Human consciousness is a complex subject that has yet to a receive definitive consensus. Even so, the development of National Consciousness arises from a National Essence that defines the National Identity of a nation. It is reflected in the cultural, traditional, lingual, social, and personal attitudes toward certain behaviors and actions. All of these attitudes can be coalesced into a shared set of beliefs, values, and norms that members of a People’s Community have in common. They are instilled into the impressionable minds of the youth from the early age through the words and actions of parents, family members and relatives, neighbors and friends, and others within their social spheres of influence.
But not every young person is going to readily adopt those behaviors and consider themselves as part of that People’s Community. It is possible for someone to believe that their real loyalties lie with those of another People’s Community. They might be attracted to that other People’s Community’s value system or they might have some ancestral lineage that can be traced back to them. The challenge posed by the preceding two-part Entry is whether any nation can unite different People’s Communities around a shared National Identity and National Essence.
A People’s Community, like the Totality and the State, is not a monolithic entity. There are always going to be exceptions where individuals do not reflect the prevailing value system. These exceptions tend to occur on an instinctual level. An Englishman might think and behave more like a Prussian, just as it is also possible for a Prussian to think and behave like an Englishman. If an English emigrates to Prussia or a Prussian emigrates to England, they will assimilate and become no different than the rest of its members.
This sort of phenomenon is a common aspect of the American Way of Life, personified best as the “Melting Pot.” Millions of immigrants emigrate from their nations to become naturalized citizens, where they and their descendants can either assimilate or continue to reflect their ancestral People’s Community. The ones who reflect the values and beliefs of most Americans are most likely to become assimilated into the American Way of Life. The Freedom of Conscience should still be respected for those who chose to preserve their People’s Community within the Union. For the Federalist Party, the Federal government should be taking a proactive role in promoting an American National Identity conducive to an American National Consciousness, while at the same time respecting the Freedom of Conscience for different People’s Communities to maintain their Inward Freedom and Inward Security as part of their sense of Authentic Dasein.
There is always a People’s Community that wields a monopoly over the establishment of National Consciousness. In America, it was an uneasy unification of Americans from the English-speaking world and the German-speaking world. In English-speaking world, England established National Consciousness through the Monarchy. In the German-speaking world, there were several National Consciousnesses, but the most predominant were Prussians and Austrians.
Then there are countries like Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. The “Czechoslovakian” was either a Czech or a Slovak. The “Yugoslavian” could be a Slovene, a Croat, a Bosnian, a Serb, or a Macedonian. The “Soviet,” despite being commonly depicted as an ethnic Russian, also included various non-Russians who reflected the Russian National Essence. Soviet Russia inherited a Melting Pot from Czarist Russia and sought to promote an assimilation of non-Russians into a Soviet National Identity. The disintegrations of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union were in part the byproducts of breakdowns in the National Identities of the “Czechoslovakian,” the “Yugoslavian,” the “Soviet.”
The implications of those three countries demonstrate that National Consciousness is malleable enough to be changed. It also implies that the central government does play a role in the shaping of a National Consciousness. A “Soviet Nationalism” can be challenged by a Russian Nationalism; a “Yugoslav Nationalism” questioned by a Croat Nationalism or a Serb Nationalism; and a “Czechoslovak Nationalism” shattered by a Czech Nationalism and a Slovak Nationalism.
This proves that one version of Nationalism can be opposed by another Nationalism. We can see the phenomenon reoccurring again in post-1945 discussions of a “European Nationalism” and the Nationalisms of Europe among the member-states of the EU/NATO. Does the concept of Nationalism in Europe imply a “European Nationalism” applicable every nation in Europe? Or does the concept still imply the Nationalisms of different European nations? These questions continue to resonate in discussions of expanding the legal authorities of the European Union over its member-states as well as in the rhetorical appeals of “Euroscepticism” and “Pan-Europeanism.”
What is the Interpersonal Compact?
The long-standing questions of identity does not end with nations. As the experiences of adolescents can attest, the struggle to define the identity of the Self is another topic related to the broader purview of human consciousness. Although they are not as impressionable as children, most young adults in the secondary educational level have yet to define themselves as individuals. Many spend their years in secondary school trying to figure out who they are supposed to be and who they must become. Sometimes, the more nihilistic ones continue this matter well into the tertiary educational level as part of trying to ascertain what their Vocation is.
Under the Custodial-Care Function of the OECD-Type Student Economy, the secondary educational level is too aimless and directionless for young people. The problems of ascertaining one’s personal identity and what they intend do with their lives later on in Life are never properly addressed in the classroom curricula. In the Total Educational Effort of the SSE, the Student Body can define themselves and acquire their sense of Self-Consciousness. This is where the “Interpersonal Compact” comes in.
The Interpersonal Compact serves as a way for the individual to ascertain their personal identity as a Student among the Student Body and as a Self among the Totality. Issued twice over course of one’s secondary education, the recipient will be expected to complete a form that asks them to describe themselves in relation to the Student Body and the Totality. The formatting is designed to help the recipient identify their personal talents and skills, all of which they had to have acquired from their formative years in the primary educational level. Past experiences prior to the secondary educational level are as valid as the lack thereof because there is no right or wrong answer. The Student determines for themselves which answers are correct and which ones are incorrect.
The goal of the Interpersonal Compact is to determine the Student’s Specialty as part of guiding them toward an “Extracurricular Guild Occupation (EGO).” The EGO is a type of certification that qualifies the Student as being capable of performing certain Professions related to that Specialty. If the Student manages to learn a Specialty in the classroom and can successfully demonstrate it in the Student Tournament or Student Government, they will become eligible to be conferred an EGO from the Council State’s Ministry of Education. In the process of guiding the Student, the Interpersonal Compact will eventually assist them in discerning their Vocation, which can be done by learning Specialties tied to specific EGOs.
All political-economic activities in the SSE have their own EGOs. It is possible for the Student to learn Specialties and acquire EGOs entirely different from what they had written on their Interpersonal Compact. That is something which is to be expected, and the Interpersonal Compact is designed to accommodate those possibilities. This is part of the reason why the Interpersonal Compact is issued again before the recipient graduates from secondary school.
In the second Interpersonal Compact, the Student will compare what they wrote in the first Interpersonal Compact and what they had done over the course of their secondary education. They are expected to reevaluate past actions and initial expectations in relation to their post-secondary future. Not everyone is going straight to the university; some might instead be heading straight into the workforces or the armed forces. The second Interpersonal Compact is designed to ask the recipient about their Specialties and EGOs and whether they align with their future Vocation. Whichever answer the recipient provides is left to the discretion of that recipient.
Just like the first Interpersonal Compact, the second Interpersonal Compact contains no right or wrong answers. Only the recipient gets to decide whether their actions align with their initial expectations. If their Specialties and EGOs are related to their Vocation, they can continue honing them long after graduation and become members of the Totality. And even if the Specialties and EGO are unrelated to the Vocation, the recipient is more than welcome to gain valuable experience in the tertiary educational level or in the VCS Economy and Council State. Should they choose the VCS Economy and Council State, they are more than welcome to acquire the necessary training and experience as part of their employment with that related Profession.
Why Complete the Interpersonal Compact?
The benefit of answering the Interpersonal Compact should become obvious to those preparing to graduate from secondary school. The Council State maintains a conscription policy as part of the eradication of Unemployment and Underemployment within the State of Total Mobilization. But unlike the conscription policies of most countries, under the Work-Standard, getting drafted like playing the lottery. Some will be entering the workforces and others will be entering the armed forces. The Interpersonal Compact is designed to ensure that no Student is condemned to a future of Unemployment or Underemployment. If someone cannot figure out their Vocation during secondary school, they will spend the rest of their early adulthood contemplating it while trying to serve the Totality in the VCS Economy or the Military-Industrial Complex.
One could avoid completing the first Interpersonal Compact at the beginning of one’s secondary education. One could also excuse themselves from completing the second Interpersonal Compact. It is possible that one might have their ideas on what they want to do with their own lives. Even if one has an idea on what Specialties and EGOs they wish to partake as part of their secondary education, they must write down their responses on the first Interpersonal Compact. By doing so, they will be excused from having to complete the second Interpersonal Compact unless, at some later point, they decide to countermand that decision themselves.
Alternatively, one might abstain from the first Interpersonal Compact because they do not know themselves yet or they think it is too early for them to decide. In that case, they are more than welcome to experiment with different Specialties and obtaining their related EGOs throughout their secondary education. When the time comes for them to receive the second Interpersonal Compact, they will be expected to describe their experiences and all the trials and triumphs they went through to reach their current position in Life.
For a handful number of young people, their futures may not lie anywhere in the nation. It might actually be somewhere in another country. They too need to make those intentions clear in the first Interpersonal Compact because those intentions may change once they receive the second Interpersonal Compact. If they can demonstrate that their intentions have not changed at all, they are free to leave the country upon graduation to pursue their Vocations elsewhere. Should the nation find itself at war, they will be recalled back into the country as part of Military Conscription.
The lack of an answer on the Interpersonal Compact is technically an answer in itself. Those who never bothered to complete either Interpersonal Compact have demonstrated to themselves, the Student Body and Totality, and the Student Government and Council State that they lack direction and guidance. These are the delinquents, truants, and misfits who could never seem to figure out what they should be doing with their lives. Their refusal to build their futures will hurt them in the long run and that is precisely where the Council State intervenes in the affairs of the Student Government. For they will be the first ones to receive their draft cards in the mail as part of Work-Conscription or Military Conscription, depending on whether the VCS Economy or the Military-Industry Complex. If the Total Educational Effort cannot set those youths straight, then the State of Total Mobilization will.
Categories: Third Place
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