Kalistan

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In Focus: Princess Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld discusses Monarchy
Anantos viewed "very favorably" by supermajority of Population
Dahriel, Grand Duchy of Ananto
October 16, 5727


Princess Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld, at her Barracks in Dahriel

Orthodoxo caught up with Her Highness, Conscript First Class Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld to discuss her experience in national service, her plans for after her enlistment ends, and her opinions on current events. Before joining National Service, the Princess created a bit of a stir speaking before the Nationalist Club in Kaliburg, arguing for embargos against nations that pollute the air and water of their neighbors. The youthful vigor of the Princess is still very much present here, but she has also grown and matured a lot in the four years since she gave that speech. And, she will also acknowledge that the world has changed. The Princess sat down with Orthodoxo's Kimberly Staddler in Dahriel.

(Orthodoxo's) K(imberly) S(taddler): Good afternoon, Your Highness. Thank you for taking time out of your liberty to speak with me today.

(Her Highness, Conscript First Class and Princess) J(ennifer) A(nanto-Rosenfeld): It's no problem. Your paper gave me plenty of advance notice, and so I was able to accomplish anything I would have done today earlier in the week, except today is Barracks Day, so we are starting that after dinner.

KS: Yes, I remember that well. Nothing like cleaning the same thing every single week, and the Section Commissioner still coming through and still finding dirt...

JA: Well, I would too, if I were them. It's not that the place is not clean: its that good is never good enough. The goal is to reinforce personal discipline and attention to detail. Yet some people still blow it. Anyway, that's later.

KS: Aye. Well, we aren't here obviously to speak about cleanliness of our personal space. I think our readers would first like to know, how are you doing personally? How has your national service been?

JA: It's really all I could have hoped for. I was so excited to join and do my part for our Nation. It was really something I could not wait to do, and here I am, a citizen in the most elemental form. It really makes a person very proud to be a Kalistani. This is the highest form of citizenship, if you really think about it. The sweat and the dedication of millions of young people, for generations and generations have built and maintained this Empire. It really gives a person a genuine sense of ownership, and more importantly, an absolutely rational justification to fight to keep what is ours, what every last citizen gave up four years of their life to build and maintain. National Service is not only very important in terms of our own habits and personal outlook, but I would argue, and I don't think many would disagree with me, our moral and ethical character as a nation as well.

KS: Without a doubt, I felt much the same way when I was in. What do you do in the Ananto Corps, Highness?

JA: I happen to work as a typist in the administration section. I mostly work on transcription of meetings for the public record, and legal documents and everything else that goes through the Corps' administration section. On the one hand, I really wished I could go out there and do something physical or something like building a bridge or surveying the Island, but on the other hand, those poor guys are out there during the rainy season bivouacking in a tent, while I'm back here in Dahriel typing in the warm and dry office that I work in. Plus I get to overhear all types of discussions.

KS: Is Your Highness able to keep up with current events? What is the most important news story that you are paying attention to right now?

JA: I am rivetted to the case of the New Democrats in Sulari actually. I pay attention to that every single day.

KS: Have you picked a side yet?

JA: Well, I am supposed to say I am on the Law's side. And the honest answer would that I don't know enough about the details of the case to really accurately select a side that I think should prevail. But if we're being honest, I would say I have picked a side.

KS: And that side would be...?

JA: Well, I am not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, but I am on Johnson's side. And before you say anything, it has nothing to do with the idea that I happen to find the very concept of democracy to be quite irresponsible, very dangerous and socially destructive. I do, but that is not where I draw my opinion from. I was actually able to research the law, and since the matter happens to involve a seeming contradiction found within the law itself, I mean, the right of informal caucuses to form within the Party structure, versus the right of people to associate with the sort of people that they want to and more importantly not associate with people they do not want to associate with, therefore I find the petitioners’ argument more compelling. That right to association holds most strenuously in political matters. I should not have to put up with some foreign ideology attempting to take over the political party that I believe represents my beliefs best, hijacking it and bending it to the service of its opposite.

KS: This is one perspective, Your Highness, to be certain.

JA: It is of course the perspective the law will take. I am fairly certain Mr. Johnson et al. will prevail.

KS: But what of those who do not feel that the Institutional Party really represents them? The New Democrats feel that the Institutional Party has left those who want a larger say in our legislature behind, and they would like to improve the standing with regard to self government in this nation. Please keep in mind, Your Highness. I am not saying I am a democrat, or that I support them in their cause, but this is the argument they make.

JA: Well, Ms. Staddler, Kalistan is not a democracy, as the New Democrats know very well. The word of the Empress is absolute and unquestionable. She is the source of all law. We are not some nation that accepts limits, in any way, upon the fiat of our Monarch within our Sovereign Empire. This principle is at the core of everything we are and do as a society. I would invite the New Democrats to consider how their perspective finds room to breathe under the weight of this principle which, I think we would both agree, crushes everything in its path. First and foremost, and above all, the Empress is the person who decides what this nation does, and is, and will be. I would argue, and I think Mr. Johnson has not argued this in his case, that democracy decreases the absoluteness of the Empress' fiat, and a strike against the fiat with the aim of limited it, or usurping part of it to the People, which the Empress herself does not desire to part with, is akin to revolution. And the law is very clear on this: revolution in any of its political forms, is quite illegal within Kalistan, which is why I believe Mr. Johnson will prevail in this suit.

KS: Point taken, Your Highness.

JA: Besides, I also read in the papers that our Institution of the monarchy is very popular. Something like three out of four people have a very favorable opinion of the Institution.

KS: Does Your Highness believe that this has more to do with the Monarchy as an institution or a personal loyalty that people feel to your mother?

JA: I think a little of both, to be honest. My mother inspires people to think things that they never considered. She is a philosopher in the truest sense of the word, she governs with the singular concern for justice for her people. I think people respect this: Everyone in Kalistan feels that they have a fair shot and are equals with one another, and I believe that they are equals, under her reign.

KS: Does your Highness think that people actually are equals in Kalistan?

JA: Perhaps not in terms of material categories. Obviously there are some that are quite wealthy, and some who struggle regularly and desperately. This exists in all societies. But if you exempt the handful of people who are in the royal family, and the upper reaches of the peerage, you will find that Kalistan is one of the most equal societies in Terra. Because the rights and liberties of the most privileged commoner should be the standard against which our society measures the rights and liberties of all commoners. And my Mother's government really does strive to promote that and to bring all up to the standard of life that the most privileged commoners have. I myself will never experience this, except right now, when I am exactly the same, almost undifferentiated from the other Conscripts in my shop. Here I am not, you know Her Royal Highness Jennifer Ananto-Rosenfeld or whatever... Whatever they are going to call me when I get out. Here I am just Conscript First Class Ananto. Just like every other CFC.

KS: The NSP is indeed the great equalizer of Kalistan.

JA: As I was saying though, I think people also are loyal to the Institution of the Monarchy. It lets people know that tomorrow, some populist monster isn't going to sweep through, ruin all of the gains of the people, and wipe out their liberties. There are some people who live under a horrific regime that has recently abolished their monarchy and wiped the last meaningful vestiges of traditional authority and order away. My heart breaks for those poor oppressed people, whose rights and liberties can be just taken from them following an election. Our nation has not condemned the matter--if it were me making the decisions, I would oppose every effort to weaken or abolish a monarchy, because we can see that people thrive under the security of knowing that, no matter what, a steady hand will be on the tiller, aiming our ship of state for the true port, rather than pointing it at the false port which is guarded by shoals and ravenous sea monsters waiting to destroy the ship and feast upon the people respectively.

KS: Is it safe to say then that Your Highness does not like democracy?

JA: Republicanism too, no I detest it. The very notion of giving the ignorant and untrained common person the full and substantive franchise is horrific to me. As it should be to every Kalistani national. It would be like letting a toddler do brain surgery.

KS: Your mother is about to retire and pass the throne to your brother. Would your Highness care to share your feelings about that transition?

JA: I feel like he will do just fine. He is my mother's son after all. He probably doesn't have a thought in his mind that my mother did not put there. But he is also a very pretty serious person, and can learn things very quickly. I do know he wants to throw open Kalistan's doors to the world again: he was very impressed with his travels abroad and he just bought a house in Luthori for he and his wife. I would imaging your paper, the Orthodoxo will support him very enthusiastically. He seems to be in line with the traditional view of the Institutional Party, and so Kalistan will likely be more interested in dealing with foreigners that it has been during my mother's reign.

KS: What do you think of the Princess Consort?

JA: Oh, haha. She's great. I don't know her very well yet, but she strikes me as someone who can keep my brother in line pretty easy. I can easily imagine what nights at their house are going to be like. She don't play around.

KS: Why would your brother need to be 'kept in line,' so to speak?

JA: Well, the Military taught him some self discipline, but that kid is a stoner and spent all his free time during his teenage years skating, rock climbing, doing dangerous stuff like base jumping in the Green Mountains. He was kind of, what would you call it, like a thrill seeker. I definitely do not get that sense from Casey. She's actually a lot more sensible and proper, like Lady Melanie...

KS: Your aunt...

JA: Yes, my aunt. I am very happy to say that. Lady Ananto-McLinn was my idol growing up, and then there was the thing, so I am so glad my mother was able to bring her back in. I really do still admire Lady Melanie. I always saw her as my mentor when I was growing up, and I think she took me under her wing, and showed me what she did. All public, I need to add: I was not a part of her, private life. On any level. Sometimes you have to pick and choose what parts of a flawed person you admire and which ones you sort of have to ignore.

KS: Her Imperial Majesty seems to feel the same way.

JA: She could have done it sooner for Lady Melanie. I think kicking her out of office and dismissing her from the Capital was pretty harsh, and I may have decided differently than my mother on this matter. But my mother is a woman of justice, and in those terms, she is pretty dispassionate. And Lady Melanie did admit to breaking the letter of the law. And my mother did rehabilitate her later and put her in at House Ananto, which I think all agree is a much better fit for Melanie. And she and my mother are now very good friends, at last, so I get to have my friend back too! Good for me.

KS: You only have a few more months of service left. What will you do after this?

JA: I want to go to school for finance and administration. I also want to learn what Melanie knows at House Ananto and work with her there. She really was a great influence on my life so far, and my view of the world, and I think she is preparing to retire within a decade, and then I could possibly take her place at House Ananto and run the royal family. It was an idea that she proposed to my mother last summer, and I thought it was just a great idea. I would get to continue serving the Nation, and yet be my own thing, rather than just 'the Emperor's little sister.' And I have found that working in administration here in the National Service is something that I am quite good at--I am very detail oriented and love completing tasks that make it possible for big things to happen. I have since become convinced that this is what I really want to do with the rest of my life.

KS: Will you move House Ananto back to Kaliburg?

JA: Naturally. Melanie only has it in Luxon because the Lady Mayor in Kaliburg has not lifted her ban yet. We'll work on that too.

KS: Well, Your Highness, I think I just heard evening colors.

JA: Almost makes you want to stand at attention a little, right?

KS: Old habits... some die away pretty quickly once you get out.

JA: Unfortunately that means I need to get changed for Barracks Day. So this will be the end of the interview.

KS: I thank Your Highness for talking with me today.

JA: Anytime, really. I am glad you called up and made the arrangements.

@Orthodoxo