Intelligentsia

Nation Information
Intelligentsia is a very large and older nation at 50 days old with citizens primarily of Mixed ethnicity whose religion is various branches of Judaism. Its technology is first rate and its citizens marvel at the astonishing advancements within their nation. Its citizens enjoy freedom from high taxation and as a result tend to earn more money. The citizens of Intelligentsia work diligently to produce Fish and Cattle as tradable resources for their nation. It is a mostly neutral country when it comes to foreign affairs. It will usually only attack another nation if attacked first. When it comes to nuclear weapons Intelligentsia will not research or develop nuclear weapons. The military of Intelligentsia has been positioned at all border crossings and is arresting all drug traffickers. Intelligentsia allows its citizens to openly protest their government, even if it means violence. It has an open border policy, but in order for immigrants to remain in the country they will have to become citizens first. Intelligentsia believes in the freedom of speech and feels that it is every citizens right to speak freely about their government. The government gives whatever is necessary to help others out in times of crisis, even it means hurting its own economy. Intelligentsia will not make deals with another country that has a poor history of inhuman treatment of its citizens.

The nation of Intelligentsia is less of an actual "nation" per se and is considered by its citizens a "collective state of mind". Founded by a few disenchanted Jewish intellectuals primarily from West Texas, the sole desire of Intelligentsia is the acquisition and dissemination of information. This is done primarily through a network of extremely dedicated individuals who refer to themselves as "Aggregators" or "Walkers". These individuals, whose numbers never climb higher than 200, are sent out into the other nations of the world to gather any form of knowledge they encounter from personal testimonies and journals to books, magazines or computer records from any willing parties. These records are either sent back to Intelligentsia via the Internet or registered post or returned to Intelligentsia in person by the Aggregator. The Aggregators also spread the word about Intelligentsia to other disenchanted intellectuals in the hopes of recruiting them for citizenship and serve a limited role as a tertiary intelligence network. Generally, an Aggregator will spend several decades abroad and will only return to Intelligentsia every ten or twenty years with his or her accumulated data. Some Aggregators colloqually called "Pilgrims" hold lifetime positions and will return home to submit all information gathered only at death. Though Aggregators are pacifists they are trained extensively in hand-to-hand and limited armed combat. All will carry small personal swords of Oriental make for ceremony and defense.

The remaining citizens of Intelligentsia work at home and prefer not to leave their nation's borders. Most work either in the emerging field of technology or as ranchers and petroleum industry workers, as their ancestors have before them back when Intelligentsia was part of West Texas. Though most of Intelligentsia's citizens are trained in some form of combat only 300 of them are enlisted soldiers. Since Intelligentsia is a peaceful and non-aggressive nation, these soldiers - known as "Constables" - serve more as a national law enforcement organization than as an actual military. One of the most honored duties of the Constables is guarding Intelligentsia's borders. Though Intelligentsia has an open border policy, the Constables monitor drug and contraband trafficking heavily. This policy is referred to as the doctrine of Acceptable Memes: maintaining the intellectual and spiritual purity and integrity of the nation by monitoring which substances are allowed in and which substances may go out. Though no reading materials or electronic software (legal or pirated) are banned, all ideas or speech are given free reign and all citizens may be well-armed, no illegal drugs are allowed into Intelligentsia. Anyone bringing illegal substances is punished severely; several citizens have gone so far as to petition for the Death Penalty, though capitol punishment has never been used to date.

The nation's government is ruled by seven individuals known as "Archons" who act as business management rather than as traditional elected officials. Chiefmost of these officials is the Supreme Archon or "Librarian", who not only acts as the nation's President but also as the keeper of the nation's extensive archives. All technological development is governed by the Archons, who have adapted a policy of "General Experimentation"; essentially, any company experimenting with any new form of technology is allowed to do so in Intelligentsia tax-free. All technology is open to the citizenry and all citizens have free access to the nation's archives. Only five percent of the archives - reserved for the use of the Archons and the Constabulary - are considered Closed Access.