“But wait, Mr. Strawman” I say, “There is a problem. Where are the people who disagree with your government?”
“Oh, they exist,” you respond, “Here, let me show you! Look, religious extremists bombing a school! Threatening all who don't worship their God! And here, a sleazy politician from the Conservative Party trying to undermine our way of life!”
“Alright, but it seems like all of your dissenters are just caricatures of their beliefs. Do they exist just to be bad guys?”
“Of course, if they can't see how perfect my system is, they must be bad people!”
“Well, Mr. Strawman, if that's how you want to RP, be my guest, but since you've stumbled into my beginner’s guide to have effective dissent, I'm going to teach you how to have more realistic ‘bad guys’. Sit down, strap in, and prepare for even more voices in your head!”
Rational Disharmony: A Beginner’s Guide to effective Dissent, Civil Strife and Rebellion in NationStates Roleplays
Hi everyone, this is a beginner's guide for people who want to have dissenters, protesters, and rebels that are more than mere plot devices or straw men. Role players who want to create debates in their parliament that might cause undesirable results, or the ability to switch their governments types on a dime(either through democracy or coup). This guide will help you understand the little things that make democratic and diverse societies feel alive, and often times crazy, to an outside observer. I'll be honest, this may not be for everyone, as it requires a bit of stepping out of your comfort zone, and a willingness to entertain ideas you may not agree with even Out of Character. However, if you are willing to take that step, we can create even more entertaining stories.
What is Dissent?
And can I shoot it?
One thing I've noticed in my time in NS is how uniform many nations are. Everyone worships the God Emperor, or every voter believes the same core principles, or one party has had control of Parliament for the entire OOC history of a nation. Often times the ruling government has solved most of society's problems, and just so happens to agree with the player on 95% of issues. Now, there is nothing wrong with this set up, we are after all given the gift of being Gods over our own nations. We can Role-play the civilian population however we want. One might even argue that's the point of Nationstates and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want to create a society according to your views, then go for it. I'm not here to judge or argue the merits of one system vs. another.
I'm here to offer a new idea for those bored with stability.
Why might you be interested in creating dissent? Because internal conflicts create situations that can, in turn, create great role playing opportunities. It could be as bloody as the American Civil War, or as peaceful as an election. Sometimes foreign nations may want to get involved, but not every internal fight will require outside influence. This Guide will only cover how to help you create dissent without foreign intervention. Not to say others won't be interested in meddling in your affairs after you started, but that just means more RP opportunities. This Guide is not meant to build everything for you, but to introduce you to the mindset, so that can you apply the ideas to your nation.
For the purposes of this guide, I'm going to be using common terms, but wanted to clarify what I mean when I use them. Here are some definitions so we stay on the same page:
Culture: A segment of the population with shared beliefs, experiences or backgrounds that shape the segment’s behavior. It could be members of a club, refugees from a particular nation, a group with a certain sexual orientation, or an insulated community.
Diversity: Multiple cultures interacting. Usually as different groups under one government, or geographically tied together somehow.
Segment: An identifiable portion of a population. For example, males between the ages of 15 and 35, the population of downtown London or business executives.
Values: Key morals, beliefs or ideas considered important by a group/culture/faction. Could be as simple as “self sufficiency” or as complex as Bushido. Usually these evolve from what makes them successful or makes survival easier.
Factions
What are they? Do I have them? Should I get tested?
“What is a faction? You didn't include that definition!” I hear you cry. It's true, I didn't define that term because I have a whole title dedicated to the topic! Now stop interrupting. According to Google, a Faction is defined as: “a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics.” So what is a faction? Let me give you an example(I'll be doing that a lot). In politics, the two most common factions everyone is familiar with are Liberals and Conservatives. These two tend to become the major political groups in most modern democracies, but what do they mean? Regardless of every clash, debate and sub-faction between the two, Liberal and Conservative thought can be simplified down to their key Values:
Liberals believe that everyone benefits when we work together as a group.
Conservatives believe that everyone benefits when the individual can decide their own paths.
These two ideas could be the basis of nearly every political clash. For example, Healthcare: Liberals want everyone to contribute to the group fund, and in exchange everyone is covered. This can be seen in supporters of the NHS, or the ideas behind the Affordable Healthcare Act.
Conservatives, on that other hand, want the freedom to decide their own solutions. To them, saving my own money to cover my own problems makes perfect sense. This can be seen with their support of Health Savings Accounts, and their opposition to government mandates requiring insurance.
I know I know, tense subject, but I picked it for a reason. To have a realistic disagreement, we must be able to understand all sides, regardless of personal beliefs. Even if you disagree with a certain side Out Of Character, understanding that side’s core beliefs will help you role play their actions in a realistic way. The hardest part is, and will always be, identifying what those core beliefs are. Sometimes even followers of a faction may not be able to explain their core beliefs, despite believing in them. And yet, to properly RP a new dissenting faction, we first need to know why they disagree with the majority in the first place.
To make a simple guide for a faction, I have created this:
Faction: Factions’s name, who they are, or what ideology they claim to support
Values: what are their core beliefs,
Notes: Specific ideas or comments that you think are important
It also comes in a convient copy/past model:
- Code: Select all
[color=#0000FF][b]Faction:[/b][/color] Factions’s name, who they are, or what ideology they claim to support
[color=#0000FF][b]Values:[/b][/color] what are their core beliefs,
[color=#0000FF][b]Notes:[/b][/color] Specific ideas or comments that you think are important
To go back to the Liberals and Conservatives, here is that simple model in action:
Faction: Liberals
Values: Everyone benefits when we work together as a group
Notes:Political Party is rival of the Conservative Party
Faction: Conservatives
Values: Individuals should decide their own paths
Notes:Political Party is rival of the Liberal Party
Does this model cover all situations? No, not by a long shot. There will be ideas/discussions that come up in debates and arguments that these simple values don't have the answer for. Those times are when Factions must decide what side to take. If it doesn't match their values, then they must either expand them to include new values to match the most recent issue, or modify existing values to fit the needs. For example, is conscription an idea supported by the Liberal Party who believes that the group works best together? Or is it supported by the Conservatives who believe the Individual self determination applies to Nationstates as well? Events will occur in your country that shape the views of your political parties, and they will evolve over time, but this is a good starting point to grow from.
To summarize, every dissenting group, or faction will have core beliefs and values that they use to determine their opinions and actions. To understand a faction, we first need to understand their core values. These values will decided how others will interact with them. Shared values will create relationships, while clashing values will result in conflicts. To determine what those conflicts might be, we must now look at the importance of cultures.
IMPORTANT NOTE: NO MATTER WHAT, ALL POLITICAL FACTIONS MUST BELIEVE WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THEIR HOMELAND/COUNTRY.
National Cultures
Aka why stereotypes are useful
Now that we have a basic understanding of Factions, it's time to get into Cultures. If you recall, I defined a culture as “a segment of the population with shared beliefs, experiences, or backgrounds. ” Ask yourself, what kind of Cultures or Groups would I have? This may require exploring your nation's history, looking at your immigration policy, or even geography. For example, a nation that used to be a colony of an imperial power, with open borders and lots of land borders will have a far more diverse culture than an isolationist island nation. If you have a regional or local map like Greater Dienstad, with neighboring countries and land borders, ask your neighbor's about their people and beliefs. Even if both of you have governments firmly against immigration and emigration, some of those ideas and peoples will still spill over the border.
So you've looked at your history, you've talked to your neighbor, and while you don't know what importance geography has, you have a map to reference. Now what? Now it's time to build Cultures! To keep it simple, I'll be using the following format to build a culture. You are welcome to use this as well, or even expand on it.
Name/Explanation: group or culture’s name, who they are, contributions to society.
Values: what are their core beliefs
Notes: unique identifiers or some history, include things that impact them in meaningful ways.
To start, let's build a National Culture. This is your Country's primary unifying belief system. The summary given to a foreign power to explain your people. Many nations will have a primary Culture, a “Who are you? ” so to speak. What's your nation's shared history, what beliefs was your nation or current government founded on? What makes your people unique? For an example, I'll share one of my favorite nations from the People's Unified Federation(complex government types are not covered in this guide), The Republic of El Sur del Gran Mokastana.
Republic of El Sur del Gran Mokastana: The Southern Republic of Mokastana, largely agrarian and large producer of medicinal and recreational drugs
Values: self sufficiency, independence, skepticism, cleverness,
Notes: formerly communist, followed by a Cartel government, only recently adopted democracy and international trade
How did I come up with those, you ask? Well let's start from the top. Name is easy, since we are working on a primary culture, we can name it after our current government or nation name. At this step we need to know if our primary culture is Top Down(government and elite dictates what's accepted) or Universal(majority of citizens share what's accepted). In this case, I'm going with Universal to paint the picture of the primary Culture. We also painted the nation as mostly agrarian, with a lot of drug production. While not “cultural aspects” these will have an effect on the forming of the culture.
We'll skip values for now and go on to Notes. As you can see, it includes a sentence or two about national history. El Sur used to be a communist state, but was overthrown by drug cartels. Recently it adopted a Republican Government type and is now “democratic”. Using this, we can infer and create values that would help the public survive and succeed in this nation.
For example, the older generations lived under a communist dictatorship then a cartel dictatorship. To them, keeping your head down and not making noise meant no government ‘re-education’ or hit squads. They would have passed these values onto their children. However, modern El Sur is politically more free. Drug runners, both legal and otherwise, are wealthy, and an influx of foreign made goods means many are willing to show off, or buy knock offs, to flaunt their wealth. Therefore, skepticism is very common in El Sur. The older generations are skeptical of the new government and these so called freedoms, and the younger generations are skeptical of what the older ones teach, since they see successful people being obnoxiously open about it. All generations are skeptical of business types offering them deals too good to be true, because as the nation begins to embrace political and economic freedoms, con artists have emerged. On the flip side, if you are clever enough to sell goods to skeptical customers, you can prosper. Therefore Cleverness is another value in El Sur.
Because of its agrarian society and massive drug related wealth, many believe hard work will lead to success as even small family owned farms can legally export coca and make good money. Because they value hard work, and don't see a benefit or need to pool resources, they are conservative in nature.
This is only a rough overview, but can be used to help create a National Culture. Decide what aspects of your nation are important to you and how they shaped the people. Remember, the National Culture is the culture that every sub-culture will either appeal to, or clash with. From here, we can begin to build sub-cultures,
Sub-Cultures
Or why you are an Imperialist Pigdog
Sub-cultures don't always mean minority cultures. A sub-culture could be a minority, such as immigrants forming a ‘Chinatown’ style neighborhood in your Capital, or it could be the culture that formed around Truck Drivers who keep your nation's industry alive. We don't need to identify every sub-culture, just the meaningful ones. To start, let's look at a group of people everyone has, but is often overlooked, farmers. No matter how advanced a nation is, every MT and PMT nation will have farmers. They may be peasants with hand tools working under oppressive masters, or fully modernized with industrial technology and healthy bank accounts. In general, farmers are rural, far from big cities and industrial powerhouses. There may be factories nearby, but most land will be dedicated to food production.
If the farmers have freedom, they may end up valuing ingenuity and self sufficiency. Going into town might require a whole day to get there and back, if not longer. Reducing those trips means more time for other things. That means they probably won't have access to the latest greatest version of everything, but they will be better at making things last longer. Using this, we can create a short summary of their Culture:
Farmers: Free citizens in the rural areas growing food for the nation.
Values: Ingenuity, Self Sufficiency
Notes: Far from population centers, slow to adapt newest Tech or Primary Culture changes due to distance from cultural centers.
Now let's say instead of free citizens, the farmers are serfs who work for oppressive overlords. They will rely on their masters to house, feed, and supply them. In exchange, they will work hard to provide crops for their Lords. Their lives are at the mercy of their masters, so maintaining that relationship, whether abusive or not, is important to their survival. They may know rumors of past serf rebellions, and the terrible fates that happened to them. They may wish to avoid that fate even if a successful rebellion might improve their lives. Some might even betray a rebellion hoping to earn favor with their master. Based on this, we have a start for this Culture:
Agricultural Serfs: Serfs who tend the fields and crops for their masters.
Values: Survival, don't cause trouble or get attention,
Notes: Due to reliance on hand tools, many are strong, but many also die early due to poor medical care and overworking.
Now, these are generic starts to two very different cultures based on one group of people, the farmers. If your nation is very agrarian, you may have different farming cultures as well. It all depends on your nation and what kinds of people you want to occupy it. Perhaps you have a group of Gypsies who travel your country, or natives from before colonization. Explore your significant groups and people you want in your nation. Give their cultures personalities, history, and most importantly, Values based on how they survive and prosper. Once you have identified the influential Cultures of your nation, we can start to make them fight for your amusement.
Rational Disharmony
How to appear like a nation with a mental disorder - Walk through edition
You have your sub-cultures, you have your national culture. You understand factions. Now it's time to combine them. This is where the fun begins: Finding cultures and factions that disagree based on their values. Perhaps it's Urban vs. Rural, Liberal vs Conservative, Rich vs. Poor, or Capitalist vs. Communist. Whatever conflict you desire, you now have groups for your factions to ally with.
To demonstrate a good conflict. Let me introduce you to the country of Examplevania, a land of six million people that will be dealing with a communist uprising.
Here are the cultural notes from Examplevania:
PRIMARY CULTURE:
Republic of Examplevania: a mountainous second world nation with modern amenities and a couple over populated cities on the coast, most non mountainous land is for farming.
Values: hard work, family values, loyalty to local community,
Notes: mountains make infrastructure projects difficult, therefore trips of a few kilometers as the crow flies might take a full day on foot. Trains typically only run from ports to mines in the mountains. Most villages are left alone for days at a time.
SUBCULTURES:
Farmers: Free Citizens in the rural areas growing food for the nation.
Values: Ingenuity, Self Sufficiency
Notes: Far from population centers. Focus around village life, most live and die without traveling.
Miners: Employees of mining companies digging up ore to export
Values: survival, hard work, fair deals
Notes: living in mining communities, most rely on their employers to supply their towns with food and goods. Many miners started out by leaving farming towns to try to see more of the world or bring in money for their family.
Factory workers: employees in the cities working in newly introduced factories.
Values: work life balance, hard working,
Notes: health issues due to cramped Apartments and poor work conditions. Well paid but dangerous work.
Wealthy citizens: Employers/managers and owners of the mines, farms, and factories. May include educated elites as well.
Values: hard work, family oriented, and self sufficiency
Notes: second and third generation leaders, many own family companies that started as one mine or farm. Wealthiest are building factories, trying to bring in more wealth to Examplevania.
Nomads: Northern tribes in the mountains not working as miners. Follows their herds to sustain themselves
Values: independence, hard work, communication skills,
Notes: while nomadic, they trade with many farming and mining communities, even acting as highway guards and post offices for locals.
Let's say we want a communist party to take power in this country. To start a communist revolution, we must ask what values would a communist movement believe in? Everyone knows: “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”, but often that is simplified to “Equal shares for everyone who contributes”, let's go with that:
Communists in Examplevania believe equal shares for everyone who contributes.
A new communist party forms promising everyone equal food and money if they work. It's not a morally right or wrong value, just a value they want to spread.
To begin, how does the National Culture of Examplevania feel about Communism? If friendly, then maybe the Communist Party already has some seats in Parliament, with sympathizers across the country. If against, then it will be harder for the communists to make allies and work within the system. Maybe Communism is even illegal by this point. For Examplevania’s values, we listed: hard work, family values, loyalty to local community. Nothing really in favor or against communism. Local communities may teach communist style lessons on a local level(a bad harvest might cause the village to share their meager supplies so everyone survives) but it's up to the Player to decide if that translates to the national level.
With this in mind, who would be the communist’s primary backers? Poor working class in the cities, following an articulate revolutionary? Or perhaps political leaders seeking to make the country better (according to their opinion)? Leadership of the communist faction will help decide how they act. A revolutionary with nothing to lose may take up arms against a government, while the politician may try swaying voters first. In the case of Examplevania, let's say influential factory workers tried to unionize, but when their calls went unanswered, they began to look towards Communism and created the first Communist Party of Examplevania.
Now that we have the birth of Communism in the country, we get to find a good opponent. As they say, with every action comes an equal and opposite reaction. If the communist value is “equal share for everyone” which culture disagrees the most with that? The self sufficient farmers? The wealthy citizens? If multiple counter cultures exist, which has the most political influence? They will be your counter weight. In this case, we will be using the Wealthy Citizens culture, given they are already in conflict with the factory workers(remember the calls to unionize) and have the most political power. Now we have the first two Factions, Communists and Counter Communist. The Communists introduced a new Value, therefore it is their starting value. However, this political faction was started by an existing Culture, so they will adopt that culture's values as well. The Counter Communists are just a faction made up of members from the Wealthy Elite Culture. It is important that not all members of the Wealthy Elite will immediately back this new faction, nor will all factories workers become communists immediately, but they will be the easiest to sway.
Faction: Communists
Values: Equal shares for everyone who contributes - work life balance, hard working,
Notes: Started by City Factories workers, generally poor
Faction: Counter Communists
Values: hard work, family oriented, and self sufficiency
Notes: Started by Wealthy Elite in conflict with City Factory unionizes. Faction adopts Wealthy Elite values.
From there, you can decide how the rest of your cultures will react. Will miners prosper under communism or fight the enemy of their employers? Do the farmers want equal shares as well, or just want to be left alone? Maybe a single culture doesn't really have a strong opinion either way. In that case, you can fall back on to your National Culture, how does it react to the communist surge? If in favor, the neutral cultures may not support the revolution, but wouldn't fight against them either. If the national culture opposes communism, they may partly support the counter revolutionary efforts, but not necessarily take up arms. In the end, every culture's response is up to you. So you can decide how strongly every group reacts. These questions only serve to create an internal dialog within your nation.
While we have been thinking about this, word of Communism has been spreading in Examplevania. Farmers who value self sufficiently see no need to deal with government agents getting in their business, saying who gets to keep what crops. Miners and factory workers who value work life balance and fair deals, see the value of their hard work being sold off and don't feel like their pay matches. They find Communism favorable. Wealthy Citizens who have everything to lose are universally opposed to it. While nomads who value independence are against it, but willing to discuss it since they value communication.
Now that we have drawn lines in the sand and identified the cultures that ally with the communists, the counter revolutionaries, and the neutrals, it's time to decide the scale of conflict. Is this a protest, an election, or full blown civil war? A protest may not even require a government response, while a civil war will require every group to pick a side, even if it's succession. A protest may grow into an election, and an election may spark the losing side to take up arms. In each conflict, remember that ALL sides will be using less than honorable tactics. One side may punish their supporters as criminals for doing so, but there is always the chance someone will do something stupid “for the greater good.”
So let's say there is a pro Communist rally/strike by Factory Workers, a Wealthy Citizen is the local mayor and sends police to break up the protest. Boom, conflict achieved and done. That's it right? Well… no. We still have a long way to go. Dissent and conflict can continue for a long time, sometimes even generations, we have only begun the plot of the Communist uprising. Instead, this action allows us to scale up the conflict. In response, a few Factory Workers kill a police officer in a pub. They are arrested and sentenced to death. The Communist Party issues a statement condemning the actions of the “rogue factory workers”, but now we must ask: How will the National government respond to this? The news outlets? Will Police begin to support the Counter Communists seeing as Communists are killing Police?
Let's continue to make things worse and say despite wanting to put an end to communist related violence, the government of Examplevania thinks outlawing Communism will lead to more violence, so they allow it to continue/grow, and only issue stern warnings. Soon elections happen and the communists win seats in Parliament, mostly in the city and mountainous districts. Now with political power, their rallies are safer. In opposition, wealthy citizens ally with the farmers, given they both value self sufficiency and create a counter revolutionary Political Party and call themselves the Nationalists, believing that they embody true Examplevania values. Soon the two biggest political parties are the Communists, and the Nationalists. A Presidential election takes place.
A NOTE ON NATIONALISM:
If you have noticed, up to this point I have done my best to avoid discussing Nationalism. It is because, while it is a strong belief, it is impossible to monopolize in these kinds of internal conflicts. Both sides in Examplevania truly believe they are patriotic and doing what is in the best interests of the country. The Communists see the wealth of their country in minority hands, while the children of Examplevania starve. The Counter Revolutionaries see their plans of pulling the nation out of poverty being derailed, by those who want to steal the money needed to improve the nation. Although one political party has take the name of the Nationalists, it is in name only. Every Faction should always believe they are doing things in the best interests of their homeland.
It is at this point, we the storytellers, can either have parliament wise up to this conflict of interests and find a middle ground, or keep escalating the situation. For the sake of teaching, let's keep going
So let's say the Communist won the Presidential election, just barely, but now they have control of the government. How do their political opponents feel? The military? The intelligence community? If you haven't thought of those yet, feel free to give them the same treatment we did to other cultures to understand them. The military is unique since it is a Top Down culture, often made up of your other cultures. To figure them out, ask yourself ‘What does military leadership believe in? What groups are more likely to join the military?’
Let's say the military leadership is mostly the elite and wealthy, while the enlisted men are mostly from communist sympathizer cultures. To protect their interests, military leadership uses their elite forces to stage a coup against the Communist President. The lower ranks in the army rebel to support their government. We now have a civil war.
Or, let's say instead, the enlisted are mostly from self sufficient farming communities, a culture we decided was against communism. Would the farmers trust the military elite to restore a government in their favor? If so, the bulk of the lower ranks may join the coup and crush opposition in the cities. After this, do the miners, still safe in their mountain communities, now rebel?
The best part of these conflicts, is that we can still scale it up regardless of outcome. What if instead the Counter Revolutionaries/Nationalists Party won, do the Communists rally to the cause and try again next election? Do they pass farmer friendly legislation to bring the farmers to their cause? Do they shut down the mines and factories in protest despite the backlash it would cause? Or do they rally their sympathizers in the military to stage a coup of their own?
From here you can continue the struggle or even bring in foreign intervention. A communist government official might ask a communists nation for aide while a Nationalist Party member is negotiating membership into a pro capitalist alliance, with both sure of their future victory. If either invites foreign intervention, will the neutral factions/cultures take offense to occupation? The possibilities are endless!
Hopefully this guide can get you started on a civil conflict of your very own, with great opportunities for RPs. Have a happy civil war!
Continuing the Conflict
I have like... so many questions!
This Guide was just an introduction to get you thinking about different Cultures, Factions and concepts that might affect your nation's internal conflicts. There are still plenty more things to cover, from Religion, Historic relations, Racial Tension, Language barriers and much much more. Pretty much anything can spark some sort of conflict within a nation, and deciding how big those conflicts get, and how they evolve is entirely on you. I did not get into areas where cultures overlap, or why certain groups may actively work against groups trying to benefit them, or the effects of propaganda, martial law, or even dictatorships vs democracies. The truth is, there are so many ways to set up rebellions and dissent that attempting to cover every way someone might try to change their government is a monumental task.
Writing a Guide to cover everything from a Church backed coup, to a economic collapse and civil war is close to impossible, however, using the lessons of this short Guide, hopefully you can identify some of the key groups in those stories, and build a world that feels more alive and fleshed out. Good luck out there, and maybe one day, you will be as crazy as the People's Unified Federation.