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Description

Down With The Parasite:
A scenario dedicated to economic extremism. In this world a very different English Civil War sets off butterflies that ultimately lead to an alt-Enlightenment that produces some very different social and economic philosophies which, in turn, lead to a very different Revolutionary Era (its all very complicated). Things develop from there, leading to the rise of one major socio-economic bloc, followed by another. By the middle of the 20th Century a Cold War has developed between opposite extremes: cooperative individualism – co-indiv – and directarianism.

By 2019 the Cold War has been slightly calmer for the past generation or so but that’s about to change.

Whether co-indiv or directarian both states despise what they call the parasite. In either ideology a person who does not pay their way is someone feeding on the system without contributing. Co-indivs have to pay whatever prices are set if they want to contribute, making money and putting it back into the economy. Directarians have to fill their quotas, working their shifts and earning their government mandated allotments. If either fail, they pay their specific consequences but the end result is essentially the same: slavery.

Cooperative individualism is an ideology cobbled together from various other philosophical ideas. Originally presented as a system that supported individual rights, economic progressivism (of the continual growth variety) and personal freedom, it quickly evolved into a borderline objectivist system that pitted society as a system of overt individuals held together by mutual enlightened self-interest. All of life was a Darwinian struggle to compete and succeed and failure was entirely the fault of the individual and not the responsibility of the wider society. During the revolutionary period of the mid-19th Century the ideology proved to be rather popular and quickly swept up the uprisings that were taking place in the developed settler colonies of the Americas until it had made those continents its stronghold.

Though officially there isn’t supposed to be a government in co-indiv dominated territories there often is some means of social organisation that keeps a modicum of order. More often than not it is a complex system of representatives for regional vested interests – often manifesting in enormous incorporated groups in order to maintain ideological orthodoxy. Corporate monopolies and corporocratic bureaucracies are the normal end result of co-indiv territories but it is just as common to find what are essentially nations built around complex arrangements of various large businesses and other private groups that control the civic infrastructure. Workers’ benefits can exist but it is entirely dependent on the company and can be rescinded without recourse if they want to. Corporate regulation is forbidden in co-indiv ideology so unethical business practises and even corporate espionage are allowed as long as they don’t countermand some of the very basic social rules like right to life (but not quality of life).

Property rights are what matter in a co-indiv world. In theory everyone respects the property of their neighbours, tenants, customers and clients as they all move forward as a loose, prosperous cooperative, free of one another but walking the same path. In practise most people will happily exploit whoever the wider society doesn’t like for their own convenience. Charity is allowed but unionising or organising for oversight independent from a corporation’s policy is not and companies have every right to hire private armed forces to disperse or crush any groups or organisations that threaten their business model in this fashion.

Everything is supposed to be privatised, even infrastructure and it isn’t uncommon to see massive companies who’s authority intersects with other businesses if they own particularly large road, rail or pipe networks that run through another company’s land. Police businesses are expected to share information if a criminal moves from their franchise’s jurisdiction and other emergency services will often also share responsibilities but they have to sell resources if they want to exchange them. Civic monopolies have begun to form by practically minded emergency service based corporations in some co-indiv ‘countries’ just to streamline things.

Slavery is common in co-indiv nations and actually comes in a wide variety of forms, often dependent on whatever organisation makes or enforces laws in a given territory. Wage slavery and debt slavery are the most common but the more traditional forms do crop up wherever a territory deems it acceptable. In fact it’s common for a given region to adopt or abolish slavery in less than a generation depending on the prevailing attitude of the majority of landholders and how they feel about owning people. Its not legal to free other peoples slaves but you are allowed to campaign and influence your neighbours if you feel you can browbeat others into giving up slaves. Slavery only really violates the ideological tenants of a person’s rights if they’ve been forcibly taken however and hereditary slavery isn’t allowed. All men are born free in the co-indiv world, after all. If selling themselves as property alleviates debts made later in life, however...

Columbia is technically more of an idea than an actual nation. It (supposedly) represents liberal co-indiv ideals: an example of how disparate interests and businesses can cooperate as individuals in a much larger system that functions whilst respecting the property rights of all participants.

Built around Britain’s former colonies (and territory said former colonies acquired later) in North America, the Associated Territories of Columbia is a very loose organisation defined by its attempts to rework its old state governments and sponsored territorial conquests around their co-indiv ideology. What has emerged is a complex collection of corporate commonwealths, private landholdings, rented republics and company owned city-states held together by a central council who’s authority is so vague and intangible that it effectively doesn’t exist if too many of their representatives lack the charisma to get the populace’s attention. As one of the older co-indiv states (though their early independence was in a proto-ideology state) the Columbians still consider themselves a guiding member of the bloc, even if there’s no official foreign policy outside of participating in the Free Interest Enterprise.

Most of Columbia is employed by the major local corporations, small businesses usually existing only in the most rural areas – and often being rolled up into the larger franchises once they get there anyway. Protectionist policies from the corporations that own Columbia’s primary ports mean that the local monopolies provide goods and services to the nation though the extension of trans-territorial organisations – who are usually the companies who own the ports – has seen foreign sourced products enter the market since at least the 1960s. Quality of life varies from territory to territory as some companies will squeeze their clients and employees for all their worth whilst others offer generous incentives to either poach their rivals workers or keep the ones they already have. Business is cut-throat and many necessity oriented companies like the owners of water, power and emergency services will hamstring other businesses by holding their own services hostage. Whilst the police demand payment they usually investigate suspected criminals in the background anyway since letting them run free is bad PR but firefighters will let a building burn if the owner can’t afford them. Healthcare corporations often drive people into debt when the bills come and power and water providers will cut entire towns off if enough bills aren’t paid. Peer-pressure from people who do pay the bills but have been denied a company’s services because of their neighbours failing to keep up with costs usually forces people to find some desperate means to fulfil their payments.

Columbia was the first nation to pioneer the rented republic. Built almost like a traditional government these territories are primarily owned by landholders that form incorporated unions that then band together into larger bureaucratic business conglomerates to rent out the land to businesses, clients and tenants. Complex deals and business arrangements allow services to set up facilities in these lands but only the desperate actually sell this land altogether. Other co-indiv groups have copied this business practise, often allowing regimes to preserve a government apparatus without compromising their ideology.

Officially Columbia is post-racial as all are equally free to prosper as individuals and the colour of a debt-slaves skin doesn’t matter more than the colour of their money. There are plenty of businesses owned by black, Hispanic and other non-white people and many more in prominent positions in these businesses and their countless branches but the reality on the streets is very different. Columbian business owners reserve the right to refuse service at their discretion, leading to a lot of segregation from those willing to sacrifice potential customers instead of their prejudices (and in towns where one or two people own nearly everything that can be very bad).

Probably the biggest development in Columbia in the last few decades was the consolidation of the previously diverse military industry into a massive conglomerate. What was once a disparate collection of private forces, militia groups and armed corporations has been transformed into a single incorporated entity. Total control of nuclear weapons remain out of their hands – the keys to the arsenal having been spread throughout several major companies and shareholder unions. Things are still being standardised but the new franchise has control of nearly every recognised armed force in Columbia. Of course the police are still independent and every citizen has a right to bear arms and form a new militia of their own, so there’s still a lot of guns outside of this new conglomerate’s hands.

Mexico, whilst technically orthodox, spent most of the 19th Century slowly consolidating into a more streamlined oligarchy of various corporations. The disparity between the old agrarian landholders and the more urban company groups and rent-republic landowner unions is growing more and more and their representatives complain about being increasingly undercut and undervalued. Contrary to standard co-indiv ideals they have been given advice and now more and more rural land and slaveowners are investing their human resources in expanding urban infrastructure, shipping over the people who live in their lands to expand the cities and newer industries. To many in neighbouring Columbia this more closely knit and cooperative council of business and property magnates looks almost suspiciously like an organised governing body.

A newer power in the Enterprise is the Vereniging van Sudafrika. It is one of the less orthodox and more authoritarian co-indiv states, having formed an organised (but business focused) military force for itself that has allowed it to steadily expand both its territory and business interests until it came to dominate a good portion of the continent.

Founded by a Netherlands who invested even more in their Cape colony, Sudafrika eventually grew out of control and, after acquiring a co-indiv oriented ideological bent and enough human capital to build the necessary infrastructure, expanded rapidly and voraciously into the interior. Though all people in Sudafrika are free individuals simply cooperating for their own benefit in the spirit of mutual interests, there is also an underlying propaganda proclaiming that those who cooperate in Sudafrika’s vereningig are the future of the African continent, if not the whole world and will redefine it with their incorporated chains of progress. To most, more orthodox cooperative individualists, this sounds suspiciously like ‘collectivising talk’ but the corporatist influences seen throughout the vereningig’s territories assuage the fears of all but the most zealous ideologues.

Sudafrika is essentially a confederation of corporatocracies. Vast tracts of territory are owned by the major corporate bodies of Sudafrika, often in cooperation with various landowner ‘understandings’ who form organisations similar to American rented republics. Instead of having independent companies running separate sections of infrastructure the Sudafrikans organised new companies to handle different aspects of vital infrastructure, one monopoly for the roads, another for water, another energy. This system is startling close to a government and squashes local competition through similar harsh business practises as those seen in orthodox co-indiv nations but with a suspicious amount of cooperation between the leading corporate giants. Holding these different corporate and landowner territories together is the Sudafrikan Armed Corporation, the military company that won Sudafrika their land and that is now paid to police it. They are the biggest uniting force and are essentially paid protection to handle all the duties that require force.

Sudafrika is also supposed to be post-racial and with a black African majority that is still growing that is becoming more of a reality than in most co-indiv states in America. Divide and rule used to be the primary means of expansion and is still practised in unruly properties claimed/owned by Sudafrikan corporate trusts and co-indiv philosophy lends itself quite well to those ideas. By this point more and more Africans have climbed into the higher echelons of the various companies but, on the whole, they still make up most of the poor wage slave population – at the very least most whites are in the same boat as them thanks to this authoritarian variation of cooperative individualism.

Independent corporatocracies and rented republics (usually warlords who claim to be them for Enterprise support – and collect rent through tithes) have also emerged in parts of Africa and South Asia – particularly the remnants of the Ming. In most cases they’re just dictatorships that either allow foreign (co-indiv affiliated) companies to buy their resources or use their land for a price, invested in the company and slap their brand on everything to remain somewhat ideologically appropriate or essentially enslave the majority of the population and claim they’re property and that the free populace are ‘employed’ by them. Most are just hellholes with enough strategic value to the Enterprise to justify support from more capable members and groups.

On the other side of the Cold War is directarianism, the descendant of collectivised philosophy. This system is predicated on central planning and organisation and the abolition of private property in favour of a social and state ownership of all capital that is used to advance society as an entire unit rather than as individuals. Equality is technically the goal of this system but general prosperity and progress is normally what is espoused. Rather than a class struggle the fight for progress is between the individual and the collective and society can only move forward if self-interest is removed in favour of a more social perspective that will inevitably benefit all (including the individual that is having all of this explained to, of course).

Whether democratic or autocratic a directarian government is authoritarian as neither argument or delay should get in the way of progress – unless the argument is over what constitutes progress, of course. Governmental candidates, even those in democratic states, have to be ideologically vetted first and most criteria are normally biased in favour of the particular progressive message that a directarian nation’s regime follows. Directarian elections are never between political parties (as there will only ever be one) but over leaders within the Party with candidates already agreeing to the primary policies of the state but often offering different methods of fulfilling them. A lot of democratic states are also not above rigging the voting system – and often do – if a majority of the Party agree that a particular candidate is better suited to their collective goals. Cronyism and factionalism are common problems in directarian governments but but bureaucratic largesse tends to keep things on some sort of track: even if it is a slow, plodding Orwellian one.

Directarian societies are highly regimented and organised with immense bureaucracies to handle the ‘top-down’ social planning. Cults of ideology and reworked religions are often used to create a sense of social cohesion for people to centre themselves around. Life isn’t necessarily restrictive but a general understanding of devotion to the state and the goal of the regime – enforced by constant propaganda from the state owned media and educational system – keep the population focused. Though directarian nations often end up being dictatorships it is unusual (in orthodox regimes) for cults of personality to form as those distract from the usual message of the ideology.

Everything in a directarian nation is managed by the central government. Decrees and policies from the highest echelons of authority, whether they’re a single person or a group, are passed down layer after layer of bureaucracy that are tasked with organising everything and making those decisions a reality. All products created by the populace and taken under governmental management and redistributed under the purview of the government’s plan. Wages are earned by most populations but stipends and rations of certain luxuries are often provided in place of money. Many directarians have had to bow to the reality of the economy, of course, but everything is controlled as much as possible and all the means of production as well as the resulting products from it are controlled by the state.

Slavery in directarian nations is couched as a result of failing to participate sufficiently in society. Barring inescapable handicaps a person is held to a strict standard of work and input, overseen by governmental officials assigned to their district or even the building they live in. Exercise regimens are mandatory to keep the population healthy and women are encouraged to have as many children as possible – excepting medical problems, of course – in order to provide new workers for society. Should a person fail to meet the standards expected of them then they will be taken and forced to do so, put into work camps (or rape camps, in the case of the women) where they are compelled to do their part until they are either dead or see an improvement in their productivity in the new and harsher environment.

From the ashes of a French empire that pulled an even more successful Napoleon (though obviously not with the man himself and still failing to actually defeat Britain and Russia) rose the European Collective, a technocratic directarian republic dedicated to turning Europe into the centre of the new world order. To many they are one of the most orthodox examples of a directarian state, for better and worse.

Europe intends to be the state of the future and has dedicated itself to reforming the entire continent and eradicating whatever it would deem reactionary and individualist/selfish within its territories. Entire cultures have been destroyed and vast amounts of European heritage has been dismantled in order to remove any memory of pre-directarian history and make room for the state constructed and approved identity. The European educational system is dedicated primarily to indoctrinating the population into this new system with at least half of the standardised curriculum dedicated to these programs. Higher education is free and available to all but anyone who does apply is not allowed to pick their subject. Instead a commission will review their exams and mandatory extracurricular activities and assign a curriculum for them. Any civic or governmental positions can only be earned by those with certain examination results who are then subjected to IQ and ideological loyalty tests.

Whilst not intentionally dismissive of environmental concerns the Europeans consider development of their territory and technology the highest priority. In addition to reforming their culture the EC is using the opportunity presented by dismantling their old cities to redesign them into more ‘efficient’ metropolises. The entire population is in a state of almost total mobilisation to build, expand or redesign the infrastructure. By now shiny new urban complexes sprawl over parts of the European countryside with massive wind and solar arrays built into everything but most of its inhabitants live in small, under-furnished cells. People can and will be moved enmasse to new settlements if the government deems their presence at that site necessary (forced relocation and dismantling of established communities also helps break down the old cultures and traditions).

The economy, whilst not suffering from the inequality of their co-indiv rivals, is suffering from population lethargy and over education. Ideologically the EC intends to educate the entire population in order to produce the educated society of the future but this is creating underlying resentment amongst the people who have gone through higher education only to end up in the necessary menial labour. Redundant improvements to infrastructure and repairs to the over constructed cities also keep people busy enough to not ask questions about where exactly the EC is going. Technological advancement is actually taking place at a good pace thanks to the high education of the populace but attempts are being made to introduce new technology in a way that won’t break governmental strangleholds on the means for people to survive.

Religion is banned in the EC as a tool of reactionary thinking and another force of regression and social stagnation. Instead a worship of the directarian vision of the future has begun to develop as people latch onto the idea of Europe’s future plan (as presented in propaganda). What started out as an unintentionally organic social development has been co-opted by the government which now encourages this worship of the future. New propaganda in both the schools and media now evangelises governmental policies to the people.

Sprawling across Eurasia is the other state that would see itself become the directarian nation that will set the standard of the future: the Directed Peoples Union. Russia, pushed east and south by the French Empire not only fell to their own directarian revolution during the costly Great War but rolled up most of the crumbling Qing Empire who they had been at war with as well at the time.

Like Europe the DPU is dedicated to redefining their culture and heritage but instead of crafting something brand new they simply put together a Russo-Chinese hybrid and are now working to impose this on their entire territory. This form of cultural cooperation and supremacy is mostly a social aspect of the DPU’s directarian ideology but one of its most noticeable and consumes most governmental attention as, like the Europeans, the DPU believes that reforming their identity, almost from the roots, is the basis for their development as a new society. Outside of this the Union’s directarian regime is more traditionally orthodox and oligarchic with a focus on forming what they consider a practical approach to a developed and powerful society that can serve as a foundation for a prosperous, economically stable global state and is less focused on continual, technologically focused futurism like their rivals in the EC.

Despite some hiccups the DPU has transitioned into the more democratic form of directarianism (all terms being relative, of course). The government is still oligarchic outside of appointee based elections but the people do get to vote on who participates in the central governing committees and their decisions do matter, even if that one form of election is the full extent of their participation in any form of governance. These elected leaders do normally end up under the thumb of the bureaucracy and various agencies that enforce established policy that was already put in place but it is a marked feature of the DPU that they do uphold this form of enfranchisement.

The DPU is even more active than Europe when it comes to moving populations. Part of their cultural reconstruction project is to make all regions of the Union interchangeable to help facilitate the mass movement of people to wherever the government deems them necessary. Communities are encouraged to meet this standard of common cultural community in order to help accommodate whatever new people are shipped into their area. Utopian faith similar to the EC’s worship of the future is also encouraged and traditional religions are largely banned as obstructive and reactionary. A system of secret, government sponsored informants planted into these relocated populations keep an eye on these communities and report on anyone who is promoting ‘disruptive behaviours and ideas’. Anyone who is reported on is sent to either be forcibly re-educated or imprisoned in one of the distant concentration camps to remove their influence for the good of the community.

Plans have been proposed to simple reshuffle the entire population and spread all the old demographics out as much as possible to thin a resistance’s ability to rally and organise people in that fashion.

When directarianism overtook the UK it was in a much more gradual fashion than most. What started as an emergency regime in the aftermath of the Great War became gradually more ideological until a quiet coup and partially ‘voluntary’ abdication of the royal family saw a unique new form of directarianism emerge combining the old with the new: the Crown Directorate. This regime is dictatorial – though there is procedure in place as well as bureaucratic largesse to prevent the dictator from going off the rails with their power – and centred around a single figure, the monarch. Monarchs are no longer hereditary being appointed for life from amongst a pool of candidates recommended by the directories. A monarch can also be deposed and replaced if they prove to be ineffectual or incompetent at the position. This appointment has a series of elections underneath it with the population voting in representatives who then vote for committee members who then vote in a candidate – each group of voters shrinking with every layer of bureaucracy. Theoretically anyone can rise to the rank of monarch and the current incumbent of the Directorate’s throne is of Indian descent.

The Directed Republic of India follows an authoritarian form of directarianism that has embraced the traditional caste system and reformed it to serve the mission of India’s regime. Taking cues from the greater stratification of castes under colonial rule (Britain still got the majority of the subcontinental pie: though not as much as OTL) India reworked the old system once again around directarian principles to make it help facilitate their regime’s plans. It isn’t a rigid, central feature of India’s regime and people can be moved from caste to caste but it is all predicated on governmental decisions with people being moved from one position or location to another depending on their decisions (it’s usually not so much moving up or down the social ladder as it is ‘side to side’). Through a series of harsh, draconian, force-draft developmental programs the subcontinent has been turned into an economic engine on the European model of constant improvement of infrastructure.

Technically the Global Coordinate is supposed to be a single united unit and even has a council that are supposed to have authority over the Coordinate – the Indo-Crown Split not withstanding. The actual authority this organisation wields is ephemeral enough to be almost non-existent and simply serves as a meeting hall for the various directarian nations. It has managed to keep a strange-hold over the directarian world but fewer and fewer people care about what it says and many small directarian states (desperate to assert themselves) have considered leaving.

There is a world beyond the ideological conflict and quite a lot of it has been a victim of proxy conflicts in the ongoing struggle.

Brazil – which got a bit more investment from Portugal in the centuries prior to breaking away – is the wary hegemon of the portion of South America not interested in overt co-indiv influence. They continue to remain under their aristocratic oligarchy that holds most of the political power under their figurehead king. Brazil’s traditional claims to Portugal has kept also any relationship with the directarian side of the war even after dropping that particular title and throne. Thanks to their earlier development they are probably the largest and strongest economy outside of the two major power blocs and are really starting to marshal that strength as the world begins to become less stable.

Talk of forming some kind of ‘neutral’ faction has floated around the imperial court several times but outside of their areas of the continent the Brazilians aren’t too interested in expending resources exerting their influence and keeping the co-indivs and directarians at bay. Then there’s that fact that they still trade a lot with co-indiv corporations that keeps them from wanting to rock the boat lest it throw about their investments as they do so.

New Shetland is certainly supportive of such an idea but everyone knows that support comes with certain caveats and none of the other neutral powers are interested in helping these remnant Stuarts reclaim the British throne. The fact that the current occupants of the throne are actually descended from a distant cousin of the old British monarchy certainly doesn’t help with their claims of legitimacy to all of that territory either. Of course even the New Shetland government are quite aware that they’re unlikely to regain the empire – most are willing to settle for the British Isles at least but the official line for the crown and any political party with a chance of winning in parliament is still in favour of full reclamation.

Nippon’s military government took the nation back into isolation after the major revolutionary wars, especially once the DPU got to their doorstep. Trade is now only permitted through secured ports where any and all items are checked for contraband with the navy zealously patrolling the coast for smugglers. Traditional values are aggressively supported and the sale or distribution of ‘disruptive materials’ is very, very illegal. The emperor has been a figurehead ever since the emergency military regime took power during the worst years of the upheaval but does get a lot of exposure since the rest of the leadership still like using him for legitimacy and most of the festivals and official public occasions they promote now require his participation on some level.

Persia, meanwhile, is content to maintain its own little sphere of influence. In actuality it is constantly working to avoid being undermined by directarian movements and terrorists, many of which have the backing of India and the DPU. Islamist groups in their territories have been funded, in turn, by Tehran. This status quo has been in place for decades now with neither side gaining ground but the organisations they’ve funded have really started to get out of control and its difficult to say who is going to suffer more once it all escalates too far.

Technologically this world is at about the same level as the present day but with very drastically different rates of distribution. Technocratic values, runaway capitalism and directarian approaches to advancing global development have managed to overcome the economic disparity of co-indiv societies and the repression of directarian states but it is barely compensating. Co-indiv territories don’t care too much about who buys what as that is their right but companies will fight tooth and nail to keep competitors from poaching their customers, leading to brand wars that can sometimes turn violent. Then there’s the issue of plenty of people struggling so much to get by that they can’t afford fancier products, limiting their range to areas with middle and upper classes. Directarians are very controlling over what the populace gets access to and careful measures are taken to ensure that new technology is not disruptive to their social control or their given societal plan.

Mass communication technology like the internet is not evident in co-indiv territories, at least in a standardised form as multiple companies compete for transmission sites and clients. Instead there are numerous different networks, some of which cooperate and interconnect but most remain separate. The Global Coordinate do have a shared internet equivalent but it is highly regulated and individual directarian states retain the right to restrict information within their sections of the network if it threatens or contradicts the government’s messages.

Nuclear power and weaponry is a very complicated issue. Probably one of the few things co-indiv territories can agree on is keeping nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of people who could threaten their businesses or upset the very delicate web of power between them. Most co-indivs have certain arrangements concerning the access to their nuclear arsenals with multiple involved groups having keys and pass-codes that must all be acquired in order to authorise any use of nuclear materials. Its a slow and unwieldy response system but its the only thing they can agree on using right now. Directarians are very supportive of regulation and discussion around having a Coordinate arsenal with authority over all individual member nations’ nukes has been floated around but gone nowhere. Even if it violates ideological orthodoxy no-ones wants to just hand nuclear material and information to any old person interested in a reactor. At the same time the number of nations with nuclear weapons is very high with co-indivs, directarians and even many neutral states having at least one simple bomb at their disposal.

Space travel is a tricky issue for the world. There are some companies in the Enterprise that have invested in commercial activities in orbit – and of course there are satellites – but only the largest, most successful corporations can really afford to do this. Directarian nations are more organised and the EC has probably the most sophisticated space program but most of the Coordinate is more focused on their social developments down on earth. This is beginning to change as off-world resources are looked to in order to make up for shortages and possibly as an escape from the problems on Earth.

Pollution and resource shortages are the biggest growing problem on the planet followed by climate change as an additional consequence of these issues. Between the mass consumerism of co-indiv ideals and the much greater (and often sloppy) degree of forced technological and economic development in directarian states the amount of contaminants and manmade garbage is even higher than OTL 2019 and environmental degradation even more pronounced. Green tech companies in the Enterprise and environmental directarianism are taking off but they are fighting an uphill battle against the more orthodox, established systems and may be too late to reverse anything.

Right now, adapting to the changing world is probably the best they can hope for, assuming this ideological world doesn’t teeter over and collapse altogether.

Description

Down With The Parasite:
A scenario dedicated to economic extremism. In this world a very different English Civil War sets off butterflies that ultimately lead to an alt-Enlightenment that produces some very different social and economic philosophies which, in turn, lead to a very different Revolutionary Era (its all very complicated). Things develop from there, leading to the rise of one major socio-economic bloc, followed by another. By the middle of the 20th Century a Cold War has developed between opposite extremes: cooperative individualism – co-indiv – and directarianism.

By 2019 the Cold War has been slightly calmer for the past generation or so but that’s about to change.

Whether co-indiv or directarian both states despise what they call the parasite. In either ideology a person who does not pay their way is someone feeding on the system without contributing. Co-indivs have to pay whatever prices are set if they want to contribute, making money and putting it back into the economy. Directarians have to fill their quotas, working their shifts and earning their government mandated allotments. If either fail, they pay their specific consequences but the end result is essentially the same: slavery.

Cooperative individualism is an ideology cobbled together from various other philosophical ideas. Originally presented as a system that supported individual rights, economic progressivism (of the continual growth variety) and personal freedom, it quickly evolved into a borderline objectivist system that pitted society as a system of overt individuals held together by mutual enlightened self-interest. All of life was a Darwinian struggle to compete and succeed and failure was entirely the fault of the individual and not the responsibility of the wider society. During the revolutionary period of the mid-19th Century the ideology proved to be rather popular and quickly swept up the uprisings that were taking place in the developed settler colonies of the Americas until it had made those continents its stronghold.

Though officially there isn’t supposed to be a government in co-indiv dominated territories there often is some means of social organisation that keeps a modicum of order. More often than not it is a complex system of representatives for regional vested interests – often manifesting in enormous incorporated groups in order to maintain ideological orthodoxy. Corporate monopolies and corporocratic bureaucracies are the normal end result of co-indiv territories but it is just as common to find what are essentially nations built around complex arrangements of various large businesses and other private groups that control the civic infrastructure. Workers’ benefits can exist but it is entirely dependent on the company and can be rescinded without recourse if they want to. Corporate regulation is forbidden in co-indiv ideology so unethical business practises and even corporate espionage are allowed as long as they don’t countermand some of the very basic social rules like right to life (but not quality of life).

Property rights are what matter in a co-indiv world. In theory everyone respects the property of their neighbours, tenants, customers and clients as they all move forward as a loose, prosperous cooperative, free of one another but walking the same path. In practise most people will happily exploit whoever the wider society doesn’t like for their own convenience. Charity is allowed but unionising or organising for oversight independent from a corporation’s policy is not and companies have every right to hire private armed forces to disperse or crush any groups or organisations that threaten their business model in this fashion.

Everything is supposed to be privatised, even infrastructure and it isn’t uncommon to see massive companies who’s authority intersects with other businesses if they own particularly large road, rail or pipe networks that run through another company’s land. Police businesses are expected to share information if a criminal moves from their franchise’s jurisdiction and other emergency services will often also share responsibilities but they have to sell resources if they want to exchange them. Civic monopolies have begun to form by practically minded emergency service based corporations in some co-indiv ‘countries’ just to streamline things.

Slavery is common in co-indiv nations and actually comes in a wide variety of forms, often dependent on whatever organisation makes or enforces laws in a given territory. Wage slavery and debt slavery are the most common but the more traditional forms do crop up wherever a territory deems it acceptable. In fact it’s common for a given region to adopt or abolish slavery in less than a generation depending on the prevailing attitude of the majority of landholders and how they feel about owning people. Its not legal to free other peoples slaves but you are allowed to campaign and influence your neighbours if you feel you can browbeat others into giving up slaves. Slavery only really violates the ideological tenants of a person’s rights if they’ve been forcibly taken however and hereditary slavery isn’t allowed. All men are born free in the co-indiv world, after all. If selling themselves as property alleviates debts made later in life, however...

Columbia is technically more of an idea than an actual nation. It (supposedly) represents liberal co-indiv ideals: an example of how disparate interests and businesses can cooperate as individuals in a much larger system that functions whilst respecting the property rights of all participants.

Built around Britain’s former colonies (and territory said former colonies acquired later) in North America, the Associated Territories of Columbia is a very loose organisation defined by its attempts to rework its old state governments and sponsored territorial conquests around their co-indiv ideology. What has emerged is a complex collection of corporate commonwealths, private landholdings, rented republics and company owned city-states held together by a central council who’s authority is so vague and intangible that it effectively doesn’t exist if too many of their representatives lack the charisma to get the populace’s attention. As one of the older co-indiv states (though their early independence was in a proto-ideology state) the Columbians still consider themselves a guiding member of the bloc, even if there’s no official foreign policy outside of participating in the Free Interest Enterprise.

Most of Columbia is employed by the major local corporations, small businesses usually existing only in the most rural areas – and often being rolled up into the larger franchises once they get there anyway. Protectionist policies from the corporations that own Columbia’s primary ports mean that the local monopolies provide goods and services to the nation though the extension of trans-territorial organisations – who are usually the companies who own the ports – has seen foreign sourced products enter the market since at least the 1960s. Quality of life varies from territory to territory as some companies will squeeze their clients and employees for all their worth whilst others offer generous incentives to either poach their rivals workers or keep the ones they already have. Business is cut-throat and many necessity oriented companies like the owners of water, power and emergency services will hamstring other businesses by holding their own services hostage. Whilst the police demand payment they usually investigate suspected criminals in the background anyway since letting them run free is bad PR but firefighters will let a building burn if the owner can’t afford them. Healthcare corporations often drive people into debt when the bills come and power and water providers will cut entire towns off if enough bills aren’t paid. Peer-pressure from people who do pay the bills but have been denied a company’s services because of their neighbours failing to keep up with costs usually forces people to find some desperate means to fulfil their payments.

Columbia was the first nation to pioneer the rented republic. Built almost like a traditional government these territories are primarily owned by landholders that form incorporated unions that then band together into larger bureaucratic business conglomerates to rent out the land to businesses, clients and tenants. Complex deals and business arrangements allow services to set up facilities in these lands but only the desperate actually sell this land altogether. Other co-indiv groups have copied this business practise, often allowing regimes to preserve a government apparatus without compromising their ideology.

Officially Columbia is post-racial as all are equally free to prosper as individuals and the colour of a debt-slaves skin doesn’t matter more than the colour of their money. There are plenty of businesses owned by black, Hispanic and other non-white people and many more in prominent positions in these businesses and their countless branches but the reality on the streets is very different. Columbian business owners reserve the right to refuse service at their discretion, leading to a lot of segregation from those willing to sacrifice potential customers instead of their prejudices (and in towns where one or two people own nearly everything that can be very bad).

Probably the biggest development in Columbia in the last few decades was the consolidation of the previously diverse military industry into a massive conglomerate. What was once a disparate collection of private forces, militia groups and armed corporations has been transformed into a single incorporated entity. Total control of nuclear weapons remain out of their hands – the keys to the arsenal having been spread throughout several major companies and shareholder unions. Things are still being standardised but the new franchise has control of nearly every recognised armed force in Columbia. Of course the police are still independent and every citizen has a right to bear arms and form a new militia of their own, so there’s still a lot of guns outside of this new conglomerate’s hands.

Mexico, whilst technically orthodox, spent most of the 19th Century slowly consolidating into a more streamlined oligarchy of various corporations. The disparity between the old agrarian landholders and the more urban company groups and rent-republic landowner unions is growing more and more and their representatives complain about being increasingly undercut and undervalued. Contrary to standard co-indiv ideals they have been given advice and now more and more rural land and slaveowners are investing their human resources in expanding urban infrastructure, shipping over the people who live in their lands to expand the cities and newer industries. To many in neighbouring Columbia this more closely knit and cooperative council of business and property magnates looks almost suspiciously like an organised governing body.

A newer power in the Enterprise is the Vereniging van Sudafrika. It is one of the less orthodox and more authoritarian co-indiv states, having formed an organised (but business focused) military force for itself that has allowed it to steadily expand both its territory and business interests until it came to dominate a good portion of the continent.

Founded by a Netherlands who invested even more in their Cape colony, Sudafrika eventually grew out of control and, after acquiring a co-indiv oriented ideological bent and enough human capital to build the necessary infrastructure, expanded rapidly and voraciously into the interior. Though all people in Sudafrika are free individuals simply cooperating for their own benefit in the spirit of mutual interests, there is also an underlying propaganda proclaiming that those who cooperate in Sudafrika’s vereningig are the future of the African continent, if not the whole world and will redefine it with their incorporated chains of progress. To most, more orthodox cooperative individualists, this sounds suspiciously like ‘collectivising talk’ but the corporatist influences seen throughout the vereningig’s territories assuage the fears of all but the most zealous ideologues.

Sudafrika is essentially a confederation of corporatocracies. Vast tracts of territory are owned by the major corporate bodies of Sudafrika, often in cooperation with various landowner ‘understandings’ who form organisations similar to American rented republics. Instead of having independent companies running separate sections of infrastructure the Sudafrikans organised new companies to handle different aspects of vital infrastructure, one monopoly for the roads, another for water, another energy. This system is startling close to a government and squashes local competition through similar harsh business practises as those seen in orthodox co-indiv nations but with a suspicious amount of cooperation between the leading corporate giants. Holding these different corporate and landowner territories together is the Sudafrikan Armed Corporation, the military company that won Sudafrika their land and that is now paid to police it. They are the biggest uniting force and are essentially paid protection to handle all the duties that require force.

Sudafrika is also supposed to be post-racial and with a black African majority that is still growing that is becoming more of a reality than in most co-indiv states in America. Divide and rule used to be the primary means of expansion and is still practised in unruly properties claimed/owned by Sudafrikan corporate trusts and co-indiv philosophy lends itself quite well to those ideas. By this point more and more Africans have climbed into the higher echelons of the various companies but, on the whole, they still make up most of the poor wage slave population – at the very least most whites are in the same boat as them thanks to this authoritarian variation of cooperative individualism.

Independent corporatocracies and rented republics (usually warlords who claim to be them for Enterprise support – and collect rent through tithes) have also emerged in parts of Africa and South Asia – particularly the remnants of the Ming. In most cases they’re just dictatorships that either allow foreign (co-indiv affiliated) companies to buy their resources or use their land for a price, invested in the company and slap their brand on everything to remain somewhat ideologically appropriate or essentially enslave the majority of the population and claim they’re property and that the free populace are ‘employed’ by them. Most are just hellholes with enough strategic value to the Enterprise to justify support from more capable members and groups.

On the other side of the Cold War is directarianism, the descendant of collectivised philosophy. This system is predicated on central planning and organisation and the abolition of private property in favour of a social and state ownership of all capital that is used to advance society as an entire unit rather than as individuals. Equality is technically the goal of this system but general prosperity and progress is normally what is espoused. Rather than a class struggle the fight for progress is between the individual and the collective and society can only move forward if self-interest is removed in favour of a more social perspective that will inevitably benefit all (including the individual that is having all of this explained to, of course).

Whether democratic or autocratic a directarian government is authoritarian as neither argument or delay should get in the way of progress – unless the argument is over what constitutes progress, of course. Governmental candidates, even those in democratic states, have to be ideologically vetted first and most criteria are normally biased in favour of the particular progressive message that a directarian nation’s regime follows. Directarian elections are never between political parties (as there will only ever be one) but over leaders within the Party with candidates already agreeing to the primary policies of the state but often offering different methods of fulfilling them. A lot of democratic states are also not above rigging the voting system – and often do – if a majority of the Party agree that a particular candidate is better suited to their collective goals. Cronyism and factionalism are common problems in directarian governments but but bureaucratic largesse tends to keep things on some sort of track: even if it is a slow, plodding Orwellian one.

Directarian societies are highly regimented and organised with immense bureaucracies to handle the ‘top-down’ social planning. Cults of ideology and reworked religions are often used to create a sense of social cohesion for people to centre themselves around. Life isn’t necessarily restrictive but a general understanding of devotion to the state and the goal of the regime – enforced by constant propaganda from the state owned media and educational system – keep the population focused. Though directarian nations often end up being dictatorships it is unusual (in orthodox regimes) for cults of personality to form as those distract from the usual message of the ideology.

Everything in a directarian nation is managed by the central government. Decrees and policies from the highest echelons of authority, whether they’re a single person or a group, are passed down layer after layer of bureaucracy that are tasked with organising everything and making those decisions a reality. All products created by the populace and taken under governmental management and redistributed under the purview of the government’s plan. Wages are earned by most populations but stipends and rations of certain luxuries are often provided in place of money. Many directarians have had to bow to the reality of the economy, of course, but everything is controlled as much as possible and all the means of production as well as the resulting products from it are controlled by the state.

Slavery in directarian nations is couched as a result of failing to participate sufficiently in society. Barring inescapable handicaps a person is held to a strict standard of work and input, overseen by governmental officials assigned to their district or even the building they live in. Exercise regimens are mandatory to keep the population healthy and women are encouraged to have as many children as possible – excepting medical problems, of course – in order to provide new workers for society. Should a person fail to meet the standards expected of them then they will be taken and forced to do so, put into work camps (or rape camps, in the case of the women) where they are compelled to do their part until they are either dead or see an improvement in their productivity in the new and harsher environment.

From the ashes of a French empire that pulled an even more successful Napoleon (though obviously not with the man himself and still failing to actually defeat Britain and Russia) rose the European Collective, a technocratic directarian republic dedicated to turning Europe into the centre of the new world order. To many they are one of the most orthodox examples of a directarian state, for better and worse.

Europe intends to be the state of the future and has dedicated itself to reforming the entire continent and eradicating whatever it would deem reactionary and individualist/selfish within its territories. Entire cultures have been destroyed and vast amounts of European heritage has been dismantled in order to remove any memory of pre-directarian history and make room for the state constructed and approved identity. The European educational system is dedicated primarily to indoctrinating the population into this new system with at least half of the standardised curriculum dedicated to these programs. Higher education is free and available to all but anyone who does apply is not allowed to pick their subject. Instead a commission will review their exams and mandatory extracurricular activities and assign a curriculum for them. Any civic or governmental positions can only be earned by those with certain examination results who are then subjected to IQ and ideological loyalty tests.

Whilst not intentionally dismissive of environmental concerns the Europeans consider development of their territory and technology the highest priority. In addition to reforming their culture the EC is using the opportunity presented by dismantling their old cities to redesign them into more ‘efficient’ metropolises. The entire population is in a state of almost total mobilisation to build, expand or redesign the infrastructure. By now shiny new urban complexes sprawl over parts of the European countryside with massive wind and solar arrays built into everything but most of its inhabitants live in small, under-furnished cells. People can and will be moved enmasse to new settlements if the government deems their presence at that site necessary (forced relocation and dismantling of established communities also helps break down the old cultures and traditions).

The economy, whilst not suffering from the inequality of their co-indiv rivals, is suffering from population lethargy and over education. Ideologically the EC intends to educate the entire population in order to produce the educated society of the future but this is creating underlying resentment amongst the people who have gone through higher education only to end up in the necessary menial labour. Redundant improvements to infrastructure and repairs to the over constructed cities also keep people busy enough to not ask questions about where exactly the EC is going. Technological advancement is actually taking place at a good pace thanks to the high education of the populace but attempts are being made to introduce new technology in a way that won’t break governmental strangleholds on the means for people to survive.

Religion is banned in the EC as a tool of reactionary thinking and another force of regression and social stagnation. Instead a worship of the directarian vision of the future has begun to develop as people latch onto the idea of Europe’s future plan (as presented in propaganda). What started out as an unintentionally organic social development has been co-opted by the government which now encourages this worship of the future. New propaganda in both the schools and media now evangelises governmental policies to the people.

Sprawling across Eurasia is the other state that would see itself become the directarian nation that will set the standard of the future: the Directed Peoples Union. Russia, pushed east and south by the French Empire not only fell to their own directarian revolution during the costly Great War but rolled up most of the crumbling Qing Empire who they had been at war with as well at the time.

Like Europe the DPU is dedicated to redefining their culture and heritage but instead of crafting something brand new they simply put together a Russo-Chinese hybrid and are now working to impose this on their entire territory. This form of cultural cooperation and supremacy is mostly a social aspect of the DPU’s directarian ideology but one of its most noticeable and consumes most governmental attention as, like the Europeans, the DPU believes that reforming their identity, almost from the roots, is the basis for their development as a new society. Outside of this the Union’s directarian regime is more traditionally orthodox and oligarchic with a focus on forming what they consider a practical approach to a developed and powerful society that can serve as a foundation for a prosperous, economically stable global state and is less focused on continual, technologically focused futurism like their rivals in the EC.

Despite some hiccups the DPU has transitioned into the more democratic form of directarianism (all terms being relative, of course). The government is still oligarchic outside of appointee based elections but the people do get to vote on who participates in the central governing committees and their decisions do matter, even if that one form of election is the full extent of their participation in any form of governance. These elected leaders do normally end up under the thumb of the bureaucracy and various agencies that enforce established policy that was already put in place but it is a marked feature of the DPU that they do uphold this form of enfranchisement.

The DPU is even more active than Europe when it comes to moving populations. Part of their cultural reconstruction project is to make all regions of the Union interchangeable to help facilitate the mass movement of people to wherever the government deems them necessary. Communities are encouraged to meet this standard of common cultural community in order to help accommodate whatever new people are shipped into their area. Utopian faith similar to the EC’s worship of the future is also encouraged and traditional religions are largely banned as obstructive and reactionary. A system of secret, government sponsored informants planted into these relocated populations keep an eye on these communities and report on anyone who is promoting ‘disruptive behaviours and ideas’. Anyone who is reported on is sent to either be forcibly re-educated or imprisoned in one of the distant concentration camps to remove their influence for the good of the community.

Plans have been proposed to simple reshuffle the entire population and spread all the old demographics out as much as possible to thin a resistance’s ability to rally and organise people in that fashion.

When directarianism overtook the UK it was in a much more gradual fashion than most. What started as an emergency regime in the aftermath of the Great War became gradually more ideological until a quiet coup and partially ‘voluntary’ abdication of the royal family saw a unique new form of directarianism emerge combining the old with the new: the Crown Directorate. This regime is dictatorial – though there is procedure in place as well as bureaucratic largesse to prevent the dictator from going off the rails with their power – and centred around a single figure, the monarch. Monarchs are no longer hereditary being appointed for life from amongst a pool of candidates recommended by the directories. A monarch can also be deposed and replaced if they prove to be ineffectual or incompetent at the position. This appointment has a series of elections underneath it with the population voting in representatives who then vote for committee members who then vote in a candidate – each group of voters shrinking with every layer of bureaucracy. Theoretically anyone can rise to the rank of monarch and the current incumbent of the Directorate’s throne is of Indian descent.

The Directed Republic of India follows an authoritarian form of directarianism that has embraced the traditional caste system and reformed it to serve the mission of India’s regime. Taking cues from the greater stratification of castes under colonial rule (Britain still got the majority of the subcontinental pie: though not as much as OTL) India reworked the old system once again around directarian principles to make it help facilitate their regime’s plans. It isn’t a rigid, central feature of India’s regime and people can be moved from caste to caste but it is all predicated on governmental decisions with people being moved from one position or location to another depending on their decisions (it’s usually not so much moving up or down the social ladder as it is ‘side to side’). Through a series of harsh, draconian, force-draft developmental programs the subcontinent has been turned into an economic engine on the European model of constant improvement of infrastructure.

Technically the Global Coordinate is supposed to be a single united unit and even has a council that are supposed to have authority over the Coordinate – the Indo-Crown Split not withstanding. The actual authority this organisation wields is ephemeral enough to be almost non-existent and simply serves as a meeting hall for the various directarian nations. It has managed to keep a strange-hold over the directarian world but fewer and fewer people care about what it says and many small directarian states (desperate to assert themselves) have considered leaving.

There is a world beyond the ideological conflict and quite a lot of it has been a victim of proxy conflicts in the ongoing struggle.

Brazil – which got a bit more investment from Portugal in the centuries prior to breaking away – is the wary hegemon of the portion of South America not interested in overt co-indiv influence. They continue to remain under their aristocratic oligarchy that holds most of the political power under their figurehead king. Brazil’s traditional claims to Portugal has kept also any relationship with the directarian side of the war even after dropping that particular title and throne. Thanks to their earlier development they are probably the largest and strongest economy outside of the two major power blocs and are really starting to marshal that strength as the world begins to become less stable.

Talk of forming some kind of ‘neutral’ faction has floated around the imperial court several times but outside of their areas of the continent the Brazilians aren’t too interested in expending resources exerting their influence and keeping the co-indivs and directarians at bay. Then there’s that fact that they still trade a lot with co-indiv corporations that keeps them from wanting to rock the boat lest it throw about their investments as they do so.

New Shetland is certainly supportive of such an idea but everyone knows that support comes with certain caveats and none of the other neutral powers are interested in helping these remnant Stuarts reclaim the British throne. The fact that the current occupants of the throne are actually descended from a distant cousin of the old British monarchy certainly doesn’t help with their claims of legitimacy to all of that territory either. Of course even the New Shetland government are quite aware that they’re unlikely to regain the empire – most are willing to settle for the British Isles at least but the official line for the crown and any political party with a chance of winning in parliament is still in favour of full reclamation.

Nippon’s military government took the nation back into isolation after the major revolutionary wars, especially once the DPU got to their doorstep. Trade is now only permitted through secured ports where any and all items are checked for contraband with the navy zealously patrolling the coast for smugglers. Traditional values are aggressively supported and the sale or distribution of ‘disruptive materials’ is very, very illegal. The emperor has been a figurehead ever since the emergency military regime took power during the worst years of the upheaval but does get a lot of exposure since the rest of the leadership still like using him for legitimacy and most of the festivals and official public occasions they promote now require his participation on some level.

Persia, meanwhile, is content to maintain its own little sphere of influence. In actuality it is constantly working to avoid being undermined by directarian movements and terrorists, many of which have the backing of India and the DPU. Islamist groups in their territories have been funded, in turn, by Tehran. This status quo has been in place for decades now with neither side gaining ground but the organisations they’ve funded have really started to get out of control and its difficult to say who is going to suffer more once it all escalates too far.

Technologically this world is at about the same level as the present day but with very drastically different rates of distribution. Technocratic values, runaway capitalism and directarian approaches to advancing global development have managed to overcome the economic disparity of co-indiv societies and the repression of directarian states but it is barely compensating. Co-indiv territories don’t care too much about who buys what as that is their right but companies will fight tooth and nail to keep competitors from poaching their customers, leading to brand wars that can sometimes turn violent. Then there’s the issue of plenty of people struggling so much to get by that they can’t afford fancier products, limiting their range to areas with middle and upper classes. Directarians are very controlling over what the populace gets access to and careful measures are taken to ensure that new technology is not disruptive to their social control or their given societal plan.

Mass communication technology like the internet is not evident in co-indiv territories, at least in a standardised form as multiple companies compete for transmission sites and clients. Instead there are numerous different networks, some of which cooperate and interconnect but most remain separate. The Global Coordinate do have a shared internet equivalent but it is highly regulated and individual directarian states retain the right to restrict information within their sections of the network if it threatens or contradicts the government’s messages.

Nuclear power and weaponry is a very complicated issue. Probably one of the few things co-indiv territories can agree on is keeping nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of people who could threaten their businesses or upset the very delicate web of power between them. Most co-indivs have certain arrangements concerning the access to their nuclear arsenals with multiple involved groups having keys and pass-codes that must all be acquired in order to authorise any use of nuclear materials. Its a slow and unwieldy response system but its the only thing they can agree on using right now. Directarians are very supportive of regulation and discussion around having a Coordinate arsenal with authority over all individual member nations’ nukes has been floated around but gone nowhere. Even if it violates ideological orthodoxy no-ones wants to just hand nuclear material and information to any old person interested in a reactor. At the same time the number of nations with nuclear weapons is very high with co-indivs, directarians and even many neutral states having at least one simple bomb at their disposal.

Space travel is a tricky issue for the world. There are some companies in the Enterprise that have invested in commercial activities in orbit – and of course there are satellites – but only the largest, most successful corporations can really afford to do this. Directarian nations are more organised and the EC has probably the most sophisticated space program but most of the Coordinate is more focused on their social developments down on earth. This is beginning to change as off-world resources are looked to in order to make up for shortages and possibly as an escape from the problems on Earth.

Pollution and resource shortages are the biggest growing problem on the planet followed by climate change as an additional consequence of these issues. Between the mass consumerism of co-indiv ideals and the much greater (and often sloppy) degree of forced technological and economic development in directarian states the amount of contaminants and manmade garbage is even higher than OTL 2019 and environmental degradation even more pronounced. Green tech companies in the Enterprise and environmental directarianism are taking off but they are fighting an uphill battle against the more orthodox, established systems and may be too late to reverse anything.

Right now, adapting to the changing world is probably the best they can hope for, assuming this ideological world doesn’t teeter over and collapse altogether.