The Borderlands of Sympathy Mesa is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Wenis the Eviscerator with a fair hand, and renowned for its daily referendums, keen interest in outer space, and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.038 billion Sympathy Mesans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Halcyon. The average income tax rate is 87.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The very strong Sympathy Mesan economy, worth 87.7 trillion souls a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Cheese Exports. Average income is 84,522 souls, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

It is illegal to make racist remarks in public, excited shovel-bearing geeks wander the countryside, any body part that can be cut off a person is no longer considered to be their property, and families waiting for delayed pipe installations hope daily for rain. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sympathy Mesa's national animal is the European polecat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Kelpism.

Sympathy Mesa is ranked 237,591^st in the world and 8,972^nd in The North Pacific for Most Politically Apathetic Citizens, with 30.58 Whatever.