Supernatural Rabbit Scrib
September 7th, 2008, 10:54 PM
In itself, it's a quite plausible scenario, and we are aware of several hundred such parallel universes. I suppose I'd qualify as a liberal, but the bias on the other thread is quite shocking- the POD would have to be centuries in the past such that the requisite memetics would arise, and I can't see how such a nation would in any way correspond with your "United States of America." I've had the AI browsing around for some promising specimens, and I've selected one I'll call Finney World. I'm afraid it's rather bland, but reality can be that way.
The (apparently unremarkable) POD occured in 1834, amidst the fervor of the Second Great Awakening. Some years later, Charles Finney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Finney)chose to enter politics and his personal charisma won him successive terms as mayor of New York City, Governer of the State of New York, and three successive United States Presidencies. He completed his final term in 1852, and, despite his lack of legal training, served as a Supreme Court Justice for over a decade, until that largely forgotten institution ceased to exist following the Second Constitutional Convention of 1864. He is viewed as the Father of his Country, a title the Finney World Americans would be loathe to apply to the likes of an unbeliever such as George Washington.
Finney pulled off something very few have achieved: a brokered agreement that prevented an American Civil War over slavery. Of course, the issue had been simmering for decades. If anything, it was even hotter there than in your America: The Missouri State Militia crossed into Illinois in pursuit of an armed and organized party of Abolitionists and fought a pitched battle with the Illlinois State Militia that left hundreds dead. Also, the role of Great Britain was quite interesting. By 1864, she was importing a third more cotton from the slave-holding states than in your world. On the other hand, while such things are difficult to quantify, her abolitionist movement was measurably stronger as well- call it a nice round one-third-stronger. The North feared British intervention to protect her trade; the South feared British intervention to free the slaves. Sensing that, barring drastic measures, a catastrophic conflict with international implications was inevitable, the wildly-popular Finney and other influential politicians of both parties launched a campaign to rewrite the American Constitution. Somehow, the house would no longer be divided against itself.
Sometimes there just aren't any easy answers. In your world, if there is to be a just settlement in the Middle East, who shall have custody of the Dome of the Rock? Some have proposed that it be left in the custody of God. To my cynical ear, that's the noblest of cop-outs: "Oh bugger me, I don't know, but let's find a way to stop killing kids NOW!" There, Finney's earlier idealistic views, forged by the Social Gospel of his day, had been blunted by two decades of realpolitik. Peaceful abolition was just not going to happen. On the other hand, the Abolitionist movement was just not going to dry up and blow away. The Convention bickered for eighteen very tense months, and ultimately produced a rather vague and minimalist document. I'd paste the text with a scan, but then some of you might suspect that I really do have solid information about alternate timelines, and where I'm from, people have Views about that. It could unsettle your minds. So I'll summarize the salient points:
We're all Christians here, in the "crypto-Evangelical-Protestant" sense.
Slavery is explicitly condoned by the Bible, so the rights of slaveholders are sacrosanct and will remain protected by the law.
Slaves must be treated in a Christian fashion, as men and women created in the image of God and joint-heirs in Christ.
Slave-taking is incompatible with Christianity (and Her Majesty's Royal Navy ain't wild about it, either), so no new slaves involuntarily captured in Africa may be imported, HOWEVER:
People can sell themselves and their descendents into slavery so long as it's all on the up-and-up.
Obviously, there was plenty more about the Electoral College and keeping bare arms (or was it armed bears?) and whatnot. But the real issue was: how to enforce the Compromise? Of course, there's no mutually-satisfactory answer. The South was not about to accept an all-powerful Federal government nosing around on the plantations, and the Abolitionists weren't going to leave it to the consciences of the boys with the bullwhips and branding irons. But, as I noted, this had been going on for eighteen months, and was in danger of being rapidly overtaken by events on the ground (see the above Missouri-Illinois battle). So, the delegates of the Second Constitutional Convention simply closed the document with, "... as it shall please God." and scampered home to douse various local political brushfires. As is so often the case, God saw fit to remain silent on the issue. But His representatives? Not so much. Then, not thirty days later, the REAL POD arrived in Finney World.
It's actually pretty tasty.
The (apparently unremarkable) POD occured in 1834, amidst the fervor of the Second Great Awakening. Some years later, Charles Finney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Finney)chose to enter politics and his personal charisma won him successive terms as mayor of New York City, Governer of the State of New York, and three successive United States Presidencies. He completed his final term in 1852, and, despite his lack of legal training, served as a Supreme Court Justice for over a decade, until that largely forgotten institution ceased to exist following the Second Constitutional Convention of 1864. He is viewed as the Father of his Country, a title the Finney World Americans would be loathe to apply to the likes of an unbeliever such as George Washington.
Finney pulled off something very few have achieved: a brokered agreement that prevented an American Civil War over slavery. Of course, the issue had been simmering for decades. If anything, it was even hotter there than in your America: The Missouri State Militia crossed into Illinois in pursuit of an armed and organized party of Abolitionists and fought a pitched battle with the Illlinois State Militia that left hundreds dead. Also, the role of Great Britain was quite interesting. By 1864, she was importing a third more cotton from the slave-holding states than in your world. On the other hand, while such things are difficult to quantify, her abolitionist movement was measurably stronger as well- call it a nice round one-third-stronger. The North feared British intervention to protect her trade; the South feared British intervention to free the slaves. Sensing that, barring drastic measures, a catastrophic conflict with international implications was inevitable, the wildly-popular Finney and other influential politicians of both parties launched a campaign to rewrite the American Constitution. Somehow, the house would no longer be divided against itself.
Sometimes there just aren't any easy answers. In your world, if there is to be a just settlement in the Middle East, who shall have custody of the Dome of the Rock? Some have proposed that it be left in the custody of God. To my cynical ear, that's the noblest of cop-outs: "Oh bugger me, I don't know, but let's find a way to stop killing kids NOW!" There, Finney's earlier idealistic views, forged by the Social Gospel of his day, had been blunted by two decades of realpolitik. Peaceful abolition was just not going to happen. On the other hand, the Abolitionist movement was just not going to dry up and blow away. The Convention bickered for eighteen very tense months, and ultimately produced a rather vague and minimalist document. I'd paste the text with a scan, but then some of you might suspect that I really do have solid information about alternate timelines, and where I'm from, people have Views about that. It could unsettle your minds. So I'll summarize the salient points:
We're all Christians here, in the "crypto-Evangelical-Protestant" sense.
Slavery is explicitly condoned by the Bible, so the rights of slaveholders are sacrosanct and will remain protected by the law.
Slaves must be treated in a Christian fashion, as men and women created in the image of God and joint-heirs in Christ.
Slave-taking is incompatible with Christianity (and Her Majesty's Royal Navy ain't wild about it, either), so no new slaves involuntarily captured in Africa may be imported, HOWEVER:
People can sell themselves and their descendents into slavery so long as it's all on the up-and-up.
Obviously, there was plenty more about the Electoral College and keeping bare arms (or was it armed bears?) and whatnot. But the real issue was: how to enforce the Compromise? Of course, there's no mutually-satisfactory answer. The South was not about to accept an all-powerful Federal government nosing around on the plantations, and the Abolitionists weren't going to leave it to the consciences of the boys with the bullwhips and branding irons. But, as I noted, this had been going on for eighteen months, and was in danger of being rapidly overtaken by events on the ground (see the above Missouri-Illinois battle). So, the delegates of the Second Constitutional Convention simply closed the document with, "... as it shall please God." and scampered home to douse various local political brushfires. As is so often the case, God saw fit to remain silent on the issue. But His representatives? Not so much. Then, not thirty days later, the REAL POD arrived in Finney World.
It's actually pretty tasty.