Jonathan

After eating, Tablos decided that Jonathan should spend a while outside, sitting in the sun.

He knew, from experience, that people who only lived indoors and never got outside developed a number of health issues over time.

Besides, he thought he could send him to the life mage Heras Hager so that Jonathan would do some work, and Heras could pester him with questions about the plants in his world.

So, after a short walk, they found Mage Hager, to whom Tablos explained the situation. After this, the Archmage left.

Hager gave Jonathan a few tasks to help with weeding and similar things. Jonathan did acceptable, at least for a novice, but certainly not great. But he did not grumble, something which the mage found great.

Then Hager asked: “What do you think of your life here? Now that you have been here for a bit more than a week, you certainly have some frame of reference.”

“I do not know for certain for now. Fact is, my living standard decreased, in fact, it decreased substantially. Magic is, of course, something we did not have, but can it replace everything I have lost? One question: How high is the literacy rate in this country, for over 18-year-olds?”

“I do not know for certain, but I would guess not over 5%, why?”

“The answer is simple: The literacy rate in my country in the mentioned age group should be above 99%. So you can basically assume that everyone can read. Can you imagine how something as simple, at least for me, as to be able to read and write can change your life? Can you imagine how it could change a society if everyone can do it? The ability to read and write gives you two main abilities, outside of the simple fact that you are able to do that. And these are pretty simple: On one hand, you are able to store and structure information, on the other hand, you can easily convey information to others, if they can read that is, even without being there. Also, it has an impact on legal or religious matters. If these have books, documents from which the laws or rules are being pulled, when only a small elite can read, they can say what is written in there, even if what they are telling you is not what is written in there word for word, but an interpretation of what is written down, or even direct falsehoods. If you are able to read, you can check their work. If everyone can read, it is much more difficult to keep the truth concealed. This, of course, might not change anything, but it is a step into a certain direction, which I think would be the right direction.”

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Hager paused for a minute or so to think about what he heard right now: “The direction you are speaking about is, how you think our political system should develop? But there is no other way. Everyone does it this way. Oh, maybe restructure the power of the nobles in the realm, but nothing really different. How would you imagine our society should look like?”

“First of, you must understand that society and political system are two different things. Similar societies can have totally different political systems, accounting for the small differences you have mentioned. But the second thing you must understand is that I have not been born into a monarchy. In fact, my country had a monarchy, but it was abolished a while ago. I never lived under any kind of monarch. The political system of the county I come from is extremely complex, and I am not an expert at it. It is a so-called democracy, which comes from two very old words and basically means rule by the people. The people of a country have the power, and not one random person who had a lucky birth. I will not speak about it anymore, I cannot give you even the hint of an idea, at least not in such a short amount of time, without having writing utensils at hand, how something like this really works and how powerful it is. But I will give you a short list of advantages both have over one another.”

He groaned as he moved a heavy piece of deadwood out of the way and lifted it onto a cart. Then he continued: “Democracies tend to have a high turnover of rulers as well as a series of checks and balances to a rulers power. This means that a bad ruler is unable to do much damage. Also, rulers have a higher tendency to search for expert as helpers and not pure political nominees. In war, a democracy, especially if it is on the defending side, has an easier time to keep morale up, which means more recruits and less grumbling when rationing becomes an issue. Also, resistance movements could develop real fast if necessary. Monarchies have longer periods where they have the same ruler, which does give them higher stability, especially if the monarch is good. They also can do more than a democratic ruler, because a monarch tends to not have as many emergency checks as one of these has. He also can react faster if a disaster strikes the nation.”

Hager looked at him and said: “This is all pretty interesting, but you do know that it will not make you many friends if you plan to abolish the monarchy? At least not in the ruling caste. In the poorer parts of the country I fear your ideas would gather more traction, but I also think those are not the perfect base for this democracy thing…” Hager’s voice faded out in the end.

Jonathan answered slyly: “This is why it isn’t my plan, at least for now. Let’s continue with this flowerbed over there, shall we?” Hager laughed and nodded, after which both pulled the wagon into a better position near the other bed.