‘The Olympic movement was a great inception. The idea of involving the youth of the world in a single prestigious event, stressing the importance of taking part, and of maintaining the amateur ethic, was a noble achievement in its day. Unfortunately, however, this ideal has, over time, fallen into deeper and deeper disrepute. First there was the political interference of Berlin in 1936. Then, later, there were the endless endeavours of certain individuals to cheat any way they could in order to secure victory at the expense of others. This has continued to such a point that today, with ever more sophisticated means of disguising performance enhancing substances, even the rigorous testing regime of the Olympic Committee has been tested to its limit. The old noble ambitions of the Victorian era have long gone, superseded by a contest that promotes only victory and the demarcation of competitors. It is true that it remains a great honour to compete for one’s country, and to win a medal, but one should not be labelled as a loser simply for being shaded out of the medals or not being precisely on form on that critical day when one’s event is called.
The modern day Olympics has not only fallen into disrepute by rewarding those who succeed in dodging the doping, it has also become a theatre in which winning can almost mean the difference between life and death. Yet winning can often be as much a matter of chance as merit. The fact that a child lives close to a facility, or has parents who are able and willing to fund the years of training that are required for one to become an Olympic competitor, is often not down to the talent of the child, but a consequence of fortune.
The Non-Olympics do not contain these chance elements, but instead reward effort and merit that is sustained and within the reach of everyone. Winners receive recognition, but this never replaces one’s true commitment to society. We invite you to observe our archive materials and contrast it with what you see and hear of the Olympics.’
The party was guided past photographs of the four Non-Olympic Stadiums in Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy, Port Stanley and Groznyy, then on to a section which faced a screen. The commentary to the film began thus:
‘Throughout history the human species has been obsessed with competition. The Romans raced chariots. Men and women have raced against each other in every way possible, and pushed themselves to jump and throw longer and longer distances. They have strived to defeat their opponents in rink and ring, and they have maintained their honour by gaining the coveted gold medal that has come to mean so much. Our question, however, is this: do we have to endlessly drive ourselves to defeat others simply to preserve honour, satisfy our ambitions and raise standards?
Our Founders and friends back in the 2030s believed that the answer to this question had to be no, and in the decades that have followed we on The Island have set out to demonstrate to the world that it is not only unnecessary to focus our aims on defeating others, it can be quite harmful as well as grossly unfair.
Our Non-Olympics has grown from strength to strength, so much so that now the rest of the world wants to join in. In fact so great has been the interest in our approach that we are now in the process of planning a merger with the Olympic movement within the foreseeable future. There is no doubt that the Olympic Committee want and need a cleaner and fairer Olympic Games, and there is no doubt on our part that we would like our philosophy to be more widely adopted. The new games, if they occur will have to be a combination of both movements with our contribution relating to a greater recognition for the amateur ethic, and the Merit Medals, which our Games are pledged to maintain. We love sport. It’s healthy, it’s entertaining and it’s fun, but it’s not if it falls into disrepute and destroys morale.
We believe, as in other areas, that the world deserves a choice when it comes to sport. Contrary to popular belief we want to preserve and enhance the Olympic movement, not simply maintain ourselves as a rival to it. We do not hate competition as some would believe, but simply state that it has its place within sport as in other areas. In particular it should not be so intense as to drive people to cheat or to crush the morale of those who have worked hard and long in the hope of gaining recognition and achievement.
The chariot race, which you now see is an old favourite that started life on our beach and is about as competitive as it is possible to get, and we are pleased that this is being seriously considered for introduction at the next Olympic Games. As you are listening to this a new Non-Olympic stadium is already under construction in Groznyy, outside Island territory for the first time, although naturally under our management. When the Non-Olympics are held there in 2109 attendees from all over the world will be able to purchase tickets for these Games rather than the Games being open only to Island citizens and wealthy individuals who last time had to pay extremely high sums for the two-week Falkland Islands entry visa.
On ice there can be no doubt that the standard achieved by our participants at least rivals that achieved at the conventional Winter Olympics. Skiing likewise is focused on personal achievement, as are the ever popular bobsleigh events.’
Scenes of these were shown on the screen as the commentary continued.
‘We are not short of world records as you can see. Over the years we have built up an impressive list of amateur world records. Take, for example, Ivan Pskov’s famous long jump of 2097, the now famous marathon run by Ernie Hammond in Yuzhno Sakhalinsk in 2101, and the many track and field achievements of the eighties. Here we see Olga Chalnikov breaking the women’s amateur 5000 metres record in Stanley in 2105. There are more should you wish to view them. As for the chariot race, this started as a fun race as you can see from this old clip from the very first Non-Olympics held here in 2041. Few people were here then and the Non-Olympics was really a non-event, except for those on The Island and a handful of specially invited guests.
The chariots of course are all of standard design, made of course by the Kamchatskiy Auto Company, which has a world copyright for their design. Maybe you too will have your own chariot and take part in one of our Sunday afternoon rallies.
Like the Olympics the Non-Olympics have their own para-equivalent. Here we see their coxless pairs rowing event from 2093, the last ever event to be held on the lake at The Royal Palace. That was a landmark year, as in 2097 the Stadium at Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy was completed for the first modern style Non-Olympics as we know them today, marking the end of this Stadium’s fifty-two years as a sporting venue.
Now we look to the future and the merger with the Olympics. What can the world expect? The Olympics will still be there of course, but amateur sport will be given a new lease of life, not just for us non-capitalists, but also for amateurs in the capitalist world. Come and join us at Groznyy 2109.”
The music of Vangelis’s ‘Chariots of Fire’ ended the filmshow, with scenes of the beachside chariot race of 2041. Outside The Queen was waiting in the executive lounge by the cable car station where both cable cars were parked. Inside the lounge the Queen talked informally to the two sets to learn about what had happened to her Tickets as she had said over lunch, and to Sylvia who was particularly interested her life and personal experiences.
“Being a Queen is not as easy as it might appear,” Her Majesty said quietly. “Often there are tight schedules and a very great sense of duty. One must never let one’s subjects down and one is always in the public eye. Then there is the responsibility of maintaining one’s appearance and quality of judgment. It is not about living a pleasure bent lifestyle. It is about fulfilling a very important role for one’s country, whichever one it happens to be. I had to grow up very quickly when I became Queen.”
“Do you see yourself as being the same as other world monarchs?” Sylvia asked.
“In terms of role and duty, yes,” she said. “But in terms of history, no. We are definitely different, much newer and with a quite different structure. The set system is unique to us, and of course there is no money. We are the only royal family in the world to have no money at all. Not that that affects our status or quality of life. In fact w
e probably live better and more comfortably than any other royal family. When I have met other royals around the world I often leave feeling so fortunate to have the nation state and territories that I do, and subjects who are always loyal and kind and think cooperatively. Human psychology in some places really does have to change and I feel sorry for some of the monarchs who have to rule over territories where terrible atrocities are occurring. I would hate to feel responsible, as I would, if some of those things were to occur in any of my territories.”
“What are your relations like with The Prime Minister?”
“Always very positive,” replied The Queen. “The Queen, The King, my mother and my Prime Minister all have specific roles at the head of a very well balanced system. We do share political decision making though, perhaps rather more than in other countries where the monarchy’s political influence has been diminished, largely through a history that we, thankfully, don’t have. We try to be approachable to the people, and to be seen. We do not spend all of our lives in this cosy retreat, but it is true that The Island itself does provide a level of privacy that I know some royals around the world do envy.”
“True,” replied Sylvia. “I know that for a fact. A little bird also tells me that The Island is soon to have a new King. That’s causing some excitement amongst the world’s media as more people are aware of The Island’s existence than ever before. Can you give us any indication as to how long it will be before we have a King?”
“Oh it will be soon,” answered The Queen. “I know the people always begin to speculate as soon as a new Queen is crowned, but it will be soon, shall we say this year?”
“And is there any truth in what I have heard that a dozen or so of your Ministers as well as the outgoing King have to be fully satisfied in your choice before The Prince can become a King?”
“Absolutely,” said The Queen. “He has to be trained for the job and be totally outstanding in his political capabilities. Our Kings don’t just inherit a throne, they have to be thoroughly competent to manage the world, almost like the Samurai tradition.”
“So what sort of training does a Prince have to undergo here?”
The Queen and Sylvia talked for about twenty minutes, the setmates listening with interest about what was soon to transpire.
“I can’t believe that from where we all were just over a month ago here we are now rubbing shoulders with Queen Katie of Kamchatka,” Anne remarked to her setmates. “She just seems so ordinary, yet she is going to be a phenomenon on the world stage very soon and hardly anyone has ever heard of her. Unbelievable.”
“But then this is The Island of Dreams,” said Gary.
Chapter Eleven
The Self-policing State
Four weeks later.
It was four o’clock in the afternoon and Gary and the others had just returned from the ice rink. Anne was making tea in the kitchen whilst the others were sitting in the living room discussing the latest refinements to their skating routine as they eagerly awaited a television announcement from Joanie. On cue the television switched itself on at four o’clock.
“Good afternoon setmates,” she said. “I now have some important things which I wish to say to all sets, so please listen carefully. As you can appreciate it is my duty as far as is reasonably practicable, to maintain equilibrium of the social system. It follows that it is also my duty to ensure that all newcomers to our society are able to understand and apply the procedure for recognising and dealing with forces that may tend to act to disturb that equilibrium. In order to do this I have to disturb the equilibrium intentionally and, having done so, seek to ensure that all of you are able to subsequently restore it yourselves.
This exercise is designed to demonstrate to you how our legal system operates. In your study manual entitled ‘The Self-policing State’ you will find a diskette and a description of the history of our system for law and order as defined by Big John, our first Home Secretary.
When Big John examined the failings of the British judicial system from which he resigned he concluded that many of its misgivings could be attributed to the state’s dependence on mass inspection to secure law and order. The police, he said, were like inspectors on the factory floor, and, by having such a role, they were unlikely to be able to optimise on justice. Instead their role undermined justice and generated pecking orders within society, with a system that was adversarial and blame ridden. The policeman, like the factory inspector, was there simply to bring to book those who stepped out of line, irrespective of whether individual laws were seen as good, bad or indifferent. He did not see a positive role for the police at all in this regard, although he did accept that in order for their role to be changed there would have to be a dramatic reduction in the scale and nature of crime within society as a whole.
In Big John’s view the nature of policing should be reappraised in line with Deming’s Third Point, which requires that we cease being dependent on mass inspection to achieve quality. Having considered this carefully and looked at parallels between the policing function and the role of inspectors on the factory floor Big John came up with his own unique interpretation of what we now know as the Self-policing State.
In Deming’s vision, workers would achieve a higher level of quality if they were empowered to take responsibility for the quality of their output rather than placing all of the responsibility on inspectors. Big John’s view was that the quality of life in an entire society would improve if everyone were empowered to police everyone else, rather than placing all of the responsibility on police, the courts and the prison service. In a capitalist society such a change was possible, but difficult to apply because of the high levels of crime that existed in some areas. The Island, however, was fortunate enough, through its people and the way its citizens were carefully selected and trained, to be able to start from a standpoint of a virtually zero crime rate. This was largely because all money related crime was eliminated and domestic crimes equally reduced to a very low level thanks to the Set Formation Act and its provisions, which place a duty on secondaries to intervene should signs of a breakdown be evident.
Traditional policing methods, Big John said, were unacceptable as they do nothing to prevent law abiding citizens from falling foul of pecking orders, often tragically early in life, leaving them frequently with the stark choice of either remaining at the bottom or of forcing themselves up by pressurising others. Therein lies the problem, as the ensuing pecking orders do not benefit society, but suppress talent as dominance is by aggression rather than wisdom.
The fact is that traditional inspection based policing fails to detect the presence of deviants, and fails to apply the appropriate corrective action through the criminal justice system until it is much too late. This is in contrast to our system which aims to prevent crime before it happens by removing the cause, which is known as deviance. Big John asserted that if the status of a deviant can be diagnosed before the crime occurs, then the danger of a disturbance to the social equilibrium can be averted. Sometimes certain conditions, such as the existence of internal competition within a group, were found to increase the probability of deviance and so develop the pecking order. Without deviance the desire to pressurise others is eliminated. In other cases a latent defect may be triggered, for example through access to firearms or offensive weapons, which give the holder a strong and immediate sense of power that can be very destructive. A case of the latter is that of Dunblane 1996, which is featured in your study packs. I leave it to you to decide whether you think that under our system the shooting of the children would have been prevented.
The tradition of shared responsibility on The Island has led to a culture of shared responsibility for the actions of deviants. It is not purely the deviant that is responsible. It is everybody.
It is now my duty, in accordance with my terms of reference as Prime Minister, to declare each and every one of you deviant until further notice. It is your duty as prospective citizens to study and enact the provisions of
the Self-policing State so that this status can be effectively removed, leaving you with a secure knowledge of how this system operates.”
“Well, what do you make of this one?” Anne asked.
“I guess the first thing we need to do is ascertain why we have all been declared deviant,” said Lars. “It has to be done with a reason. That’s clearly stated in the study module and its odd that the PM hasn’t stated it.”
“We must have to find out the reason,” suggested Graca.
Connie made her way to the computer.
“What are you doing, Connie?” asked Michael.
“I’m going to key into Commander for some ideas. It usually has solutions for most things. I’m going to start with the definition of a deviant because although we have read about the Self-policing State, I feel we need to go back to basic definitions if we are to complete the task that we have been given.”
Gary joined her as she entered the study module. He then read aloud the two definitions that Commander provided.
“Definition one, person incompatible in time or space with others with whom he or she interacts through neglect of social principles. Definition two, a state of mind of an individual which has exceeded its bounds of stability to the extent of presenting a social hazard.”
Connie then clicked on to the related term of deviance and obtained the definition for that term. Again Gary read this definition aloud.
“Deviance is the condition arising from the presence of one or more deviants which results in a disturbance of social equilibrium.”
The same was then done for the term deviantism, which yielded the definition of ‘conceptualisation of the condition of deviance into a theory that is governed by natural laws’.
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