Wanna Live In Chimeria?
I have an urgent need to create my own country where I can live in relative peace without being besieged on all sides by people whose prime directive is to interfere as much as possible with my enjoyment of life.
Its creation will take some thought and some pro-ing and con-ing. I have a few ideas about it, and I invite you to help out with your own ideas...or your "yeah, buts" to someone else's ideas. Even mine. Maybe even especially mine.
Wanna play?
First of all, there should be no permanent, unrevokeable citizenship in Chimeria. Everyone will have dual citizenship with somewhere else. Because if capital punishment is not allowed, any perps of a capital crime will be deported to their other country without hesitation. Serious breaches of other laws will result in the same. Repeated and unrepentant breaches of lesser laws, ditto.
Next, freedom of choice in all "moral" matters is the norm. There may be some exceptions to this, depending on the accepted definition of "moral." Your input is definitely being sought here.
Freedom of religion. The kicker to this is that religion must be kept private and unintrusive. Those who belong to a religion in which proselytizing is key will not want to live in Chimeria. And even if they do want to live there, that dual citizenship will keep them in line.
Freedom from religion. This is essential.
Religion and politics are mutually exclusive. No exceptions.
No political parties. The size of the government will depend on the size of the population, and there will be term limits...all to be decided upon. But absolutely no party politics will be tolerated.
All politicians will be required to read and sign a statement that binds them to their promises made during an election campaign. This will be done before the election, and will be posted in a very public place. Any pol found to be in contradiction will be thrown bodily out of office and barred from ever participating again.
Elected office will be voluntary. Political representatives will be expected to have another source of income, and they will be expected not to put themselves in a conflict of interest between their income and their volunteer work.
Government will be small and limited in scope. Government will exist only for the necessities. Citizens will be expected to be responsible for themselves, for the most part, so don't look for any protectionist-type legislation.
Government by referendum sounds awkward and time-consuming. It's also the most democratic method I know. So that's how it will be done.
Voting will be mandatory. It takes a few minutes, not your entire life. Get used to taking responsibility.
Chimeria will be a partner in the environment. No oil rigs, for example. No river-blocking hydro-electric dams, although if a way is found to allow free movement up and down a river, I see little wrong with allowing a generating engine to be installed. Does anyone know of a dynamo that does not completely block a watercourse? Alternate sources of energy will be highly encouraged.
I am really, really, really tempted to follow the example of Macinac Island and disallow gasoline and diesel engines altogether.
Private property...ah...here's something else on which to chew. I'm of the thought that there really can't be any completely privately owned property if you can't do whatever you want with it. And since there are bound to be laws against using your property in a way that intrudes upon your neighbors, you can't really be said to have absolute and unfettered use of it, can you? So...how about long-term leases, which can be renewed, passed along, or challenged as needed, and as the case may be? For practical purposes, this will amount to the same thing as private property. As long as you don't piss off your neighbors.
Education should be available to all children up to completion of high school. Should be. This is an ideal, and not an absolute. There will be exceptions. We need some input, here, to deal with those exceptions.
Education will also be standard throughout Chimeria. All children will have access to the same educational materials. Testing standards will be across the board. No "curves." Pass or fail. I don't particularly care if Junior's feeling will be hurt if he doesn't pass. He'd either better learn or get used to having his feelings hurt.
"Political correctness" is nothing more than a longer-winded way of saying the same thing. Be brief. Get over it.
Education and religion are mutually exclusive. No exceptions. Anyone who wants his kid to have a religious education can either ship him off to somewhere else or teach him at home.
No union shops. If you want to join a union, go right ahead, but it will not be mandatory. Chimeria will be a right-to-work country.
I don't care what religion you are. I don't care what color you are. I don't care what political stripe you are. I don't care if you have too much money or not enough (and no, I've never found anyone that has "just enough"). If you are the kind of person who can live in a multi-everything society and enjoy it, you may be the sort who wants to live in Chimeria.
Now...who's movin' in?
Its creation will take some thought and some pro-ing and con-ing. I have a few ideas about it, and I invite you to help out with your own ideas...or your "yeah, buts" to someone else's ideas. Even mine. Maybe even especially mine.
Wanna play?
First of all, there should be no permanent, unrevokeable citizenship in Chimeria. Everyone will have dual citizenship with somewhere else. Because if capital punishment is not allowed, any perps of a capital crime will be deported to their other country without hesitation. Serious breaches of other laws will result in the same. Repeated and unrepentant breaches of lesser laws, ditto.
Next, freedom of choice in all "moral" matters is the norm. There may be some exceptions to this, depending on the accepted definition of "moral." Your input is definitely being sought here.
Freedom of religion. The kicker to this is that religion must be kept private and unintrusive. Those who belong to a religion in which proselytizing is key will not want to live in Chimeria. And even if they do want to live there, that dual citizenship will keep them in line.
Freedom from religion. This is essential.
Religion and politics are mutually exclusive. No exceptions.
No political parties. The size of the government will depend on the size of the population, and there will be term limits...all to be decided upon. But absolutely no party politics will be tolerated.
All politicians will be required to read and sign a statement that binds them to their promises made during an election campaign. This will be done before the election, and will be posted in a very public place. Any pol found to be in contradiction will be thrown bodily out of office and barred from ever participating again.
Elected office will be voluntary. Political representatives will be expected to have another source of income, and they will be expected not to put themselves in a conflict of interest between their income and their volunteer work.
Government will be small and limited in scope. Government will exist only for the necessities. Citizens will be expected to be responsible for themselves, for the most part, so don't look for any protectionist-type legislation.
Government by referendum sounds awkward and time-consuming. It's also the most democratic method I know. So that's how it will be done.
Voting will be mandatory. It takes a few minutes, not your entire life. Get used to taking responsibility.
Chimeria will be a partner in the environment. No oil rigs, for example. No river-blocking hydro-electric dams, although if a way is found to allow free movement up and down a river, I see little wrong with allowing a generating engine to be installed. Does anyone know of a dynamo that does not completely block a watercourse? Alternate sources of energy will be highly encouraged.
I am really, really, really tempted to follow the example of Macinac Island and disallow gasoline and diesel engines altogether.
Private property...ah...here's something else on which to chew. I'm of the thought that there really can't be any completely privately owned property if you can't do whatever you want with it. And since there are bound to be laws against using your property in a way that intrudes upon your neighbors, you can't really be said to have absolute and unfettered use of it, can you? So...how about long-term leases, which can be renewed, passed along, or challenged as needed, and as the case may be? For practical purposes, this will amount to the same thing as private property. As long as you don't piss off your neighbors.
Education should be available to all children up to completion of high school. Should be. This is an ideal, and not an absolute. There will be exceptions. We need some input, here, to deal with those exceptions.
Education will also be standard throughout Chimeria. All children will have access to the same educational materials. Testing standards will be across the board. No "curves." Pass or fail. I don't particularly care if Junior's feeling will be hurt if he doesn't pass. He'd either better learn or get used to having his feelings hurt.
"Political correctness" is nothing more than a longer-winded way of saying the same thing. Be brief. Get over it.
Education and religion are mutually exclusive. No exceptions. Anyone who wants his kid to have a religious education can either ship him off to somewhere else or teach him at home.
No union shops. If you want to join a union, go right ahead, but it will not be mandatory. Chimeria will be a right-to-work country.
I don't care what religion you are. I don't care what color you are. I don't care what political stripe you are. I don't care if you have too much money or not enough (and no, I've never found anyone that has "just enough"). If you are the kind of person who can live in a multi-everything society and enjoy it, you may be the sort who wants to live in Chimeria.
Now...who's movin' in?
posted by Chimera at 4:37 PM
10 Comments:
I'm in and I am sure hubby will too :)
Oh, good! And as future parents of the new country, I've got a couple of organizational jobs -- Minister of Education, and Government Engineer (organizing the structure of government as well as laying out commercial and light industy areas). You two interested in taking it on long enough to get it rolling?
Cool idea. Count us in!
An ideal government is always a balance between individual liberties and social infrastructures.
Good luck finding the balance!
Dez
Interesting! I'm in!
You realize, of course, that sll your ideas for a country make sense. Therefore, they represent the most insidious of threats to the governments of existing countries. Dubya will probably declare you an Axis of Evil, and ask Congress for funds to bomb you out of existence. When someone asks him where in the world is Chimeria, he'll wave his arms and sputter, "it's, uh, uh, over there somewhere, no, no, it's uh, south of that, and, kinda east, yeah, yeah, that's the ticket, hey, Dick, where the hail is Chimeria anyway...anyway, we're bringin' democracy to Kimurra, er, Cambodia, er, Cameroon, er, somebody get me a map!"
That, my friends, is leadership!
Ooh...Dez, I have a perfect temp job for you to get us started -- Minister of Construction and Housing Developments. Think you'd like to handle it for awhile? And I'm very tempted to offer the job of Law Enforcement to your lady...
Candace, somewhere in my memory I seem to recall your being involved in fitness...want to work in the Health Maintenance field? I'm thinking that the medical profession oughta be geared towards prevention rather than waiting till something dire happens and then trying to "cure" it in a panic.
Alex...if Dubya hates us, we're a success! And yeah, with his sense of where-it-is, we oughta be safe for millenia!
Fitness???? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Notsomuch. HR, actually, but WTH, I can recruit doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and personal trainers as easily as engineers, methinks.
Odd. I was sure I had read that you were a personal trainer for one of those membership fitness gyms. Oh, well.
HR? Sure...we could use the skills of an organized headhunter. You could end up being the go-to girl for anyone who needs good staff in their professions.
I like most of your policies. However, I think perhaps it might be useful to make "elected" or "political" office mandatory, rather like jury duty. The problem with elected officials is that they want to run for office, which automatically makes them suspects.
LOL! No foolin'!
I'm actually playing with the idea not only of term limits when it comes to the length of the term, but also restricting any pol to one term only. That way, their heads won't be filled with thoughts of re-election, rather than on doing the jobs they were elected to do.
Or perhaps electing someone to do a specific job, and when it's finished, they go back to their private lives again. And if, in the future, they want to do another job, they can run for office for that, too.
But making it mandatory smacks of interfering with free choice. Not everyone would be good at it. If you forced someone like that into a job he does not want, you run the risk of either deliberate sabotage or garden-variety incompetence.
I would have some conditions put on the elected posts, though. If you're gonna do it on behalf of your public, you're gonna do it for yourself, as well. That way, we'll get, say, transit administrators who actually have to use transit all the time, rather than using it as their own personal train set and then riding to and from the playground in a big limousine.
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