?
Excellent update as always Thande, and boy, that's not an ominous statement a'tall. A peace with honour, won with chemical weapons perhaps?
Look to the West Volume V: To Dream Again
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
Excellent update as always Thande, and boy, that's not an ominous statement a'tall. A peace with honour, won with chemical weapons perhaps?
Alex Richards
Donor
Well, that certainly explains how the UPSA goes Societist.
And the way the Japanese section is written- that certainly suggests that Japanese culture is going to end up getting killed off entirely by the Societists at some point.
I wonder if this entire section with Monterosso is also intended by the in-universe author as a sort of prelude to the Black Flags, how a regime comes into power with the intent of helping ordinary people and ends up becoming an oppressive regime.
And the way the Japanese section is written- that certainly suggests that Japanese culture is going to end up getting killed off entirely by the Societists at some point.
I wonder if this entire section with Monterosso is also intended by the in-universe author as a sort of prelude to the Black Flags, how a regime comes into power with the intent of helping ordinary people and ends up becoming an oppressive regime.
Through the power of niceness and soup kitchens. Make the people like them through acts of kindness.
Wow! Just wow! I can really see how the Societist revolution is happening now. Th last history-book post describing Caraibas left me wondering how Societism would become revolutionaty, since Caraibas seemed like such an anti-revolutionary to me, and it's only now dawning on me how it all works.
Monterroso is the revolutionary - trying to bring down the Old Order of the corporations, but, as all revolutions do, he's flushing out the baby with the bathwater, destroying the economy and the corporate-run social safety net. Basically, in a state based upon corporate power structures, the Societists are the only ones who are both comfortable with those power structures while still having compassion for and accountability to the people at the bottom of those power structures. Thus ths Societists have escaped Monterosso's purges while being able to provide safe haven to the less corrupt of the Corporate managers. They don't stand poised to take power through revolution but through a counter-revolutionary coup! Its the counter-revolutionary aspect of the societists that is the key to their coming success. It's this aspect also that is actually the only aspect of Societism that I actually find scary; as a socialist I tend to sympathize with most OTL revolutionary movements and find liberal (rather than reactionary) counter-revolutionary movements to be the mos potent threat to social justice for all.
Monterroso is the revolutionary - trying to bring down the Old Order of the corporations, but, as all revolutions do, he's flushing out the baby with the bathwater, destroying the economy and the corporate-run social safety net. Basically, in a state based upon corporate power structures, the Societists are the only ones who are both comfortable with those power structures while still having compassion for and accountability to the people at the bottom of those power structures. Thus ths Societists have escaped Monterosso's purges while being able to provide safe haven to the less corrupt of the Corporate managers. They don't stand poised to take power through revolution but through a counter-revolutionary coup! Its the counter-revolutionary aspect of the societists that is the key to their coming success. It's this aspect also that is actually the only aspect of Societism that I actually find scary; as a socialist I tend to sympathize with most OTL revolutionary movements and find liberal (rather than reactionary) counter-revolutionary movements to be the mos potent threat to social justice for all.
Knew it.
Japan goes Societist and eventually ends up as TTL's equivalent of North Korea.
I'm calling it now.
Drawing a blank here. What is this?
So here we have the fake news and territorial changes creeping in! I wonder about the (kind of) Belgian colonial resurgence. Will they be able to take some (or all) of Batavia and/or the Republic of South Africa? Plus there's still the question of New Holland, which had relatively recently, been partitioned between the ENA and France.
Does this confirm what I said a few updates ago? It does seem like Societism really is not a very well-known ideology.
This is just too funny.
Yeah, saw this coming a mile away. Organized crime to the rescue!
Was that the actual leadership of the yakuza? Has the head of the snake been completely cut off?
Another blank here. Whos is this?
Can we get an F in the chat for anime?
Some quick Google fu gives me the following two links:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...v-to-dream-again.354968/page-90#post-15868019
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...v-to-dream-again.354968/page-93#post-16238368
These are the two posts Jaimes appears in so far. The short version is that he's a Societist with ties to the Priestley family.
Thande
Donor
Thanks for the comments everyone! Much appreciated.
@1SaBy Operation Vibora ("Viper") is Monterroso's 'root out the backstabbers from within' scheme (i.e. crush the big old pseudopuissant corporations and put on trial anyone tangentially associated with them in order to distract people from the way the war is going - or at least that's the cynical reading of it).
@1SaBy Operation Vibora ("Viper") is Monterroso's 'root out the backstabbers from within' scheme (i.e. crush the big old pseudopuissant corporations and put on trial anyone tangentially associated with them in order to distract people from the way the war is going - or at least that's the cynical reading of it).
The 19th century is almost over. And I shudder at the thought of what the 20th may bring.
The damn war is finally (almost) over.
At last, the Societists will emerge and try to make the world a better place for mankind.
At last, the Societists will emerge and try to make the world a better place for mankind.
F
On a more serious note, after the Battle of Gallipoli, excuse me, the battle of the Rio de la Plata is over, can we get a big map of the territorial changes the war produced?
No sign of anyone's house being burned down there in a filmic manner yet, though.
Yeah, right... Cynical...
There's always time. We have at least 10 more years for Thande to finish this.
After nearly a year of sleepless nights, I have finally reached the "present" of this TL. I feel like I'm a different person now from when I started with LTTW, but if there's one thing that hasn't changed, it's that I'm still gripped by it. For some reason, I'm drawn to the more "villified" characters - my favourite is Boulanger, I always felt sorry for Lazare Hoche, and now I feel for Monterreso. Looking forward to the dawn of the 20th century and the rise of Societism!
P.S. sorry for the bump in case anybody thought this was an update.
P.S. sorry for the bump in case anybody thought this was an update.
I'm starting to catch up with the story and looks like Societism is starting to expand. I have a question that I still have from Volume III: What was the fate of Hendrik Van Nieuwenhuizen after causing the spark of the Popular Wars (at least in Portugal and the Netherlands)? He still ruled Guyana untill his death? How he is looked upon in the historiography of the Look to the West Universe? My personal headcannon is that his last words were: "I regret nothing. I just took my chance where the opportunity was given. I don't owe anything to my old country: I'm a free man"