Gentile or Jew, O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

Windward is the direction the wind comes from, and sailors (especially them wot's drivin') would be well advised to look there so as to know what's coming up. Metaphorically, it means look to the future.

2006.06.06 ~ Tuesday

An experiment is being run in {codename} Erpland {/codename} to determine the feasability of a new socio-capatilistic model of government. A consortium of European politicans and business men have sponsored the project, with the long term plan of rolling the model out throughout the European Union as an example of Democracy to the World. The changes are radical and ambitious, and with disillusionment in the EU growing within the general population, for many it is seen as the final chance to get things right. For others, it must be derailed at all costs to maintain power and profit.

Survival ~ The Basics

There are three basics to survival and in order they are Shelter, Water and Food. Shelter is the most important, because you can die of exposure in minutes. Water is the second most important, because (assuming adequate shelter) you will die of a lack of it in a matter of days. Food is the least important, because (assuming you have adequate shelter and water) you will live for about a month. With the provision of Shelter, Water and Food you can survive.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!”

Regardless of race, colour or creed, the consortium maintained that the individual was the most important component of society, and was therefore one of the cornerstones of civilisation. The laws of civilisation superseed the laws of nature (natural selection, survival of the fittest ~ the law of the jungle) and so the consortium concluded that the primary objective was to provide for the survival of the population.

Because it was no longer possible to simply make your home wherever you pleased, because it was no longer possible to get your food through hunting and gathering, because in civilisation the means of acquisition was currency ~ the founding principle of the experiment was formed.

"Every member of the society shall recieve wellfare benefits from the government for the duration of their life, from the day they are born to the day they die."

The aim was not to spoil the individual, but provide them with the financial support necessary to ensure their individual survival. The rest would be up to them.

The remaining conerstones of the civilisation were 'The Law', 'Trade' and 'The Environment'.

The Ministry of the Environment

If the individual was the most important component of society, The Environment was the most important cornerstone of civilisation. The environment was the body of the civilisation, the individual of civilisation. The rights accorded to the individual to survive were also accorded to the environment and it's survival, for the sake of everyone and everything.

In the above scale of things needed to survive, air is omitted on account that it is taken for granted that without air, we will be dead in a matter of minutes. Air is part the Environment. Shelter, water and food are also part of the environment.

The Ministry of the Environment was the highest of the ministries, and the other ministries were contained within it.

• The Ministry of Economy
• The Ministry of Health
• The Ministry of Education
• The Ministry of Transport
• The Ministry of Agriculture

Only the The Ministry of Defence comes outside this brief

Voting

Voting is compulsory in all layers of government, local, national and european. If a citizen abstains from voting, they are not fined but do loose their benefits. Also, the citizen can cast a 'none of the above' vote or abstination vote as this is considered to be important information.