Swena

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Swena
 swɛ na 
a high-quality photograph of Swena dressed formally
Swena in 2023
Founder of Theodia/Aethodia
Assumed office
July 2013
Quing
In office
22 April 2010 – July 2013
Personal details
PronunciationEnglish: /ˈswɛ.nə/
Aethodian: /ˈswɛ.na/
BornIndiana, USA
CitizenshipAethodia
United States of America
NationalityScandinavian-American
Political partyIndependent
Height182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
ResidenceUSA
EducationBA in linguistics
BA in cognitive science
Certificate of computing
Alma materUniversity of Georgia
OccupationIT specialist
Web developer
Known forCreating Theodia/Aethodia
Administering MicroWiki
Signature"Swena" in Theodic
The coat of arms of the Vincennes branch of the house of Fox Ridge, which Swena will one day inherit from his father.

Swena is the founder of the Technocratic Republic of Aethodia and its previous monarch (when it was known as "Theodia"), and currently exercises limitless de jure power within the country. He has a user account on this wiki, which can be found here. He is not interested in being a politician, and would like to "fix society and go back to work". He views himself as Aethodia's steward more-so than its ruler. Swena does not belong to the Left or the Right; and instead forges his own path.

Etymology

"Swena" is an early Aethodianization of "Sweyn", the non-numerical portion of the username he used online at the time of Theodia's founding. He chose "Sweyn" as a username, because he was, in 2007, very interested in both his Scandinavian heritage and the Middle Ages, and he wanted a name he could one day use in the SCA.

Pedigree

Swena's lineage has been studied somewhat extensively, and he currently has no proven connection to macronational nobility. His direct male line breaks five generations back due to a non-paternity event. Genealogically, he is a mix between Scandinavians on his mother's side and the original European settlers of the USA (specifically southern Indiana) on his father's side, with no known non-Europid ancestors; although there is popular speculation that his hitherto-unknown purely paternal fourth-great-grandfather may have had Amerindian (Illini) admixture. Swena's pedigree has no known instances of collapse (inbreeding), despite stretching back several centuries.

On his paternal side, he has four ancestors who fought in the American Civil War, all for the Union; and he has several who fought in the American Revolution, all for the USA. He has no paternal ancestors who fought in the World Wars, but he does have several relatives who did so; they all fought for America, as well. Virtually all of his paternal ancestors were rural working-class, with some being extraordinarily poor; and to-date none have been found who owned slaves. He is the second generation on his paternal side to go to college, and the first in several centuries to not grow up on a farm or on the frontier. The vast majority of Swena's paternal lines fade into obscurity in North America, and this occurs to such an extent that his paternal ancestry is almost entirely "American"; but there are a few lines that can be traced back to the following regions in the Old World: England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands. A few such lines are known to date back to the earliest European settlements on the Atlantic Seaboard, four centuries ago. The religion Swena inherited from his paternal forebears was American Presbyterianism.

His maternal ancestors were generally lower-middle-class, and primarily came from Norway; although some came from Sweden, Germany, and even Denmark. Nearly all of them immigrated in the 19th century and settled in the Dakotas and Minnesota. While Swena's maternal forbears were Lutheran, he did not inherit any aspects of their faith, apart from a Norwegian prayer occasionally said before supper.

Biography

Swena was born to in metro Indianapolis. They moved to Naples, Florida in the late '90s. He attended gradeschool there, and participated in Scholar Bowl / A-Team and various sports teams throughout that time. He graduated in the early 2010s, and went to study political science at FSU (He had wanted to study cognitive linguistics, but there was no such option.). After a year of living in the ghetto there, Swena transferred to FGCU near his hometown, where he had no major. A year after Swena transferred to FGCU, his family moved up to Georgia; Swena came along, and attended UGA for his final years in college. There, he was finally able to double-major in linguistics and cognitive science; he also devoted a lot of time to working with international students. At the start of his first senior year, Swena realized he could not get a job with his degrees; and decided to spend an extra year in school to earn a computing certificate. After graduation, he worked odd jobs until being hired to do web development at General Motors, where he worked until a round of layoffs in 2023. He has since returned to doing IT, while waiting for the software engineering job market to recover.

Political views

Swena's political beliefs are unorthodox, and are not easily summarized by one label; Swena uses the term "radical centrist" out of convenience. In his macronation (the USA), Swena is officially registered as an independent; and does not feel well-represented by any major party in that country; although he presently (2021) views the Democrats as far more of a threat than the Republicans, and is willing to work with the latter to quell the power of the former. Among minor parties, Swena supports the Transhumanists and the Pirates, and would register as either were they to become mid-tier parties like the Libertarians or Greens. Swena typically votes a split ticket, and often says he votes "like it's a job interview": looking at the individual candidates' qualifications and propensities, rather than their party affiliation.

List

An incomplete list of Swena's political beliefs in the year 2021 can be found below:

Government

Electoral process
Devolution
  • Cantonalism (federalism with small sub-national units and strong local autonomy).
  • Groups of people should be allowed to secede from any canton to form their own.
  • Most laws passed by the federal government should be opt-out for the cantons.
Legislation
  • Apply software development principles to legislation.
  • Legislation should be open-source.
  • The various bodies of the legislature should work as scrums.
  • There should be a regular release-cycle for legislation.
  • Continuously expand nomocracy.

Economy

Businesses
  • Businesses are somewhere between property and nation. Employees are citizens. The same principles that apply to temporal government must apply at least in part to economic government.
  • Businesses may only sell up to 50% of their stocks; the other 50% must remain owned by the business itself. (implication of above point.)
  • The tradeable 50% of each business starts out belonging to its founder(s). (This gives founders the power they need to establish the enterprise. Swena believes benevolent dictatorship works well at small scales.)
  • Businesses must be run as republics.
  • Businesses should only be allowed to own property in the lone canton they registered in.
  • As the lone exception to the above: businesses may own businesses in other cantons. Combined with the 50% rule, this federates businesses, and makes it possible for subordinate entities to seek independence.
  • No unions. (unnecessary, since all businesses are required to be cooperatives)
Manipulation
Currency
  • We should move the economy entirely online; but this should be done in a decentralized fashion to prevent tyranny and minimize the damage hackers could cause.
  • The national currency should be spending-power-stable (should never inflate or deflate).
Taxation
  • All taxes should be considered incentivizing.
  • Flat income taxes should be used for revenue raising; all other taxes should be used only for their incentivizing effects.
  • Requirement for the government to never spend more than it earns, except in highly limited situations.
  • There should be a liquidity tax past a certain amount of saving, to discourage hoarding.
Welfare
  • Avoid horizontal welfare (redistribution between people).
  • Vertical welfare (redistribution from past to future for one person) is fine if it's opt-out.
  • No minimum wage. (bad for the economy; and all business are cooperatives, so the workers will be able to negotiate their own wages dynamically)
  • No positive rights (negative only)
  • Free housing to keep people off the streets, but the housing should be extremely minimal, like the "coffin houses" of Hong Kong, so that people will not want to stay there any longer than they have to.
  • Encourage families to have 2-4 children each, via assistance programs (as a way to help keep the population above the replacement rate, without becoming explosive).
  • Basic health checkups should perhaps be covered by the government.
Infrastructure
  • Infrastructure should be prioritized.
  • The Internet should be a public utility, like electricity.
Misc
  • Autarky where possible.
  • Few regulations. (The entire economy will be small and medium sized local businesses, and will not be capable of regulatory capture at the federal level. Excessive regulatory capture at the cantonal level can be fought with cantonal independence movements.)
  • Tariffs should, at a minimum, be just high-enough to level the playing field. (Otherwise, Aethodia will surrender her industry to foreign competitors as the USA did in the 2000s.)

Environment

Perspective
  • Humanity is a pyramid scheme; and our continued expansion is necessary for our survival. However, we should seek to do this graciously.
  • Every inhabitable part of Earth should be inhabited by humankind. Unsettled land is fair-game for anyone.
  • Humans are the most-important creatures on this planet.
Power
  • Decentralize the power grid—encourage solar panels and windmills on homes.
  • Use Thorium-based nuclear fission reactors for centralized power production.
Resources
  • Ceased usage of resources that are, for practical purposes, non-renewable.
  • Ceased usage of non-degradable materials in disposable products.
Bioengineering
  • Encouragement of GMOs.
  • Completely eradicate the worst disease-causing organisms (like many species of mosquito and tick).

Culture & population

Demographics
  • Weakly encouraged miscegenation, albeit in a way that avoids generally prioritizing one genetic background over another, and in a way that is completely consensual. The hope is that, over long periods of time, this will gradually reduce racial differences, thus reducing the capacity for racial strife.
  • Positive eugenics in the form of quality control via genetic modification of any conception requiring medical assistance, in order to avoid certain debilitating genetic diseases.
  • No negative eugenics.
  • (only as a last-ditch effort) National breeding programs to create a sustainable population when the general populace will not do so naturally.
  • Abortion generally allowed when the aborted is not yet a viable human; and generally disallowed thence.
Culture
  • Interculturalism.
  • Minimal gender roles — just enough to support clear physical differences.
  • No social engineering for the sake of achieving "equity".
  • Allow most vices, but do not allow them to be advertised or otherwise promoted (such as in movies and other media).
  • Encourage the following major virtues: Diligence, Honesty; and the following minor virtues: Temperance, Decorum, Patience, Mudita. Swena views the former as being required for a society to succeed; and the latter as being beneficial.
  • Discourage the following major sins: Envy, Deceit; and the following minor sins: Laziness, Excess, Impetuosity, Crassness. These are in a different order than their corresponding virtues, as Swena views some of these sins as more impactful than their inversions, most notably: Envy, which Swena considers disastrous; but whose opposite (Mudita) is something Swena views as merely nice to have.
  • All media is propaganda, and gradually becomes our reality. This considered, there needs to be some way to require/encourage media to be historically accurate, without seriously impeding freedom of speech and expression.
Education
  • The purpose of education is to prepare the next generation for life as Aethodians.
  • As they come of age, all children in the country should have to pass a citizenship test to become a full-fledged citizen.
  • Citizens should be immunized (through education) against idealogies that seek to dismantle Aethodia, including but not limited to: Communism, socialism, fascism, Critical Theory, and Islamism. (Swena views this as an absolutely crucial step in mitigating foreign subversion.)
  • Citizens should be taught life skills in school (including credit cards, taxes, and home-ec)
  • Citizens should be taught from a young age that they are expected to have or adopt children in order to perpetuate the society.
  • Citizens should be taught how to care for and raise children.
  • Citizens should be well-studied in history.
  • Citizens should possess acceptable skills in logic.
  • Vocational tertiary education should be seen as equivalent to academic tertiary education. (we shouldn't be sending everyone to college)
  • (tentative) Your first degree should be paid for by the government, but only if it fits into a quota set per the demands of industry in the previous fiscal year. You should still be allowed to pay for your own degree if you don't fit inside the quota.

Other

Defence
  • A nation seeking to defend its sovereignty should develop a nuclear arsenal.
  • Focus on mobility warfare.
  • All citizens are part of their canton's militia, and must train periodically.
  • The militia may only be used to defend Aethodian soil.
  • Sometimes, limited wars of expansion are necessary. Sometimes.
Rights
  • Right to peaceably petition.
  • Right to freedom of belief.
  • Right to freedom of speech.
  • Religious pluralism rather than secularism.
  • Very limited right to protest.
Crime
  • Eventual forgiveness of minor crimes.
  • Aim for rehabilitation, where possible.
  • Execution should be legal, albeit used only sparingly.
  • Extensive use of corporal punishments that are incapable of maiming.
Relations
  • Cuius regio, eius politico — Swena believes each state should have the freedom to enact whatever domestic policies it wishes without interference from other states. Two states of diametrically opposite internal beliefs can still have common geopolitical interests; and the latter should not be scrapped for the sake of things that have no bearing on geopolitics.

Quotes

General
“Identity is strongest in diaspora.” ‒2014
“Every people has struggled; every person has lost.” ‒2015
“Fate exists only in hindsight.” ‒2015
“Discontent breeds action; satisfaction breeds complacency.” ‒2020
“Any society should foster honesty as a great virtue among its members; for a society of deceit is one without trust; and a society without trust is not a society for long.” ‒2021
“Genius dies in committee.” ‒2021
“Adversity is the crucible in which greatness is forged.” ‒2021
“Some things are so stupid only smart people could believe them.” ‒2022?
Politics
“You can't out-influence the Media.” ‒2020
“Politicians don't make policies to better society ‒ they make policies to please their donors and get more votes.” ‒2020
“Politicians won't change the system that got them into power, unless doing so would get them even more power.” ‒2020
“Governments don't lift people out of poverty or grow the economy ‒ the people do these things.” ‒2021
America
“Democrats go left; Republicans go right; Progress goes forward.” ‒2010
“We don't live in a capitalist society ‒ we live in a corporatocratic one.” ‒2020
“90% of our news is owned by 5 companies; and 4 of them are Liberal. All of them lie.” ‒2020
“The train we're all on started long before the current decade.” ‒2020
“You can't fix this system.” ‒2020
“‘Democracy’ is the process by which vultures fight over the remains of a society.” ‒2024

Awards

National
Event
Wiki
Misc

See also

References

  1. ↑ Special Royal Decree for Coronation of Dinesh I
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