Part of the unusual constitution of the fantasied (1) post-American Northwest Republic forbids --constitutionally, mind you-- two kinds of professions which have "wreaked havoc on society": lawyers and clergymen.
Prohibiting lawyers seems only common sense :). The NW forbids anyone from receiving any kind of payment, in coin or in kind, for being an advocate for someone else in a legal matter. You can be an advocate --which is the word for lawyer in the Romance tongues-- but it has to be totally volunteer. The NW legal code is contained in a single book of about 200 pages, so such people would be possible. The NW constitution re-establishes the institution of the duel as an alternative to suing. One of the incidents which sets a legal duel in motion is the lethal insult of calling someone a "lawyer."
Same with clergymen. Being a priest or a minister is not forbidden, since freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed. You just can't make your living at it. No kind of payment or support for this service is allowed. (Mormon bishops already do this.) I guess the idea is to prevent the princely carryings-on of prelates and TV evangelists: if you have to earn your living otherwise, it cuts back on your time for empire building.
One of the assumptions in the NW novels is that the primary threat to the stability of the new order is religious dissension: differing kinds of Christians, and Nordic neo-pagans, fighting against one another in the National Assembly for power to make their faith the de facto State religion. The prohibition of priestcraft appears to be designed to reduce these energies so that they do not compete with or destabilize the State. This is the ironic situation in which the National Socialists act as the moderating influence in society!
The NW version of Nazism is not a copy of the German one. Whiteness, not German-ness, is the basis, so Ukrainians and Poles are as welcome as Italians, Norwegians or Irishmen. The idea of a fuhrer is discarded in favor of a one-term-only State President, elected every six years by the citizenry. But since the population of the NW, after initial ethnic cleansing, is entirely White and chooses to remain there, a lot of the nastier tactics of the 1930's and of the war for independence are no longer needed. For example, its version of the 2nd amendment is radical, forbidding any restriction on firearms and actually encouraging all its citizens and residents to be weaponized.
No lawyers. No televangelists. And a populace armed like cowboys. You gotta give 'em credit for imagination.
(1) Not Ex Cathedra's fantasy; he would be barred from entry to the NW one.
1 comment:
The concept is nice, but would involve a little tweaking to allow you and me to live in relative peace. I would like to see a novel or series of novels in which strict constitutionalists get their own country and tighten up the Constitution to prevent the vagaries that liberals love exploiting.
First Amendment stays the same, but each right gets a paragraph to spell out what counts. So, freedom of religion would be expanded to spell out that Congress nor the states can pass a law that would require a person or religious institution to violate the moral doctrines of their faith (except if they faith requires murder, human sacrifice, or honor killings).
Second Amendment stays the same, but includes an addendum that gun owners are considered supplements to the National Guard, and are to be utilized as such. Failure of military-supervised weapons training would preclude one from owning one. Illegal ownership of a gun would authorize use of deadly force by anyone.
Etc. A guy can dream, can't he?
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