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Old 10-04-2007, 08:15 PM   #52 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru
warrior bodhisattva
 
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Location: East-central Canada
Quote:
Originally Posted by willravel
I outline a governmental system where communities mostly run themselves and people call it totalitarian. That's scary. No coercion. No terrorism. No authoritarianism. No dictatorship. And yet it's totalitarian.
"...relating to a political regime based on subordination of the individual to the state and strict control of all aspects of the life and productive capacity of the nation especially by coercive measures (as censorship and terrorism)."

This is what you have right here. In your world, individuals would live under an authoritarian system controlled by a hierarchy rooted on the community level and reaching up to city and worldwide regulatory bodies. Your bracelet is a forced panopticon technology that would effectively enforce self-censorship. Your "preemptive measures" in the schools to prevent crime is suspect. There are always deviations in a social system. Not everyone can be "cured" of criminal intent, which would place a burden on your unduly harsh system of crime and punishment that goes beyond the perpetrator and punishes the innocent.

Sorry, willravel, but your world would be fuelled by coercion and terrorism. If it's not authoritarianism or totalitarianism, then what would you call it? Seriously.... this is a utopia?



Now onto my world:
  1. Television would be a failed technology, and it would be survived by radio and the Internet, and everyone would play video games.
  2. Average meat consumption in North America would drop to levels seen in regions such as Okinawa.
  3. For city dwellers, cars would be used on weekends only, and only sparingly at that.
  4. The fashion industry would suffer a near collapse; surviving designers would become pragmatic tailors who make clothes that last for months, if not years.
  5. Violence would become virtually non-existent; police and legal systems would be more symbolic or to help with misunderstandings.
  6. With the lack of worldwide violence, military budgets would be diverted into arts, medical research, and education budgets.
  7. Space programs would be abandoned and the funds would be diverted into social programs for the impoverished.
  8. Everyone would quit drugs and smoking, and would drink alcohol only to savour the experience of a good beverage and fine company, rather than to get intoxicated.
  9. Nationalism would all but collapse; people would look at each other as humans first, looking at their locally derived nuances next--all with a genuine interest in understanding it all.
  10. Book production would explode.

...there is more here, I know it.
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