Blitzen
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Officioparensocracy
I'm having some fun thinking about something I'm calling officioparensocracy as a form of government.
This is from the Latin officium (responsibility) parens (parents) and, of course, ocracy.
The idea is simple: it is ridiculous to assume that a person upon reaching a certain age (16, 18, 21 whatever) automatically becomes responsible adults.
Here is an example:
We have Tony, 16 years old, left school, has a job in Tesco. First council house with Laura, his girlfriend of three years. She isn't working because she is expecting their first child. Is saving up for a pram.
We have Mark, 24 years old, student, lives in halls in term time, with his parents in the summer. Works in Tescos. Spends all his wages on drink and drugs and going out.
Oh, yes, I see... Mark is so much more of an adult...
Not.
So this government works on the idea that you become an adult when you get responsibility. You get responsibility when you become a parent. So whilst men and women can both vote, they have to have kids to do so.
Only parents can serve in the government, etc. I think this would lead to very different laws from what we have now, for instance much harsher penalties for nuisance neighbours who play loud music when your baby is sleeping. The death penalty for paedophiles and so on.
Anyway, I'm sick of fantasies always using what we have on earth. So what do you think of my officioparensocracy then?
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12/14/2007, 11:41 pm
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QS2
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Re: Officioparensocracy
Just a thought, but Parensocracy seems to me to be much easier to say and still would I think convey what kind of government you mean.
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12/15/2007, 7:02 am
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David Meadows
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Re: Officioparensocracy
I see a big demand for adoption agencies, with children bought by people who have political aspirations. If adoption is made illegal, then a big black market in baby trading, plus crooked doctors willing to sign a birth certificate and testify to a natural birth.
At the other end of the scale are the people who have natural children purely to advance their social status but don't want to look after them, so a big demand in child minders and nannys.
And somewhere in between, you have to figure in surrogate motherhood as a profession (legal or otherwise).
Either way, you have a social structure that favours the wealthy. (As always.)
If you want to get really gritty about it, you have young men who work for adoption agencies and prowl the clubs, equipped with rohypnol, to impregnate unmarried women who are then likely to give up the children they can't support. And abortion becomes less common as young pregnant women realise it makes more sense to sell the babies.
---
"Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style."
-- Matthew Arnold, 1898
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12/16/2007, 9:45 pm
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Blitzen
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Re: Officioparensocracy
David, what a devious mind.
I think your culture is more advanced than mine, I had it in mind for an island based tribe similar to American Indians or Amazonian tribes etc.
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12/16/2007, 10:08 pm
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David Meadows
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Re: Officioparensocracy
Yes, it's something I can see working better in a tribal culture than a modern one. Only an advanced "civilization" could think up the perversions I came up with. And it's more believeable that a more basic society would really value parenthood as a sign of wisdom.
---
"Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style."
-- Matthew Arnold, 1898
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12/17/2007, 9:00 am
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Reythia
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Re: Officioparensocracy
Haha! Meadows, Meadows... 
I basically agree with Corvus: while having kids might encourage some people to act more mature, it certainly doesn't do that with everyone. I mean, if the hypothetical 17-year-old mother or father isn't already reasonably mature when the kid is born, what makes you think that sleepless nights and screaming babies are going to encourage their thoughtfulness? That's like assuming that a baby is going to fix a failing marriage: it fails more often than it works, and it usually hurts the kid along the way.
But back to the fictional situation. Blitzen, how would your civilization deal with those adults who are infertile? Would that be looked on as a sign from the gods or something that they were bad people, or at least childlike? If so, I'd imagine that such a belief would encourage a certain amount of cheating on one's spouse, if you couldn't get pregnant. Or... does your society even require monogamy? How are they going to encourage it, given their laws?
An interesting idea.
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1/7/2008, 10:42 pm
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