historical narrative is importantly lacking an evolution of the Anglacht beyond a feudal model, and so roughly 60-70% of the total population of Eire is considered to be employed in agricultural labor, with the remaining population being divided between industry and military/government service. As such, the SRE is focusing on the expansion of heavy industry, and is making the reclamation of their lost industrial centers a top priority.