Today, if you were the Emperor how would you rule the country ?

[Taomeow]

All your thinking process is based on the conviction that among us aliens are acting to sink down mankind, is that correct ? I'm trying to stay open but that is becoming difficult to say the less.

 

I'm not sure I know what "aliens" means. 

 

I observe what I observe:  there's monsters.  There weren't any for a million years of our history.  There were humans, animals and plants -- life on Earth.  Before humans, it was thriving for hundreds of millions of years, and with humans, it was thriving for another million.  And then, in the past 10-15 thousand years, it all changed suddenly (in terms of species' life span, in the last second) and drastically.  Suddenly there were monsters among us.  Suddenly there was deforestation of the planet that never stopped -- this is a planet of forests, and suddenly they were in the way.  Suddenly there was coercion, there were wars -- vertebrates never went to war in the previous 525 million years of their history.  Suddenly there were masters and slaves, large scale construction of objects that are not dwellings for the species -- globally (and at the same time everywhere, Egypt to Peru to Japan to Macedonia to China), suddenly there was grain agriculture (everywhere at the same time, in historic terms within a nanosecond), suddenly there were ruling classes and the oppressed, suddenly there was abject poverty for 99% of humanity for the rest of its history (yes, this is the situation today too, in global terms), suddenly there were obligatory famines, obligatory bloodshed, obligatory and vast systems of punishment -- jails, torture, execution, and in general life in fear of the "authority," and then there were many words, billions of words from high above -- from preachers and rulers and then "scientists" -- about how bad it was before all their blessings and how much "progress" we have made and how much happier we are when we are "civilized." 

 

And there was drastic shortening of the human life span which they told us was its extension.  And there was a long stretch -- ten thousand years long or more -- of the majority of the population of this planet suddenly living in either quiet or not-so-quiet desperation.  "Quality of life" became something that is measured not by the hours, days, years, decades of inner aliveness and joy and love and closeness and delight and pleasure but by the number of objects you manage and their "monetary value."  And there was an epidemic of degenerative disease, and breakdown of communities, families, affectionate ties among humans, and humans and animals, and humans and nature, which we were told never existed -- see, we were all bloodthirsty savages before the king and the church told us to stop killing each other unless otherwise instructed by them...  fancy that, we actually didn't till we became civilized.  We knew each other too well, we lived in closely knit bands, and we worked together, alongside our children and parents and brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts and friends -- hunting and gathering, fishing and foraging, exploring and reporting back -- an average of 8 hours a week, and enjoyed life and each other's company the rest of the time.  And we made art -- we danced and sang and painted our bodies and painted the walls of the caves in a way that made Pablo Picasso cry out in despair, "We've degenerated as artists!" when he first visited those caves in the south of France and saw the magnificent art of our "savage" ancestors.  Anyway...  I could go on but it's time to stop.  

 

Bottom line: I don't know what "aliens" means.  There's been an onslaught of a monstrous, parasitic, self-serving opposing consciousness on humanity we all know and love as "civilization" and "progress."  Where it came from, I don't know.  Archons or aliens or a local opposition of monsters.  I've heard many versions of what it is, but I'm not committed to any one of them because I just don't know.  What I know without a shadow of a doubt is, it IS.  And it is not human.  We didn't do it to ourselves.  We were first forced, then mutilated, then manipulated into doing this and then believing it's our own idea, us and no one else. 

 

I used to buy it till I knew better.  I know my humanity.  I know there's none of that therein.  It's all installed, non-native -- and monstrous.     

[Brian]

I'm not sure I know what "aliens" means.

 

I observe what I observe: there's monsters. There weren't any for a million years of our history. There were humans, animals and plants -- life on Earth. Before humans, it was thriving for hundreds of millions of years, and with humans, it was thriving for another million. And then, in the past 10-15 thousand years, it all changed suddenly (in terms of species' life span, in the last second) and drastically. Suddenly there were monsters among us. Suddenly there was deforestation of the planet that never stopped -- this is a planet of forests, and suddenly they were in the way. Suddenly there was coercion, there were wars -- vertebrates never went to war in the previous 525 million years of their history. Suddenly there were masters and slaves, large scale construction of objects that are not dwellings for the species -- globally (and at the same time everywhere, Egypt to Peru to Japan to Macedonia to China), suddenly there was grain agriculture (everywhere at the same time, in historic terms within a nanosecond), suddenly there were ruling classes and the oppressed, suddenly there was abject poverty for 99% of humanity for the rest of its history (yes, this is the situation today too, in global terms), suddenly there were obligatory famines, obligatory bloodshed, obligatory and vast systems of punishment -- jails, torture, execution, and in general life in fear of the "authority," and then there were many words, billions of words from high above -- from preachers and rulers and then "scientists" -- about how bad it was before all their blessings and how much "progress" we have made and how much happier we are when we are "civilized."

 

And there was drastic shortening of the human life span which they told us was its extension. And there was a long stretch -- ten thousand years long or more -- of the majority of the population of this planet suddenly living in either quiet or not-so-quiet desperation. "Quality of life" became something that is measured not by the hours, days, years, decades of inner aliveness and joy and love and closeness and delight and pleasure but by the number of objects you manage and their "monetary value." And there was an epidemic of degenerative disease, and breakdown of communities, families, affectionate ties among humans, and humans and animals, and humans and nature, which we were told never existed -- see, we were all bloodthirsty savages before the king and the church told us to stop killing each other unless otherwise instructed by them... fancy that, we actually didn't till we became civilized. We knew each other too well, we lived in closely knit bands, and we worked together, alongside our children and parents and brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts and friends -- hunting and gathering, fishing and foraging, exploring and reporting back -- an average of 8 hours a week, and enjoyed life and each other's company the rest of the time. And we made art -- we danced and sang and painted our bodies and painted the walls of the caves in a way that made Pablo Picasso cry out in despair, "We've degenerated as artists!" when he first visited those caves in the south of France and saw the magnificent art of our "savage" ancestors. Anyway... I could go on but it's time to stop.

 

Bottom line: I don't know what "aliens" means. There's been an onslaught of a monstrous, parasitic, self-serving opposing consciousness on humanity we all know and love as "civilization" and "progress." Where it came from, I don't know. Archons or aliens or a local opposition of monsters. I've heard many versions of what it is, but I'm not committed to any one of them because I just don't know. What I know without a shadow of a doubt is, it IS. And it is not human. We didn't do it to ourselves. We were first forced, then mutilated, then manipulated into doing this and then believing it's our own idea, us and no one else.

 

I used to buy it till I knew better. I know my humanity. I know there's none of that therein. It's all installed, non-native -- and monstrous.

I think this is brilliant.

[Brian]

Perhaps there's a place for me in your regime after all.

 

The Empress TaoMeow would seek liberation rather than enslavement and the "empire" would disolve with the completion of that objective.

[Brian]

Your post caused something to "click," TM, and I need to process a bit before I verbalize.

[thelerner]

I think this is brilliant.

While I consider Taomeow to be brilliant, I don't buy this.   Shit happens; happens more as populations grow and people fight over resources and trinkets.  I don't believe in monsters, rather bad circumstances cause bad (sometime good & neutral) people to do bad things to each other and the environment.  Not only don't we need to create a boogie man or group to explain it, its detrimental because it makes us blind to the fact the same impulses and evil potential is within us as well.  

 

Seems to me in the creation phases of her early empire there would be the creation of the very controlling illuminatti groups she's against. 

 

Still, monsters aside,  I admire the long view she is takes in shaping her empire; a very big, long term vision and path, that would probably turn out pretty good.  Course the modern world has set a relatively low bar, versus its potential. 

 

<funny.. i misspelled believe as beleive and the spell checker didn't catch it.  Gotta remember you can't believe without lie s.

Edited July 12, 2015 by thelerner

[forestofclarity]

The first thing I would do is cut the defense budget and feed the world. In 2008, evidently that would only be about 30 billion. 

 

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000853/index.html

 

I would come down hard on fossil fuels. We would decentralize from cities to local communities. 

 

I would institute a mid-day siesta. 

 

I would require mandatory body - awareness training to children in school. 

[CloudHands]

I would institute a mid-day siesta. 

 

Amen !

[Taomeow]

To answer those who think that wonderful things to benefit people will be accomplished peacefully and all you need to do is...  er...  wish upon a star?.. --

 

remember Carthage?..  No, of course not, it was too long ago, and according to some historians (who may be exaggerating for all I know), even the soil it once stood on in beauty and grace was sown with salt by the conquerors who razed it to the ground, so nothing can ever grow there again.   But in the first millennium B.C., under the leadership of Queen Elissa, it flourished into the center of a large and rich empire, a major power in the Mediterranean.  Aristotle wrote extensively on Carthaginian politics, and he considered the city to have some of the best governing institutions ever in existence in the world.

 

However, the resulting rivalry with Syracuse, Numidia and Rome caused the latter to invade it and unleash several wars, with victory going back and forth a few times until Rome decisively defeated Carthage and destroyed it completely in 146 BC.  The Romans then refounded it to their own specs, and that's how it trudged on until it was destroyed a second time, in 698, by the Muslim conquest. 

 

An empress who does not know her history is doomed to repeat it.  Carthage was all about peace and prosperity.  Didn't work.  For as long as your peace and prosperity are an affront to someone greedy or envious or evil, it won't last unless you can defend it.  History teaches us that nothing has ever been accomplished with a kind word that someone else challenged with a kind word and a gun.  

 

Empress Taomeow is not going to build an empire to be trampled upon.  No way.  

 

@ thelearner:  I appreciate your flattering assessment of her humble abilities as a ruler, but you don't seem to know a whole lot about the Illuminati, do you? -- or you would never have made the parallel.  To know a black box containing a live cat from a black box containing a dead one, you need to do better than Schrodinger who solved the problem by declaring that the cat is simultaneously alive and dead.  Nope.  That's exactly the cat I don't want in MY empire's black box.  That's exactly the future I don't want for humanity, to be a bunch of living dead.  That some will have to choose which to be as the outcome of my sweeping reforms is inevitable.  But if you allow the currently ruling opposing consciousness, THEM, to keep choosing for you, the choice will be -- sooner than later -- between being dead and being the living dead. 

 

Dire straits require drastic measures.  Empress Taomeow is not a tyrant, but she has to defeat a helluva lot of current and would-be tyrants first if she wants to put an end to tyranny.  Which she does.  But they won't let her do it by just wishing upon a star, see.  Surprise surprise. 

Edited July 13, 2015 by Taomeow

[forestofclarity]

Once we start to divide the world up into us vs them, normals vs monsters, good vs evil, and so on, there is no end to conflict. 

 

To answer those who think that wonderful things to benefit people will be accomplished peacefully and all you need to do is...  er...  wish upon a star?.. --

[Cheshire Cat]

Emperor?

 

I would work hard to fragment the empire into little independent villages.

I will just take care of the army to make sure that everyone lives in peace.

[Apech]

Emperor?

 

I would work hard to fragment the empire into little independent villages.

I will just take care of the army to make sure that everyone lives in peace.

 

 

You get my vote so far.

[Nungali]

Emperors get voted in ?   

[Apech]

Emperors get voted in ?   

 

 

They do in my little world.

[CloudHands]

When I started that thread I had in mind something much more grounded to nowadays political realities. We more or less all share the same ideal of simple life embracing nature we haven't been prepared for.

From my point view, if you can choose your life you can't force such a return to a whole specie. Too far from Wu-wei.

 

Respectfully of anyone.

[Marblehead]

From my point view, if you can choose your life you can't force such a return to a whole specie. Too far from Wu-wei.

That's a very important concept within Anarchism.  A return to Wu-wei.

[Brian]

 

That's a very important concept within Anarchism. A return to Wu-wei.

I know you understand the following point, MH, but I think it bears repeating as many people in the capital-A Anarchy crowd seem to struggle with it -- Anarchy cannot be forced, cannot be imposed, cannot be brought on by armed revolution. A sustainable anarchic condition, if it is to have any hope of lasting, must be a natural and gradual result of the changing awareness of the population.

[dust]

The first thing I would do is make sure that nobody knew I was the Emperor. My people would have to be strategically placed throughout the government, and we would have to find ways of infiltrating major corporations and combating corporate influence, but the democratic process would appear to continue as normal.

 

Among a few other things, the most important step before I sat back in my old age to watch would be to make (gradual) changes to education:

 

Perhaps a single class to replace Religious Studies and History (history classes are little more than an exercise in culture-centric brainwashing), in which students would learn a more general history of the human species and our role in the ecosystem etc, and some of the more important events of recent history. The whole of WWII -- not just about the defeat of the Nazis, but about what happened in Asia and Africa and everywhere else in the world. It's called World War 2 for a reason. No more memorizing the kings and queens of England or the date of a certain battle that holds little relevance to any living person. No more rejoicing over the genius of Chris Columbus and how great the Magna Carta was.

 

Perhaps another class replacing sports/games and design technology/woodshop-style classes. This might be closer to the boy scouts or similar (I never did boy scouts so can't be sure), where students learn to work with their hands to build useful things, learn how to survive outside of a city, and learn to become physically strong and quick. How to reach our potential as the agile, powerful animals we are. No direct competition, no shaming; just learning how to control one's body, how to run and climb and swim and jump and throw things, etc. How to hunt and fish.

 

I would keep art classes, though focus would not be on learning about old masters as much as learning how to express oneself through any physical medium. One would probably be allowed to specialize a little more in the type of art (music/painting/dance/etc) that they excelled in or that took their fancy.

 

Basic numeracy and physical geography as a child would lead into various science classes. More or less the same as it is now -- maths, biology, physics, chemistry, geography -- but these would be bundled together more, as they are clearly all intricately related. Students would understand the way life, and existence, works. The way everything fits together. Less focus on the praise of individual scientists/mathematicians/etc from history, less glorification of people like Bell and Edison and Einstein. Less glorification of the brilliance of modern technology, and more focus on how we can use what we know to develop technology that makes our lives easier without slowly destroying everything. Later on, people could focus on more specialized areas, though like others here I am no fan of true specialization and would favour urging people to be able to understand every subject to a decent level and not going on to simply get a job and do one thing for the rest of one's life.

 

There would be, from an early age, a choice of foreign language classes. Focus on enjoyment, natural learning. Maybe watching TV shows in the language, learning by listening and imitating. As little goddamn theory as possible. No more conjugation, no more rote. We learn our mother tongue by proximity to it, by trial and error; we should learn any other tongue in the exact same way. The idea would be to get students as fluent as possible in another language without ever scaring them away from language learning.

 

Early English (/mother tongue) classes would teach the language, plainly and simply. Later on, students would focus much less than they do now on historical literary figures; less ancient poetry appreciation and extolling the virtues of Shakespeare. A little more reading of more modern authors such as Steinbeck and Orwell, and a little bit of discussion of the themes within. There would of course have to be continued reading and writing, but in learning our language, we must focus more directly on the power and structure of language itself; we must learn to recognize that our thoughts are our language; that most of our problems are created through our misunderstanding or mishandling of our language/thoughts; and that if we can learn to take control of our language, much of our anxiety and many of our social problems will basically go away. Zhuangzi would be required study.

 

This English class would possibly be interlaced with some kind of critical thinking class. Philosophy. A mixture of Western and Eastern. Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist theory, as well as a complementary selection of Western thinkers.

 

I would urge the importance of understanding what it is to be of service to others. At the beginning, in the first few years, every older student would be required to do paid work experience in a service industry, for at least a few months. Cleaning, hospitality, garbage disposal, etc. Everyone should know what it's like to be "at the bottom", in a position of servitude, both so that they appreciate more those who do it, and so that they come to realize that it is neither necessary nor indeed healthy for any human to have to do that kind of service. People should know how to clean their own shit, serve their own food, make their own bed.

 

Students would be assessed by their teachers, and ideally as time went on each teacher would be able to teach a number of different classes. Eventually, it would get to the point that any adult or older student was competent enough to teach any subject to any younger student, and teaching would become a shared role.

 

Or something like that..

[the1gza]

If someone is dumb enough to choose me as their Emperor, then I would rule in the way an Emperor rules: to serve myself. Imperialism isn't something that marries well with countries of independent, autonomous thinkers, so even if you wanted that for them, they probably don't honestly want that if they are seeking an emperor. So shit, I'd rule so that I could let everyone else do the regular tasks of work, and work on cultivation matters. If someone wanted to dethrone me, I'd probably be gone before the assassination attempt could happen. 

[Taomeow]

Dusty, you seem to have thrown in the towel scepter and applied for the position of Minister of Education instead.

Yup, I know, the crown is heavy...  Your program, however, reminded me of this masterpiece of common sense:

 

[9th]

[dust]

Dusty, you seem to have thrown in the towel scepter and applied for the position of Minister of Education instead.

 

Tehe

In a way, yeah...

I like many of your ideas from the previous post, and agree with the general direction you would like your Empire to go in, but I also have to assume that British people would not react well to decrees and overt violence. If I wanted to hold power, create long-term change, I think the best bet would be to start to change the way people think, and do it in secret. Revolutionize education, and everything else will fall more easily into place.

Edited July 15, 2015 by dustybeijing