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blackswaneuroparedux · 3 years

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Anonymous said: I didn’t know too much about the late British philosopher Sir Roger Scruton until I followed your superbly cultured blog. As an ivy league educated American reading your posts, I feel he is a breath of fresh air as a sane and cultured conservative intellectual. We don’t really have his kind over here where things are heavily polarized between left and right, and sadly, we are often uncivil in our discourse. Sir Roger Scruton talks a lot about beauty especially in art (as indeed you do too), so for Scruton why does beauty as an aesthetic matter in art? Why should we care?

I thank you for your very kind words about my blog which I fear is not worthy of such fulsome praise.

However one who is worthy of praise (or at least gratitude and appreciation at least) is the late Sir Roger Scruton. I have had the pleasure to have met him on a few informal occasions.

Most memorably, I once got invited to High Table dinner at Peterhouse, Cambridge, by a friend who was a junior Don there. This was just after I had finished my studies at Cambridge and rather than pursue my PhD I opted instead to join the British army as a combat pilot officer. And so I found out that Scruton was dining too. We had very pleasant drinks in the SCR before and after dinner. He was exceptionally generous and kind in his consideration of others; we all basked in the gentle warmth of his wit and wisdom.

I remember talking to him about Xanthippe, Socrate’s wife, because I had read his wickedly funny fictional satire. In the book he credits the much maligned Xanthippe with being the brains behind all of Socrates’ famous philosophical ideas (as espoused by Plato).

On other occasions I had seen Roger Scruton give the odd lecture in London or at some cultural forum.

Other than that, I’ve always admire both the man and many of his ideas from afar. I do take issue with some of his intellectual ideas which seem to be taken a tad too far (he think pre-Raphaelites were kitsch) but it’s impossible to dislike the man in person.

Indeed the Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen reportedly once refused to teach a seminar with Scruton, although they later became very good friends. This is the gap between the personal and the public persona. In public he was reviled as hate figure by some of the more intolerant of the leftists who were trying to shut him down from speaking. But in private his academic peers, writers, and philosophers, regardless of their political beliefs, hugely respected him and took his ideas seriously - because only in private will they ever admit that much of what Scruton talks about has come to pass.

In many ways he was like C.S. Lewis - a pariah to the Oxbridge establishment. At Oxford many dons poo-pooed his children stories, and especially his Christian ideas of faith, culture, and morality, and felt he should have laid off the lay theology and stuck to his academic speciality of English Literature. But an Oxford friend, now a don, tells me that many dons read his theological works in private because much of what he wrote has become hugely relevant today.

Scruton was a man of parts, some of which seemed irreconcilable: barrister, aesthetician, distinguished professor of aesthetics. Outside of brief pit stops at Cambridge, Oxford, and St Andrews, he was mostly based out of Birkbeck College, London University, which had a tradition of a working-class intake and to whom Scruton was something of a popular figure. He was also an editor of the ultra-Conservative Salisbury Review, organist, and an enthusiastic fox hunter. In addition he wrote over 50 books on philosophy, art, music, politics, literature, culture, sexuality, and religion, as well as finding time to write novels and two operas. He was widely recognised for his services to philosophy, teaching and public education, receiving a knighthood in 2016.

He was exactly the type of polymath England didn’t know what to do with because we British do discourage such continental affectations and we prefer people to know their lane and stick to it. Above all we’re suspicious of polymaths because no one likes a show off. Scruton could be accused of a few things but he never perceived as a show off. He was a gentle, reserved, and shy man of kindly manners.

He was never politically ‘Conservative’, or tried not to be. Indeed he encouraged many to think about defining “a philosophy of conservatism” and not “a philosophy for the Conservative Party.” In defining his own thoughts, he positioned conservatism to relation to its historical rivals, liberalism and socialism. He wrote that liberalism was the product of the enlightenment, which viewed society as a contract and the state as a system for guaranteeing individual rights. While he saw socialism as the product of the industrial revolution, and an ideology which views society as an economic system and the state as a means of distributing social wealth.

Like another great English thinkers, Michael Oakeshott, he felt that conservatives leaned more towards liberalism then socialism, but argued that for conservatives, freedom should also entail responsibility, which in turn depends on public spirit and virtue. Many classical liberals would agree.

In fact, he criticised Thatcherism for “its inadequate emphasis on the civic virtues, such as self-sacrifice, duty, solidarity and service of others.” Scruton agreed with classical liberals in believing that markets are not necessarily expressions of selfishness and greed, but heavily scolded his fellow Conservatives for allowing themselves to be caricatured as leaving social problems to the market. Classical liberals could be criticised for the same neglect.

Perhaps his conservative philosophy was best summed up when he wrote “Liberals seek freedom, socialists equality, and conservatives responsibility. And, without responsibility, neither freedom nor equality have any lasting value.”

Scruton’s politics were undoubtedly linked to his philosophy, which was broadly Hegelian. He took the view that all of the most important aspects of life – truth (the perception of the world as it is), beauty (the creation and appreciation of things valued for their own sake), and self-realisation (the establishment by a person of a coherent, autonomous identity) – can be achieved only as part of a cultural community within which meaning, standards and values are validated. But he had a wide and deep understanding of the history of western philosophy as a whole, and some of his best philosophical work consisted of explaining much more clearly than is often the case how different schools of western philosophy relate to one another.

People today still forget how he was a beacon for many East European intellectuals living under Communist rule in the 1980s. Scruton was deeply attached in belonging to a network of renowned Western scholars who were helping the political opposition in Eastern Europe. Their activity began in Czechoslovakia with the Jan Hus Foundation in 1980, supported by a broad spectrum of scholars from Jacques Derrida and Juergen Habermas to Roger Scruton and David Regan. Then came Poland, Hungary and later Romania. In Poland, Scruton co-founded the Jagiellonian Trust, a small but significant organisation. The other founders and active participants were Baroness Caroline Cox, Jessica Douglas-Home, Kathy Wilkes, Agnieszka Kołakowska, Dennis O’Keeffe, Timothy Garton Ash, and others.

Scruton had a particular sympathy for Prague and the Czech society, which bore fruit in the novel, Notes from Underground, which he wrote many years later. But his involvement in East European affairs was more than an emotional attachment. He believed that Eastern Europe - despite the communist terror and aggressive social engineering - managed to preserve a sense of historical continuity and strong ties to European and national traditions, more unconscious than openly articulated, which made it even more valuable. For this reason, decades later, he warned his East European friends against joining the European Union, arguing that whatever was left of those ties will be demolished by the political and ideological bulldozer of European bureaucracy.

Anyway, digressions aside, onto to the heart of your question.

Art matters.

Let’s start from there. Regardless of your personal tastes or aesthetics as you stand before a painting, slip inside a photograph, run your hand along the length of a sculpture, or move your body to the arrangements spiraling out of the concert speakers…something very primary - and primal - is happening. And much of it sub-conscious. There’s an element of trust.

Political philosopher, Hannah Arendt, defined artworks as “thought things,” ideas given material form to inspire reflection and rumination. Dialogue. Sometimes even discomfort. Art has the ability to move us, both positively and negatively. So we know that art matters. But the question posed by modern philosophers such as Roger Scruton has been: how do we want it to affect us?

Are we happy with the direction art is taking? Namely, says, Scruton, away from seeking “higher virtues” such as beauty and craftmanship, and instead, towards novelty for novelty’s sake, provoking emotional response under the guise of socio-political discourse.

Why does beauty in art matter?

Scruton asks us to wake up and start demanding something more from art other than disposable entertainment. “Through the pursuit of beauty,” suggests Scruton, “we shape the world as our own and come to understand our nature as spiritual beings. But art has turned its back on beauty and now we are surrounded by ugliness.” The great artists of the past, says Scruton, “were painfully aware that human life was full of care and suffering, but their remedy was beauty. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation…It shows human life to be worthwhile.” But many modern artists, argues the philosopher, have become weary of this “sacred task” and replaced it with the “randomness” of art produced merely to gain notoriety and the result has been anywhere between kitsch to ugliness that ultimately leads to inward alienation and nihilistic despair.

The best way to understand Scruton’s idea of beauty in art and why it matters is to let him speak for himself. Click below on the video and watch a BBC documentary broadcast way back in 2009 that he did precisely on this subject, why beauty matters. It will not be a wasted hour but perhaps enrich and even enlighten your perspective on the importance of beauty in art.

vimeo

So I’ll do my best to summarise the point Scruton is making in this documentary above.

Here goes.....

In his 2009 documentary “Why Beauty Matters”, Scruton argues that beauty is a universal human need that elevates us and gives meaning to life. He sees beauty as a value, as important as truth or goodness, that can offer “consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy”, therefore showing human life to be worthwhile.

According to Scruton, beauty is being lost in our modern world, particularly in the fields of art and architecture.

I was raised in many different cultures from India, Pakistan, to China, Japan, Southern Africa, and the Middle East as well schooling in rural Britain and Switzerland. So coming home to London on frequent visits was often a confusing experience because of the mismatch of modern art and new architecture. In life and in art I have chosen to see the beauty in things, locating myself in Paris, where I am surrounded by beauty, and understand the impact it can have on the everyday.

Scruton’s disdain for modern art begins with Marcel Duchamp’s urinal. Originally a satirical piece designed to mock the world of art and the snobberies that go with it, it has come to mean that anything can be art and anyone can be an artist. A “cult of ugliness” was created where originality is placed above beauty and the idea became more important than the artwork itself. He argues that art became a joke, endorsed by critics, doing away with a need for skill, taste or creativity.

Duchamp’s argument was that the value of any object lies solely in what each individual assigns it, and thus, anything can be declared “art,” and anyone an artist.

But is there something wrong with the idea that everything is art and everyone an artist? If we celebrate the democratic ideals of all citizens being equal and therefore their input having equal value, doesn’t Duchamp’s assertion make sense?

Who’s to say, after all, what constitutes beauty?

This resonated with me in particular and brought to mind when Scruton meets the artist Michael Craig-Martin and asks him about how Duchamp’s urinal first made him feel. Martin is best known for his work “An Oak Tree” which is a glass of water on a shelf, with text beside it explaining why it is an oak tree. Martin argues that Duchamp captures the imagination and that art is an art because we think of it as such.

When I first saw “An Oak Tree” I was confused and felt perhaps I didn’t have the intellect to understand it. When I would later question it with friends who worked in the art auction and gallery world, the response was always “You just don’t get it,” which became a common defence. To me, it was reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s short tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid or incompetent. In reality, they make no clothes at all.

Scruton argues that the consumerist culture has been the catalyst for this change in modern art. We are always being sold something, through advertisements that feed our appetite for stuff, adverts try to be brash and outrageous to catch our attention. Art mimics advertising as artists attempt to create brands, the product that they sell is themselves. The more shocking and outrageous the artwork, the more attention it receives. Scruton is particularly disturbed by Piero Manzoni’s artwork “Artist’s Shit” which consists of 90 tin cans filled with the artist’s excrement.

Moreover the true aesthetic value, the beauty, has vanished in modern works that are selling for millions of dollars. In such works, by artists like Rothko, Franz Kline, Damien Hirst, and Tracey Emin, the beauty has been replaced by discourse. The lofty ideals of beauty are replaced by a social essay, however well intentioned.

A common argument for modern art is that it is reflecting modern life in all of its disorder and ugliness. Scruton suggests that great art has always shown the real in the light of the ideal and that in doing so it is transfigured.

A great painting does not necessarily have a beautiful subject matter, but it is made beautiful through the artist’s interpretation of it. Rembrandt shows this with his portraits of crinkly old women and men or the compassion and kindness of which Velazquez paints the dwarfs in the Spanish court. Modern art often takes the literal subject matter and misses the creative act. Scruton expresses this point using the comparison of Tracey Emin’s artwork ‘My Bed’ and a painting by Delacroix of the artist’s bed.

The subject matters are the same. The unmade beds in all of their sordid disdain. Delacroix brings beauty to a thing that lacks it through the considered artistry of his interpretation and by doing so, places a blessing on his own emotional chaos. Emin shares the ugliness that the bed shows by using the literal bed. According to Emin, it is art because she says that it is so.

Philosophers argued that through the pursuit of beauty, we shape the world as our home. Traditional architecture places beauty before utility, with ornate decorative details and proportions that satisfy our need for harmony. It reminds us that we have more than just practical needs but moral and spiritual needs too. Oscar Wilde said “All art is absolutely useless,” intended as praise by placing art above utility and on a level with love, friendship, and worship. These are not necessarily useful but are needed.

We have all experienced the feeling when we see something beautiful. To be transported by beauty, from the ordinary world to, as Scruton calls it, “the illuminated sphere of contemplation.” It is as if we feel the presence of a higher world. Since the beginning of western civilisation, poets and philosophers have seen the experience of beauty as a calling to the divine.

According to Scruton, Plato described beauty as a cosmic force flowing through us in the form of sexual desire. He separated the divine from sexuality through the distinction between love and lust. To lust is to take for oneself, whereas to love is to give. Platonic love removes lust and invites us to engage with it spiritually and not physically. As Plato says, “Beauty is a visitor from another world. We can do nothing with it save contemplate its pure radiance.”

Scruton makes the prescient point that art and beauty were traditionally aligned in religious works of art. Science impacted religion and created a spiritual vacuum. People began to look to nature for beauty, and there was a shift from religious works of art to paintings of landscapes and human life.

In today’s world of art and architecture, beauty is looked upon as a thing of the past with disdain. Scruton believes his vision of beauty gives meaning to the world and saves us from meaningless routines to take us to a place of higher contemplation. In this I think Scruton encourages us not to take revenge on reality by expressing its ugliness, but to return to where the real and the ideal may still exist in harmony “consoling our sorrows and amplifying our joys.”

Scruton believes when you train any of your senses you are privy to a heightened world. The artist sees beauty everywhere and they are able to draw that beauty out to show to others. One finds the most beauty in nature, and nature the best catalyst for creativity. The Tonalist painter George Inness advised artists to paint their emotional response to their subject, so that the viewer may hope to feel it too.

It must be said that Scruton’s views regarding art and beauty are not popular with the modern art crowd and their postmodern advocates. Having written several books on aesthetics, Scruton has developed a largely metaphysical aspect to understanding standards of art and beauty.

Throughout this documentary (and indeed his many books and articles), Scruton display a bias towards ‘high’ art, evidenced by a majority of his examples as well as his dismissal of much modern art. However on everyday beauty, there is much space for Scruton to challenge his own categories and extend his discussion to include examples from popular culture, such as in music, graphic design, and film. Omitting ‘low art’ in the discussion of beauty could lead one to conclude that beauty is not there.

It is here I would part ways with Scruton. I think there is beauty to be found in so called low art of car design, popular music or cinema for example - here I’m thinking of a Ferrari 250 GTO, jazz, or the films of Bergman, Bresson, or Kurosawa (among others) come to mind. Scruton gives short thrift to such 20th century art forms which should not be discounted when we talk of beauty. It’s hard to argue with Jean-Luc Godard for instance when he once said of French film pioneering director, Robert Bresson, “He is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music.”

Overall though I believe Scruton does enough to leave us to ponder ourselves on the importance of beauty in the arts and our lives, including fine arts, music, and architecture. I think he succeeds in illuminating the poverty, dehumanisation and fraud of modernist and post-modernist cynicism, reductionism and nihilism. Scruton is rightly prescient in pointing the centrality of human aspiration and the longing for truth in both life and art.

In this he is correct in showing that goodness and beauty are universal and fundamentally important; and that the value of anything is not utilitarian and without meaning (e.g., Oscar Wilde’s claim that “All art is absolutely useless.”). Human beings are not purposeless material objects for mechanistic manipulation by others, and civil society itself depends upon a cultural consensus that beauty is real and every person should be respected with compassion as having dignity and nobility with very real spiritual needs to encounter and be transformed and uplifted by beauty.

Thanks for your question.

#ask #question #sir roger scruton #scruton #art #aesthetics #beauty #architecture #music #paintings #film #cinema #personal

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cinaja · 3 years

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Before the Wall part 42

Masterlist

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Two months after Miryam and Drakon decided to attempt a relationship, they are sitting are sitting in Miryam’s drawing room together with Andromache and Zeku. Miryam and Drakon share a seat on the couch while Zeku and Andromache each took one of the armchairs. Between them, papers lie strewn out over a table. They are preparing for the meeting tomorrow, coordinating their opinions and making sure that they all agree on what to do any say.

The four of them are the usual group for meetings like this. Miryam is obviously there, although not in her function as de-facto leader of the Alliance, but as leader of their fraction. (Officially, there are no fractions in the Alliance, but in reality, they very much exist. Miryam’s is the biggest, consisting of all the humans – at least since she put her quarrel with Nakia aside – as well as those Fae who actually care about equality.) Andromache is there for the humans (not technically their leader, but while Scythia under Nakia is in charge of the military, Andromache spearheads politics) and Zeku for the Fae (not their leader at all, but closest to Miryam). Drakon isn’t there to represent anyone, but he wrote the proposal they are discussing, which means he has been invited to these meetings lately.

What they are discussing today is the sixth draft of Drakon’s original proposal, and somehow, he doubts that it will be the last one. They keep quarrelling over territory lines and new power positions, discussing the same points over and over again. By now, they have at least agreed that each of the Loyalist territories will be forced to yield part of their territory proportionally to the human population, allowing the humans to form independent territories. Other points remain less secure.

“Why are there no reparations specified in that contract?” Zeku asks.

“There are,” Drakon says, “Section three. Each freed slave is allowed to take as much they can carry from their owner’s household. And there will be trials for atrocities the enemies committed.”

Miryam shifts through her copy of the proposal. She is leaning against Drakon, he has an arm around her shoulders. In the beginning, they were hesitant about how much affection they could show in public, with only Andromache, Mor, Sinna and Nephelle knowing the truth, but by now, they are nearly certain that no one notices anything strange about their behaviour. (“What did you expect?” Nephelle asked, laughing, when he mentioned it to her. “You two were close enough already that the difference is near-impossible to notice.”)

“Yes, sure.” Zeku picks up a grape from the plate. “But what about reparations paid to the winner? It is common for the defeated party to somehow compensate the other side for the costs of war.”

Drakon sighs. He knew this would come, knew the Fae especially would likely disagree. “There hasn’t been a war of a comparable scale in millennia,” he says. “The entire Continent is in ruin. If we force the Loyalist countries to pay for this, we’ll bankrupt them for centuries.”

Neither Miryam nor Andromache look particularly disturbed at the thought. Andromache shrugs. “So what? Much as I appreciate your generosity, I don’t particularly care if the Loyalists have economic problems after this.”

“You will if you consider the long-term consequences,” Drakon says. He sincerely hopes he doesn’t sound like he’s defending the Loyalists. “I’m not saying this out of sympathy for the ither side, but because I don’t want us to get dragged into another war in a few decades or centuries.”

Zeku frowns at him. “Aren’t you exaggerating a little there? This has been common practice for millennia.”

“And every time the victor when too far, another war was the consequence . Take Akele and Merin,” he says, referring to two territories on the western Continent that have been locked in war for just over a thousand years. It all started when Akele defeated Merin in war and bled the country dry for compensation.

He looks around at the others. “The Loyalists’ economy is built around slavery – without it, it will struggle. If we add huge debts to that, it will collapse entirely.” He looks to Andromache and Miryam, who don’t seem upset at all. “I realize that this may not feel like a bad thing – even I would like to see them pay, and I have far less cause than you do. But any satisfaction this might bring won’t last, because if we do this, we’ll never have true peace. We will need constant military presence in the former Loyalist countries, we will have to keep them down for eternity. Because the moment we relax our guard, they will strike back.”

Miryam and Andromache exchange another look. Now, they do seem concerned. Zeku presses his lips together and looks down at his fingers.

“That won’t be easily sold to the Fae,” he warns.

“Or the humans,” Andromache adds.

Miryam frowns. “Are you sure about this?” She asks.

Drakon considers for a moment, then nods. “We can’t push the Loyalists completely to the ground,” he says. “If we abolish slavery and then let them all fall into poverty, they will always wish to go back to the times before this war. There will be no moving on.”

“It isn’t just the economy, though,” Andromache says. “It’s not like they enslave us out of necessity – “ Drakon flinches and she shakes her head. “Don’t look at me like that, I know that wasn’t what you were saying. But still. The problem is that they think us lesser. And that won’t change if we allow them to keep their economy.”

Yes, Drakon knows this. But finding a way to end bigotry that has been festering in Fae society for millennia seems nearly impossible. He’s just over thirty years old, and he’s expected to solve a millennia-old problem? All he can do is identify the biggest possible pitfalls and try to find solutions, but he has no way of knowing if those will actually work. It’s not ideal, but he doesn’t know another way to approach this than to work step by step.

“Humans will have their own countries,” he says. “If we manage to establish that as the status quo, it will be a solid first step. Then we work on establishing trade between the human and Fae countries. Trading partners rarely attack each other – it isn’t good for the economy. And trade always brings countries and people closer together.”

Many of the Loyalists, of course, wouldn’t be pleased by the idea of trading with the humans. But that’s another thing they agreed upon – the Loyalist countries would be put under Alliance administration for the time being. Rulers would need to be replaced with ones more open to the new course, and the Alliance would maintain a presence until things had stabilized.

Miryam flips through the pages of Drakon’s proposal. “There’s also the section about adding a clause to Continental law that allows full legal protection to all humans,” she says. “We’d just need to find a way to get that law put into action, but otherwise, it should help.”

Zeku nods. He has opened his copy and is studying the lines, frowning. Drakon pours himself a glass of water and takes a sip. These discussions are nerve-wracking. It’s entirely different from having to work out a text for university and then discussing it with the other students. Then, it was only about a grade, maybe his father’s approval. Now, it’s the entire continent at stake. Miryam takes his hand and squeezes, smiling at her.

“I know this isn’t entirely the subject,” Zeku says without looking up from the paper, “But would it be possible to include lesser faeries in that law?”

Drakon bites back a curse. Of course, how could he forget about that? When he was still in university, most of the essays he wrote were about the situation faeries face, especially in countries like Montesere. But now, his focus was entirely on the humans – enough that he forgot about the second group of people who aren’t treated as equal on the Continent.

“Don’t they have legal protection already?” Andromache asks.

Zeku shakes his head. “Not in general Continental law. It’s up to their countries to decide which rights they have, but outside of that, the situation is unclear.”

Andromache frowns. “But aren’t you and Drakon…” She pauses. “Can I say ‘lesser faeries’? It sounds disrespectful.”

“I believe that’s the point,” Zeku says drily. His blue skin darkens considerably. “But if you’d like to avoid that, you can simply say ‘faeries’.”

Andromache nods. “Okay. So, you’re both faeries, not High Fae. You’re still royalty.”

“We’re similar enough in power and looks that they don’t mind us as much,” Zeku says. Drakon nods in confirmation.

Privilege on the Continent has always been largely tied to power. Humans don’t have any, High Fae have the most. Most faeries lie somewhere in between, powerful in their own rights, but with abilities that are largely tied to the land and far more specific than those of the High Fae. Both Drakon’s and Zeku’s people have strong elemental powers, though – more High Fae-like – and most people simply pretend they are High Fae.

“I’ll include something,” Drakon says.

He can’t believe he didn’t think of it himself. He knows about the issues faeries face all over the Continent as well as Zeku does. Both Sangravah and Erithia have laws that grant faeries equal rights and, consequently, far larger faerie populations than most other countries.

“We can include that?” He asks, turning to Miryam and Andromache. “Right?”

“Sure,” Andromache says. “Wouldn’t do for us to win this war and abolish slavery only for these asshole High Fae to turn around and enslave a different species.”

Miryam looks down at the proposal and smiles. “If we get this to work,” she says, “we’re truly going to change the world.”

----

Mor runs a hand through her hair. She spent most of the day sitting in her tent in Andromache’s camp, looking through a book her uncle’s servants dug up from somewhere inside the Hewn City. Ever since the High Lord mentioned the possible uses of her gift to her, she tried to find out as much as possible about it.

Unfortunately, most of the texts regarding the Morrigan powers belong to the private collection of Mor’s family, meaning her father, and ancient contracts forbid even the High Lord from accessing those and the last Morrigan died over a century before Mor was born, and as far as mor knows, he didn’t have any special abilities either.

Truth is deadly, Mor reads, Truth is freedom. Truth can break and mend and bind. The author, Mor has decided, has an unfortunate flair for being dramatic and overly poetic instead of helpful. Pages upon pages and not a single solid explanation of what Mor’s powers do, much less how they are used.

“Stupid book,” Mor mutters and closes it.

“I don’t understand why you’re so fascinated by this,” Andromache says. She’s lying on her stomach on Mor’s bed, papers strewn out over the pillow before her.

“Wouldn’t you be fascinated if you found out you might be in possession of powers like these?”

Andromache purses her lips and shrugs. “No.”

“No?” Mor echoes. “Not even a little bit?”

“No.” Andromache picks up a letter and starts methodically ripping it apart. “Humans don’t have powers, and I, for my part, am perfectly content with it.”

Mor frowns. She heard this philosophy from quite a few humans already, but she never quite believed it. It always seemed more like the kind of thing people would say to console themselves over the fact that they don’t have any magic.

“Besides,” Andromache continues, “I have yet to meet a person who was overly powerful and happy with it. Discounting complete assholes like Artax, obviously.”

“Rhys isn’t unhappy,” Mor says, “And Miryam isn’t either.”

Andromache makes a noise that might be interpreted as agreement, but she remains silent. She turns her attention to the next letter and starts ripping it apart as well.

“And now you want to be like Miryam?” She asks. She still sounds sceptical, not at al like she’s pleased with Mor’s plans.

Mor shrugs. She obviously doesn’t want to be exactly like Miryam. But she genuinely cannot see what is so wrong with wanting to be similar, especially when it comes to power. Who wouldn’t want that? Miryam is untouchable. Everyone likes and respects her. She can walk into the Night Court and simply get a girl like Mor out of there without any consequences. That is what power gets you. If Mor had power, she would not only be safe, but also able to help others.

But maybe Andromache truly doesn’t see it. She’s a queen, after all. She never was as powerless as Mor.

“I simply don’t understand this,” Andromache pushes when Mor remains silent. At least she doesn’t say ´I don’t understand you`. “I’ve never known you to care about power.”

Mor crosses her arms. Somehow, Andromache makes her feel like she’s done something wrong when she really hasn’t. “Maybe I just want to know what I’m capable of.”

Andromache swings her legs over the edge of the bed and gets up. “Then do that,” she says. “Just make sure you don’t end up finding more than you wanted to. Or playing directly into what your uncle wants.” She walks over to Mor and kisses her briefly before making for the exit. “I need to deal with a few problems,” she says. “Good luck with your researches.”

“Thanks,” Mor mutters, looking after her as she walks out of the tent.

She presses her lips together. They didn’t argue, not exactly, but she still feels like Andromache is somehow upset with her. Mor doesn’t want her to be upset, but at the same time, she doesn’t see what she was doing wrong. When Miryam was looking into her powers, no one told her not to. Why is it different for Mor?

Scowling, she looks down at the book. This certainly isn’t going to help her. She had considered asking Miryam for advice, but after Andromache’s reaction, she doesn’t feel confident in that strategy anymore. This leaves her to figure out how to handle her powers on her own.

No books and no help to be had. That means all that’s left is trial-and-error.

----

“What are you so annoyed about?” Yanis asks as they walk together through the camp.

“I’m not annoyed,” Andromache mutters, even though she technically is.

“Sure you are,” Yanis says. “I’m your best friend – you think I don’t notice?”

Andromache smiles and swats at his arm. Unfortunately, Yanis really does know her well enough that he’s impossible to lie to. They’ve been friends since their childhood, both children of advisors to the last queen, who later picked Andromache to be her successor. Yanis joined the royal guard, which means that now, a few years down the line, he is one of her guards.

“I had an…” Not an argument, not quite. “A disagreement with Mor.”

She doesn’t even know why she is this angry with Mor. Maybe it’s because she keeps thinking of how much Miryam struggles with her powers and can’t fathom the sheer stupidity of anyone wanting that for themselves.

Or maybe it’s because Mor’s entire approach to the situation is so distinctly Fae, wanting power for power’s sake, only to further their own standing. If she at least said that she was trying to get more powerful so that she could help them win this war, Andromache might have accepted it, but Mor just seemed to want power, and maybe Andromache is simply too human to understand that.

“Oh.” Yanis makes a face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Andromache quietly shakes her head. She usually tells Yanis everything that’s going on in her life. He even knows about her relationship with Mor, by virtue of being the one who is currently pretending to be her lover to cover for them. But this is not her secret alone, and she doesn’t even know if Mor is comfortable with other people hearing about it.

“So, do you want to do anything to take your mind off the matter?” Yanis asks. “We could go sparring.”

“I’d love to, but I need to visit Jurian.”

Ever since Jurian stopped talking to Miryam, Andromache made a point to visit him at least once a week. Miryam makes sure his camp keeps running smoothly, and Andromache does her best to keep Jurian company. These days, she seems to be the only one whose company he can stomach. It isn’t always easy with him, but there’s no way Andromache is going to abandon him entirely. (And really, who of them can claim to be easy to be around these days?)

“I’ll winnow us,” Yanis says.

Yanis is exactly one eighth Fae. Physically, there’s no hint of his ancestors except for ears that are perhaps a bit more pointed than normal, and except for the ability to winnow, he has inherited none of their magical powers. The ability to winnow comes in very handy, though. Now, he winnows both of them to the outskirts of Jurian’s camp.

“I’ll go talk to Xeni,” he says when they arrive, naming one of Jurian’s higher-ranking captains.

“Meet you back here in an hour?” Andromache asks and waves at one of soldiers whom she knows briefly from another visit.

Yanis nods and they both set off. Jurian isn’t in his tent, which Andromache takes as a good sign. The days when Jurian is sitting alone in his tent, staring at his maps or drinking, are usually the worst. When he’s out in his camp and doing things, it generally means that he’s having a good day. (Occasionally, it also means that he’s having a terrible day and everyone else is about to as well.)

She finds Jurian sitting at a table with his soldiers, which is definitely a good sign. He looks tired, bloodshot eyes sunken deep into his face, but he’s talking. When he sees Andromache, he smiles, which is a rare sight these days, and waves her over. One of his soldiers quickly moves aside to make place for her on the bench.

“How’s it going?” Jurian asks. He even sounds somewhat cheerful.

Andromache smiles back. “Can’t complain.”

One of the soldiers passes her a mug of ale and Andromache takes it, thanking him. She isn’t overly fond of ale, but she still takes a sip, wincing at the bitter taste.

“And you?” Andromache asks. “Things look pleasantly calm here.”

“Oh, but they aren’t,” Jurian says. He sounds satisfied with himself. “We only got back here a few hours ago. We spent the past two days chasing after Amarantha’s army. We finally caught on to them earlier today and managed quite the ambush. Four hundred of her soldiers dead, can you imagine?”

“That’s great,” Andromache says, but her smile soon fades.

She does her best to remember the assignments for the individual armies, but she can’t quite drag up the memory. Miryam always knows the exact orders for each commander by heart, but Andromache has been less involved in the matter lately. Still, she is sure that Jurian’s army had gotten orders that don’t align with running after Amarantha. (As a matter of fact, Jurian’s orders rarely ever give him free reign to do as he pleases when it comes to Amarantha anymore. Andromache never asked, but she strongly suspects that Miryam is behind it.)

“Hold on,” she says slowly. Now, she does remember what orders Jurian had. “Weren’t you meant to keep watch on Vallahan’s army? To make sure they don’t move east.”

Jurian’s slight frown confirms her suspicions. “We’ve been keeping an eye out for them for days,” he says, shrugging. “They haven’t moved.”

Andromache stares at him for a moment. She is about to yell at him, to tell him what he was thinking, going against orders like that, but then, she remembers the soldiers sitting around them. Jurian is their commander and a councilmember, they hold the same rank – she can’t lecture him in front of his soldiers like he’s a wilful child.

“Of course,” Andromache says with a forced smile. “Congratulations on your victory, that’s great news.” She takes another sip of her ale. “And you’re right about Vallahan’s army, too. I’m sure you sent scouts out to check on them, we’d know by now if they had moved.”

Jurian nods hastily, but from the frantic look in his eyes, he hasn’t heard back from his scouts yet. Andromache tries hard to conceal her ire. She knows Jurian is struggling and that his revenge against Amarantha is all that keeps him going these days. Being angry with him for that always seemed unfair, but it is very hard not to when he keeps putting his private revenge before the war effort.

They sit together for another couple of minutes, chatting idly with the soldiers. Their conversation gets interrupted by a panting man who stops next to Jurian and whispers something into his ear. His eyes widen.

“What is it?” Andromache asks. Now, she can’t quite keep the edge out of her voice.

“Vallahan’s army has been spotted,” Jurian says. “They…” He clears his throat. “They slipped past our defences and are now moving east. Towards your camp.”

Andromache stares at him for a moment, then jumps to her feet. She doesn’t even bother to yell at Jurian who is still staring at her wide-eyed before she rushes out of the camp.

----

Mor stares out at the army stretching out before her, panting. There is blood splattered all over her golden armour, blood in her hair, on her hands. A sword cut through a slit in the armour on her arm, but she barely feels the sting of the wound. She takes a swig out of a waterskin. Only a moment of pause, then she will need to head back into the fray where Andromache is still fighting.

They are losing. Reinforcements won’t be here for another few hours, and by then, Mor isn’t sure how many of them will be left. They need a miracle. Or a very, very powerful magic-wielder, but none of the ones they have on their side turned up yet.

It was said that she could see the truth about anything in this world, that she could make the proudest Fae beg for mercy in the blink of an eye, and destroy entire armies. The power to destroy an army would come in handy now. If only Mor knew how.

Truth. How does one wield truth in battle?

One attempt, that’s all Mor will spare before she returns to the battle. She closes her eyes and tries to feel the power inside her. She already used it, at least fractions of it, but there must be more and now, Mor goes looking for the core.

She is just about to give up when she finally finds it. The power feels strangely cold and a shiver runs through Mor’s body. The power slips her grasp, though. It keeps slipping away from her, remaining just outside of her reach.

“Come on,” Mor hisses through clenched teeth.

This power is hers. Hers. It doesn’t get to refuse her, certainly not in a moment like this. There are people relying on her. She reaches out, stretches her mind to the point where it strains. A cold spreads from her fingers and all over her body. It feels like she is drenched in cold water. Her power feels like ice, cold and unforgiving. Is scares Mor as it shoots through her, but there is still an army for her to contend with.

Mor grips her power tightly. It is there, filling her entirely, but she doesn’t know what to do with it. She never learned to use it against anyone, has no idea how to weaponize a power that seems entirely harmless.

Out, she orders, attack them. Her power trembles inside her body for a moment longer. Then, miraculously, it goes shooting towards the enemy soldiers. Mor can feel it, rushing out of her and towards the enemy army. Then, her vision turns grey. A crack echoes through her mind. She feels herself falling, falling and falling. She should have hit the ground by now, but still, she falls. Then, the voice starts speaking.

Morrigan, it whispers. No, it isn’t one voice but several, speaking all at once. Morrigan, you call for truth and you will receive it.

Mor tries to struggle, to fight her way out of the darkness she is caught in, but her power keeps a tight grip on her. This is all wrong. It was meant to attack the enemy, not her.

But you so love to lie to yourself, the voices continue. You lie when you tell yourself that your cousin is different from your uncle. You lie when you tell yourself that this little family you made for yourself is so close that nothing could tear it apart.

“No,” Mor whispers. Her head is throbbing and her heart beats far too quickly. “No, stop.”

Before her eyes, images rise. She sees Rhys, standing in his army’s camp, whip in hand. A soldier is bound to the flock below him and Rhys’s face is frozen in clod rage as he swings the whip. He’ll be no better than his father, the voice whispers.

And Azriel… His face appears before her eyes, always impassive. Deep down, you know he won’t be willing to move on. And if he ever finds out the truth… You know how he’ll react. He wants you, will always want you. You’re the symbol for the acceptance he always wanted, and he’ll never accept that he can’t have you.

Azriel’s face vanishes from before her and she is standing in a room with Andromache. They are kissing, embracing each other, but they aren’t alone. Shadows lurk in the corner, shadows like the ones that report to Azriel. Her skin crawls like there are thousands of ants running over her body. She’s being watched, always watched.

When he finds out, the voices continue, your secret will come out. He’ll tell Azriel and Rhysand, and eventually, everyone will know.

She’s standing opposite Azriel in a room. He is yelling and even though she doesn’t hear the words, she knows what he is saying. There are people standing around them, watching. Keir is there. Eris. Her uncle.

“Stop,” Mor sobs, “Please!”

But it doesn’t stop. And you lie to yourself when you tell yourself that you and Andromache will be together forever. She won’t want to be with you forever, not when your opinions differ so much. Eventually, she will realize that you are no less privileged than the other Fae. That you may care for humans and all the things she values, but not nearly as deeply as she does. She will realize that deep down, you don’t understand, and she will leave.

“This isn’t what it’s like, I’m not like that!”

But you are, the voice says. You joined the war as a way to get out of the Night Court. You genuinely think that many of the humans have it easier than you do. You like to split your world into good and bad, and everyone who isn’t actively horrible is bad, everyone else is good.

“No!” Mor screams. She tears at her hair, struggles against her power’s invisible hold on her.

I am truth, the power whispers, You cannot escape me.

Mor screams without words. She wants this to stop, wants the voice to go away. She claws at her head, but something stops her hands.

And just like this, it is all gone. Mor’s power snaps back into her. It quivers in her for a moment, then dissolves into nothing. Pain flares through her head.

“Mor!” Someone is shaking her. “Morrigan, look at me.”

Mor blinks. Slowly, the world comes into focus around her. Andromache’s face appears before her, blurry at first, then more clearly.

“Hey,” Mor mutters. She tries to push herself upright, but Andromache gently presses her back into the grass.

“Stay still,” Miryam says. She is kneeling next to Mor, still dressed in her council clothes, a long silk dress with silver embroidery that seems far too thin for the brisk night air. She must have raced here straight from a meeting if she didn’t even bother to change clothes. The air around her seems to shimmer, alight with power. “Are you in pain?”

Mor wants to say yes, but then, she realizes that she actually isn’t. She has a headache, but beyond that, she can detect no physical pain. Her mind is reeling and her chest feels painfully tight, but that hardly counts.

“No,” she says. “I’m…” She chokes on the word fine.

Words keep echoing through her mind, far too loudly, drowning out any thoughts. Her chest feels far too tight, she can barely breathe. Over her, Miryam and Andromache exchange a worried look. The air around Miryam glows with power. Mor doesn’t understand why her power is out, what is going on around them. Are they still fighting?

“The battle…” She stammers.

“We won,” Andromache says. She gently pushes a strand of hair out of Mor’s face, but her face is tense.

“Did you lose control over your powers?” Miryam asks. She glances over her shoulder, then returns her attention to Mor.

She shakes her head. “No, I…” She breaks off. Her tongue feels strangely heavy. “I meant to do this.” She doesn’t even know what this is. But now, she finally understands why her power feels so strange. “It’s fine,” she says to Miryam. “You can give it back.”

“Are you sure?” Miryam asks. “Control can be difficult, especially when you are already exhausted.”

“It’s fine,” Mor repeats. She doesn’t know how to explain to Miryam that she has no trouble at all with controlling her power. She never had. Truth seems to be pleasant in that regard, if in no other.

Still, Miryam only releases her grip on Mor’s power slowly. Bit by bit, it slithers back into Mor’s body. Controlling it is easy enough, though.

“See?” She says once all of her power is back in her body. “All fine.” If that isn’t the biggest lie she ever told.

Neither Miryam nor Andromache seem convinced and when Mor tries to sit up again, Miryam grabs her arm.

“Rest,” she says in a tone Mor likes to call her healer voice. It’s somehow both gentle and firm. “No matter how much control you might have over your power, using that much of it is still a strain and you should give your body time.”

Hearing that from Miryam, who only considers resting when she passes out from pain, is somewhat ridiculous. But getting her to change her mind would require a discussion and now that her head is beginning to clear again, Mor realizes that even though the battle might be over, both Andromache and Miryam likely have duties to deal with.

“Okay,” Mor says. “I’ll just lie down. You two can go, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Andromache asks, but she’s already looking over her shoulder at the battlefield. She must have lost many soldiers today. Mor can already see the shadows on her face.

“Yes, just go.”

“I’ll bring her back to the camp and return to help you,” Miryam says.

Andromache nods and is off before Mor truly has time to process what is happening. Miryam looks over her shoulder.

“Don’t you dare get a stretcher,” Mor warns softly. “I can walk.”

Miryam sighs. “Alright.”

She holds out a hand to pull her to her feet. Mor sways a little and has to grip Miryam’s arm to stay upright, but otherwise, she manages just fine. Miryam pulls her arm around her shoulders and helps her walk back to the camp. In Mor’s tent, Miryam deposits her on the bed. Mor half-expected her to rush off back towards the battlefield immediately, but she sits down next to her.

“What happened out there?” Mor asks softly.

Miryam arches an eyebrow at her. “That’s what I was about to ask you.” When Mor remains silent, she says, “I only arrived at the very end. But Andromache says that the enemy soldiers suddenly fell to the ground, all at once. She thought they were dead at first, but then, some of them started screaming and clawing at their heads. Some allegedly died on the spot, although that may be a rumour. Andromache’s army had an easy game after that. Your power was all over the place, and you were on the ground as well. As soon as the enemy soldiers were taken care off, I turned your power off since you didn’t seem to be able to do it yourself.”

Mor nods. She doesn’t know if she could have pulled her own power back, how much control she had actually left. She doubts she would have been able to fight her way out of her own mind for long enough to call the power back, though.

“Do you know what you did?” Miryam asks softly.

“I showed them truth,” Mor says. Only now that she says it does she realize that’s exactly what she did. “The truths they hide from, the ones that scare them. The ones they hate.”

“And in return, you had to see your own truths,” Miryam says. Mor nods and Miryam walks over to put a hand on her arm. “That was a very brave thing to do,” she says. “Everyone has truths they’d rather not face; doing so anyways takes a lot of strength.”

Mor doesn’t feel brave or strong, though. She feels terrible. Like a pretender. I didn’t know this would happen, she thinks. If I had known, I’m not sure if I would have done what I did. And that isn’t bravery. It’s quite the opposite. She didn’t face anything. She just ran from it, and she can’t get herself to stop running.

“I need to go help Andromache,” Miryam says, rising. “But if you have any trouble with your powers, if you need help with anything, pleas tell me. We’ll figure something out.”

Mor nods and watches Miryam walk out of the tent. After that, she lies on her hard bed, staring up at the ceiling. She doesn’t know how much time passes. Her mind is empty, save for the voices that keep ringing in her ears. The pain she feels has nothing to do with physical wounds, but she feels it nonetheless. It’s nearly driving her insane.

Outside of the tent, the sun has already vanished behind the horizon when Mor gets up. She doesn’t know if she’s supposed to be running around, but she can’t take the confines of her tent anymore. She needs some fresh air. Carefully, she pushes the entrance to her tent open and slips out.

“Aren’t you on bedrest?” Yanis asks. Apparently, he’s been waiting outside of her tent.

“Consider me well-rested,” Mor says. “I’m going for a walk.”

Yanis doesn’t stop her as she walks past him and into the camp. All around her, soldiers stop their work to stare at her, whisper with each other. The Morrigan, they call her, voices hushed in awe. It seems the entire camp already knows about what she did.

Mor doesn’t want any of it. Her head is still pounding, the words she heard while she used her power echo through her mind. She can’t shake that voice. Is it now permanently etched into her mind? Will she be forced to hear those words over and over again for eternity?

She can’t stand the whispers. The noise of the camp hurts her ears, the lights of the pyres burn in her eyes. The only person whose company she cares for right now is Andromache, but she is a queen whose first duty will always be to her people, and she cannot abandon them in the aftermath of battle. Besides, she might not be all that interested in Mor either way. Just like the other Fae, a voice whispers in her mind. And so Mor is alone when she sneaks out of the camp, away from the eyes and the whispers, and sits down on a small stone.

“Hey,” Andromache says softly and sits down next to Mor.

She never knew truth could be so cruel. It’s the cruellest gift of all.

Mor gives her a tired smile. “Let me guess,” she says, “Yanis told you where I went.” When Andromache simply gives her an apologetic smile, she shakes her head. “You don’t need to worry about me,” she says, “I know you have duties to fulfil with your army.”

“Miryam is filling in for me, so I’ve got time,” Andromache says. “How are you feeling?”

“It didn’t hurt me,” Mor says. Which is not entirely true, but physically, she is fine.

Andromache puts an arm around her shoulders and pulls her close. “When I saw you lying on the ground there, I thought you might die,” she whispers. “I was so scared.”

Mor buries her face in Andromache’s shoulder. For all the horror she experienced today, it’s good that there was at least one person who genuinely cared about what happened to her. It is prove that she isn’t entirely alone. Maybe she can talk to Andromache about what she saw.

“It’s truth,” she says, “My power. And it’s…” She shakes her head. “It showed me things, told me things…” Her fingers tremble. The words repeat over and over in her head, but she can’t bring herself to say them out loud. “It was terrible.

How stupid was she to ever want this? If she thinks about how she spent her day pouring over a book, desperately trying to unlock her powers. What she would have given to be able to turn back time now. She should have listened to Andromache.

“You don’t have to use it,” Andromache says softly. “If you have been able to keep it locked away until now, you won’t ever need to use it again. No one would blame you.”

In a way, this is absolution. They are still at war and Mor’s gift might prove to be invaluable. But what Andromache offers is a free pass for not using it. She won’t be a coward. No one will be able to blame her. It will be fine.

“I won’t ever use it again,” she whispers. “Not in a million years.”

----

Miryam draws a few odd looks as she walks through Drakon’s camp. Her clothes are splattered in blood and mud, she only barely managed to get the dirt off her face and hands. She spent the past few hours alternating between organizing the post-battle work and helping the healers out.

Well over three hundred soldiers dead. The enemy lost their entire army, but their own losses are still high, the highest out of any battle this month. Miryam gives it an hour at most until the council starts demanding answers. Two hours until they find out what happened. Then, they’ll surely summon Miryam, demand an explanation for what Jurian did. As if she knows.

She stops one of Drakon’s soldiers, a woman she knows briefly from past visits. “Where’s Drakon?” She asks.

“I believe his Highness is in his tent, my Lady,” the soldier replies and hurries on.

Miryam sets off towards Drakon’s tent. She expects him to be stuck in some kind of meeting, but he is alone when Miryam enters, sitting at his desk. He’s drumming a quick rhythm on his leg and flinches when Miryam enters. She immediately knows that something is wrong and wants to ask, but Drakon beats her to it.

“What happened?” He asks, looking at her ruined clothes.

Miryam gives the briefest possible explanation. “Jurian went against orders to chase after Amarantha, which means that a few thousand Vallahan soldiers slipped past our defences. Andromache’s army lost a several hundred soldiers and the only reason it wasn’t more is that Mor used some very strange truth magic I’d never seen before to disable most of their soldiers.”

Drakon seems startled. “Is she okay?” He asks.

Miryam shrugs. “Physically, yes,” she says. Mentally, Miryam isn’t so sure. Mor wasn’t in pain, didn’t seem hurt, but Miryam has never seen her this distraught.

Miryam is far from an expert on Higher Arts – she only barely managed not to let hers kill her – but she knows that they are generally weird. Difficult to master and near-impossible to understand. In her private interpretation, they also tend to come with a price to match the gift, although she is sure most Fae would disagree.

“And you?” Miryam asks. Drakon still seems far too tense. “Is everything alright?”

Drakon shakes his head, shrugging lightly at the same time. He’s still drumming around on his leg, tapping his foot on top of it. Miryam walks over to him and puts an arm around his shoulders.

“What is it?” She asks softly.

Drakon picks up a letter from the table and passes it to Miryam, fingers shaking slightly. Thick paper, a seal pressed into red wax. A sun with a crown hovering over it. Ravenia’s seal.

----

Thanks @croissantcitysucks for helping with this chapter! And in general for being the best person to talk to about writing ❤

#miryam #jurian #drakon #andromache #before the wall

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rwby-redux · 4 years

Text

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: History

In hindsight, I probably should have called this topic political sciences, or social studies, or the humanities. Literally any of those would’ve been more accurate than simply calling it history. Sort of shot myself in the foot with that one. Oh, well. I guess we’ll just have to make do.

History (as it’s defined by the Redux) is an umbrella term for human geography, economics, legal systems, global affairs, anthropology, civil rights, technology, and resources. Its primary concern is analyzing how all of these studies shaped the actions of people in the past, and the ripple effects that carried those societies into the present. Being an interdisciplinary topic, it’s nearly impossible to talk about any of these studies in isolation without accidentally overlooking crucial details. Anyone who’s ever opened a history textbook knows that with that complexity comes controversy, and RWBY isn’t exempt from that trend. As we’re told by Salem in the show’s debut, modern-day Remnant was forged by that forgotten past, by the omission of the gods and monsters that set things in motion.

It’s often said that history is written by the victors. And if history is indeed a book, then you’ll quickly find that RWBY’s has pages missing.

Let’s start by laying our cards on the table and talking about what facts we do have. RWBY’s canon can be roughly divided into three vague time periods: the era of Humanity v1.0, prior to the gods’ exodus; the era where Salem and Ozma’s first host briefly ruled together, several million years after Humanity v2.0 evolved; and the era characterized by the aftermath of the Great War, about several thousand years after the collapse of Salem’s and Ozma’s apotheotic kingdom. Anything in-between is obfuscated by the show, either accidentally (due to a lack of worldbuilding) or intentionally (as an attempt to make the series “mysterious”).

My first instinct is to start calling bullshit left and right. There is no justification for spoon-feeding your audience crucial lore through a spin-off series, and then waving your hand and saying that the show doesn’t have the time for worldbuilding. If I had to start pointing fingers, I’d lay the blame on the writers for prioritizing animating bloated fight scenes that ate up the episodes’ already-stunted runtime. I say this knowing that some people will balk at the accusation, because there exists a demographic of viewers that does prefer watching the fight sequences with their brains turned off. And I’m not above that. (I could spend an hour raving about the choreography of the fight between Cinder and Neo, or about the coordination of the Ace Operatives in their takedown of the Cryo Gigas. Believe me, I’m not knocking the absurd enjoyment of spectacle fighting.)

My problem is that RWBY’s premise is so deeply-entrenched in rule of cool that it left its worldbuilding malnourished by comparison.

But fine. Let’s, for the moment, give RWBY the benefit of the doubt. What in-world reasons would the series have for its history being believably underdeveloped? (And no, we’re not talking about the erasure of the Maidens and magic. We know that information was deliberately expunged from the annals of history. We’re focusing on the parts of Remnant’s history that deal with ancient cultures, defunct countries, and influential past events.)

The immediate solution that comes to mind is the Creatures of Grimm. As we’re told by numerous sources, the Grimm not only prioritize attacking humans and Faunus, but they discriminately destroy any of their creations. [1]

“With every alternative form of communication that was proposed, there seemed to be the perfect obstacle. The destructive nature of the creatures of Grimm severely limited the reliability of ground-based technologies.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 3, Episode 3: “Cross Continental Transmit System.”

This leads to the conclusion that Remnant’s past was physically destroyed, and any traces of it were removed by the Grimm. This would include archeological records—artwork, architecture, books, clothing, jewelry, burial sites, tools, ecofacts, and so on.

The issue I have with this explanation is that it’s not consistent. Throughout the show we see ample evidence of immediate-past and distant-past societies. The remains of Mountain Glenn and Oniyuri still stand, despite the high presence of Grimm at the former (and the presumed presence of Grimm at the latter). Brunswick Farms is relatively intact and provisioned with food and fuel, even though the Apathy are quite literally hanging out under the floorboards. The Emerald Forest even has the derelict ruins of an ancient temple that Ozpin incorporated into the Beacon initiation.

Petroglyphs (parietal stone-carving artwork) of early hominids fighting a Death Stalker. | Source: Volume 1, Episode 7: “The Emerald Forest - Part 2.”

If the Grimm are RWBY’s get-out-of-jail-free card, then they’re certainly not being used to their full effect. The examples I provided tell us in no uncertain terms that Remnant does have an accessible history in the form of archeological artifacts. For fuck’s sake, Oobleck is literally an anthropologist. He teaches history classes at Beacon Academy and has a PhD on the subject.

Similarly, if we assume the format of World of Remnant (a classroom lecture given by Qrow) to be applicable in-world, then that means the history of the last few centuries pertaining to the kingdoms is common knowledge. [2] The existence of this information tells us that Remnant has a flourishing history, and yet we see little of it represented in the show.

I chalk up the lack of history to a nasty habit of the writers. You see, CRWBY has this infuriating tendency to treat RWBY like “it’s like our world but…” It’s like our world but with magic; it’s like our world but with Dust; it’s like our world but with bloodthirsty monsters. You get the idea. As I said back in the Worldbuilding: Overview, if you make your fictional world a one-to-one analog of your own, you end up either ignoring, underdeveloping, or erasing the history exclusive to that setting. And RWBY is largely bereft of any historical identity that it could call its own. Here, let me pitch a few examples of what I’m talking about:

If slavery was only outlawed less than eighty years ago, why don’t we see Mistral creating legal loopholes to retain the system, like through indentured servitude or penal labor? An empire built on human rights violations doesn’t lose that disregard overnight. While we see plenty of poverty-stricken neighborhoods in Mistral, [3] and we’re told about its infamous criminal underworld, [4] these aspects of Mistrali culture seem rather disconnected from the recent history of the country, and ultimately have no impact on the main characters or the plot.

The Faunus Rights Revolution was a three-year conflict that (presumably) took place across all four kingdoms, and involved countermanding the reparations made to the Faunus after the Great War. From a chronological perspective, this was extremely recent. I know Rooster Teeth has a track record of poorly handling systemic racism. Usually this manifests in characters doing tokenly racist things, like using slurs or refusing to serve Faunus customers. But here’s the thing: a discrimination-based conflict this recent should have more bearing on current events. We should see examples of things like police profiling, higher incarceration rates, a lack of representation in media, social pressure to conceal Faunus traits or assimilate into human culture, fetishization, inadequate healthcare, forced sterilization, a lack of clothing retailers which stock apparel that accommodates Faunus traits, and so on. To put it bluntly: Faunus are an underprivileged minority, and immediate history should be influencing how that plays out in the show.

To reiterate: the Great War was eighty years ago. Meaning that there are likely still people alive that fought during it. How have their attitudes and beliefs shaped the world in the last few decades? Did they pass on any lingering hostilities or biases to their family members or community? What about in the present-day? Do people from Vale that migrate to Mistral ever deal with bigotry? Do people in Atlas harbor any lingering ideologies from that time? Is authentic pre-war artwork from Mantle considered priceless because most artwork was destroyed during Mantle’s suppression of creative expression? Did immigrants from the other kingdoms help rebuild Atlas’ cultural identity by supplying it with the values that they brought with them? What about shifts in culture? Did kingdoms have to ration resources like sugar or cream? Did this result in cultural paradigms, where nowadays drinking black coffee is more prevalent as a result of adapting to scarcity?

Because Vacuo’s natural resources were heavily depleted by invading countries decades before the Great War, did this have a major bearing on technology? Does modern Vacuo have wind farms or solar arrays to compensate for a lack of Dust? How does this affect their relationship with other kingdoms? Mistral loves to pride itself on its respect for nature. [5] Does this attitude ever anger Vacuites from the perspective of, “Yeah, I can really see how much you ‘respect’ nature. You respected it so much that you invaded our country and destroyed our oases.”

As you can see, history can’t be idly ignored. It has long-lasting impacts on the people who lived through it, and it continues to inform the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of people to come. What we get instead are traditions that only exist within the relevance of the immediate past, like the color-naming trend that emerged in response to artistic censorship. Anything which predates it, though? Remnant might as well have sprung into existence a hundred years ago with how little its history exists beyond that context.

It’s frustrating and disheartening. We know precious little about Remnant because its history either exists separately from the story (and is delivered supplementarily through transmedia worldbuilding), or it wasn’t developed in the first place. This doesn’t even take into consideration how much the writers deliberately withhold for the sake of artificially creating suspense. (A suspense, I might add, that frequently lacks payoff, either because it gets forgotten by the writers, or the characters never bother to seek out knowledge from available sources, like Ozma. Seriously, why do these kids never ask any fucking questions? They did this throughout all of Volume 5—Ruby in particular, who I badly wanted to strangle when she said “I have no more questions” back in V5:E10: “True Colors.”)

RWBY didn’t even bother to give us a calendar era, like the BCE/CE one used today. Hell, if the writers wanted to buck the system, they could’ve gone with something similar to Steven Universe or The Elder Scrolls, where eras are divided by significant historical events.

Sorry. I swear, I’m done dredging up examples. I’ve already made my point. As we talk about the other topics in their respective posts, we’ll be able to analyze these problems in greater detail.

Trust me. We’ve only just scratched the surface.

[1] Volume 1, Episode 1: “Ruby Rose.” Salem: “An inevitable darkness—creatures of destruction—the creatures of Grimm—set their sights on man and all of his creations.”

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 2, Episode 2: “Kingdoms.” Salem: “In the countless years that humanity has roamed the planet, civilizations have grown and fallen. But four have withstood the test of time: Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, Vale.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[4] Volume 5, Episode 1: “Welcome to Haven.”

[5] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 2: “Mistral.” Qrow: “There's one common thread that links all these people together, though, and that's their respect for nature. Particularly the sea and the sky.”

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #history #this is the second time i've mistakenly posted something under the wrong blog #i was like where the hell is the post i know i didn't delete it #and then it dawned on #man. my followers over on my science blog are gonna be really confused when they see the angry rant about anime on their dashboards

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ana-borralho-joao-galante-blog · 6 years

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HORIZON LINE, 2013 sound performance by Ana Borralho & João Galante

It is a recorded sound performance/installation taking place at the sunset on a beach or another empty landscape. It is an attempt to think of the horizon line as a utopian space. To think about the dimensions that consciousness cannot reach, be it in the present moment or in the future,; which relates the piece to the sublime. Uniting opposite ends of the scale, - the infinite and the small -, the sublime becomes then a bridge between the infinite and the human body. It relates to what could be called the social sublime: the gap between power and the subject, instituted through the complicity between the economic system and global politics, that condemns the individual to an atomized scale and, therefore, to a monadic condition. When the audience arrive receives one mp3 player and headphones. They will start to listen to the recorded performance seated and looking to the horizon line. They are also informed that they can walk around if they want. The performance starts 30 minutes before the sunset. Sound recorded duration: around 60 minutes Concept and Artistic Direction_Ana Borralho & João Galante Original Texts_Paulo Castro, Ana Borralho & João Galante Recorded Voices (PT+EN)_Claúdia Gaiolas, Gonçalo Waddington, Mónica Samões, Tiago Rodrigues Sound Design_Borralho & Galante Piano_Ana Borralho Electric Guitars_Japp and Coolgate Sound Edition_João Galante Artistic Collaboration_Fernando L. Ribeiro Texts Translation_Vera Rocha Production Direction_Mónica Samões Production_casaBranca Co-Production_alkantara, Départs with the support of Programa Cultura da União Europeia Thanks_Vasco Pimentel, Bar das Avencas, Jorge Bragada

About Horizon Line by Rita Natálio: http://www.departs.eu/focus_details.php?id=22 EUROPE: the old VS the new. The trap of Europe ’s cultural mosaic 15.08.2012 Cultural diversity as identity generator is one of the most famous Europe’s patterns. We use the word “famous” explicitly, because considering that we’re all living after Andy Warhol - the man who discovered “fame” and “univoque variety of products” - diversityis less a parameter of culture than a parameter of market and mediatic recognition. So what does it mean to say, that Europe stands for cultural diversity? We all know that part of the facts are in the cultural construction of the European Union. Europeans have created a continental narrative by cultivating difference within its political “Union”, by elevating its social-political-artistic-linguistic variety to an institutional degree, by strengthening its character with prolix speeches on cultural singularity and autonomy, by establishing gigantic institutions and network operations that value cultural exchange as a parameter to human developement. But is there a real-effective cultural mosaic in Europe or is the E.U. concerned in promoting panoramatic views of culture and reducing more and more the margins of its political experiment? Or else, what is the real political representation of culture in Europe? CHAPTER 1. EUROPE: The Horizon Line Last show by Ana Borralho and João Galante - “Horizon Line” - takes the natural scenography of a beach located in the Portuguese coast, to make us consider the world from the perspective of looking at the other side of the sea. After being provided a set of headphones and MP3 players, blankets and pillows, we sit in front of the Atlantic Ocean and imagine a transantlantic voyage to a poetic Other Side (of us). A trip to America, to The Unknow, to The Unconscient, to The Future , to The Past, to The Indian, to The Barbarian or to The Oblivion (in us). While the sun vanishes in the horizon line, a pre-recorded text in our head dramatically explicits critical concerns about the state of the world. The off-voice of different men and women from the other side are destined to insults us, to scream at us and to accuse us of generating a culture of consommation and depredation that uses and abuses reality and nature. Off course, that when we say “us”, we have to consider the “us = europeans”, the “us = colonialists”, the “us = extreme-capitalists” because if Europe is a respectful diverse cultural mosaic it is also a clean surface, and it reflects our face as a mirror, as Narcisus looks at himself in the reflection of the river. But we do not say “us-europeans” only to isolate our character and our guilts. We say “us europeans” because of the second most famous characteristics of Europe’s pattern : its mixed and blurred origins with the conceptual “factory” of all Western thinking and Modernity. And the big advantage – or disavantage - of being “Western-afiliated”, is that outside the concept of “Western culture” there is no “outside”. Or, maybe, there is a specific kind of Outside: the one that separates “western culture” from ALL THE OTHERS, meaning ALL THE OTHERS that are not specialized enough , not particular enough, not singular enough to be discovered. Or even the “others” that are too much specialized, too much specific, and therefore not really relevant to bigger contexts. I mean, besides this generalized concept of “western culture“, thare is no B-side. Europe’s pattern is “Western” because it is binded to “Western Modernity’s” project: 1. to universalize knowledge and practices to an extend, that outside this paradygm nothing and no-one has the possibility or crediblity to achieve universalim. 2. to define the condition of “being western“ as “special”, because no other culture will achieved its universal dimension and pretension. So, let’s say that when a spectator looks at the “Horizon line“ in Borralho and Galante’s piece, he is forced to imagine what is left “behind” him: Europe (both geographically and historically); he has to consider the brutal separation line between “western” and “all the others” : he has to take part of Narcisus’s sick love with its reflection. He is literally pulled into the hypnotic beginning of Lars Von Trier’s film “EUROPA.” : We will know listen to my voice. My voice will help you and guide you still deeper into Europa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrTI-SQmj4k Europe is all there is to Europe. A mythology of light and totality left behind and still, the horizon line in front of us. But what can we imagine when we look at the Atlantic? Would capitalism – the supreme accusation of the off-voice in our headphones while looking at the ocean –be the our third most famous european pattern? Our shadow myth, the other side (us)? And what can we do with this idea? If lights are out, and we cannot see much more than the same (the same pattenrs, the same questions about culture), is there a possibilty that we forgot to change our place as spectators? From where can we look at Europe? RITA NATÁLIO

#performanceart #performance #soundart #participatory #theatre #landscape #anaborralho&joaogalante #ana borralho & joao galante

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enviroblog-spring21 · 3 years

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Environmental Education Should be an Imperative for American Education

Before the pandemic, my typical route to school was as follows: On a humble side street, I’d awaken to the sounds of horns, engines, sirens, and screeches coming from Broadway and Bushwick Avenue. I look outside from my bedroom window, look at the sad, slumped trees barely staying alive in the sometimes harsh, industrial landscapes of northern Brooklyn. I’d walk under the subway overpass, up to my elevated train, and ride until I stopped at Broadway-Lafayette. From there, I transferred to another train in order to get to 59th St-Columbus Circle, a chaotic petri dish of some of the worst traffic in New York City. Sometimes I dared to cross the circle before class and enter Central Park, and when I did: aaaaaHHHHHH. All of a sudden, the hustle and bustle of New York, was given pause. Often, I found that on the days I gave myself a little extra time in the morning to go on a short stroll in Central Park, I felt more productive, accomplished, yet more calm, collected, and mindful.

Perhaps I was suffering from nature deficit disorder, the prominent of one of our readings for this week, entitled: Last Child in the Woods. Nature-deficit disorder is the theory that the spectacular retreat from the outdoors and into technology for education and entertainment has a wide range of regrettable consequences for our mental health, this is especially pronounced in young adults and children. In Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv takes issue with what he calls today’s “wired generation,” alluding to the plethora of new technologies that have fallen into our laps and flooded our minds over the past two decades. The speed of which children in latch onto new technologies, with seldom anybody realizing the societal and psychological implications technological change has brought is truly astonishing.

From childhood to adulthood our brains need two things that we’ve lost during the pandemic: physical movement and novelty. In another reading for class this week: What is Education For? author David Orr contends that: “indoor classes create the illusion that learning only occurs inside four walls, isolated from what students and education institutions alike call “the real world.” Indeed, the science classes that I took from elementary school through to high school certainly amongst my most arduous courses, simply because the subject matter was made so redundant, so boring and soulless that I nearly made the conclusion that I had no desire to ever work in the realm of nature and the environment. What saved me from ridding myself of any environmental consciousness was the material I accumulated outside of the classroom interacting and mediating between the built and natural environments of where I live. One thing that I found particularly interesting about Orr’s piece is his proposition that ecological literacy should be an imperative requisite for all students, whether in lower or higher levels of education. I agree with his belief that no student should graduate from any educational institution without a minimal comprehension of the laws of thermodynamics, the basic principles of ecology, carrying capacity, energetics, least-cost, end-use analysis, how to live well in a place, limits of technology, appropriate scale, sustainable agriculture and forestry, steady-state economics, and environmental ethics. Orr lays bare that our education system produces environmentally illiterate adults. Today’s students inhabit a planet of which the consortium of top-down systems governing their everyday lives make environmental damage the default outcome in living day-to-day life. The lack of environmental education in the United States consequently makes environmental harm easier to tolerate and harder to see. I believe there are reasons to be hopeful, even after Orr’s laying into our deeply flawed education system. Americans are world champions at being sentimental over nature. If we make a concerted effort to improve the environmental literacy of our student populations, the population as a whole may better comprehend the various systems at play that degrade the environment and enstill the desire for a paradigm shift of our relationship with nature, and therefore, with each other, much as being an Environmental Studies major at Fordham University has taught me.

The overarching goal of education is ultimately to produce a well-rounded, self-governing citizenry that can propose, deliberate, and affect change in within their community. The concept of “environmental citizenship [:] the idea that each of us is an integral part of a larger ecosystem.” Combined with civic spirit, environmental citizenship encourages citizens to take their environmental concerns into their own hands, evoking the stewardship worldview. One’s departure from secondary education coincides with full enfranchisement as citizens within their community. Many high school seniors across the United States must complete a senior project or capstone which contributes to their community in some way. With the impending climate crisis that all communities face in one form or another, an integral part of environmental education could be the application of environmental literacy and skills in the “real world.” For example, after Superstorm Sandy devastated the Northeast Megalopolis, one senior from my local high school decided to focus on restoring dunes at a public beach to mitigate against future flooding. If environmental capstones were required of every student in the country, I have no doubt that there would be a paradigm shift as to how society views and treats the environment. Creating a generation of environmental stewards could lend a hand to establishing intergenerational justice, assuring that the environment is clean, safe, and well maintained for the enjoyment of future generations. Additionally, being that such a curriculum emphasizes bottom-up efforts–– it could also become a booster for environmental justice as students observe environmental harms and hazards present in their communities by which they themselves may be affected.

How we treat the environment speaks volumes to how we treat one another. In conclusion I wish to emphasize the lessons of ethics environmental education can bring to school curricula. North America is privileged in the sense that so much of our continental population is able to live comfortably without having to know a single thing about the environment–– many simply don’t think about where their food is grown, what their energy consumption is, or when the next major storm is coming. Many of the comforts North Americans enjoy, however, come at the expense of poorer populations on the continent, and intercontinental populations of the Global South. In the United States obtaining a driver’s license and buying a car is a rite of passage for adolescents. At my school, getting a car meant that we had the freedom to get out of our small towns and drive to Providence. In driving to Providence along I-95, however, we all contributed to Providence having the ninth highest rate of asthma in the country. Our car emissions didn’t just stay trapped above Providence; however, they circulate the world, causing desertification in Africa, drought in India, and floods in Indonesia. Leaving high school, going onto college, and into a career without any consequential sense of the damage our society causes by default is an ethical travesty.

WC: 1168

Question: Standard secondary school education teaches physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics, does the lack of specifically environmental education come from a sense of wariness (especially from American public schools) to the political perceptions imposed upon environmental issues?

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freifraufischer · 3 years

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Evil Canadians

[[This is an excerpt of an alternate history role playing game that involved psychics, wizards, and a cold war that never ended I wrote in between 2002-2004. This is an edited part of the section about Canada that several Canadian friends asked to see...]]

Canada is the world’s second largest country and occupies most of the North American Land mass, sharing with the United States of America what was once the world’s longest undefended border. Though not extensively militarized until the Russo-American War, going as far back as the early 1990s many of the border provinces coming under control of the Dominion Unity Party (DUP) began paramilitary patrols to augment the official border crossing points. Canada was settled as British and French colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. France surrendered to Britain its colony of New France, an area that composes present-day Quebec and Ontario at the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

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The Ungava Incident

For almost forty years United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) nuclear-armed bombers flew armed over Canadian territory near the Arctic Circle on routine patrols. These aircraft, by the 1980s aging B-52s with a host of electrical problems, flew from bases within the Continental United States, looped over the northern reaches of Canada, and than landed again at their bases in middle America. Twice in the 1960s SAC B-52 on similar routes crashed with nuclear weapons on foreign soil. The first occurred on January 17, 1966 near Palomares, Spain during an in-flight refueling accident, three bombs were scattered over farmer’s fields and one in the ocean. All four were recovered and the residents of the small Spanish town paid nearly $800,000 in compensation. Just over two years later on January 22, 1968 another B-52 crashed near Thule Air Force Base, Greenland after a fire broke out in the navigator’s compartment. Three hydrogen bombs were scattered across the ice, and one melted through and sunk to the bottom of Baffin Bay, unrecoverable. The incident over Greenland, a Danish possession, caused massive protests in Denmark, and briefly strained relations between the two countries.

These were nothing in comparison to the December 12, 1984 explosion of at least one (though some theorize that it may have been as many as three) hydrogen bomb over the Ungava Peninsula, in northern Quebec. The explosion vaporized the B-52 that the bombs were believed to have come from, killing the crew, and making investigation of the cause of the explosion nearly impossible. Because the region was sparsely populated, mostly by isolated fishing villages, no one knows exactly how many people died, though estimates by both the Canadian and United States governments place the direct death toll from the explosion to be around 450. This does not include the thousands of cases of radiation poisoning from fallout in Quebec, the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as fisheries in the North Atlantic and as far away as western Europe.

The United States Air Force immediately sent teams to help relocate survivors and those in the worst affected areas, but the estimated $4,000,000 in compensation has been considered inadequate and insulting by many Canadians and some of those eligible for settlements have refused them in favor of civil suits filed in American courts against the Air Force. The Department of Defense has attempted to have the suits thrown out citing national security concerns, but several Federal judges have kept it alive, even after decades of delay. The mysterious deaths of one of those judges, and of a prominent Ungava survivors advocate are widely suspected to be the result of U.S. military covert operatives.

The Reagan administration dismissed concerns that the incident might permanently soured relations with the northern neighbor. Other American observers wondered though, as nearly fifty percent of Canadian Air Force personnel were recalled from joint programs such as the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Though many of those same officers returned in the following years, but military cooperation between the neighbors has never been the same. Polls carried out in the United States ten and twenty years after the incident show close to forty percent of the American people did not even know that it had occurred, and listed Canada as one of the United States’ closest allies around the world.

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The Friendly Dictatorship?

The Prime Minister of Canada has what are often considered extraordinary powers in comparison to other western leaders. Because of a system of strict party discipline within the Canadian House of Commons, an elected member faces great difficulty in voting against the party line (set by the Prime Minister). If any member of the Prime Minister’s governing party votes against any new legislation, he or she may be expelled from the party. An expelled member must sit as an independent, without the right to ask a question, raise any issue before the Parliament, and stands little chance of winning re-election without the party’s resources. These measures mean that members of the governing party almost always follow the will of the Prime Minister. This was best exemplified by former Prime Minster, Pierre Trudeau, who referred to the backbenchers of the (than ruling) Liberal party as “trained seals” and the opposition backbenchers as “noblies when they are fifty yards away from the House of Commons.” The lack of checks and balances as theoretically seen within the US system has lead some to question such power, especially with the unexpected term of Walter Bechmann’s Dominion Unity Party, which has held the office since 2003

The major counterbalance to the power of the Prime Minster of Canada are near autonomous powers of the provincial premiers. They are required to agree to any constitutional change, and must be be consulted over new domestic initiatives within their area of responsibility. Unsurprisingly, traditionally the most difficult primeir to deal with has been the Priemer of Quebec.

The Rise of the DUP

Traditionally there have been two major national parities within Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada (or predecessors under other names), with a large regional party the Bloc Québécois following behind. None of these players took much notice as a small upstart, the Dominion Unity Party (DUP), began to win power on the provincial level in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Rising out of the movements collectively known as “Prairie Socialists” the DUP advocated traditional values, wide ranging social programs, a strong military, and a resistance to what they characterized as the cuddling of the Quebec separatists by Ottawa.

The economic and ecological disaster that was the Ungava Incident, the lack luster American response, and Ottawa’s inability to force the issue lead to a growing sense that Canada had seeded too much of its responsibilities to the United States. If Ottawa would not keep the French in line, or Washington from walking all over the country, than someone would. And that someone, the DUP claimed, was them. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s the DUP gained control of all of Western Canada on the Provincial level, and became the official opposition party after the collapse of the Progressive Conservatives.

Who done it?

The leak of the incriminating file on Liberal Party funding to the CBC have become the Deep Throat of Canadian political history. Both their origins and even their authenticity have been vigorously questioned (and denied). Some leading theories include:

That the deputy prime minister leaked the documents in an effort to force Chrétien to resign in favor of former finance minister Paul Martin. He was taken by surprise when Martin did not win the election and has dropped out of public life.

The Bloc Québécois leaked them after obtaining them by means unknown. Thinking that they would have an easier time working with a Conservative government, or at least a better chance of winning the next independence referendum, it blew up in their face when instead of getting the Tories they ended up with their worst nightmare.

One of the Canadian intelligence or security services leaked the document—the finger is usually pointed at the FSS—either out of patriotism or out of cynical and very illegal manipulation of the political process.

One thing is clear to those that are familiar with Jean Chrétien. Few believe that he actually knew about the dirty dealings with the American companies. If the documents were legitimate to begin with.

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The government of Jean Chrétien came under fire in 2003 as documents began to surface in the press linking the Liberals to campaign funding directly by American corporations with ties to the Department of Defense. The implication being, though never quite proven, that an agreement was in the works to arrange for the Ungava lawsuits to be settled or dropped entirely in return for the illegal funds. The exact origins of the leaked documents have never been established. So angry was the Canadian electorate that not only were the Liberals swept from power, but the Conservatives also took a major loss, leaving the last man standing, the quiet and boring former Premier of Saskatchewan, Walter Bechmann.

Following the election night carnage as the Liberals went from holding a long-standing majority to six seats, barely half what would be needed for official party recognition on the federal level. Still weakened from their collapse under Kim Campbell in 1993, the Conservatives held only 20 seats. And with the effective merger of the New Democratic Party into the DUP, the official opposition party was the separatist Bloc Québécois. Given the DUP’s strong anti-French stances it has made for ugly fighting in Parliament, but with little effect on Prime Minister Bechmann’s policy goals.

Most observers speculate that after years of Liberal rule with virtually no other option, the image of the effective, hard working, non-flaboyant man from Saskatchewan has endeared Beckman with the Canadian people. While the more conspiracy minded suggest that the inability of the other national parties to organize may be linked to more sinister interference. The Bloc, always willing to scream about government and DUP misdoings, points to the Canadian Federal Security Service, which had long been battling Quebec nationalists and had closely allied themselves with the DUP on its rise.

The French Question

Conflict between Canada’s Francophone minority and Anglophone majority is hardly new, though the extensive efforts made on behalf of the federal government to help preserve the French language and French Canadian culture is relatively recent. Unfortunately equalizing language and granting Quebec some special status has not stopped an upswing in separatist activity, violent and non-violent. The first eruption of what have been several decades of sustained violence began on October 5, 1970 with a string of bombings, kidnappings, bank robberies, and attempted assassinations, all the work of a Marxist-Leninist group, Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ).

Like many similar groups, West Germany’s Red Army Faction, Italy’s Red Brigade, and the American Weather Underground, the FLQ was made up primarily of middle class born again radicals who would not hesitate to attack the class structure as much as the Anglos. Two weeks into the emergency Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau ordered the Army into the streets to enforce Martial Law in Quebec under the controversial War Measures Act. The overwhelming force, mass arrest of those associated with the FLQ (and their families), and the stretching of the organization’s resources beyond what they could handle for all practical purposes destroyed the organization. The deaths of some of the detainees in the custody of the army and RCMP, and the disappearance of others have left a sinister note over the ending of the emergency. Rumors still surface decades later of prominent Quebecois, made to disappear during the period, in the custody of particularly vindictive elements of the government.

The next wave of extreme violence occurred in 1990 when a new group, calling itself the Armée de Libération du Québec (ALQ) and trading on the reputation of their similarly named predecessor began targeting Java Works, a nation wide specialty coffee chain which like many corporations continued to use its English name in Quebec. Well-dressed young people, of an age to be university students, used automatic rifles to commit mass murder of the patrons and employees at one Saint-Georges shop. Similar attacks followed within days, with brutality and efficiency associated to a particular terrorist leader soon identified as Amanda Legardeur, the daughter of an upper class Montreal family.

Though relatively brief, the spree lasted just over a month; the brutality displayed cleared the fence sitters out of the way, leaving only those who would clearly choose between a sovereign and independent Quebec, and a united Canada. That was of course, what Legardeur had intended, and the cultivation of a young woman who looked similar to her so that she could shoot her in the head to fake her own death was a small price to pay in her game. It took CSIS and FSS nearly a decade to agree that she was indeed, still alive, though once they had, her legend grew even more. Today she is the most wanted woman in Canada, believed to be not only armed, but possessing the organization and leadership skills to make her a one person national security threat.

In response to the perceived failure of the moderates, the increasing violence of the extreme separatists, and what many particularly among the rank and file of the ruling DUP see as excessive allowances to the French, there has been a backlash. With only the exception of the United States, the primary focus of the Canadian Federal Security Service—the most ruthless, and effective of the competing agencies—has been what is internally called “the French Question.” Some wonder though, if repressive and often highly illegal methods will only divide the country more, just as they did for the British in Northern Ireland.

The federal government believes—not without reason—that the violent separatists are being backed by east bloc communist countries that would use an independent Quebec as a base of operations on the Americans doorstep. Unwilling to see the country torn apart, or to be used by either superpower in cynical games of brinksmanship, the Canadian government has begun to look at solving all their problems on a larger scale.

American Relations

The Canadian government, and to some extent the Canadian people, have understood the true form of the American government longer than any other county in the world. For them it is like having a window on the great superpower, seeing more up close in American news and American television—not to mention in frequent visits to the states to avoid high Canadian taxes—than anyone in the United Kingdom or the Europe ever does. And certainly more than anyone ever gets to see of the Americans’ rival the Soviet Union.

Over the years though, at least from the American side, this familiarity has bread contempt. Washington sees Ottawa, and more importantly in the Americans case, the Pentagon sees them as a joke. The quaint socialist country to the north whose military is more focused on tracking down stray penguins and who police and intelligence services can be characterized by The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show’s Dudley Do-Right. The fact that there are no penguins in Canada has not entered into the American’s calculations. The American public’s view is not much more nuanced, seeing their continental neighbors as unerringly polite, and with the firm belief that every Canadian citizen can kill, skin, and gut a grizzly bear with their bare hands.

The view south from Ottawa is quite a bit more nuanced, though the Canadians have learned a hard lesson about the sometimes friendly sometimes vicious pit-bull they have been planted next to. The the view has been common enough going all the way back to repeated American invasions during the War of 1812, it came to a nasty point when the indifference which the American military seemed to treat the accidental nuking of their country. As one Strategic Air Command general at the Ungava Board of Inquiry commented to another when he did not know that his microphone was on, “All they have are trees and rocks up there, what’s the big deal?”

A firm belief has developed, especially among the security and intelligence communities (with the notable exception of CSIS, who have a close working relationship with the Americans) that there is indeed a major military and security threat to Canada, the Canadian way of life, and even the lives of every Canadian citizen.

Their neighbors to the south.

A Fair Deal, an Even Playing Field, a Slippery Slop—The Canadian Psychic Experiments

Like many countries around the world the Canadians are intimately familiar with the uses and abuses of the paranormal within the intelligence community. As a commonwealth country they have long been familiar with the sorcerer viziers that have advised the crown for centuries. However as with many things that come with the British heritage, the mother country has far more use of the community than the former imperial possessions.

The ruling DUP have an innate distrust of sorcerers owing to a distrust of anything supernatural that gives one man an advantage over another. It is a political, philosophical, and religious distrust that has placed the country’s small sorcerer community at odds with the government… though not yet at war. The leading wizard in the country is the queen’s representative, and a master of the mysteries of the mind, Karen Clarke. She has focused primarily on checking the power of Prime Minister Beckmann and the agenda that most people have not yet discovered behind the party and by extension the government’s actions.

The difficulties between the sorcerers and the government are nothing though, in comparison to the outright war that has been declared on psychic talent within the Dominion. The idea that among the citizens exist a population—small as it may be—who can commit the worst violations on a person’s mind and body without any control by rule or law offends the prairie socialists very nature. In the view of the party psychics are to be monitored, controlled, and eventually eradicated from society as a threat to the rest of the human race.

Most within the power structure would chose to do this through “curing” the afflicted, many of whom themselves would gladly submit at first for any chance to lead a normal life. The main arm of this goal, like so many other things within the party’s plans, has been the Canadian Federal Security Service (FSS). The service itself though, has mixed feelings about the mission. Those that know the ultimate goal also know that enemy countries, particularly the communist nations, have been using their own psychics against Canada. The cleverest among them have begun to play both sides against the middle.

Section C of the FSS has been responsible for the beginnings of an extensive tracking network that will eventually use the DNA markers to identify psychics. Or so they hope. One problem they have discovered—and one that the Soviets have been independently finding at the same time—is that the genes that control psychic gifts are not in the same place for each subset of gifts. The genetic code that turns on a telepath’s ability to read minds is not the same gene that allows a remote viewer to see beyond his body or a pyrokinetic’s ability to set the world ablaze. Complicating matters even farther, some suspect that multiple genes can trigger psychic powers.

In addition to the genetic studies, extensive drug trials have been carried out in an attempt to dampen or control psychics so that they can be returned to society and not imprisoned for life. Unfortunately, as the Americans discovered almost half a century before, psychoactive drugs are themselves a tricky business. It is difficult to determine outside of the subject’s self-reporting if the drug has dampened the powers. The only way of independently determining any drugs affects has been testing on pyrokinetics and telekinetics, whose powers manifest physically. This can be very dangerous, as many test subjects react badly to the conditions within Section C’s hospitals. If not outright killed by the psychics (which usually results in the death of the psychic), the staff often report frightening and wild displays of power as the scared and often mentally ill telekinetic or pyrokinetic looses the concentration and control needed to keep their world together.

As of now, there is no effective drug therapy to control psychic talent.

Those Who Serve

A relative few Canadian psychics are employed by the FSS to battle those of other nations in order not to leave the country vulnerable to attack. This was made abundantly clear during the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics when several east bloc psychics were brought into the country in order to give their athletes an edge in the medal count. The scheme was discovered when a West German coach who had escaped the East recognized a Stasi colonel who had tortured his brother to death among the East German Olympic Committee’s figure skating staff. After a confrontation the night before the figure skating long program, both the West German coach and the East German psychic were expelled from the country.

Unlike the Americans, who rarely use government psychics and have left the practice entirely to corporations and other private enterprises, and the Soviets who have fostered a system of the widespread utilization of psychics, the Canadians keep their mental attack dogs on a very short leash. Each psychic has a strong willed normal agent, known within the community as a Controller (telepaths often have two to prevent one from falling under the spell of their charge). This officer is responsible for all operations that the psychic is used in, and in the field has the authority to summarily eliminate any that become impossible to control. As could be expected, a physical psychic (telekinetics and pyrokinetics) or a mental specialist like a telepath is much harder to control than even the most powerful remote viewer or precognitive.

The Personalities Involved

Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Karen Mendelsen-Clarke, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada. A Vancouver born academic with impeccable credentials, her recent appointment by the Queen as her representative in Canada caused a near constitutional crisis as it went against the advise of Prime Minister Bechmann. The Queen’s growing concern about Bechmann’s politics and leadership of the country led her to appoint Clarke, a Cambridge educated sorcerer with a specialization in the powers of the mind. Publicly she is polite and friendly to the PM, but privately she has been hard nosed and difficult, threatening to withhold royal consent from legislation and implying that she might dismiss several of his ministers. In an unprecedented step, she has also formed her own guard battalion for protection after a suspicious car accident nearly took her life. With the traditions of the reactivated Black Watch (Royal Highlanders of Canada), they are seen by the DUP as her private army and viewed with great suspicion. She is divorced with no children.

The Right Honorable Walter Bechmann, Prime Minister of Canada, Leader of the Dominion Unity Party. A long time provincial politician in his home province of Saskatchewan, he served for nearly a decade as a Progressive Conservative backbencher in the provincial assembly before recognizing a wave of political change in time to ride it to the top. He ended up sweeping the Provincial Party elections when the DUP was first created and then surprisingly took the DUP to the top spot in Saskatchewan. Eventually the Party attained national membership, and gained power in other provinces. After several years as the Premier of Saskatchewan, he retired from politics briefly, before coming back for Federal politics to become the national leader for the party. Often seen in the press as bland and dense, he is actually an astute observer and can be very charismatic when he wants to be. And he usually wants to be charismatic in private. During Question Period many a young MP have learned to underestimate the old man at their peril. He has a wife and three daughters.

David Cherier, Premier ministre du Québec, leader of the Parti Libéral du Québec. A lawyer by trade, David Cherier specialized in defending those swept up in various federal anti-terrorism sweeps. He was first elected to Parliament as Progressive Conservative before returning to Quebec to become the Minister for Natural Resources. Hard work, competence and charm brought him to the head of his party and with the PLQ’s win in elections to the position of Quebec Premier. Though not a separatist himself, he is a strong Quebec nationalist, and has fought vigorously against the policies of Walter Bechman in his attempt to roll back concessions made to Quebec. His sometimes ally in this has been Governor General Clarke, but she has also sided with the prime minister when it suited her. He is generally considered a good man, if relatively unsophisticated when matching wits with the PM. There have been three assassination attempts on Cherier’s life, one when he was Minister for Natural Resources, presumably by separatist groups such as the ALQ, though they have not claimed responsibility.

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lord-wellesbrook-ix · 3 years

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The Problem with Modern Politics by Me, an unqualified, out of touch late millennial/early gen Z Brit.

Advance warning this is gonna be a long post, essay is below the break for those who care to read.

Ok, good, welcome! So yes, time for some personal details, because apparently such things are crucially important now to what one has to say. I’m 19, I’m white~jewish (ethnically, not religiously. And I list both because the distinction is...spurious at best imo), with some limited asian heritage (grandfather is Burmese, you’d not know it to look at me though). I’m bisexual, with a loving trans boyfriend, tragically kept away from me by that most perfidious of enemies, the atlantic ocean. I used to think I was trans, and started hrt, before deciding against it. I don’t know what my gender identity really is at this point, but I use he/him, and was assigned male at birth. Oh and despite my immediate family having some significant prestige (my dad is a VERY specialised doctor, only 8 people in the country can do what he does), because Britain and NHS, I’m also poor enough that I qualify for financial assistance through uni, and all that other fun stuff, so assign me whatever class you want, but I’ve never really had access to money or the like. All of these factors will undoubtedly somehow colour what my thoughts are.

So! Let’s tackle this on two fronts - My beef with the modern left, my beef with the modern right, and my beef with all the current “alternatives”. The Left Why do you make me hate you so? I want to be able to side with you. Economically, we’re almost perfectly aligned. Fuck big corporations, they abuse their workers, and are broadly detrimental to societal progress by merit of the power they wield. The state should use the money of the wealthiest, to help uplift the poorest, bringing everyone as close to a comfortable range of wealth and living standards as is feasible. Wealth taxes I’m against, if only because I look at things like FIRE with some measure of hope, because I find it infeasible that I’ll be able to work a “proper job” my entire life, and equally infeasible that the state will support me before I’m in my 70s. Unsurprisingly I’m all for trans and lgbt rights, and their advancement is imperative. Likewise racial and ethnic discrimination needs to be combatted (though I have a caveat insofar as how), and linguistic minority rights are ESPECIALLY important (not to out myself as Welsh...). Minimum wages, yes, and higher! Benefits should be more generous and more accessible! All of this! And yet. And, yet. I can never stand with any significant left wing party. Because of how they behave on other fronts. The general solution to racial discrimination seems to be mandates, and quotas, which are just...not a great idea? Because they’ll only work insofar as they are maintained, and at that point you’re not solving it, you’re just leaning on people to make it LOOK like the problem is solved. Instead perhaps, a better system would be something akin to a more continental system. Pictures are banned on CVs, as are any obvious racial or sex or gender markers. Further anonymising most processes, to further make any people making significant choices unable to determine race, sex or gender of the people they’re choosing about, allows for a truly blind process. The same, incidentally, should apply to class distinctions (personal story there to follow, because there class mandates have stabbed me personally).

Moreover, however, both left and right these days seems to be based on these vicious and disgusting ideas of guilt and hatred, only changing who receives them. The modern left want me to hate myself, and hate my country. My skin means that I am somehow inherently advantaged, and thereby everything bad that happens to me is fine, my country has committed sins long before anyone alive today was born, and thereby any bad thing that befalls it is right and good. I am guilty of the crime of...being born a certain way, in a certain place, to certain people, and because of that, because of my privilege, I must apparently have the road of life made that much harder to walk for me. I must be told throughout education that this country is evil, that “Britain” and the “British” are evil, with no consideration for the fact that, well, that’s me. Telling someone that they’re evil as they’re growing up is uhhhh, not exactly a good thing. I believe in this nation that reared me. Moreover I believe in its values, I believe in Britain, and I believe every person should have the right to believe in their country. People as a whole aren’t fundamentally evil. And whilst yes every country has sins, great or small, and Britain’s past leans closer to great, that doesn’t give people the right to try and engender a sort of national self-loathing in the population for it. I won’t venture into America (because America breaks my whole everyone should be proud of their country thing, because a lot of areas should frankly be made independent from the US). And as a part of my...I don’t want to use the terms patriotism or nationalism because both have been massively tainted by groups trying to claim them for years now, but as a part of these beliefs, I stand with the British monarchy. Hell, I actually argue they should be allowed slightly greater freedoms. That they should be allowed to speak out when they are slandered (naming no self-entitled actresses), and equally, that they should be allowed to have some limited vocalisation of other political opinions. We let celebrities do it today, and they influence elections far more than the crown could ever hope to. And let’s look at things that Chucky boy, our next king unless they do something VERY silly and skip him, has gotten into trouble for speaking about: Not wanting brutalist modern architecture, which has actually been proven to make for housing that doesn’t last as long, and negatively impacts mental health. And Being an environmentalist.

And

Wanting this country to treat the mentally ill better. Ah...such controversial, evil points, made by a despotic tyrant princ-oh wait no they’re just valid things. I don’t want them to be given the power to ENFORCE their ideas, that way lies absolutism, which runs against the ideas of a constitutional monarchy. But let them speak, there are people who speak freely with greater sway and influence than they could ever have, and far less accountability.

The Right

Oh boy, oh boy. Economically villainous. I despise nearly every economic ideal they stand for. They hurt the poor to help the rich, and just like the left, screw those in the middle. All I can credit them for on that front is that they don’t have as much of a tendency to support ugly, cheap mass housing, but only because they instead support no housing.

Socially...ugh. I look at the modern right as a two headed beast there. There are those like those on the left, who hate Britain, but instead of just hating us and wanting some vague utopia, they hate us and want us to become a corporate hellhole like america, which is arguably worse.

Then there’s the others. Those who take my ideals and corrupt them. Racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, rinse and repeat, and yes I know this is the hazard inherent in enjoying tradition and one’s nation anywhere, but can those traditions not be adapted? Anglicanism is already christianity minus any spine or sense of self, let it allow gays and trans people and all of that. Also uh yeah, don’t be racist. I don’t really know how to phrase that in any other way because...it’s not hard. Just don’t be racist. Treat people as people, not as their race. Do not treat me any different for being a jew, or having an asian grandfather, do not treat someone differently for being a person of colour, do not treat someone different for the circumstances of their birth, quite simply put. Alternatives

So, the non mainstream (LIBLABCON) parties? Let’s see.... UKIP/Reform - Ah racism, fuck off. Plaid - Ah, vote to...leave the country I love? And to be run from Cardiff by people like Drakeford, or Woods, or really any of the major players in modern welsh politics? No. Any flavour of communist - Last I checked they all want me to hate myself, so nah. Greens - Cool. You still want me to hate myself, and have really dumb economic ideas, but you’re a one issue party and I support that issue, so tentatively the lesser of all the evils. Idk why I had this rant, I am just very upset. There is no voice for people like me, and it seems there never will be. And I’m nowhere near rich enough to start a party to become that voice.

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expatimes · 3 years

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What does Ersin Tatar's win mean for Northern Cyprus?

Athens, Greece - Cypriot president Nikos Anastasiades is in uncharted waters.

He is still hoping for progress in United Nations-sponsored talks to reunify the island, but the newly-elected leader of the Turkish Cypriot community is in favor of partition.

A first meeting with Ersin Tatar on November 3 produced an agreement for a new round of talks under UN auspices; but whereas Anastasiades will be talking about a federal state, as UN Security Council resolutions have specified, Tatar will be suggesting that other solutions are also examined.

“We deserve independence,” Tatar said, after winning 51.69 percent of the vote on October 18.

“We are fighting to exist within the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Therefore our neighbors in the south and the world community should respect our fight for freedom, ”he said.

The TRNC was formed after Turkey invaded the island in response to a Greek coup attempt in 1974. Only Turkey recognises it.

UN-sponsored talks have since aimed at reuniting the Turkish Cypriot community with the Republic of Cyprus as a federation.

This is the process the defeated Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, supported.

Ankara backed his opponent after he voiced fears of annexation to Turkey. Some believe his loss with 48.31 percent of the vote effectively marks the end of six decades of talks to reunite Cyprus.

“We were hoping that Turkey would be ready to proceed towards the resumption of the negotiations and we had indications that it was. Now there's a rather nebulous climate, ”said Andreas Mavoryiannis, Cyprus's permanent representative to the UN and its former chief negotiator.

A break with the past?

“I do not see Turkey accepting a solution on Cyprus that doesn't mean total and permanent control,” says Alexandros Mallias, a veteran Greek diplomat. “Turkey will propose an extremely loose confederation with very few powers conferred upon the central government, or a process of annexation,” he told Al Jazeera.

Osman Kalfaoglu, a journalist in northern Cyprus, said: “Turkey said that if Crans Montana fails they will implement 'plan B'”, referring to the last, failed round of talks in 2017.

“Akinci didn't find other formulas for a solution very feasible. So [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, violating election laws of the TRNC, advertised Tatar, especially in the final days of the campaign period. ”

Kalfaoglu believes Tatar will now insist on a two-state solution but has effectively undermined his own authority.

“Tatar is irrelevant. He doesn't know the Cyprus problem and he completely handed over the strings to Turkey, ”he said.

Rebecca Bryant, who has conducted anthropological research in northern Cyprus for 30 years, says Turkey's overt involvement in this election “is creating fear among Turkish Cypriots about what Turkey's plans are”.

“Everyone, even the winning side, is concerned about the amount of polarisation that happened,” she says. "What we heard from some people in the villages was essentially that they should not vote for Akinci, that they could vote for anybody else but Akinci, and after the first round there was pressure to vote especially for Tatar."

"I think everyone is holding their breaths at the moment to see what is going to happen."

The Republic of Cyprus has kept a wait and see approach.

“I hope the positions expressed by the Turkish Cypriot leader until now are not his final goal, because in such a case we shall have a deviation,” said Anastasiades, three days after the election.

Ahmet Sozen, who heads the political science department at Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus, pointed out that Turkish Cypriots have alternated between pro-partition and pro-federation presidents for the past 20 years.

He believes that by backing Tatar, Turkey is “strengthening its bargaining position” ahead of a new round of talks.

Turkish-Cypriots have gone along with this, he said, partly out of a sense of self-preservation.

“Among the 51 percent who voted for Tatar there are a lot of liberals, businesspeople who thought that if Akinci was elected, Turkey would cut financial aid - 'we'll be in a dire situation, so let's go and support this guy unwillingly' .

"So my hunch tells me if there is a referendum for a federal solution in Cyprus tomorrow, there would be at least 50 percent of the population who would vote in support of federation."

Business as usual?

“What Mr Tatar says is not new,” said Cyprus's former president George Vassiliou, who campaigned vigorously for a solution during his 1988-93 tenure.

“[Former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf] Denktash always insisted on two states and this was always rejected by the EU and UN. I think it is an attempt to make an impression. ”

Vassiliou remains optimistic.

"It is in Turkey's interest to resolve the Cyprus issue, because what Turkey wants more than anything is to be involved in the Eastern Mediterranean, and not locked out as it is by Greece and Cyprus."

Cyprus's discovery of natural gas nine years ago prompted Turkey to conduct its own explorations in the disputed Eastern Mediterranean waters since 2014.

The EU has denounced these violations of Cypriot sovereign rights, but Ankara claims it is acting within an international legal framework.

Turkey's explorations this year on what Greece claims as its continental shelf under the UN Law of the Sea has brought the two countries to the brink of conflict.

Andreas Mavroyiannis, Cyprus's ambassador to the UN, believes Turkey's display of power does not indicate a real policy change.

“Turkey… puts lots of irons in the fire and tries to use them all together to extract concessions,” he told Al Jazeera.

“They want to put confederation and partition on the table, and two-state solutions, and they are playing simultaneously at many levels.

“What Turkey is really willing to accept… we don't know. It will only show in the end. ”

On October 6, Tatar stood next to Erdogan as the Turkish president announced he would annex the abandoned resort town of Varosha on Cyprus's east coast.

“Once Varosha's gone any hope of putting the country back together is gone forever,” said Fiona Mullen, who heads the business consultancy Sapienta Economics in the Republic of Cyprus.

Bryant believes Tatar, under Erdogan's direction, will agree to UN-sponsored talks, but with a twist.

“I think what is most likely is that the Turkish Cypriots will go to the UN talks for a federal solution but will demand something in writing beforehand that if the talks fail they can talk about other solutions, like partition. They're looking for a velvet divorce, or at the minimum a confederation. ”

. #world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=13950&feed_id=16712

#Cyprus #Europe #Features #MiddleEast #Turkey

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sundayeveningthoughts · 4 years

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Deep and Wide

Sunday Evening Thoughts

December 15, 2019

Dear Paul and Rachel,

Deep and Wide

The Lord’s spirit is upon me

as the Lord has anointed me

to bring good tidings to the poor,

to bind up the broken-hearted,

to proclaim freedom to the captives,

to the prisoners, release,

to proclaim year of favor for the Lord

and a day of vengeance for our god,

to comfort all who mourn,

to set out for the mourners of Zion,

to give them turbans instead of ashes,

joy’s oil instead of mourning,

a glorious wrap instead of gloomy spirit.

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Hebrew Bible by Robert Alter

Merry Christmas!

Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Well, that is what he allegedly said, and he might be right.

What Karl Marx wrote, in his 1843 literary criticism A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right is, “The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man… Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification… Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Since I’ve been preaching that the Bible should always be read in context of “time + place”, tonight let’s look at Christmas from three ideas of religion using time + place: Marx’s religion, Isaiah’s religion, and Luke’s religion.

Karl Marx is writing in 1843 in a post Enlightenment and Industrialization Period, and a major economic collapse has recently occurred in Europe. Still, science is booming! Modern industry is booming. Life expectancy is booming. In once sense, Marx is saying, “Life is good - for the rich, let’s reexamine what we believe about God.” Of course, for Marx, life is good. Although slavery had been abolished in England in 1833, the vestiges of involuntary servitude are clearly present in England and Continental Europe when Marx is writing. And we know about the Americas. But life is not good for the thousands and thousands of indentured servants in factories in Europe and slaves in the U.S. and Australia. No, life is very hard. Thus in fact for many, many people, religion does give them some solace from their horrible lives.

The Book of Isaiah is fascinating. All critical scholars believe the Book of Isaiah covers a 200-300 period from at least 721 BCE to after 538 BCE, the first return from Babylonian exile. Still, the theme of (First) Isaiah (Chapters 1-39) and (Deutero or Second) Isaiah (Chapters 40-55), and even the latter (Third) Isaiah (Chapters 56-66) make the same point, “Trust in the Lord, and you will be free.” Once again, people in Israel are in bondage in Assyria, Babylon, and later Cyprus, and are subject to hard living conditions. They struggle to see the Lord except in their predicament, nevertheless the Lord brings “good tidings to the poor.”

The Gospel of Luke borrows from Isaiah and delivers a similar message, “Following the Lord frees you from some troubles of this world,” at least in theory. Luke explains, “‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11). John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg argue in The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach Us About Jesus’s Birth that the Gospel of Luke is not simply about a good life in the next world, but a new life in this world too (“on earth as in heaven”) with equality among all people in every social, economic, and political realm. This is a radical thought in the first century; this is a radical thought today.

The Christmas story tells a miraculous tale where, against all odds — both physical (a supernatural conception) and spiritual (the ancients didn’t separate the two) life can be better. For some, religion is an opiate - an addiction, whereby they discard the good of others to only feed their habit. But Marx is partly correct: Religion is the opium of the people in that Christmas relieves us from the pain of discrimination, racism, sexism, hatred and bigotry, and inequality in both social and economic forms.

If only we Christians really believed in the true Christmas!

I’m not sure what kind of “joyous oil” that Isaiah is referring, but I hear there are new “oils” that are legal in many states that make you “joyous”! But I’ve never had that oil.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Love,

Dad

P.S. Let’s have a Christmas party! Here is an oil from Lizzo as a salve. Lizzo - Coconut Oil - crank it up...

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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DealBook: Watching for Christine Lagarde’s Stance as Head of E.C.B.

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Looking for clues on Lagarde’s thinking as E.C.B. chief

As the I.M.F.’s managing director, Christine Lagarde was one of the most recognizable and powerful women on the planet. But as she takes on her new role as president of the E.C.B., few know her worldview or how she might operate as a central banker. That could begin to change today. Analysts and investors will be listening closely for clues about her stance on various issues when she gives her first news conference in the role. One of the main questions will be whether the central bank’s fire hose of economic stimulus is doing more harm than good, Jack Ewing of the NYT writes. Ms. Lagarde has signaled that she will question the assumptions underlying central bank policy since the euro began to circulate two decades ago. And she is overseeing a comprehensive review of central bank strategy that could redefine its role. “She’ll be very pragmatic, in my opinion, as was her predecessor and as I was myself,” Jean-Claude Trichet, who led the E.C.B. from 2003 to 2011, told Bloomberg. Any hint that she is willing to extend her predecessor Mario Draghi’s approach by cutting rates further or increasing asset purchases could fuel a bond rally, Bloomberg says.

U.K. vote signals return to big government spending

As voters in Britain go to the polls today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made “get Brexit done” his mantra, while his main rival, Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party, has made health care his top priority. Big government spending is making a return in the main parties’ agenda, the WSJ writes. Mr. Johnson has vowed to spend 100 billion pounds ($132 billion) on infrastructure and billions more on policing and health care, while Mr. Corbyn has promised to put hundreds of billions into recasting Britain as modern state-run economy. Public spending is back in favor around the world, even among some parties that traditionally favor balanced budgets and mistrust big government: • President Trump cut taxes and increased military spending, moves that have pushed the U.S. budget deficit to $1 trillion. • Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan approved a $120 billion stimulus program to revive growth and help regions hit by a typhoon in October. • Spain and France are relaxing budget goals to pay for tax cuts and more social benefits, and the typically frugal Netherlands, Finland and Germany are increasing spending on welfare, the military and infrastructure. More: Whoever wins the British election is on track to be the country’s most consequential leader since Margaret Thatcher, a Politico analysis says.

Confident in the economy, Fed keeps rates steady

The Fed’s final meeting of the year brought an end to rate cuts for 2019, and officials penciled in no rate changes next year, writes the NYT’s Jeanna Smialek. The Fed’s rate policy will remain in place until inflation rises persistently, Jay Powell, the Fed chair, said after the meeting yesterday — a wait-and-see approach that indicates the Fed’s level of comfort with the U.S. economy. The Fed cut rates three times this year “to guard the economy against the fallout of President Trump’s prolonged trade war and slowing growth abroad,” Ms. Smialek writes. But officials have shown signs of increasing confidence. “Our economic outlook remains a favorable one,” Mr. Powell said. More: The Fed wants to avoid the prospect of the U.S. entering a low-rate, low-inflation, low-growth trap.

How to make capitalism work again

American capitalism is at an inflection point, with enormous levels of inequality, declining economic mobility, less-competitive markets and an unsustainable fiscal trajectory, Henry Paulson and Erskine Bowles write in a NYT Opinion article. But they say the solution is not to blow up the system or to maintain the status quo. Proposals addressing universal basic income, “Medicare for all” and direct taxes on wealth “are fundamentally misguided and would result in economically harmful outcomes that could put our economy on an unstable and precarious path,” they write. Other policy solutions could allow more people to share in America’s success, they say. The writers’ proposals: • Investing in human capital, including education and productivity. • Looking at more efficient ways to encourage work by supplementing wages. • Correcting the country’s fiscal trajectory by raising more revenue, slowing the growth rate of health care spending and making Social Security sustainable. • Overhauling the tax code to make it more progressive and take in more revenue. Related: New York, London and Hong Kong are international financial centers, but they matter less in a world that is deglobalizing, Greg Ip of the WSJ writes.

Will North America’s trade deal increase auto jobs?

The Trump administration has claimed that the North American trade pact, which is almost certain to become law, will add 76,000 jobs in the auto sector, but experts are not so sure, writes the NYT’s Niraj Chokshi. “It’s not at all clear that there is going to be a positive effect on jobs in the auto industry,” an economics professor told Mr. Chokshi. Provisions in the deal aimed at lifting employment could drive up the cost of making cars, which could reduce demand and jobs. Unions have also expressed doubt. The deal does little to address the outsourcing of jobs, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said Tuesday, a sentiment echoed by the United Automobile Workers union. There is little evidence that the trade pact will provide the job increase that President Trump has promised, but many industry officials expressed relief that an agreement had been reached, because continuity and certainty are vital to the auto industry. More: Concerned about the trade war, the Business Roundtable lowered its forecast for economic growth next year for a seventh straight time. (CNBC)

Weinstein Company poised to pay accusers $25 million

Harvey Weinstein and the board of his bankrupt film studio have reached a tentative $25 million settlement with dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims, the NYT’s Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor report. The deal would not require the once-towering Hollywood producer to admit wrongdoing or pay his accusers himself, according to lawyers involved in the talks. Some key points: • More than 30 alleged victims would share in the payout. • Potential claimants who join in the coming months could also receive a share. • The payout would be part of an overall $47 million settlement that is intended to close out the company’s obligations. • More than $12 million of the settlement would pay legal costs for Mr. Weinstein, his brother Bob and four members of the company’s board. The agreement would end nearly all of the lawsuits filed against Mr. Weinstein, although it requires a court’s approval and final signoff by all parties. And he still faces prosecution on criminal charges in New York.

Revolving door

Praveen Akkiraju, a managing partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, is departing to explore working with early-stage start-ups. (Bloomberg) Harold Hamm will step down as chief executive of Continental Resources and take a board role. James Littlefair resigned from the Treasury Department after his mother pleaded guilty to illegally helping him graduate from Georgetown University, a case that was part of the nationwide college admissions scandal.

The speed read

Deals • Nestlé has agreed to sell its U.S. ice cream business to Froneri in a deal valued at $4 billion. (Reuters) • Britain’s competition regulator said it had “serious concerns” about Amazon’s purchase of a stake in the online food delivery group Deliveroo. (Reuters) • Shares in XP, the Brazilian financial services group, jumped on their debut in New York after completing one of the year’s largest public offerings. (FT) • WeWork’s rival in China, Ucommune, filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. (Axios) • Problems in the I.P.O. market could hurt the S&P 500. (CNBC) • Companies are on track to raise more money through initial public offerings on Nasdaq this year than on the New York Stock Exchange. (WSJ) • The Hudson’s Bay chairman, Richard Baker, won the support of the proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis for a takeover of the Canadian retailer. (Reuters) Politics and policy • The Justice Department’s inspector general painted a bleak portrait of how the F.B.I. used its surveillance powers in the Russia investigation, but told lawmakers that he had no evidence that any mistakes were made out of political bias. The findings about surveillance are important beyond partisan politics. (NYT) • The E.U.’s climate plan would pay nations that rely heavily on fossil fuels to change their ways. (NYT) • Should Joe Biden pledge to serve just one term as president? His top advisers and prominent Democrats have revived a long-running debate. (Politico) • Infrastructure, housing and climate change are among the top issues that mayors want the Democratic 2020 presidential candidates to address if elected. (Axios) • How President Trump and the Democrats parted ways on lowering drug prices. (Politico) Trump impeachment inquiry • The House Judiciary Committee opened debate yesterday on two articles of impeachment against President Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. (NYT) • What to expect from the debate, a process that lets committee members propose changes to the articles of impeachment. (NYT) • Democrats are offering the weakest case for impeachment since Andrew Johnson, the WSJ argues. (WSJ Opinion) • The all-hands-on-deck atmosphere in the White House is a change from just weeks ago, when Mr. Trump’s aides dismissed the idea of a war room. (NYT) Tech • A new policy at YouTube to police material is a response to criticism that the video service hasn’t done enough to curb bad behavior. (NYT) • Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space venture, will today try this year’s third launch and landing of its New Shepard rocket. (CNBC) • Facebook’s ranking on Glassdoor’s list of best places to work slid for a second year in a row, tumbling 16 spots to 23rd. (CNBC) • Siri and Alexa are listening to people’s most intimate moments. (Bloomberg) • George Laurer, the inventor of the bar code, has died at age 94. (NYT) Best of the rest • Investors are gritting their teeth for a “low-return decade.” (FT) • Rising bond defaults in China raise questions about whether Beijing can effectively address its huge debt problem. (NYT) • Aramco reached Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $2 trillion goal after a surge on Day 2 of trading. (Bloomberg) • JPMorgan Chase is taking a bigger swing at wealth management in an effort to better compete with big-bank rivals. (WSJ) • A Maryland real estate company surprised its employees with $10 million in holiday bonuses, with the average bonus being $50,000. (WaPo) • The “Succession” star Nicholas Braun is set to play the WeWork founder Adam Neumann in a limited-run TV series about the company. (Hollywood Reporter) • Bankrupt American brands like Toys ‘R’ Us and Tower Records are thriving in Japan. (CityLab) Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow. We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Read the full article

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Who Gerrymanders More Republicans Or Democrats

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-gerrymanders-more-republicans-or-democrats/

Who Gerrymanders More Republicans Or Democrats

More Than Half Of Young Americans Are Going Through An Extended Period Of Feeling Down Depressed Or Hopeless In Recent Weeks; 28% Have Had Thoughts That They Would Be Better Off Dead Or Of Hurting Themself In Some Way

Democrats Vs Republicans | What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans?

Fifty-one percent of young Americans say that at least several days in the last two weeks they have felt down, depressed, or hopeless19% say they feel this way more than half of the time. In addition, 68% have little energy, 59% say they have trouble with sleep, 52% find little pleasure in doing things. 49% have a poor appetite or are over-eating, 48% cite trouble concentrating, 32% are moving so slowly, or are fidgety to the point that others notice and 28% have had thoughts of self-harm

Among those most likely to experience bouts of severe depression triggering thoughts that they would be better off dead or hurting themself are young people of color , whites without a college experience , rural Americans , and young Americans not registered to vote .

In the last two weeks, 53% of college students have said that their mental health has been negatively impacted by school or work-related issues; overall 34% have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus, 29% self-image, 29% personal relationships, 28% social isolation, 25% economic concerns, 22% health concernsand 21% politics .

Redistricting In The 2020s: An Overview

In 1981, Indiana Republicans enacted a partisan gerrymander of the Hoosier State designed to help Republicans net several seats. Even the Democrats here concede that the newly drawn congressional district lines are a political masterpiece and that they face a much tougher task now in retaining their one-vote majority in Indianas congressional delegation,reported the Washington Post.

But that following year, Republicans failed to make significant inroads in Indiana the delegation went from 6-5 Democratic to a 5-5 split after the state lost a district because of reapportionment. By the end of the decade, Democrats held an 8-2 edge in Indiana, despite the Republican gerrymander.

Three decades after the creation of that failed GOP gerrymander in Indiana, a new Republican-controlled state government sought to create a 7-2 Republican map. Republicans held a 6-3 edge at the time after netting two seats in the 2010 Republican wave. The new map worked. While then-Rep. Joe Donnelly ended up running for U.S. Senate and he surprisingly won now-Rep. Jackie Walorski narrowly won a more Republican version of Donnellys old seat. Indiana elected seven Republicans and two Democrats to the House for the entire decade.

North Carolina Republicans drew two immensely efficient gerrymanders before Democratic-controlled state courts forced a third remap that cut the GOP edge from 10-3 to 8-5 in the 2020 election.

There Are No Standards For Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is distasteful, said Justice Samuel Alito during the Wisconsin arguments. But if we are going to impose a standard on the courts, it has to be something thats manageable, and it has to be something thats sufficiently concrete. Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed the social science used to identify gerrymandering as sociological gobbledygook. This is not a new concern for the justices: In the 2004 case Vieth v. Jubelirer, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, There are yet no agreed upon substantive principles of fairness in districting.

But today, political scientists have developed a number of concrete tests to measure partisan gerrymandering, such as the number of wasted votes for a party or when a party receives far more seats than its share of votes. At the Wisconsin argument, Justice Stephen Breyer laid out a workable standard for the court: Were the maps drawn by one party? Do they unfairly benefit one party over the other? Does that partisan advantage last over a series of election cycles? And, if so, was there any good reason for the map other than achieving partisan control? I suspect thats manageable, he said.

Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook or follow our updates on and .

Also Check: Which Republicans Voted To Impeach Trump Today

Analysis Of The House Of Representatives

If Democrats are correct in their arguments that their votes are being taken away in House elections, it should be reflected in the national vote. In other words, they should be getting more votes across the country, only to have them unfairly portioned out in various districts in various states, so that the Republicans get a majority, right?

Democrats often suggest switching to a continental European system thats based on party lists or proportional representation systems. Your vote percentage tends to equal your seat percentage with this option, with tiny parties not crossing a threshold being eliminated and those parties getting more votes than the minimum dividing up the rest. What would happen if we had something like this gerrymander-killing electoral rule?

To do this, I looked at all 10 House elections from 2000 to 2018. I examined each partys share of the vote, which party gained seats, and which party won in terms of control of the lower branch of Congress itself. And heres what I found.

As you can see, the difference between Democrats and Republicans is not as great as one thinks in these elections. In three cases, Democrats have won 50 percent or more of the nationwide vote three times, while Republicans have won 50 percent or more of the vote across the country three times as well.

Despite Recent Wins For Democrats Gerrymanders Dim Hopes For 2018

For Democrats, signs everywhere suddenly look rosy.

They won smashing victories last week in Virginia and other states. With voters giving the Trump presidency and the Republican-led Congress dismal grades, and the Democratic grass roots re-energized, hope is widespread for a takeover of the House of Representatives and a strong run in the Senate in the 2018 midterm elections.

But for all the optimism, the elections in Virginia last week vividly reflected why the reality might be a good deal harsher. While Democrats won the governorship by nearly nine percentage points and won a similar margin in total votes in legislative races, it appears likely, unless recounts reverse seats, that they will fall just short of taking control of the states heavily gerrymandered House of Delegates.

And around the country, gerrymandering, refined to a high art, and increasingly restrictive voting laws have left many experts wary of assuming that the intensity of Democratic voters will translate into equally robust electoral gains.

For some, the lesson of Virginia is that grass-roots organizing and voters eager to turn out can pull off big wins in unlikely places. But for others, the gap between votes and legislative seats is a cautionary reminder that Democrats face daunting structural obstacles in turning around Republican majorities in Congress and in state legislatures.

Still, Mr. Holder added firmly, The House of Representatives is certainly in play.

Also Check: Did The Republicans Win The Senate Last Night

How Republicans Use Redistricting To Their Advantage

As the redistricting process begins, were carefully watching for ways Republican can potentially game the system to increase their power in Congressat the expense of democracy. In todays Data Dive, were looking back at a 2020 study that dove into the impact of redistricting on the partisan seat share in the U.S. House over the last 50 yearsand how Republicans have manipulated the redistricting process for their own benefit.;

Redistricting is the process of drawing congressional and legislative districts, which are updated every ten years after the completion of the Census. The shape of districts matters because their borders determine who votes in an electionand if drawn in certain ways, a district could artificially inflate or restrict the representation of a group of voters. This is called gerrymandering: the act of drawing electoral districts for political gain. Republicans are gerrymandering experts; instead of running on popular ideas, they redraw the electorate to retain power. The study, Political Control Over Redistricting and the Partisan Balance in Congress,, finds the numbers for what we all knew was true: Republicans disproportionately benefit when they control redistricting, and voters lose.;

Key Takeaways:

Republicans Gerrymandering Increases Seat Share by 9.1%

Republican Redistricting Affects 1 in 10 Voters

Gerrymandering Has Gotten Worse this Centuryand Benefits Republicans More and More

Society Today Than To Say The Same Thing About Blacks And Whites The Rich And The Poor And Other Social Groups

Are americas richest families republicans or democrats? Then, we split the dataset, stratified according to the party variable so as to have approximately similar proportions of democrats & republicans in. Live science is supported by its audience. The republicans used to favor big government, while democrats were committed to curbing federal power. The answer may surprise you. Are there more republicans or democrats? Once you know which party you belong to, it will be easier to decide which candidates to vote for during elections. . In the current 112th congress of the united states of america, there are 242 republicans in the house and 190 democrats. Of the top 25 most dangerous american cities, on top of poverty between 18 and 39 percent, most have unemployment between 4.4 and 9.3 percent. And its largely liberal democratic. However, thanks to gerrymandering, voter suppression, and anemic voter turnouts, these numbers are not always reflected in the elections. Society today than to say the same thing about blacks and whites, the rich and the poor, and other social groups.

Recommended Reading: Who Is Correct Democrats Or Republicans

Why Possibly Changing The Filibuster Brings Threats Of Political Nuclear War

And Smith says its really hard to change because the Senate is enshrined in the Constitution.

But Wegman says this is not what the Framers had in mind. For one thing, when they wrote the Constitution, they thought only white men with property could vote. And they certainly couldnt have imagined how the population would grow and sort itself out.

At the time of the founding, the biggest state was 13 times the size of the smallest state. Today, the biggest state is 70 times the size of the smallest state, he said. So a few hundred thousand people in Wyoming have as much power as tens of millions of people in California or New York. And I think that violation of majority rule is going to continue to haunt us through the Senate, which is not really alterable in any meaningful way other than by just adding more states.

Democrats dont currently have the votes to grant statehood to Puerto Rico or Washington, D.C., or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Republican And Democratic Parties Effectively Switched Platforms Between Their Presidencies

More Republicans registered to vote than Democrats

Executives of americas large public companies have long played a role in public policy by advising leaders of both parties but those corporate chieftains themselves are far more likely to be republicans than democrats, a new study shows. The republican party has been corrupted by donald trump and his best pals, vladimir putin and moscow mitch. How do we explain this? Conservative democrats, have more in common with republicans than liberal democrats. The us has dealt with the worlds largest number of cases and deaths from the pandemic. The democrats are more supportive of government programmes to support minorities. Learn vocabulary, terms and more with flashcards, games and other study tools. Throughout most of the 20th century, although the republican and democratic parties alternated in the democrats support in the formerly solid south had been eroded during the vast cultural who controlled both chambers in 27 states versus the republican party having total control in only. But we must not forget that both parties share varied ideologies. Supporters of this party are known as democrats. Take the democrat or republican quiz to find out which political party you should join. It said in a statement that once. Start studying democrat vs republican.

Republicans gained two new state trifectas after winning majorities in the new hampshire house and democrats did not concede defeat.

Read Also: Who Is More Educated Democrats Or Republicans

Other Factors Affecting Redistricting

At a federal level, gerrymandering has been blamed for a decrease in competitive elections, movement toward extreme party positions, and gridlock in Congress. Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight argues that decreasing competition is partly due to gerrymandering, but even more so due to the population of the United States self-segregating by political ideology, which is seen in by-county voter registrations. Enten points to studies which find that factors other than gerrymandering account for over 75% of the increase in polarization in the past forty years, presumably due largely to changes among voters themselves. Because the Senate has been passing fewer bills but the House has been passing more , Enten concludes gridlock is due to factors other than gerrymandering.

The Republican Drift Against Democracy And The Courts Role In It

But gerrymandering is just one piece of a much broader GOP offensive to rig the system in their favor. This isnt some kind of master plan to destroy democracy so much as a series of discrete tactics, each a power grab in its own right, that add up to imperil American democracy itself.

Voter ID laws pushed in Republican states have created not-insignificant barriers to voting for many black and Hispanic voters. Republican state governments have conducted voter purges that disproportionately clear minority voters from the rolls. After two elections where Republicans lost control of the governorship, North Carolina in 2016 and Wisconsin in 2018, the state legislatures stripped power from new Democratic governors before they could take office. Floridas Republican-controlled legislature just defanged a ballot initiative passed in 2018 that would allow ex-felons to vote, literally denying the franchise to a heavily black constituency.

While these examples come from the state level, as thats where electoral law is primarily set in the US system, theyve been either directly supported by the national party or tacitly approved.

All of this talk about Roberts being the swing vote, or worried about appearances of being political: not on the issues he cares about the most, which are politics, race and power, Hasen writes. See Shelby County, Citizens United, and now … Rucho.

Citizens United

Don’t Miss: Why Do Republicans Hate John Mccain

Democrats Hate Gerrymanderingexcept When They Get To Do It

In Maryland, New Mexico, and elsewhere, Democrats are just as guilty as the Republicans are in other stateswhich tells us that the real problem is deeper.

With Republicans clinging to the House of Representatives facing a blue midterm wave, and the 2020 census right around the corner, gerrymandering has suddenly become a hot topic. Democrats are particularly worried that Republican-drawn districts will be too high a wall to breach, no matter how hard they campaign, or how big the wave.

In 2006, a roughly five-and-a-half-point lead in the national popular vote was enough for Democrats to pick up 31 seats and win back the House majority they had lost to Newt Gingrich, write Michael Li and Laura Royden of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. But;our research;shows that a similar margin of victory in 2018 would most likely net Democrats only 13 seats, leaving the Republicans firmly in charge.

Imagine a scenario where 2016 is immediately followed by a midterm election where Democrats feel just as cheated. This kind of repeated failure would breed more than just frustration on the leftit would lead to the kind of paranoia that defined the right for the Obama years.

These were, of course, blatant, anti-democratic, power grabs. But my point isnt to say Both sides do it, therefore theres nothing we can do!

What Is Different This Year

The biggest immediate concern is a months-long delay in the release of census data due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, officials said states would not receive detailed figures until September.

As a result, the two states that hold legislative elections in 2021, Virginia and New Jersey, will use their old maps. Meanwhile, around half of U.S. states have legal deadlines calling for new maps to be completed in 2021, which could be impossible given the delay; experts say many states will likely ask courts for extensions.

Some good government groups are worried the delay could lead to more extreme gerrymandering, since it would leave little time for any legal challenges to make their way through the courts before the 2022 elections in November.

The Supreme Courts decision in 2013 to eliminate a key section of the Voting Rights Act will also make it more difficult for civil rights groups to prevent gerrymandering. In years past, states with a history of racial discrimination in elections were required to get preclearance from the federal government before making any changes to voting laws, but the court struck down that provision.

Another difference this year: Voters in several states, including Colorado, Michigan, New York and Virginia, approved the creation of redistricting commissions designed to lessen partisanship, though they have varying degrees of autonomy.

Read Also: How Many Republicans Voted For Trumps Impeachment

Forty Percent Of Young Americans Expect Their Lives To Be Better As A Result Of The Biden Administration; Many More Feel A Part Of Bidens America Than Trumps

Whites: 30% better, 28% worse

Blacks: 54% better, 4% worse

Hispanics: 51% better, 10% worse

Forty-six percent of young Americans agreed that they feel included in Bidens America, 24% disagreed . With the exception of young people living in rural America, at least a plurality indicated they felt included. This stands in contrast to Trumps America. Forty-eight percent reported that they did not feel included in Trumps America, while 27% indicated that they felt included . The only major subgroup where a plurality or more felt included in Trumps America were rural Americans.;

39% of Whites feel included in Bidens America, 32% do not ; 35% of Whites feel included in Trumps America, 41% do not .

61% of Blacks feel included in Bidens America, 13% do not ; 16% of Blacks feel included in Trumps America, 60% do not .

51% of Hispanics feel included in Bidens America, 12% do not ; 17% of Hispanics feel included in Trumps America, 55% do not .

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