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On Tue, 7/19/16, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: Xenophobic Terra?, was Re: Planetary Charters, was Re: [TML] Amount of self-government on member worlds
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2016, 2:38 PM

 > On
 Jul 19, 2016, at 2:26 PM, Evyn MacDude <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
 wrote:
 >
 > On Tue,
 Jul 19, 2016 at 7:46 AM, Abu Dhabi <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
 wrote:
 > Well, I'm certainly no
 scholar in the lore area, but what I've gleaned from
 sourcebooks, the wiki and general osmosis is that the Rule
 of Man was plenty
 fascist/totalitarian/xenophobic/insert-bad-thing-here. And
 that was just after contact with the Ziru Sirka! And at
 least the Terran material in Mongoose stuff is that the
 Solomani Party is pretty much the stand-in for Nazis in the
 setting.
 >
 > How  wrong am I?

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  Evyn said;

 Wow,
 that was a jump... No where did I find that the Rule of Man
 was run by Space Nazis/Commies, If anything they got stuck
 propping up civilization as the previous power group
 collapsed ahead of their advance. All the Space
 Authoritarianism seems to start with the beginning of the
 3rd Imperium...

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Bruce said;

 I agree with Evyn. All the descriptions of
 “Rule of Man” I’ve read said it’s nickname was
 “Ramshackle Empire”. As Vilani hegemony collapsed across
 the Ziru Sirka the Terran Navy tried to maintain some
 semblance of order in the chaos as long-repressed cultural
 and ‘nationalist’ movement arose in the power vacuum.

 The Solomani Party LONG
 post-dates the 2nd Imperium; it arose after the Civil wars
 in the 3rd, and in it’s current form is largely shaped by
 the aftermath of the Solomani Rim War

 From CT Supp. 10, “The Solomani Rim”:

 "Eventually, a Third
 lmperium was established in the core; the first emperor
 assumed the crown in the year zero. The lmperium expanded
 rapidly under Cleon I and his successors; the Solomani Rim
 was added t o the lmperium without fighting, various worlds
 and governments joining from 426 t o 588.

 During the early years of the
 Imperium, the Solomani hypothesis was first advanced,
 stating that Terra was the original homeworld of all humans
 (Solomani, Vilani, and a numberof other races which had
 beendiscovered),and that non-Terran humans had been
 transported to their "homeworlds" from Terra about
 -300,000 by an ancient star-faringspecies. This theory
 (well-knownduring the Rule of Man but forgotten during the
 Long Night) was easily confirmed by evidence on Terra. The
 Solomani Hypothesis did not assume political importance
 until the Civil War (604-622). In the upheavals of the war,.
 Vilani nobles and industrialists began to assume more
 prominent positions in government and industry, often at the
 expense of the old Solomani aristocracy. In reaction, the
 Solomani movement was born. Beginning with the proven
 Solomani Hypothesis, the movement reasoned that the pure
 Terran racial stock was superior and best fit to run the
 Imperium. Solomani, they claimed, were the original men; all
 others were degenerate offshoots of the true line. As
 evidence, they pointed to the ease with which the Terran
 Confederation had defeated the much larger Vilani Imperium.
 The movement was at its height in the mid-600s. when it
 dominated the inner circle of advisors to the Empress Arbel-
 latra. However, when Arbellatra's successor, Zhakirov,
 came to power in 666, the movement began to lose favor a t
 court. The final break came in 679, when Zhakirov married
 Antiama Shiishuginsa, whose family controlled the powerful
 Vilani mega- corporation Zirunkariish. Previous emperors had
 been of pure Solomani extraction; Zhakirov, in ensuring that
 his heir would be of mixed blood, cemented an alliance with
 the Vilani industrial interests and thus greatly increased
 the stability of the lmperium at a time when stability was
 desperately needed."

 And from “Library Data N-Z”:

 "Solomani Confederation: In 871, the
 government of the Solomani Autonomous Region reorganized
 itself as the Solomani Confederation, in an attempt to
 strengthen its claims to the heritage of the old Terran
 Confederation (q.v.1. Although tanta- mount to a declaration
 of independence, the reorganization was officially ignored
 by the government of the Imperium, until the increasingly
 belligerent and extremist policies of the Solomani caused
 many border worlds under Solomani rule to peti- tion the
 lmperium for redress.

 The
 branches of the Solomani Confederation's government took
 the names of the government of the Terran Confederation, but
 the present institutions have lit- tle resemblance to those
 of the past. The chief governing body of the Solomani
 Confederation is the Secretariat. The Secretariat is
 presided over by the Secretary General, who is elected from
 its membership. The Secretary General is the chief
 administrative officer of the Solomani government, and while
 the office holds great power, it is fully accountable to the
 Secretariat.

 Representativesto the Secretariat are appointed
 by the governments of the in- dividual districts. The number
 of representativeseach district may appoint is deter- mined
 according to that district's contributionto the Solomani
 economy. A district typically consists of a single world,
 but low population worlds or depressed areas are combined
 into multi-world districts. In the case of a district such
 as this, an
 electionisheldtodeterminetherepresentativefromthatdistrict.These,
 however, are not elections in the normal sense; the
 governments vote, rather than the populace. Each government
 of such a district is allocated votes (again, according
 toitseconomicimportance)whichareusedtoelectarepresentativeforthatdistrict.

 All government officeholders
 and officials must be members of the official par- ty, the
 Solomani Movement. Although formerly of great power and
 influence, the party is now weak, decentralized, and of
 little importance. Real power in the Con- federation is held
 by the government and the factions.”

 That seems far less “Nazi-ish” than
 “Circa 1955 Soviet Union”.

 Bruce Johnson

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I agree w/ Evyn & Bruce & would like to also add this from CT LBB Supp8 'Library Data A-M', p20-21, last paragraph of 'Civil War' entry, concerning the reign of Arbellatra;

"...; the Solomani influence in the Imperium was lessened & replaced with a more cosmopolitan policy;..."

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