Dominion of Southern America Part VIII

[Glen]

The Dominion of Southern America Timeline Discussion
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part I
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part II
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part III
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part IV
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part V
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part VI
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part VII
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part VIII
If you would like your name to appear in this timeline, please follow the link to respond here.

 

[Glen]

Prior to the Population War, several Malthusian inspired apocalyptic fictional works had featured the horror of cannibalism. While over-population hysteria had become unpopular in the Post-Population War era, the public had acquired a taste for such horror and found satiation for this in the rise of the Hungry Dead genre.

Three major kinee series in the 1940s and 1950s really defined the Hungry Dead movement. The first was a British-Southron collaboration that was a more scientifically based horror kinee "The Rabid" which also played on classic British fears of rabies. While the first Rabid kinee was set in Great Britain as the outbreak of a new strain of rabies creates the Rabid (and unlike other Hungry Dead series also featured hungry dead animals of all sorts), subsequent kinees in the series often were set in the DSA depicting a world-wide outbreak. While technically not 'dead', the infected in subsequent kinees of The Rabid series, perhaps reflecting on the popularity of other Hungry Dead series, were shown to be gradually decaying (akin to what was classically depicted for lepers). The Rabid had the appearance of the dead and for most of the series past the original kinee there were no practical distinctions from other Hungry Dead kinees (though the 'dead' of The Rabid series often were also depicted as being fast moving threats compared to their more mythic counterparts).

Another series that eventually found a home in the kinee industry of San Diego was initially a foreign kinee from Scandinavia. Entitled "Draugar" in the original Scandinavian creation and loosely based on the old Scandinavian myths of the again walking dead, when imported to the English-speaking world instead of trying for a direct translation a clever play on words and inspired by the ponderous movements of the mythic horrors depicted in the kinee, the English title for the kinee and the subsequent series was "The Draggers." The Draggers series was among the first to depict the hungry dead arising from their graves to feast on the living.

Made around the same time as Draugar (and there is some controversy still as to whether there was 'borrowing' of ideas from one or the other kinee) was a French-Ottoman collaboration entitled "The Curse of Ishtar." The Curse of Ishtar had the stronger backstory though the make-up and kinematography of Draugar was more lauded. In The Curse of Ishtar, French academics digging in the Ottoman Empire disturb a 'secret temple' dedicated to Ishtar, ignoring the curse protecting the temple.

"If you open the gate,
I shall raise up the dead and they shall eat the living:
And the dead shall outnumber the living!"

In the French translation the word ghoul is used to refer to the Hungry Dead, and the later series was referred to as the "Ghoul" series. The Curse of Ishtar gained a cult following in the Francophone minority of the northern United States and "Ghoul" kinees in future were often Franco-American collaborations as the USA worked to compete with the kinee powerhouse out of Albion.

After the 1950s many horror stories used the terms 'dragger' and 'ghoul' interchangeably though in general ghoul was more popularly used in the USA and dragger in the DSA (with rabid being more a subgenre).

The members of the Human League sought to further international trade and development but many of the powers (and smaller nations) feared being taken advantage if they unilaterally reduced import tariffs between nations. During international negotiations negotiators struck upon a way to transition away from the patchwork of international tariffs towards an even playing field for all international commerce but in a way that would also help to provide for the first time an independent revenue stream for the missions of the Human League as an international organization. Thus the member nations of the Human League agreed to phase out their individual tariffs in favor of an international commerce tax that would be used to support the Human League. The development of this more streamlined means of international taxation led to even more hold out nations seeking admission into the Human League, rather than be faced with allowed continued tariff barriers on their goods being imported into the Human League trade sphere.

Growth of Tourism in the Dominion of Southern America

The development of air cooling technology opened up the Dominion of Southern America as a premiere tourist destination for Americans from the North as well as the British and others from the British Empire and around the World.

The initial destinations for tourists were the beaches and Everglades of the Province of East Florida, more beaches in the Caribbean Island Provinces (Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola were especially popular), the unique culture and life of the Province of Louisiana's New Orleans (especially during Mardi Gras, though Carnival in the Provinces of Cuba and Hispaniola vied with Louisiana in this area), and the kinee mecca of the Province of Albion on the west coast (as well as prime surfing, imported from Hawaii).

Adding to tourism was the increasing phenomenon of Yankee Birds, American retirees who would migrate during the cold months of the year from the USA to the DSA to flee the hardships of the cold. The butt of many jokes by the Southrons, none-the-less the American retiree community provided a significant economic stimulus to the Dominion's economy. They would prove especially important as an economic force in the Province of New Mexico.

By the end of the 20th century, Tourism (and Yankee Birds) joined the Kinetograph Industry, Oil, Cotton, and Sugar to form the Big Five industries of the Dominion of Southern America.

Rocketry advanced in the decades of the post-war period to the point that nations began to worry about the potential for the militarization of space and conflict over potential claims. Much as the Human League had moved to build on the international agreements governing the high seas, the international organization strove to establish a pathway for the peaceful development of space and allow for both access and keeping the peace. The International Space Access and Settlement Accords established ground rules for the free access to orbit for nations, ground rules for claiming territory (using criteria of both habitation and improvement to extraterrestrial space rather than just claims by exploration alone), requirements for providing aid to people in distress regardless of nationality, and the complete disarmament of space. At the insistence of Russia, whose nation had experienced the Tunguska Strike in 1908, it was also agreed that the Human League would be responsible for coordinating the search for earth orbit crossing asteroids and comets and developing defensive systems that could defeat such threats (though requiring the supervision and agreement of the Human League powers for their use).

Once ratified, many nations realized that if they did not start to develop colonies in space, others might, and so the race to colonize space was on!

The final round of negotiations for the International Space Access and Settlement Accords were finished and signed in Saint Petersburg, Empire of Russia on the fiftieth anniversary of the Tunguska Strike on June 30, 1958.

The Evolution of Hindoo Deism

With the onset of the British Raj, the colonization of India by the British, there also started a Hindoo renaissance in the 19th century, which profoundly changed the understanding of Hinduism in both India and the west. Hindoology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century which brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. Western academics searched for the "essence" of the Indian religions, discerning this in the Vedas, and meanwhile creating the notion of "Hinduism" as a unified body of religious practice and the popular picture of 'mystical India'. This idea of a Vedic essence was taken over by Hindoo reform movements including the Brahmo Samaj, which was supported by Western Deism, and promulgated the idea that all religions share a common inspiration. This "Hindoo modernism", became central in the popular understanding of Hinduism.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy (22 May 1772 – 26 September 1833) was the founder of the Brahmo Sabha movement in 1828, which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential social-religious reform movement, the religious component of which was Brahmoism, an early form of Deist Hindooism. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration and education as well as religion. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was known as the Father of the Indian Renaissance.

Ram Mohan Roy's impact on modern Indian history was his revival of the pure and ethical principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads. He preached the unity of God, made early translations of Vedic scriptures into English, co-founded the Calcutta Deist Society and founded the Brahma Samaj. The Brahma Samaj played a major role in reforming and modernising the Indian society. He successfully campaigned against sati, the practice of burning widows. He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his own country's traditions. He established a number of schools to popularise a modern system (effectively replacing Sanskrit based education with English based education) of education in India. He promoted a rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly, and social-reform Deist Hinduism. His writings were of great interest among British and American Deists particularly Freedom Deists.

The following doctrines, as noted in Renaissance of Hinduism, are common to all varieties and offshoots of the Brahmo Samaj:

​

• 
  
  
  • Brahmo Samajists have no faith in any scripture as an authority.
  • Brahmo Samajists have no faith in Avatars
  • Brahmo Samajists denounce polytheism and idol-worship.
  • Brahmo Samajists are against caste restrictions.
  • Brahmo Samajists make faith in the doctrines of Karma and Rebirth optional.

The Brahmo articles of faith derive from the Fundamental (Adi) Principles of the Adi Brahmo Samaj religion.
​

• 
  
  
  • On God: There is always Infinite (limitless, undefinable, imperceivable, indivisible) Singularity - immanent and transcendent Singular Author and Preserver of Existence - "He" whose Love is manifest everywhere and in everything, in the fire and in the water, in the smallest plant to the mightiest oak.
  • On Being: Being is created from Singularity. Being is renewed to Singularity. Being exists to be one (again) with Loving Singularity.
  • On Intelligent Existence: Righteous (worshipful, intelligent, moral) actions alone rule (regulate [preserve, enhance]) Existence against Chaos (loss [decay, pervading emptiness]). Knowledge (Intelligence [reason, sentience, insight]) of pure Conscience (light within) is the One (Supreme) ruler (authority [law, dharma]) of Existence with no symbol (creation [scripture, book, object]) or intermediary (being [teacher, messiah, ruler]).
  • On Love: Respect all creations and beings but never venerate (worship) them for only Singularity should be loved (adored, worshipped).

Articles of faith
The Articles of faith for Brahmos are:
​

• 
  
  
  • Brahmos embrace righteousness as the only way of life.
  • Brahmos embrace truth, knowledge, reason, free will and virtuous intuition (observation) as guides.
  • Brahmos embrace secular principles but oppose sectarianism and imposition of religious belief into governance (especially propagation of religious belief by government).
  • Brahmos embrace the co-existence of Brahmo principles with governance, but oppose all governance in conflict with Brahmo principles.
  • Brahmos reject narrow theism (especially polytheism), idolatry and symbolism.
  • Brahmos reject the need for formal rituals, priests or places (church, temple, mosque) for worship.
  • Brahmos reject dogma and superstition.
  • Brahmos reject scriptures as authority.
  • Brahmos reject revelations, prophets, gurus, messiahs, or avatars as authority.
  • Brahmos reject bigotry and irrational distinctions like caste, creed, colour, race, religion which divide beings.
  • Brahmos reject all forms of totalitarianism.
  • Brahmos examine the prevalent notion of "sin".
  • Brahmos examine the prevalent notions of "heaven" or "hell".
  • Brahmos examine the prevalent notion of "salvation".

Brahmoism in general enjoyed success beyond the borders of Bengal after the Sepoy Uprising of 1857 in part due to its pro-Western orientation. While the British Imperial officials were somewhat concerned with the movement's ties to Deism, they saw it as a useful tool to moving Hindoos closer to English ways even if they would have preferred a more "British" influence.

However, as the Indian Dominion sought to develop its own identity, more classic forms of Hinduism began to reassert themselves and Brahmoism had not seen growth in India past the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. The rise of Malthusian influences, the Thuggie scourge, and the United Nationalities of India, saw Brahmoism along with several other minority groups in India as threats to the new nationalist and Malthusian worldview. From the 1920s on oppression grew and became outright attempts at extermination during the Population War. The Brahmos who survived were those who fled India while they could or joined partisan groups either fighting side by side with the beleaguered British outposts or hiding out in the wild places of the Indian subcontinent. Many mainstream Hindoos and Muslims who did not fully support the Malthusian vision of UNI hid Brahmo and other oppressed minorities in India as well. Brahmoism would remain a small part of the diverse Indian populace after the Population War but would have more significant influences overseas.

In North America, Freedom Deists had embraced a number of religious traditions that had adopted Deist principles and 'rediscovered' Brahmoism with the Brahmo diaspora sending several to the United States and the Dominion of Southern America. Southron Hindoos at the same time were struggling to gain equality and an identity in the DSA and many were attracted to incorporating Deist and Brahmoist features into a resurgence in Hindoo religion in the Dominion. Hindoo leader Shush Raja in his later life would embrace Deist Hinduism and after that Deist Hinduism became a large influence on the Southron version of Hinduism, much to the chagrin of some more traditional Southrons who had always been wary of the odd Deist minority that had such influence in their neighbor to the North.

For a generation in the West post-Population War there was a lull in Hindoo studies given lingering anger towards the Thuggies and the UNI and their role in the Malthusian movement. However by the 1970s, somewhat rehabilitated by the impact of the Brahmoist diaspora and the interest of Southron Hindoos and Deists in general, all things Indian and Hindoo saw a resurgence of interest. A new generation of Hindoologists would translate, reformulate and presente Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporaneous audiences in new iterations, raising the profiles of Yoga including Tantra in the West and attracting followers and attention beyond India.

Hindu practices such as Yoga, Ayurvedic health, Tantric sexuality through the Kama Sutra spread beyond Hindoo communities and have been accepted by several non-Hindus.
​

​

Hinduism is attracting Western adherents through the affiliated practice of yoga. Yoga centers in the West—which generally advocate vegetarianism—attract young, well-educated Westerners who are drawn by yoga's benefits for the physical and emotional health; there they are introduced to the Hindoo philosophical system taught by most yoga teachers.

Some of these approaches have actually come full circle and become popular among the newer generations of Deist Hindoos in the West, particularly in the Dominion of Southern America.​

​

​

Biology developed on the twin pillars of diversificationary and inheritance biology. The gradual development of diversificationary biology provided a good explanation for the plethora of life seen in the contemporary world as well as the march of life seen in the fossil record such as the Tyrannodrakons. Diversiologists theorized that random changes to the building blocks of inheritance (identified as residing on the azurocorps of the cellular nucleus) that resulted in expressed traits that filled environmental niches either not previously exploited or in a way more effective than others would spread through inheritance through breeding populations and with the accumulation of enough differences in traits between breeding populations diversification would occur. Advances in crystallography allowed for the identification of the helical molecules that served to carry traits through reproduction.
​

​

​

The era of modern logic and group theory was given birth by the mind of brilliant mathematician Winnifred Hall, who was born in the Province of Georgia in the beginning of the 19th century. While her work was initially obscure in the chaos of the Slaver Uprising, in the relative peace of the founding of the Dominion of Southern America, her work was popularized throughout the British Empire and then all of Europe. With the realization that Hallean logic could be used to define the workings of logic engines, knowledge of it spread from the rarefied halls of mathematical academia. Those who hoped to develop mechanical logic engines hoped to follow in the footsteps of the mechanical calculator, but making parts to the demanding specifications needed for the logic engine especially given the complexities of such machines made the attempts limited in their success and ability to be widely employed.

​

​

However, in the early 20th century with the development of the vacuum pipe a new generation of electronic logic engines. Still bulky, energy hungry, and tending to overheating, nonetheless they were able to outperform any of their mechanical predecessors. One of the pioneers of the electronic age of logic was Samuel Oomen, whose family came originally from Southwestern India but emigrated to the Dominion of Southern America. In his youth Samuel joined the Southron Navy but shortly thereafter was accepted to Oxford where he became an innovator in theoretical and practical logic, including the development of the Universal Logic Engine (ULE) concept.
​

​

Of course, the development of the crystal tripole made practical the development of a range of ever more compact electronic logic engines and other than in technical and academic works the more popular term became by the mid to late 20th century the logicine.
​

​

​

The next three elements to be discovered in the immediate post Population War period were Nanganese (Elatom 43), Qurpurine (Elatom 85), and Callistium (Elatom 61). These were the first of the new wave of elatomic discoveries made possible by the development of Elatomic power and the heavy elements it and atomic bombardment made possible.

Of these three, nanganese in particular would go on to find use in medical studies.

​