Kyela,
The Silver Elves
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Sample
pages from
The United States of Elven
First
few pages of Chapter One:
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION TO
ELVEN GOVERNMENT
"We Silver Elves have often said that Faerie and Elfin are states
of being and consciousness, states of sentient awareness much more
than physical places upon the Earth. Elfin exists wherever elves exist,
wherever individuals who live the Elven Way abide, wherever those
who call to Faerie and hear its Call may be. Yet, it is clear that
there are many who would love for there to be a physical dimension
upon the Earth that is Faerie, a true Elfland where the elfin may
go and be free to live their lives as they deem fit, in love, enchantment
and fairness. Thus in this book we seek to define what sort of government
might rule in such lands and even more so what laws, cultural and
social tendencies might foster such a world. What, in fact, would
an Elven government and society actually look like? And how may we,
in seeking to go about creating such realms, do so?
There are many governments in the world and they tend to be unique
in their own way and greatly affected by the people that come within
their purview. Yet despite their individuality due to cultural traditions
and history, governments do seem to fall into some basic categories,
which sometimes overlap and, as we said, are often made somewhat unique
by the individuals that formulate them. Governments and religious
philosophies are most often adapted to the people who adopt them.
Their traditions, prejudices and other tendencies become incorporated
into their institutions and the institutions are changed just as much
by the people who evoke them as, or more, than the people are changed
by their government and religions. There is a relationship between
a people and their elected or appointed (usually self appointed),
or inherited rulers, generally, or such a relationship gradually develops
(as for instance when the Normans conquered and became the rulers
of Anglo-Saxon England and in time becoming, more or less, one people).
It is a marriage of sorts.
There are really two general types of government. There are totalitarian
governments, which all stem ultimately from the Gang, Warlord or Military
modes of organization where there are no limits upon the individuals
in charge who may do and act as they please and compel all others
to do the same, which is to say force them to do as the ruler pleases
not necessarily, and infrequently, as the ruler does. Force is the
key to this style of government and it is only restrained by greater
force. Its motto is Might Makes Right. And there are limited governments,
which is to say governments in which the leaders are constrained by
constitutions and laws and which, ideally, derive their power from
the people who are governed. These governments are essentially an
evolution of the totalitarian form of government.
There is also, of course, anarchy, which is no government at all,
a situation of chaos which is the most basic form of the organization
of Nature and which, as we’ve pointed out in other of our books,
leads inevitably to the instigation of hierarchies and thus to the
ascension of Warlord/totalitarian governments, the rule of the strong
over the weak. It is in this sense that the lion is called the king
of the jungle and by which humans beings are currently supposed to
be the alpha predators and dominant species on the Earth. The viruses
are actually at the top of the food chain but most humans have yet
to clue into this fact preferring to live in illusion than face what
is the obvious truth. They prey on us regularly. We are a great food
source for them but we barely know how to fight them. Even if mankind
and other kind should succeed in bringing about his own doom and the
doom of most other species on the Earth, the viruses would persist
for they are more resilient and adaptable than most humans and thus
more intelligent. Of course, if humans do succeed in bringing about
the Apocalypse the viruses would probably miss us, just as some folks
would miss steak if they could no longer have it.
Anarchy, however, in its most advanced, perfected and idealized form
denotes a state in which individuals are so developed spiritually
and soulfully that they do not need laws to dictate acceptable and
legal behavior and may do as they please with the understanding that
they are not harming or imposing upon others. This is similar to the
Wiccan Rede: Harm None and Do What You Wilt. There are some, such
as Buffie Johnson (see Lady of the Beasts) who theorize that this
sort of egalitarian social organization existed among humanity during
the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods (although we expect that if
you really wished to understand those periods you could do far worse
than study the social hierarchies and organization among apes, monkeys
and chimpanzees, etc. that exist in the wild today). Individuals on
such a high level of spiritual development naturally tend to cooperate
for the benefit of all. In a certain sense, this describes the realms
of Faerie in their most evolved states and certainly Libertarianism,
which promotes the idea set forth by Thomas Jefferson that a government
that governs least, governs best, is a movement toward this goal,
although it, like idealized anarchy itself, in the world as it currently
exists, often seems naïve and even innocent in its way and thus
impractical thus leading to conflict and this brings us around again
toward the warlord mentality.
We can see this mentality easily all about us. It functions in gangs,
the mafia and other criminal groups. It can be found in the military
with its top down leadership where the soldiers are trained to obey
without question, but also in corporations, schools and nearly every
other form of business. Even in democracies/republics and constitutional
monarchies, the boss versus worker style of organization is the primary
structure of nearly every organization including the family. Sometimes
these are very primitive as in totalitarian governments that are run
by what is called the “strong man” to organizations where
the public votes for their particular boss/leader as is the case in
most democracies/republics. We may see that this evolution from unlimited
and chaotic anarchy to unlimited totalitarianism to limited government
also denotes the evolution of civilization.
Still, hierarchal structure is the basis for nearly all organizations
and this includes religious organizations, which are often founded
by a charismatic leader and evolve into structural hierarchies. The
warlord is also often a charismatic leader although generally, but
not always, religions, particularly in their beginnings, rely more
upon charisma and belief as a powers than outright force. The force
they use is more psychological (the fear of hell: eternal torture,
and damnation: perpetual loss of pleasure and privilege) than physical
but as history demonstrates they are not beyond using military force
to subdue those who don’t immediately bow down to them and unquestioningly
accept the doctrines they present as absolute truth.
As mentioned, these basic forms of government have various mixtures
and sub-forms. Some of the more common subcategories of government
are the following. As pure or perhaps impure/chaotic anarchy leads
to totalitarianism and the warlord form of government, that form more
often than not is in the style of an Oligarchy or basic Dictatorship.
While the warlord may be the supreme leader, he must have under bosses,
as they say in the mob, who support his/her rule (although usually
it is a “he”, although notice that bees have a Queen). These
individuals form a small elite group who function to keep the warlord
in power or topple him if they are dissatisfied with his rule. If,
indeed, they are powerful enough to do so.
These individuals not only acquire absolute power in a dictatorship
but also from that obtain great wealth. Even in monarchies, constitutional
and otherwise, and even in democracies/republics, these wealthy individuals
tend to strive to draw the mass of wealth and power to themselves
and to control the laws in such a way as to favor their own interests
and the further accumulation of wealth and power most often by controlling
the leaders through bribery. This is also the case in Communist countries
that supposedly are formed to spread the wealth among the working
classes and yet still the wealthy tend in time to gain control over
the reins of government and move ever to increase their own wealth
and power. This is not to say that all wealthy individuals seek only
their own advantage. This is not the case. The nature of the world
is not strictly a matter of class struggle and to think so is to fail
to understand the true nature of history and reality. To view things
in that way is to lack comprehension of the intricacies of life and
the fact that it is often the enlightened and compassionate wealthy
who have through time strived to uplift the poor and disadvantaged
and have promoted democracies/republics around the world. This is
the spirit that animates the wealthy and the noble of Elfin, to uplift
all our people and promote fairness and opportunity for all beings.
This is an energy that crosses the arbitrary boundaries of class and
social status and sees the essential and potential equality in all
creatures.
The Warlord mentality eventually evolves into the Monarchy in which
the warlord, now duke or king, is supported by the aristocracy composed
of the wealthy Oligarchs. In early times, much like modern criminal
organizations, each strong man was replaced by another strong man
who kills him to obtain his position, wealth and power. This was formalized
in ancient cultures in a ritualized sacrifice of the old and weak
king and the inception of the new king who would in time be sacrificed
when his own potency had diminished (see Frazer The Golden Bough).
This was particularly so because the life, potency and power of the
king was associated with the success of the people and the fecundity
of the land.
In time, however, kings and their followers sought to stabilize the
passing on of authority and did this through the establishment of
bloodlines and the institutionalization of noble families. Still,
despite that fact, if a ruler was weak it was likely that another
of his bloodline or a related bloodline (another oligarch family)
would overthrow and replace him. Shakespeare’s Richard the Third
is about just such a historical event. But history is filled with
such examples. Genghis Khan had to kill members of his own family
to obtain and retain his power, too. Still, for the most part, only
those of supposed royal blood, which is to say families that had been
part of the oligarchy and the family of the original warlords, thus
of supposed royal blood, could participate in these contests of cunning,
conspiracy, murder and privilege.
Democracies
and Communism would in time change all that as the common folk were
gradually uplifted and empowered to enter into this game through revolution.
Most stories about elves and faeries, both ancient and modern, picture
our cultures as being monarchies. In old stories this is probably
due to the fact that the writers themselves lived in monarchies or
constitutional monarchies. In modern stories, this may have much to
do with the reality that most writers of today base their ideas of
elves upon ancient faery lore and tales rather than conceiving our
culture in new ways. In some cases, these faerie worlds are pictured
as benevolent monarchies; in others they are less so. Quite often
there is a conflict between the various elven realms such as in Kingdoms
of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner, although this would not rate as
one of our favorite books. But also frequently these conflicts reflect
the ancient ideas of the conflict and war between the Winter and Summer
Courts of Faerie, the ancient strife between the Holly King (Alferian
Gwydion MacLir in his book Wandlore suggests this should be Holly
Queen and we are quite inclined to agree with him) and the Oak King
and between the Unseelie and Seelie Faerie courts. The number of books
that represent Elfin Faerie as monarchies are too numerous to mention
here, however, some of our favorites are Marie Brennan’s Onyx
Court series. But this tendency can also be seen in Melissa Mar’s
faerie books, Holly Black’s wonderful faerie novels, Emma Bull’s
great War for the Oaks and even in some of the Dresden Files novels.
There is no reason, however, to suppose that elfin faerie societies
are strictly monarchal, or that even if that had been so in the past
that they would necessarily be so in the present or the future. Elven
and Faerie folk, more than any other group, tend to promote evolution
and change, adaptability and transformation as key elements of our
culture. Nor should we suppose that every society of elves would necessarily
organize thems’elves in the same fashion. We can expect variation
and variety among the elfae (elves and faerie folk) even more than
we can among normal humans since we tend to be unique and eccentric
as individuals and that eccentricity is reflected in our families,
governments and social organizations......
