Okay, but how do you find that ethically and morally undesirable?
Because the state is not the ultimate source of value. A state - in fact, a
nation - is simply an agreed upon convention, for the sake of some common good. A nation only exists because there is a consensus to pretend that there is such a thing as a nation; and this consensus is justified by the many practical benefits in having nations, governmental structures, and so on.
To put it rather glibly: nations only exist because large groups of people choose for them to exist, and this choice is made in the context of some other value-structure. For most people, the choice to recognise the existence of nations is made for the simple, practical reason that nations are very useful to have to ensure the welfare of people. The central value is human welfare.
Exactly what one's ultimate object of devotion is obviously varies greatly between people. It can be the state, one's own material welfare, a religious ideal, a secular ideal (like distributive equality, scientific advance, environmental balance, etc.), or anything else. Not all objects are equal in this sense, of course; rather than debate them, I'll just state that there are many. I don't think it is appropriate to try to indoctrinate individuals such that a state - that is, one
specific state, a commonly agreed upon fictional entity that derives its value from some external value-structure - becomes the ultimate object of devotion.
And then bearing in mind that convincing people to relate to the state in that way is pragmatically convenient for power-hungry rulers... well, one has to be cynical, doesn't one?
The criteria are set because the Confederation does not have NEARLY enough resources to give the benefits it does to every human in the Inner Sphere.
A cynic might point out that the average citizen of, say, the Lyran Commonwealth, enjoys greater civil liberties and greater material welfare than the average citizen of the Confederation.
And the rules aren't as arbitrary as you might think, since there have to have been people in the Confederation who have calculated allocations and tried many distribution plans over the centuries.
Regardless, it remains true that the Confederation government can alter the criteria at whim.
As I understand it, the Confederation has actually done so, in the past, with conquered territories, in order to politically marginalise undesirables.
Mr. M. Anchovey, I reiterate, "The State is its Citizens..." The Citizens should NOT be forced by their government to provide for the well-being of all the galaxies slothful, selfish, violent, ignorant masses, many of which who would do them harm.
I don't believe I said anything about what governments should force people to do. I was criticising the Confederation, not expounding on some ideal political system of my own.
If I designated the people who didn't buy in to my fascist ideal of a person's worth being equal to that of their contribution to the State, I could totally preserve all the rights of my people, all the time, and make things awesome for them. Once you designate that some of your people aren't ACTUALLY counted as "your people" then you're just blowing smoke.
Well said.
Uhhhhh. Well...I wouldn't say I'm totally serious, but I do believe that everyone constantly (but often unconsciously) strives to define themselves as one person or another, all their lives. It's in human nature to be always "on the way". And I see a lot of that nature in the social ladder (mobility on that ladder, even) in the Confederation.
Certainly people struggle to define themselves; and they define themselves, I would say, in relation to chosen value-centres. The issue I have with the Confederation is that to become a citizen you have to, effectively, choose the Confederation itself as your value-centre; and Capellan education is aimed at making people do this.
I think that taking
any state as a value-centre is, in short, completely backwards.
I think it's also important to bear in mind that the CapCon is the one state which has struggled with survival from the very beginning.
An obvious solution would seem to present itself, then. Just let the Confederation die. ;)
"The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people." -Doctrine of Fascism, 1935
Precisely right. That's the sort of thing I have in mind when I talk about the Confederation trying to present its own state as value-centre.
What about Chersterton? It was already in Federated Sun hands even before the CapCon was created, wasn't it?
It is worth bearing in mind that by this point, the successor states fight each other not because any side really cares about being in the right any more, but because fighting each other
is what they do. After centuries, it becomes second nature.
Though I admit that I have marginally more respect for the Lyrans, Suns, and League. The Lyrans in particular give the impression of a state that, if it were possible, would honestly quite like to just stop fighting forever. The League is too multivocal to really talk about well, and as for the Suns, well, looking over the history it does seem that they usually don't strike first, and their major crime, I suppose, is that they have a tendency to win. I don't feel that winning, as a brute fact, is really something a state should have to justify.
(Yes, yes, I know Cavalier has made that argument that historically the Lyrans are the aggressor on the League border. I said it was an impression; it's not an argument.)
Regardless, it bears remembering that none of the states are without blood on their hands, and in any specific situation it depends on the individuals and the actual state of affairs. That said, one can legitimately criticise or defend the institutional structures of each successor state, and the sorts of behaviour they encourage. That is the ground on which I would criticise the Confederation, and on which I am relatively sympathetic to the Commonwealth, Suns, and League.