Elite Boarding Schools for Technomancers' neglected kids

[HorizonParty2021]

You've not long ago started a Thread about putting all the children of your agent's inside an institution entirely regulated by the Technocracy, constantly monitored by the Technocracy, and at the sole mercy of the Technocracy - aka, "your bosses". Also you seemed to imply that agents would accept that happily, out of fear.

It's "surveilance state" good or bad at the end of the day?

I have a personal opinion about surveillance that isn't important to the question about the Technocracy. I'm considering what Different actors might do - upper level Technomancers, foot-soldiers with little choice and Traditions (in the case of the "Free Construct"). The forum-consensus seems to be that Control and Panopticon are quite obsessed with security and surveillance of their own people. Canon lore supports that.

Here is how I arrived at the idea of the OP. Concerning Technomancers' Oldlife-Newlife, I can't help but think about the fact that the Union generates a lot of single parent families. I don't mean this in the sense of it necessarily causing divorce, although divorce papers issued by the MiB's frustrated wife working their way up a Construct's bureaucracy to reach him would make for good comedic interlude in a chronicle.

The low to mid level technocrat is an absentee parent and is made so by his superiors. It may be that the Technocracy holds different views about what is best for Sleeper Society than for its own agents' families, but that is a question in my mind. So here, I have to get into some nuance about Hypocrisy - not the dictionary definition, the actual way the word is used. The word is most often shouted or used as a term of dismissal. I really mean to look at the Technocracy's policy surrounding family in terms of hypocrisy, not because I want to morally condemn the Union. It is a point of interest.

Hypocrisy is usually understood in one of two contexts:

1. Contradiction between Stated Belief and Action.
2. Contradiction between Stated Belief and other Stated Belief. (Stated Belief can mean Professed Values, Mission Statement or what an individual tells everyone else they need to do.) The second type inevitably leads to the first when either State Belief is acted on, showing Actions to Contradict the other Stated Belief.

One thing is for sure. The Technocracy has a recorded view on families. It could not avoid noticing that there are statistical differences in outcomes between kids raised in nuclear or single-parent families. If it means to run the world, it certainly has a view on this, one way or another. Somewhere in the NWO's internal literature is a policy about this.

If the Technocracy declares that Sleeper kids are better off in single-parent families, its policies toward foot-soldiers' and lab-geeks' oldlife are consistent with that declaration. I find this unlikely. Iteration X - Statisticians and Progenitors in the medical community would probably agree that having a role model of each sex in a loving relationship is optimal.

If the Technocracy declares that Sleeper kids are better of with two parents who are each minimally present in the kids life, its policy toward its lower ranking members is Hypocritical in both senses. The excuse for this is, "We demand that our agents sacrifice to make the world better for the masses.". This excuse fails for one important reason. They are pulling off the top. They take in the most Extraordinary Citizens. They take the best possible role models and turn them into absentee parents. This normalizes the alienation of parents from kids and spouses more than if they took in the least remarkable recruits. "He was the perfect dad - the one other kids on the block looked up to more than their own.", remarks a neighbor, "Now he's never there.".

So, if I want to rescue the Union's Paradigm and squeeze some adhesive plaster into the cracks made by hypocrisy, I look for a saving grace. The Technocracy believes in Institutions and is good at running them efficiently. Paying tuition and building elite private schools would be a remedy that I think an Ivory Tower Mage would try to put in place.

Of course Technocrats are tired of Technocratic opression micromanaging every aspect of their lives to make them more efficient - that's one reason of defection. But it also kinda comes with the territory when you're a mega-paranoid sect that's constantly under "cold war" procedures, against people who have all the resources of magick at their disposal.

At the end of the day, I think agents hardly need more Control on their personal lives than they already have.

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I agree. If an Agent is constantly wondering if some tiny detail of his speech is going to be used against him, he will regulate his interactions until it becomes habit. When he tries to socialize with Sleepers in the community he works in, he won't come across as natural.

That's why I would make the school(s) something that exist, but add that agents are free to decide if that's what they want for their old life. Hoppefuly, with agents that also happen to be good people, that means they would take in count the opinions and desires of the family

A remedy for the intense demands on the absentee parent.

And adding more reasons than just fear. Stressing more the value of the education and prestige than the whole "Control it's watching your family with killer satellites - Rejoice!" (said with Dalek sounds) thing. Not that the latter won't be true - security it's important.

Laughing.

And Security it's an important concept to understand the Technocracy and why it does what it does, even when sometimes it migth be oppressive.The whole "security vs. freedom" argument suits very well to the conflict between the Trads and the Technocracy. It's a good place to search the goods and the bads of the factions

If you just let innovators pursue their passions, you get better results than by peeping over their shoulder.

[HorizonParty2021]

Urm... the problem is that not only does this risk reprisal (as an example to others, and also because these guys have dangerous knowledge) The Traditions are on the backfoot. They're the underdogs. They're the guys who have to watch out for the plasma cannon satellites and teleporting HITMarks. There's a reason why the Union is so powerful. It's constant supply of prime energy. It's large masses of working linear sorcerers to assist in everything. It's large quantity of primium and primium foundries. It's the near unlimited amount of supplies that any mage needs.

With such hopeless odds, any strategy the Traditions could come up with is commendable.

Yeah, you can give some prime energy and primium to them... but why? The prime energy was meant to go to a celestial chorus cleric who was going to bless a dozen or so warriors to be comes superhuman soldiers for god. He's now asking why there isn't prime energy for him, someone who has served faithfully for decades in the war for reality. The primium was once reserved for an etherite plasma cannon and goes to the technocrat, leading him to come a-knocking. Wasn't he the guy who attacked that Nephandi Caul? Why is he being short shrifted?

The Construct doesn't have to be on a Node. It could just be a building that accommodates the rogue Technocrats. They can turn it into a Sanctum.

Maybe there's prime energy and primium lying around... but the question is this: In a world where the Traditions are fighting for reality, where every hand is on deck... why are these guys having resources instead of the other guys already on your side?

Because, our rogue allies will help us liberate another Node with the energy weapons they made in their Free Construct.

[Aleph]

If you just let innovators pursue their passions, you get better results than by peeping over their shoulder.

Ah, if they left innovators to pursue their passions, Etherites wouldn't be a Tradition

But technocrats weren't called Dedalians for nothing. Put weights to the genius, or you risk flying too close to the sun.

Electrodyne defection was, in hindsight, bound to happen.

A remedy for the intense demands on the absentee parent.

Well, you've reached to those conclusions about the beliefs of the Technocracy on parenthood on your own. So, maybe?

Let's note that while beliefs in the Union are more homogeneous worldview than than the Traditions, several minor (and not so minor) disagreements do show up. The Syndicate it's ultra-liberal while the NWO harbors socialist agendas. ItX pushes for robotization while Progenitors try biological evolution. But even among the ItX some believe that the human body it's a tool to perfect, not replace - and some Progenitoirs like their cyborgs. Good parenthood, and the pros and cons of school internations, migth as well be something that's contested.

I can definitely see the Union (esp. the NWO) making experiments to see if this is a solution to a worldwide issue. But I wouldn't assume all the agents are agreeing on this. Much less that all would want that solution for their family.
Much like I wouldn't assume all families are on equal conditions to face such demands (nor permutations that migth happen, like the human "ex" getting a new partner). Family tends to get very personal, so it's not a bad place for there to be different opinions and personal choices.

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But, really, I've already said all that I wanted to say in previous posts: I can see such an institution to be atractive for the Union, but I wouldn't make them a hard "party line" of the Union because I wouldn't want to add more control over the agent's personal affairs.