The British EmpireBoard

Kingdinium wrote:

We mourn the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country.

Long live the King.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
and let Your perpetual light shine upon her.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed
rest in peace.

Amen.

A hearty welcome to the latest member of the empire: Great Britain and Northhern Ireland!

I'm back after a brief interlude!

Good day my British chums,

How are things in the old country under the reign of His Majesty the King? There haven't really been any noticeable changes in Canada and life carries on as before. However, I imagine the effects are more pronounced in the UK.

Your colonial friend,

Edmontonensis

I tried making us a map after the feature update. I can't figure it out. Someone else feel free to take a crack at it.

A relevant update for those regions who find themselves without a founder: page=news/2023/04/18/index.html

Kingdinium wrote:

Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Are we able to designate a governor seeing as we have no founder to do so initially? Or do we still need to rely on a delegate.

I am uncertain.

Toe-Cheeseland wrote:

Purely out of curiosity, where do we all tend to stand politically? British loyalism and patriotism is probably an obvious thing in common, it's interesting to see what else correlates with that

I vacillate between pure free market economic social libertarianism being the best form of government, and recognizing the ills of an unchecked plutocracy that is keeping the rest of us from being able to afford bread and medicine. Depends on how good my most recent paycheque was ;)

The core tenants that remain the same are support for some manner of monarchy supported by Catholic political theory. As a relic of pre-“enlightenment” philosophy this is a position that wins few friends in the current era.

Toe-Cheeseland wrote:

I can sympathise with that, even during my long years as a socialist I always had a Ron Paul moment whenever being charged VAT (e.g. on Steam games) lol

Nowadays, I subscribe to some sort of mixture of Georgism and Austrian economics whilst trying to accommodate my social democratic instincts (i.e. try and enable the poor to just buy what they need health and education-wise)

Your comments on monarchy are interesting, is monarchy required/recommended by Catholic political theory? I like the monarchy in a sort of Glorious Revolution sense that it acts as a dignified backbone to the nitty-gritty of Parliamentary government. If Parliament were to lose all sense and try and pass a King Herod's law, I feel like I'd approve of the monarch withholding assent from Parliament, for example.

I think our views on monarchy are largely similar. The monarch acts as a bulwark against elected representatives' occasional (or not-so-occasional) idiocy. They also embody the spirit of the nation and act as a rallying symbol in times of crisis. For instance, I was far more comforted by the videos Her Majesty released during the pandemic offering encouragement to her subjects than Prime Minister Trudeau's recommendations to avoid "speaking moistly." It is a tricky balance to strike but a necessary one for a state and its people.

Catholic political theory (in so far as officially outlined by the Church at an institutional level) is intentionally broad to incorporate a variety of perspectives while eliminating the greatest evils. I pulled a few of the most relevant paragraphs from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. These are the guiding principles on which I base my political decision-making. Obviously, this post is rather lengthy, so don't feel obliged to read it. I just posted it for my fellow poli-sci nerds.

Main Principles of the Catholic Political Theory

Respect for Human Dignity
"A just society can become a reality only when it is based on the respect of the transcendent dignity of the human person. The person represents the ultimate end of society, by which it is ordered to the person: 'Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person, since the order of things is to be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.' Respect for human dignity can in no way be separated from obedience to this principle. It is necessary to 'consider every neighbour without exception as another self, taking into account first of all his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity.' Every political, economic, social, scientific and cultural programme must be inspired by the awareness of the primacy of each human being over society. In no case, therefore, is the human person to be manipulated for ends that are foreign to his own development, which can find complete fulfilment only in God and his plan of salvation: in fact, man in his interiority transcends the universe and is the only creature willed by God for itself. For this reason neither his life nor the development of his thought, nor his good, nor those who are part of his personal and social activities can be subjected to unjust restrictions in the exercise of their rights and freedom. The person cannot be a means for carrying out economic, social or political projects imposed by some authority, even in the name of an alleged progress of the civil community as a whole or of other persons, either in the present or the future. It is therefore necessary that public authorities keep careful watch so that restrictions placed on freedom or any onus placed on personal activity will never become harmful to personal dignity, thus guaranteeing the effective practicability of human rights. All this, once more, is based on the vision of man as a person, that is to say, as an active and responsible subject of his own growth process, together with the community to which he belongs. Authentic social changes are effective and lasting only to the extent that they are based on resolute changes in personal conduct. An authentic moralization of social life will never be possible unless it starts with people and has people as its point of reference: indeed, 'living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the person.' It is obviously the task of people to develop those moral attitudes that are fundamental for any society that truly wishes to be human (justice, honesty, truthfulness, etc.), and which in no way can simply be expected of others or delegated to institutions. It is the task of everyone, and in a special way of those who hold various forms of political, judicial or professional responsibility with regard to others, to be the watchful conscience of society and the first to bear witness to civil social conditions that are worthy of human beings." - CSDC para. 132-134

The Principle of the Common Good
"The principle of the common good, to which every aspect of social life must be related if it is to attain its fullest meaning, stems from the dignity, unity and equality of all people. According to its primary and broadly accepted sense, the common good indicates 'the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.' The common good does not consist in the simple sum of the particular goods of each subject of a social entity. Belonging to everyone and to each person, it is and remains 'common,' because it is indivisible and because only together is it possible to attain it, increase it and safeguard its effectiveness, with regard also to the future. Just as the moral actions of an individual are accomplished in doing what is good, so too the actions of a society attain their full stature when they bring about the common good. The common good, in fact, can be understood as the social and community dimension of the moral good. A society that wishes and intends to remain at the service of the human being at every level is a society that has the common good — the good of all people and of the whole person — as its primary goal. The human person cannot find fulfilment in himself, that is, apart from the fact that he exists 'with' others and 'for' others. This truth does not simply require that he live with others at various levels of social life, but that he seek unceasingly — in actual practice and not merely at the level of ideas — the good, that is, the meaning and truth, found in existing forms of social life. No expression of social life — from the family to intermediate social groups, associations, enterprises of an economic nature, cities, regions, States, up to the community of peoples and nations — can escape the issue of its own common good, in that this is a constitutive element of its significance and the authentic reason for its very existence." - CSDC para. 164-165

The Universal Destination of Goods
"Among the numerous implications of the common good, immediate significance is taken on by the principle of the universal destination of goods: 'God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity.' This principle is based on the fact that 'the original source of all that is good is the very act of God, who created both the earth and man, and who gave the earth to man so that he might have dominion over it by his work and enjoy its fruits (Gen 1:28-29). God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone. This is the foundation of the universal destination of the earth's goods. The earth, by reason of its fruitfulness and its capacity to satisfy human needs, is God's first gift for the sustenance of human life.' The human person cannot do without the material goods that correspond to his primary needs and constitute the basic conditions for his existence; these goods are absolutely indispensable if he is to feed himself, grow, communicate, associate with others, and attain the highest purposes to which he is called. The universal right to use the goods of the earth is based on the principle of the universal destination of goods. Each person must have access to the level of well-being necessary for his full development. The right to the common use of goods is the 'first principle of the whole ethical and social order' and “the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine.' For this reason the Church feels bound in duty to specify the nature and characteristics of this principle. It is first of all a natural right, inscribed in human nature and not merely a positive right connected with changing historical circumstances; moreover it is an 'inherent' right. It is innate in individual persons, in every person, and has priority with regard to any human intervention concerning goods, to any legal system concerning the same, to any economic or social system or method: 'All other rights, whatever they are, including property rights and the right of free trade must be subordinated to this norm [the universal destination of goods]; they must not hinder it, but must rather expedite its application. It must be considered a serious and urgent social obligation to refer these rights to their original purpose.' Putting the principal of the universal destination of goods into concrete practice, according to the different cultural and social contexts, means that methods, limits and objects must be precisely defined. Universal destination and utilization of goods do not mean that everything is at the disposal of each person or of all people, or that the same object may be useful or belong to each person or all people. If it is true that everyone is born with the right to use the goods of the earth, it is likewise true that, in order to ensure that this right is exercised in an equitable and orderly fashion, regulated interventions are necessary, interventions that are the result of national and international agreements, and a juridical order that adjudicates and specifies the exercise of this right. The principle of the universal destination of goods is an invitation to develop an economic vision inspired by moral values that permit people not to lose sight of the origin or purpose of these goods, so as to bring about a world of fairness and solidarity, in which the creation of wealth can take on a positive function. Wealth, in effect, presents this possibility in the many different forms in which it can find expression as the result of a process of production that works with the available technological and economic resources, both natural and derived. This result is guided by resourcefulness, planning and labour, and used as a means for promoting the well-being of all men and all peoples and for preventing their exclusion and exploitation. The universal destination of goods requires a common effort to obtain for every person and for all peoples the conditions necessary for integral development, so that everyone can contribute to making a more humane world, 'in which each individual can give and receive, and in which the progress of some will no longer be an obstacle to the development of others, nor a pretext for their enslavement.' This principle corresponds to the call made unceasingly by the Gospel to people and societies of all times, tempted as they always are by the desire to possess, temptations which the Lord Jesus chose to undergo (cf. Mk 1:12-13; Mt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-13) in order to teach us how to overcome them with his grace." - CSDC para. 171-175

The Principle of Subsidiarity
"Subsidiarity is among the most constant and characteristic directives of the Church's social doctrine and has been present since the first great social encyclical. It is impossible to promote the dignity of the person without showing concern for the family, groups, associations, local territorial realities; in short, for that aggregate of economic, social, cultural, sports-oriented, recreational, professional and political expressions to which people spontaneously give life and which make it possible for them to achieve effective social growth. This is the realm of civil society, understood as the sum of the relationships between individuals and intermediate social groupings, which are the first relationships to arise and which come about thanks to 'the creative subjectivity of the citizen.' This network of relationships strengthens the social fabric and constitutes the basis of a true community of persons, making possible the recognition of higher forms of social activity. The necessity of defending and promoting the original expressions of social life is emphasized by the Church in the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, in which the principle of subsidiarity is indicated as a most important principle of 'social philosophy.' 'Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.' On the basis of this principle, all societies of a superior order must adopt attitudes of help ('subsidium') — therefore of support, promotion, development — with respect to lower-order societies. In this way, intermediate social entities can properly perform the functions that fall to them without being required to hand them over unjustly to other social entities of a higher level, by which they would end up being absorbed and substituted, in the end seeing themselves denied their dignity and essential place. Subsidiarity, understood in the positive sense as economic, institutional or juridical assistance offered to lesser social entities, entails a corresponding series of negative implications that require the State to refrain from anything that would de facto restrict the existential space of the smaller essential cells of society. Their initiative, freedom and responsibility must not be supplanted." - CSDC para. 185-186

Participation
The characteristic implication of subsidiarity is participation, which is expressed essentially in a series of activities by means of which the citizen, either as an individual or in association with others, whether directly or through representation, contributes to the cultural, economic, political and social life of the civil community to which he belongs. Participation is a duty to be fulfilled consciously by all, with responsibility and with a view to the common good. This cannot be confined or restricted to only a certain area of social life, given its importance for growth — above all human growth — in areas such as the world of work and economic activity, especially in their internal dynamics; in the sectors of information and culture; and, more than anything else, in the fields of social and political life even at the highest levels. The cooperation of all peoples and the building of an international community in a framework of solidarity depends on this latter area. In this perspective it becomes absolutely necessary to encourage participation above all of the most disadvantaged, as well as the occasional rotation of political leaders in order to forestall the establishment of hidden privileges. Moreover, strong moral pressure is needed, so that the administration of public life will be the result of the shared responsibility of each individual with regard to the common good. - CSDC para. 189

The Principle of Solidarity
"Solidarity highlights in a particular way the intrinsic social nature of the human person, the equality of all in dignity and rights and the common path of individuals and peoples towards an ever more committed unity. Never before has there been such a widespread awareness of the bond of interdependence between individuals and peoples, which is found at every level. The very rapid expansion in ways and means of communication 'in real time,' such as those offered by information technology, the extraordinary advances in computer technology, the increased volume of commerce and information exchange all bear witness to the fact that, for the first time since the beginning of human history, it is now possible — at least technically — to establish relationships between people who are separated by great distances and are unknown to each other. In the presence of the phenomenon of interdependence and its constant expansion, however, there persist in every part of the world stark inequalities between developed and developing countries, inequalities stoked also by various forms of exploitation, oppression and corruption that have a negative influence on the internal and international life of many States. The acceleration of interdependence between persons and peoples needs to be accompanied by equally intense efforts on the ethical-social plane, in order to avoid the dangerous consequences of perpetrating injustice on a global scale. This would have very negative repercussions even in the very countries that are presently more advantaged." - CSDC para. 192

Link
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

Toe-Cheeseland wrote:

Thanks for the explanations! I've been an atheist for a while now, though I've noticed my views on social issues evolving to be closer to the Church (or at least, society around me seems to be moving so far away), albeit via secular reasoning (on issues such as abortion, natalism, tradition etc.). Economically, it seems like it allows for the physical truth of economics (the 'is') whilst advising on the morality of economic behaviour (the 'ought'); I appreciate the striving for a reasoned balance compared to the extremes of idolisation of the state/mass ideology versus Ayn Randite-esque worship of the market.

Beauty particularly seems underappreciated in terms of daily presence in things like architecture, and vices seem to be celebrated as virtues and vice versa (if you forgive the pun). I never thought I'd be socially conservative, but then the world became really damn strange.

I've done the flop between anarcho-communist, Randian libertarianism, atheism, Taoism, Buddhism, and any number of ideologies, philosophies, and other -ies. My past self would find my mind and soul finally coming home to the Church and adopting her philosophies odd, to say the least. But I, too, could not reconcile with the values of modern society. Now, I'm an intellectual luddite espousing the virtues of philosophers many centuries old to my family, who try to emulate the Kardashians. I'm sure they find me as strange as I find them.

Hello, I'm just confirming that this is indeed my alternate account.

Luxaurea wrote:

Hello everyone! Has anyone figured out the logic behind the "Recent Headlines" that appear after resolving an "Issue"? To me, they often seem random, and I'm unsure about what triggers them. For instance, how should I interpret headlines like "Lightning Strikes Abandoned Cabin," "Parks Infested With Joggers, Dog-Walkers Complain," or "Luxaureans Soak Up Super Summer"? I've noticed that the same headlines recur frequently. Do these headlines have any connection to the "Recent Trends" displayed at the bottom of the resolved issue page? I haven't discerned any clear correlation. While it's not a pressing concern, I'm curious because I've been a member of this site for nearly two decades and this aspect still puzzles me.

I think it's a mix of nonsense and tenuous unintended consequences... I've often thought 'Unintended consequences' could be a tagline for NationStates (and real life politics!) lol