NationStates

I haven't seen any topics similar to this so far, so I'm creating one!
Feel free to write anything [non-roleplaying] you'd like to write about your nation here!
Personally, I will be writing about my observations/experiences on NationStates, what inspired me to make my nation the way it is, and how my moral compass has been challenged through this experience.

I started this Nations States experience by taking the "8 Values" quiz as suggested by my sociology professor. I knew I would be categorized as someone in the middle of the political-beliefs spectrum, but I wasn't sure what that was called. Come to find out I was something called a Centrist--I suppose that makes a whole lot of sense, right? Beginning my nation, I wanted my nations name to reflect my political goals for it, so of course, I simply called it New Centrist Utopia.

Did I get my wish of creating a Utopia? After seeing where my nation's economy is at...maybe not quite. Deciding on the dozens of issues presented to my nation each month was tougher than I expected, and while some decisions were an easy choice, many others left me unsure. Many of the issues had either no given solutions that I really wanted to choose or had more than one good choice. Looking at all the possible solutions given to me for the various issues every day, I realized I had learned a lot from this. Every time I logged onto Nation States, I was constantly thinking about how to balance my nation's economy, environmental awareness, and the happiness of my citizens with the choices and solutions that I was given. Dozens of the issues left me thinking, "I feel like this solution would be the right move, but I think it's going to sink my economy," or, "That solution feels morally correct, but how will it effect the environment?" This got me thinking about two things: how decisions in real-life politics are made and how does one decide on a moral, correct solution for everything?

The latter question has a more in-depth opinion of mine attached to it, so I will start with the former. Going back to the issues given by Nation States, these decisions made my realize the importance of group decisions, voting, and searching to find both pros and cons. Every time I would read through the different options for my decisions, I would find myself thinking, "If I did this in real life, there's no way I would surround myself with people who have some of these types of viewpoints." Of course Nation States puts extreme choices in the mix on purpose so their issues become more thought-provoking, but it still made me wonder about the effect the people you surround yourself with have on your opinions and decisions. Chapter 7 of my sociology textbook talks about conformity with the Asch Experiments. Solomon Asch created an experiment where he put one willing participant in a room full of other "participants" who were already in on the secret. When a simple question with a very obvious answer was asked to the whole group, all of the other "participants" would choose one obviously incorrect answer. The experiments' test subjects were very likely to conform to the rest of the group's opinion and choose the obviously wrong answer as well, so as to conform to what everyone else supposedly thought was right, even if it wasn't (Croteau and Hoynes 166-167). This scenario happens in real life everywhere--in every job field, at every level--especially in politics. The USA's current government has been destroying itself for the past three years because of our current president, and I can't help but wonder how much better our government would be right now if many of those in the white house didn't just conform to the Extreme Right's beliefs.

Just by browsing through Nation States I have seen such a vast array of beliefs and ideas. I suppose it's a bit shocking since in real life, people don't usually share political ideals or describe their dream countries. Nation States is the perfect outlet for people to do that, so even if one's ideals don't fit the mold of their usual environment, Nation States' whole purpose is to allow people to explore their own beliefs about government. Extremism is more normalized in Nation States than in the real world which can be both good and bad, however, given the nature and purpose of the website, this is expected. I think my political beliefs have shifted around slightly this semester, although I think it was more because I still have a lot of things to learn about life rather than because of Nation States' influence. With Nation States, I could easily see the many different political agendas of the users, but seeing these differences never caused a big change in myself.

Going back a couple paragraphs to my question on moral decisions, I think this vast expanse of political ideals, which can be seen throughout Nation States, have an effect on one's own definition of morality. During some of the World Assembly votes, I would often think my choice was an obvious one because if my side won, the results would be beneficial because of clear ethics and morals. However, I would then look at the overall results of the vote and see that it was more of an even split than I had thought.This got me thinking about why. It's clear some Nations are more based on role-play rather than the creator's real-life opinions, but most nations are more-so based on the reality of the creator. I also realized that the People on Nation States are from all over the world, not just America or politically-similar countries. Different regions of the world promote different sets of morals, all which influence each citizen. Views and opinions on morality often come from our religion, our upbringing, and our environment. Most people know that causing pain for others is wrong and causing happiness is good, but values, as well as the order of importance of values, can change drastically from person to person. In America, we tend to be very focused on ourselves and our immediate surroundings. This may cause the bystander effect to be more likely to happen here, and it usually means people will only care about something bad that's happening if it affects themselves or their loved ones directly. In other parts of the world where the community is valued greater than the individual, harsher punishment of the individual may be more normalized while, when something upsetting happens in the community or government, the problem does not go unnoticed, even by those not effected. This difference in attitude across the world also shows the difference in values.

Thinking through those questions about morality I had found myself asking did, in fact, create a change in how I viewed morality. Growing up, I saw morality as very black and white, however, I think morality is, for the most part, a huge grey area. Coupled with the fact that morality changes culturally, one's own moral compass will always be slightly different from everyone else's. As long as confirmation bias does not control one's views and leave you close minded, it's okay to have different opinions from others. There isn't always going to be a never-changing right and wrong answer in most situations. Interpreting situations that have been left open to interpretation is a part of maturation and learning. Nation States, as I've noticed, has a plethora of people who use confirmation biases in most, if not all, debates. This helped me realize that it's completely okay to disagree with someone, however, not seeking out the correct information and facts simply because you don't want your ideas to be contradicted is not okay. This made me want to read more studies, look through opposing viewpoints, and find out the facts about how I viewed government.

In conclusion, Nation States showed me the difficulty of making decisions that affect others. I had to constantly go back to my nations core values in order to decide on how to solve that issues that came up. Finding your core values and sticking to them is incredibly valuable and is something every young adult should be taught to do. Nation States also taught me to think twice about morality and to, again, go back to my core values when I had an issue that needed a morally correct decision.

Works Cited
“Chapter 7: Interactions, Groups, and Organizations.” Experience Sociology, by David Croteau and William Hoynes, McGraw-Hill Education, 2020, pp. 166–167.

Azania is my version of a better South Africa. You have no idea how it feels to live in a country (and love it!) often described as a failed state - even by much of its own citizenry. But who could blame them? Look at all the problems facing SA. Crime, corruption, poverty, the HIV/AIDS crisis, lack of service delivery, a severely underfunded healthcare system, xenophobia, racism (yes, this still is a problem) and ridiculous socio-economic inequality. It would take too long to list the others.

For me, Azania is what South Africa should have been. In Azania, history happened as it should have. Dingane never kills Piet Retief, the Battle of Blood River never happens, the Jameson Raid succeeds, the Second Boer War concludes quicker (as the Orange Free State - the only Boer republic remaining in this timeline - fights alone against the British), and was not nearly as destructive as it was IRL, and finally, the National Party loses the 1948 election. All this combined means that apartheid never happens (at least not as it did IRL). Thus, South Africa never slides into the mess that it's in now.

In this timeline, South Africa is a country to be proud of. It is a place of many different cultures, religions, languages and peoples. It is united in its diversity. It is the Rainbow Nation.

Japan is sometimes viewed as a "futuristic country" but is actually lagging behind in social issues (institutional xenophobia, misogyny, anti-LGBT discrimination) and technological adoption (offices still using fax machines, a lack of software-oriented innovation and digital media formats). So I created Hatsunia (as it currently is) to imagine what Japan would be like if it actually were futuristic. I felt that the best way to symbolize this was a personified synthesizer software whose name means "the first sound from the future."

Well, actually, the original reason I created Hatsunia was to serve as a backdrop for a fictional space program in Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. But later on, the concept of Hatsunia became "a tech-savvy, progressive Japan" because to have a good space program you need to have a good economy. And there are a lot of "deep-rooted" socioeconomic issues that hinder that in Japan, causing inefficiency and preventing the Japanese economy from reaching its full potential. Hatsunia became inspired by the 1980s image of Japan as a "high-tech economic superpower," but adapted for a post-80s world.

The history also involves Hatsunia never isolating (more exposure to foreign cultures resulted in less institutional xenophobia and racial supremacism), and never going through Japan's infamous imperialist phase in which atrocities were committed across Asia (this was written not in support of Japanese war crime denial, but as a statement that imperialism was not necessary or justifiable).

His Imperial Majesty the Sultan and caliphe, Mustafa VI. the ever-victorious, long reststed the tradition of changing the national anthem for every new Sultan, instead keeping the March of his ancestor Hamid III. written in 1717. Now his Imperial Majesty has chosen a new Imperial and Royal anthem, decreeing that this would be his personal march and would represent his Person alone. Thus the old Hamidiye Marsi will remain the national anthem and in similarity to the danish royal anthem the Sultan and his heir will be represented by a new melody. What prompted his Imperial Majesty to do so is unknown, but the last few months he chose to enhance the Imperial orchestra by building a new concert hall and hiring new musicians.
The Imperial Orchestra was founded in 1841 by Sultan Murad III. who was greatly gifted as a musician. Ever since then this institution of the Imperial court has seen prominence, hiring famous conductors and musicians from around the globe and plkaying in the magnificent Konstantiniyye Salonu, a grand concert hall built in 1909. Now a new Imperial concert hall has been opened by the Sultan, sporting space for over 4000 and near perfect accoustics, while maintaining traditional Haminid esthetics wherever possible.

The Theocratic Republic of Ulvena is my vision for an arbitrary nation to reconcile between the three Abrahamic faiths given we are all brothers and sisters in faith and children of God. This, synthesized with a desire for environmental traditionalism and a return to traditional values brought up Ulvena. It's also to show a way to live ecologically and with agrarian values without giving up high technology but instead accelerate it. Not in all ways, obviously, as biomedical and robotic ethics are seen as spiritual law, not just a matter of secular ethics.

It's also an Islamic majority nation to depict a nation that is, for all intents and purposes, a partial Islamic theocracy without trampling on the rights of other Abrahamic faiths. It opposes secularism, however, as a deeply religious, traditionalist nation is one that I want to explore given my own political leanings.