Society for Enlightenment and Liberty

The Society for Enlightenment and Liberty (abbreviated to SEL, and occasionally referred to simply as the Society) is a Keymonite political and religious association, founded in 3281, which exists to advance the ideology of its founder, Roland Sanford. The SEL is extremely autocratic, militaristic, and xenophobic, which has attracted criticism from more moderate politicians in Keymon.

Ideology
The Society's complete philosophy and ideology has been laid out by Roland Sanford in several volumes, now commonly available throughout Keymon: It may also be found in a summarized version, distributed by Society volunteers through Keymon.
 * Restoring The Island Empire: Why Keymon is a pawn and not a king.
 * A Plan for Creating the Eternal Empire.
 * Analyzing the Failure of the Imperial National Party.
 * With the Power of a Thousand Suns: The potential of Keymon

The essential characteristic of the Society is a drive to create an Enlightened and Liberated Empire of Keymon, which followers believe will be eternal. Society doctrine holds that Enlightenment can only be obtained by introspective revelation of Keymon's faults, and true Liberty attained only through the direction of a supreme leader. It is important to understand that in Society language "liberty" does not mean the ability of a citizen to do what he or she chooses, but the alignment of the citizen's wishes with those of the state's, with the latter taking priority over the former.

Foreigners
The Society for Enlightenment and Liberty holds that the soul exists, and is granted to humans by the island of Maddog (though the island is not taken as sentient -- rather, it is likened to a well). Therefore, all those born outside of Keymon's influence are necessarily soulless. Consequently, contact with non-Keymonites is strongly discouraged. The most common criticism of the Society is that all humans are, ultimately, immigrants to the island. The Society counters this with a claim that Maddog is the true origin of humanity, though this fact has been lost to most historians. Furthermore, those who are descended purely from native Keymonites are granted with whole souls (they are new, though in a way also an amalgamation of previous souls -- Society theology is somewhat amneable to reincarnation), while those descended only partially from the Keymonites are granted partial souls.

Crime
Elaborating on the Society's unique concept of a soul, the soul is held to be an incorporeal organ. Like any other organ, the soul may be discarded (though this of course damages its holder). The way to forfeit a soul, the Society holds, is through crime, which is defined as opposition to the Enlightenment (Society doctrine). All those who have committed both apolitical crimes such as thievery or murder and political crimes such as opposition to the Society are therefore believed to have forfeited their souls permanently. As a result, criminals are subhuman and undeserving of comfort or humane treatment. Additionally, the Enlightenment of the Society means that a Society government is incapable of false accusation: any who are accused of a crime by an Enlightened state are guilty. Accusation of an innocent is simply impossible.

Economy
According to the Society, Keymon's economy must be brought completely under the wing of the state, as only an Enlightened government is truly capable of managing it. Without government oversight, any individual is believed to be totally incapable of managing private enterprise.

All areas of the economy, from manufacturing to agriculture, are held as vitally important, but the Society insists that advanced industry, due to its capability to propel Keymon forward in the world, be relied on more heavily. Agriculture, on the other hand, should be pursued by lesser nations.

Civil Rights
Like the economy, the Society believes that no individual is capable of governing him or herself, and so all authority over private actions and beliefs ought to be transferred to the Enlightened government (meaning the Society). Additionally, "backwards" behaviors (homosexuality, equality for women, and other progressive notions of behavior) are deleterious to the success of the Enlightened and Liberated Empire, and so must be stamped out completely.