[Vision Statement] The Enlightened Sophocracy of Hoags

[Hoags]

The nation of Hoags is considered to have been formed circa 1100 AD, when Iretaba I united the regional tribes in conquest, establishing the Hoagic dynasty, named after Iretaba I's tribe. The Hoagic dynasty ruled via hereditary monarchy until 1792, when the Hoagic Revolution created the Republic of Hoags. This representative republic, headed by a series of democratically elected presidents, ruled until 1992, when the Enlightened Revolution deposed the Republic and established the Sophocracy.

Of great importance to the Sophocracy is the Sophic Assessment. This is the name given to a cumulative series of examinations, administered from the time a child is eighteen months old to the time they are seven years old, designed to assess an individual's holistic cognitive capability. Exceptional scorers are relocated from their family homes and educated at the Academy of Philosophy. Upon reaching the age of twenty, they are decreed Sophists and introduced to the Assembly. Average scorers receive technical education, and in adulthood typically work in offices or as skilled laborers. The unintelligent are relegated to positions of unskilled labor, or more commonly to agricultural labor.

The Assembly of Sophists is the body which decides all matters governing Hoags. It does this through direct democracy. Being extremely well-educated on relevant subjects such as ethics and political philosophy, the Assembly's goal is to determine through debate how best to create and sustain a nation without suffering; as such, it has nationalized all industry and services, and since the Revolution has been attempting to destroy the cultural norms that it feels act against the interests of the common man - the chief of which is self-determination.

In the nearly 30 years that have passed since the Assembly consolidated its control over Hoags, it has been largely successful in replacing the old society with one it feels will be more beneficial to the nation; it is now concerned with reestablishing the foreign trade that was its economy's former lifeblood, and creating a more reliable industrial and agricultural base. The end goal is to produce a planned economy capable of providing every Hoagsman with a holistically suitable quality of living: to include food, housing, healthcare, and education.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Hoags (see edit history)