The Borderlands of Catastrophism

Meet my new country, the Borderlands of Catastrophism! No seriously, it is my new country, thanks to a fascinating online game called NationStates by Max Barry. In short, the game is an adaptation of his novel called Jennifer Government. Here’s how the general storyline goes:

“The world is run by American corporations; there are no taxes; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; the government can only investigate crimes it can bill for.

Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death-wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn’t all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is a consumer watchdog with a gun.”

So basically Max Barry took this idea and turned it into an online simulation game, and you guessed it, you get to create your own nation within the game, including its political, social and economic outlines. After putting in some basic boilerplate information, selecting a name and flag and currency and state animal, the game generates some questions which determine this basic world outline. Here’s what my new country looks like:

“The Borderlands of Catastrophism is a fledgling, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its strong anti-business politics. Its compassionate population of 5 million enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, liberal, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it devotes most of its attentions to Social Welfare, with areas such as Law & Order and Defence receiving almost no funds by comparison. The average income tax rate is 59%, and even higher for the wealthy. Private enterprise is illegal, but for those in the know there is a slick and highly efficient black market in Book Publishing.

Crime — especially youth-related — is totally unknown. Catastrophism’s national animal is the Griffin, which frolics freely in the nation’s many lush forests, and its currency is the Ratio.”

Now this is not really a description I would write for a nation I was founding, nor are they the principles I would use, but hey, this is boilerplate language and the start of the game, so who knows. I’ve already had a few diplomatic contacts asking my little nation to join various regions of the game, most of them libertarian or anarchic leaning from their country status. So who knows, we’ll see. I started with our nation’s application to the World Assembly, which appears to be a poor attempt at recreating the UN, but with mandatory enforcement powers for all nations, allied or not. Yikes, let’s hear it for democratic authoritarianism ;P

Until next time…Long Live Catastrophism!

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