Poem: "A Strong Set of Collective Values"
Jun. 19th, 2021 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the April 6, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by librarygeek. It also fills the "Social Graces" square in my 4-4-21 "Aspects" card for the Genderplay Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Aquariana, Dr. Infanta, and Kraken threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"A Strong Set of Collective Values"
[Monday, July 6, 2015]
President Latheef and
Captain Left had arranged
a meeting to discuss
social engineering.
Dr. Infanta had heard
about it and offered
her help as well.
Considering that
her long life had given
her a perspective on
many different societies,
they accepted gratefully.
Captain Left had a country
to build from the Kraken fleet,
and President Latheef was
still trying to find ways of
keeping his country's nose
above the rising waters.
Dr. Infanta was helping
with the latter by meshing
relevant superpowers into
the Maldivian medical system.
"Today we're all working
on social engineering,"
President Latheef said
once they took their seats.
"We need ideas to help
our cultures work together
and avoid serious disputes."
"Education has always been
the major hope for improving
the individual and society,"
Dr. Infanta said. "Start there."
"The Maldives is developing
options for superpowers on top of
public education," said the President.
"Kraken has had free education for
all members, since the beginning,"
said Captain Left. "That came
from our military roots. All we
have to do is expand it."
"To the size of a country,
which is harder than it looks,"
said President Latheef. "I know,
I'm trying to get my country's system
up to where we don't have to send
all our medical students abroad to train."
"Make it modular," Dr. Infanta said,
lazily kicking the rungs of her chair.
"Build one section, one department,
and then move on to the next one."
Captain Left nodded. "Thalassia
has a modular build. May I?" he said,
looking over at President Latheef.
"Go ahead," the President said.
Captain Left glanced at the wall screen,
turning it on with a flick of his mind.
The schematic that appeared on it
looked like snowflakes of metal.
"Most buildings will be multipurpose,
with a mix of retail or other function space
below and living quarters above, so people
have space to hold classes," he explained.
"Each village will have one specialty building.
We can make one of these a learning center."
"That's a good start," said President Latheef.
"Lay the groundwork for educational space
first, then worry about higher levels later."
Captain Left took notes as they talked.
"What do you think about fitting
your countries together as allies,
as neighbors?" Dr. Infanta said,
tilting her head. "I'm afraid that
most of my experience with
diplomacy is really espionage."
"Collective responsibility,
a sense of the greater good
versus just one's own good, and
a strong set of collective values
are imperative for improving society,"
said Captain Left. "These are the aims
of all these pieces about our societies."
President Latheef chuckled. "You've
been saving the world from itself for
decades," he said. "I think that lays
a strong foundation for the future."
"Well, what do we all value, then?"
said Dr. Infanta. "I'm for fairness,
freedom, and not letting bullies
take over the damn planet."
"Islamic values include charity,
tolerance, honesty, kindness, and
justice," said President Latheef.
"Ours entail loyalty, integrity, excellence,
thriftiness, and fortitude," said Captain Left.
"Not a lot of common ground," said Dr. Infanta.
"Well, tolerance can connect with freedom,"
said President Latheef. "Fairness, justice,
and integrity also relate to each other."
"Tolerance is important," Dr. Infanta said.
"As long as we have that, we can get by
long enough to build more connections."
"We have to be tolerant or else we
would tear each other apart like
the unprincipled supervillains do,"
Captain Left said. "It's a crucial skill."
"Looping back to education, perhaps
we could teach cross-cultural awareness,"
said President Latheef. "Then people
would know each other's values
and what we hold in common."
"Good idea," the others agreed.
"We just have to figure out how
to handle the influx," said Dr. Infanta.
"We need to maintain the cultures that
we're developing, which won't work
if they get overrun by new people
without time to for everyone to adjust."
"I started getting more and more active
around immigration reform because
this was such a waste of lives,
such a waste of potential,
such a waste for our country
not to have the human capital
that we developed, geared toward
improving our entire society,"
President Latheef mused.
"Now there we are in
complete agreement,"
said Captain Left. "When
you save those the world
has thrown away, they tend
to be extremely loyal."
"That's how I find
my Guardians,"
said Dr. Infanta.
"They all owe me
a life, their own or
someone they love."
"We've been creaming off
underappreciated talents since
shortly after I started the program
for attracting soups to the Maldives,"
said President Latheef. "It works."
"Yeah, we've scooped a lot of
diagnosticians," Dr. Infanta said
with a smirk. "They're happy here,
once they get used to the respect.
The Sufis have been a big help in
explaining how to incorporate healers
into the practices of an Islamic culture."
"Cargo teleporters too," the President said.
"I have no idea why people look down on
them. The savings are immense."
"Some people have no imagination,"
said Captain Left. "Fortunately we do."
"So we just need to make sure that
immigrants mesh well," said Dr. Infanta.
"We have mentors to help with that,"
said Captain Left. "Nobody gets
brought in and abandoned."
"We have host families here,"
said President Latheef. "They
help people learn how to fit in
with an Islamic society."
"There's an idea, then,"
Dr. Infanta said, weaving
her fingers together. "Connect
those mentors and host families
to create more ties across cultures."
"That could work, at least for
some people," said Captain Left.
"Others are probably too fragile,
at least when they first reach us."
President Latheef sighed. "Sadly,
that's true for my people too. We
have a large number of refugees
dealing with a lot of trauma, and
not all of them fully recover."
Dr. Infanta and Captain Left
shared a look. Then she said,
"Thank you for taking care of
them. They deserve the help."
"Well, both of you have made
that effort a lot more effective,"
said President Latheef. "I don't
know why most people refuse
to listen to you, when you clearly
know more than they do."
"We're supervillains,"
Dr. Infanta pointed out.
"That's debatable, and
I've heard those debates,"
said President Latheef.
"Kraken has about a century
of experience, and the records
to go with it," said Captain Left.
"One would hope that we've
gotten good at fixing things,
even if outsiders rarely listen."
"I'll take all the help I can get,"
said President Latheef. "Building
a new society isn't easy, and you're
the only person I know who has
access to actual instructions."
"Records," Captain Left repeated.
"They didn't know what they were
doing at the time, any more than
we do. I admit their notes help,
though, when I'm at a loss."
"I can imagine," the President said.
"I'll see what I can shake loose
for you," said Captain Left.
"Thank you," said the President.
"Social engineering is a lot of work."
"Social engineering is as much work
as a new zoomwagon," said Captain Left.
Dr. Infanta smiled. "Yes, but at least
now we have Tesla fluid valves
and other critical inventions."
"And we don't have to do it
alone," said President Latheef.
"We have each other to share
ideas and support on the way."
"Yes," said Dr. Infanta. "I think
that makes a strong set
of collective values."
* * *
Notes:
"Education has in America's whole history been the major hope for improving the individual and society."
-- Gunnar Myrdal
"Collective responsibility, a sense of the greater good versus just one's own good, and a strong set of collective values are imperative for improving society. These are the aims of all these pieces about our society."
-- Chetan Bhagat
"I started getting more and more active around immigration reform because this was such a waste of lives, such a waste of potential, such a waste for our country not to have the human capital that we developed - geared toward improving our entire society."
-- Laurene Powell Jobs
See "The Evolution of Society as a Whole" for a description of Thalassia and its location notes for Sierpinski City.
Social engineering is the deliberate alteration of society. It sometimes has a negative connotation, but really, most of politics, economics, and legalities are aspects of social engineering. There are personal and political approaches to improving the world. Note that Thalassia has achieved most of the political ones within its own organization; they're still working to scale up to nation level on some of that.
Modular design, such as modular building, relies on a set of standardized pieces that can be assembled in many configurations so that few pieces need to be custom-built. This offers many advantages such as speed, affordability, and flexibility. Sierpinski City is strongly modular, with a fractal structure based on the Sierpinski Snowflake, allowing it to grow efficiently. It uses a handful of basic building shapes for most purposes, with just a few unique ones.
Islamic Values: Charity, Tolerance, Honesty, Kindness, Justice.
Kraken Values: Loyalty, Integrity, Excellence, Thriftiness, Fortitude.
Military Values:
Army: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage
Navy and Marines: Honor, Courage, Commitment
Air Force: Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence in All We Do Coast Guard: Honor, Respect, Devotion to Duty
Prussian Values: Thrift, Courage, Determination, Discipline, Fortitude, Frankness, Godliness, Humility, Incorruptibility, Industriousness, Loyalty, Obedience, Punctuality, Reliability, Restraint, Self-denial, Self-effacement, Duty, Justice, Order, Sincerity, Straightforwardness, Subordination, Toughness
Understand your values and use them to make decisions. Know how to teach values and tolerate people with different ones.
Diagnostician -- a healer with the ability to determine the exact nature of an illness, injury, or other problem. This may also include knowing precisely how to fix it. However, they can't actually make the repairs, so in many cultures diagnosticians tend to get less respect than healers who can fix bodies. The Maldives and Thalassia are notable exceptions who do respect diagnosticians.
Cargo teleporter -- someone who can transport inanimate mass but not passengers. Sometimes this is an issue of safety, but more often, it just means they have a rough ride and/or objectionable emanata. Both teleport culture and many nations tend to look down on them, regarding passenger teleporters and even messenger teleporters with more respect. The Maldives and Thalassia are notable exceptions who do value cargo teleporters.
librarygeek. It also fills the "Social Graces" square in my 4-4-21 "Aspects" card for the Genderplay Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Aquariana, Dr. Infanta, and Kraken threads of the Polychrome Heroics series."A Strong Set of Collective Values"
[Monday, July 6, 2015]
President Latheef and
Captain Left had arranged
a meeting to discuss
social engineering.
Dr. Infanta had heard
about it and offered
her help as well.
Considering that
her long life had given
her a perspective on
many different societies,
they accepted gratefully.
Captain Left had a country
to build from the Kraken fleet,
and President Latheef was
still trying to find ways of
keeping his country's nose
above the rising waters.
Dr. Infanta was helping
with the latter by meshing
relevant superpowers into
the Maldivian medical system.
"Today we're all working
on social engineering,"
President Latheef said
once they took their seats.
"We need ideas to help
our cultures work together
and avoid serious disputes."
"Education has always been
the major hope for improving
the individual and society,"
Dr. Infanta said. "Start there."
"The Maldives is developing
options for superpowers on top of
public education," said the President.
"Kraken has had free education for
all members, since the beginning,"
said Captain Left. "That came
from our military roots. All we
have to do is expand it."
"To the size of a country,
which is harder than it looks,"
said President Latheef. "I know,
I'm trying to get my country's system
up to where we don't have to send
all our medical students abroad to train."
"Make it modular," Dr. Infanta said,
lazily kicking the rungs of her chair.
"Build one section, one department,
and then move on to the next one."
Captain Left nodded. "Thalassia
has a modular build. May I?" he said,
looking over at President Latheef.
"Go ahead," the President said.
Captain Left glanced at the wall screen,
turning it on with a flick of his mind.
The schematic that appeared on it
looked like snowflakes of metal.
"Most buildings will be multipurpose,
with a mix of retail or other function space
below and living quarters above, so people
have space to hold classes," he explained.
"Each village will have one specialty building.
We can make one of these a learning center."
"That's a good start," said President Latheef.
"Lay the groundwork for educational space
first, then worry about higher levels later."
Captain Left took notes as they talked.
"What do you think about fitting
your countries together as allies,
as neighbors?" Dr. Infanta said,
tilting her head. "I'm afraid that
most of my experience with
diplomacy is really espionage."
"Collective responsibility,
a sense of the greater good
versus just one's own good, and
a strong set of collective values
are imperative for improving society,"
said Captain Left. "These are the aims
of all these pieces about our societies."
President Latheef chuckled. "You've
been saving the world from itself for
decades," he said. "I think that lays
a strong foundation for the future."
"Well, what do we all value, then?"
said Dr. Infanta. "I'm for fairness,
freedom, and not letting bullies
take over the damn planet."
"Islamic values include charity,
tolerance, honesty, kindness, and
justice," said President Latheef.
"Ours entail loyalty, integrity, excellence,
thriftiness, and fortitude," said Captain Left.
"Not a lot of common ground," said Dr. Infanta.
"Well, tolerance can connect with freedom,"
said President Latheef. "Fairness, justice,
and integrity also relate to each other."
"Tolerance is important," Dr. Infanta said.
"As long as we have that, we can get by
long enough to build more connections."
"We have to be tolerant or else we
would tear each other apart like
the unprincipled supervillains do,"
Captain Left said. "It's a crucial skill."
"Looping back to education, perhaps
we could teach cross-cultural awareness,"
said President Latheef. "Then people
would know each other's values
and what we hold in common."
"Good idea," the others agreed.
"We just have to figure out how
to handle the influx," said Dr. Infanta.
"We need to maintain the cultures that
we're developing, which won't work
if they get overrun by new people
without time to for everyone to adjust."
"I started getting more and more active
around immigration reform because
this was such a waste of lives,
such a waste of potential,
such a waste for our country
not to have the human capital
that we developed, geared toward
improving our entire society,"
President Latheef mused.
"Now there we are in
complete agreement,"
said Captain Left. "When
you save those the world
has thrown away, they tend
to be extremely loyal."
"That's how I find
my Guardians,"
said Dr. Infanta.
"They all owe me
a life, their own or
someone they love."
"We've been creaming off
underappreciated talents since
shortly after I started the program
for attracting soups to the Maldives,"
said President Latheef. "It works."
"Yeah, we've scooped a lot of
diagnosticians," Dr. Infanta said
with a smirk. "They're happy here,
once they get used to the respect.
The Sufis have been a big help in
explaining how to incorporate healers
into the practices of an Islamic culture."
"Cargo teleporters too," the President said.
"I have no idea why people look down on
them. The savings are immense."
"Some people have no imagination,"
said Captain Left. "Fortunately we do."
"So we just need to make sure that
immigrants mesh well," said Dr. Infanta.
"We have mentors to help with that,"
said Captain Left. "Nobody gets
brought in and abandoned."
"We have host families here,"
said President Latheef. "They
help people learn how to fit in
with an Islamic society."
"There's an idea, then,"
Dr. Infanta said, weaving
her fingers together. "Connect
those mentors and host families
to create more ties across cultures."
"That could work, at least for
some people," said Captain Left.
"Others are probably too fragile,
at least when they first reach us."
President Latheef sighed. "Sadly,
that's true for my people too. We
have a large number of refugees
dealing with a lot of trauma, and
not all of them fully recover."
Dr. Infanta and Captain Left
shared a look. Then she said,
"Thank you for taking care of
them. They deserve the help."
"Well, both of you have made
that effort a lot more effective,"
said President Latheef. "I don't
know why most people refuse
to listen to you, when you clearly
know more than they do."
"We're supervillains,"
Dr. Infanta pointed out.
"That's debatable, and
I've heard those debates,"
said President Latheef.
"Kraken has about a century
of experience, and the records
to go with it," said Captain Left.
"One would hope that we've
gotten good at fixing things,
even if outsiders rarely listen."
"I'll take all the help I can get,"
said President Latheef. "Building
a new society isn't easy, and you're
the only person I know who has
access to actual instructions."
"Records," Captain Left repeated.
"They didn't know what they were
doing at the time, any more than
we do. I admit their notes help,
though, when I'm at a loss."
"I can imagine," the President said.
"I'll see what I can shake loose
for you," said Captain Left.
"Thank you," said the President.
"Social engineering is a lot of work."
"Social engineering is as much work
as a new zoomwagon," said Captain Left.
Dr. Infanta smiled. "Yes, but at least
now we have Tesla fluid valves
and other critical inventions."
"And we don't have to do it
alone," said President Latheef.
"We have each other to share
ideas and support on the way."
"Yes," said Dr. Infanta. "I think
that makes a strong set
of collective values."
* * *
Notes:
"Education has in America's whole history been the major hope for improving the individual and society."
-- Gunnar Myrdal
"Collective responsibility, a sense of the greater good versus just one's own good, and a strong set of collective values are imperative for improving society. These are the aims of all these pieces about our society."
-- Chetan Bhagat
"I started getting more and more active around immigration reform because this was such a waste of lives, such a waste of potential, such a waste for our country not to have the human capital that we developed - geared toward improving our entire society."
-- Laurene Powell Jobs
See "The Evolution of Society as a Whole" for a description of Thalassia and its location notes for Sierpinski City.
Social engineering is the deliberate alteration of society. It sometimes has a negative connotation, but really, most of politics, economics, and legalities are aspects of social engineering. There are personal and political approaches to improving the world. Note that Thalassia has achieved most of the political ones within its own organization; they're still working to scale up to nation level on some of that.
Modular design, such as modular building, relies on a set of standardized pieces that can be assembled in many configurations so that few pieces need to be custom-built. This offers many advantages such as speed, affordability, and flexibility. Sierpinski City is strongly modular, with a fractal structure based on the Sierpinski Snowflake, allowing it to grow efficiently. It uses a handful of basic building shapes for most purposes, with just a few unique ones.
Islamic Values: Charity, Tolerance, Honesty, Kindness, Justice.
Kraken Values: Loyalty, Integrity, Excellence, Thriftiness, Fortitude.
Military Values:
Army: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage
Navy and Marines: Honor, Courage, Commitment
Air Force: Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence in All We Do Coast Guard: Honor, Respect, Devotion to Duty
Prussian Values: Thrift, Courage, Determination, Discipline, Fortitude, Frankness, Godliness, Humility, Incorruptibility, Industriousness, Loyalty, Obedience, Punctuality, Reliability, Restraint, Self-denial, Self-effacement, Duty, Justice, Order, Sincerity, Straightforwardness, Subordination, Toughness
Understand your values and use them to make decisions. Know how to teach values and tolerate people with different ones.
Diagnostician -- a healer with the ability to determine the exact nature of an illness, injury, or other problem. This may also include knowing precisely how to fix it. However, they can't actually make the repairs, so in many cultures diagnosticians tend to get less respect than healers who can fix bodies. The Maldives and Thalassia are notable exceptions who do respect diagnosticians.
Cargo teleporter -- someone who can transport inanimate mass but not passengers. Sometimes this is an issue of safety, but more often, it just means they have a rough ride and/or objectionable emanata. Both teleport culture and many nations tend to look down on them, regarding passenger teleporters and even messenger teleporters with more respect. The Maldives and Thalassia are notable exceptions who do value cargo teleporters.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-20 01:57 pm (UTC)Core values
Date: 2021-06-20 02:38 pm (UTC)The cross-cultural education is going to be amazing!
Re: Core values
Date: 2021-06-20 07:56 pm (UTC)Yeah. They came from such different backgrounds.
>> but taken as a WHOLE, it makes for a vigorous, well-rounded collection of individuals who put their values in a different order of priority. <<
Agreed. They have good virtues, but mostly different ones. They're compatible but not identical. That makes good teamwork.
>> The cross-cultural education is going to be amazing! <<
I think so too.
Kraken has universal coverage of many things. Some of that is readily replicable.
The Maldives has turned zakat from something purely Muslim into ... modeling. It invites people to participate in one pillar of the Faith by buying in, and then they're considered allies who can be funded if they need it. And that's working very well with the Prophet's original plan of using resources to endear neighbors to Islam.
Dr. Infanta has experience. She has seen countries rise and fall, many times, and knows a lot about what works and doesn't work. She has a position in the Maldivian medical field because she's built them before which makes it easier to do big things like integrating healers.
They form a nice, tight, very interesting cluster of civilization. Compatible enough to be allies, different enough to have a wide range of skills and resources. It's a new world center rising as we watch. :D
Re: Core values
Date: 2021-06-20 08:44 pm (UTC)Then I think wistfully of how the world will look in 2025, or 2050... and I want to spend my time THERE, rather than here.
Re: Core values
Date: 2021-06-21 10:46 am (UTC)Sooth. They're good at that.
>> Then I think wistfully of how the world will look in 2025, or 2050... and I want to spend my time THERE, rather than here.<<
Yeah, me too. It's why I spend so much time writing.