"I barely talk! These are blue child books, Afen said you're reading."

"I am!" She sounds out the titles. Apparently she doesn't think it's weird that there is a children's book about war.

There will be soon, they're publishing it online so it's verifiably a real childrens' book you can really buy your little blue. 

She pauses over the slavery one but grabs the rule of law book first.

It used to be that the rulers of countries made the law, and it was silly to think that they could break the law. Some of them ignored it all the time, and some of them could not afford to anger their subjects, and some liked to follow the law because it was better for their subjects if they were predictable. (Queen Ghastly: What pretty land. Give it to me. Queen Grand: I want to own that land! But if I take it, then my people will not work as hard on their land, knowing it might be taken from them. I suppose I will leave it.)

But then a few small countries with weak kings made their rulers subject to their courts. If the ruler took something, their subjects could demand restitution. The courts would order the ruler to make it right. Some rulers ignored their courts, or bullied them. But some didn't. And their countries flourished, because people knew nothing could be taken from them. And the good rulers said to themselves 'well, I am predictable; my people know I won't steal from them. But I have some irresponsible grandchildren and rivals and advisors. I want to bind them to be predictable like I am, for the good of the land'. And they built courts, and empowered the courts to make their laws. (Queen Ghastly: ewwwwww. Queen Grand: Hmmm.)

With this change came a change in how we think about the law. The law is not 'the set of rules the ruler uses to decide disputes' - the law is the set of rules the country uses to decide disputes. And everybody can get in trouble if they break it. Anitam has a council. The council is very powerful. But if a councilperson does not pay for lunch, they will get in as much trouble as the rest of us - because that's a stabler system than even the most virtuous queen. 

Next the slavery one.

What do you do if you don't like your work? You leave! That company will have to find someone else to do the work. Every caste can do this - blues can leave the courts and greens can leave their universities and yellows can leave their computer jobs and greys can leave their dance team and oranges can leave their school and purples can leave their restaurant. This is very important, because it means companies cannot treat their employees too badly.

Says Elis the Evil, "what if I want to treat my employees badly?" 

A long time ago, it was legal to take prisoners from a war, or people who were in lots of debt, and make them work for you without pay and with no right to leave. This was called slavery, and many countries practiced it in different forms. Some allowed enslaving foreigners but not natives; some allowed purple slaves but not anyone else; some allowed twenty-year terms of indenture but not longer than that. In some places slaves could be traded or sold at auction; in some this was disallowed. But all of them allowed forcing a person to work for you with threats. 

There were always people who said that this was wrong and had to stop. Some of these people bought slaves and let them go free; some helped slaves escape to places that did not allow slavery. And some of them tried to convince governments to make it end. In 3380 Anitam abolished slavery by edict of the king. When Anitam was independent, they wrote the laws against slavery into their new government. And eventually, in 3397, an international convention of 122 countries signed an agreement never to allow slavery and to punish anyone who still did. Soon after that, almost all the countries that still had slavery stopped so their neighbors would trade with them.

 

Discussion questions: Anitam and most other countries do not allow soldiers who signed up for the army to run away in the middle of a war. Is this slavery? Why or why not? Would you allow this? 

Anitam and many other countries do not allow strikes which shut down essential public services like hospitals and ambulances. You may quit, but you may not arrange for all your colleagues to quit at once. Is this slavery? Why or why not? Would you allow this?

A person wants to sign a contract that says their employer will pay for a child credit for them every year, and in exchange they will work without pay. They may not leave the arrangement. Should this contract be allowed? Why or why not?

"Why purple slaves but not anyone else?"

"I'm not sure, I don't think that was the law here. Might be the other castes successfully lobbied against being undercut by slave labor."

"Why wouldn't a purple who was going to be a slave change to be something else?"

"Not allowed."

"...you said people could change colors, you did -"

"I did and one of my sons did and another one informally does but it's not, like, anyone can go in any time and register as a different color, it's more like if it's obvious from very young and you move and live as your new caste and don't get into trouble then no one will bother objecting. "

"Oh."

"I do think it's strange that people don't mind more. The selection is very strong but still."

"How do you know they don't mind?"

"There's a site to petition the government for things you want them to do. There are petitions to build new sports stadiums and petitions to subsidize all kinds of things and petitions to have the whole council quit and petitions to require the whole council to be purple and there is a petition on there to make a easier process to change castes but it has many thousands of times less signatures than the other ones."

"Hm."

"People have a very strong sense of identity with their caste."

"I guess that could happen."

"It's like - gender? Every once in a while you get someone who wants to change it but most people don't even if there'd be some advantage in some contexts."

"Okay."

"My family is not very representative." Giggle. 

"Why's that?"

"Well, intercaste marriages are very rare, less than 5 percent, and that's where you usually get people who badly fit. And also I have seven children, that's vanishingly rare - one in a thousand - which makes it likelier I'd have two who weren't green and ran off to do something else."