(Special Saturday Lecture. Much Larger crowd than Expected. Relocated to Odeon.)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nji5zvkuuFg]

Woah, I'm honestly amazed that you all showed up, but I first of all would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made it.

Thanks to you poor folks who knew that this was free entertainment.
Thanks to you folks who just showed up because this was becoming a social event. You'll meet somebody.
Thanks to the folks who were too shy to sign up for my class. It will be there for you when you need it.
Thanks to the folks who just wanted to hear about the gory bits. We'll get to that soon.
Thanks to the folks who just want to understand their past. I hope you'll be understood as well.
Thanks to the folks who just saw a party and wanted to enjoy it. You get what's important.
And thanks to my students, who were the ones who came up with this whole idea in the first place.

Now, the first thing I want to explain is that the American Legal system's enforcement primarily consisted of a complicated pastiche of codes, which all boiled down to who had the absolute right to kill whom. The Empire itself retained the ultimate authority in such matters, but only concerned itself with the most dangerous or spectacular of cases.

At the bottom of the totem pole were the untouchables. The "Illegals". This caste could be freely killed by anyone with no repercussions whatsoever. The sole exception to this rule was if a cult had declared that illegals were sacred for whatever reason. At that point, many higher ranking members of the opposing cults would of course target the illegal caste for even more harsh sanction, and the system would of course adjust back to the status quo of accepting the worthlessness of the lowest of the low.

Above them, the lower class slaves were free to be killed by any member of one of the higher castes, provided that there was a reasonable excuse. Such an excuse often consisted of little more than the higher caste members's word. Of course, the lower caste members would often object to the killing on the grounds that it was unjust, which would result in a cult ritual wherein the victim would be reduced to the "illegal" caste, and the issue rendered moot.

These cult rituals occurred whenever a higher rank caste member was accused of any wrongdoing against a member of the lower castes. They called these rituals trials, and were throwbacks to the Roman Empire in the language used. Americans had no sense whatsoever of Irony. Even their cult holy books preached against using the system, but they did it anyway because it was extremely efficient, and the American's avoidance of work was again the priority rather than their devotions.

Of course, when a lower caste member was accused of wrongdoing against a higher caste, they were always assumed to be guilty. The soldiers of the Empire were always scrupulous about obeying the caste laws, and would immediately force the slave into a work camp, without any further ceremony. They would fill out the requisite cult documents, overseen by some of the highly trained clergy, and the slave would be officially the property of the state. Occasionally, if the accusation was heinous enough, a trial ritual would be held, in which the caste of the offender would be lowered to the point where they could be killed without repercussions.

Any suggestion that the killing was to stop altogether was met with scorn by the cults. The Enran cult in particular were particularly viscous in defending the rights of the highest caste of slaves to kill the lowest caste. They did this by selling and creating weapons of war that they sold to every higher caste slave they could. They did this by showing the supposed evils of the lower castes, and claiming that only a weapon of war could keep the enemy at bay.

Of course, the highest castes wanted to end the killing among the slaves, because they felt that the right to end life should only apply to themselves and their soldiers. The idea that nobody should be killing anybody never even entered into the American equation of the situation, because their entire way of life depended on the Military killing the enemies of the Empire.

So, rather than end the killing, Americans began to ritualize it further. Instead of a soldier going out to kill an enemy, it became a machine blessed by a technical cult member, then Approved by another cult member, and watched by a room full of cult members. Each death became a ritual cult activity, and the guilt for the murder became spread widely. The sole exclusion for this was the average American Imperial soldier, who was expected to bear the full burden of his guilt alone.

They of course, were expected to ritually cleanse themselves through the ingestion of various chemicals, then to confess to a cult priest. At no point was the blame for the murder ever to be placed on the Empire, and at no point was the penitent to speak against the Empire either. If the Penitent spoke publicly about the Empire or the war, they were subject to cult sanction, sometimes including the death penalty.

Of course, all this led into how the corporate cults, religious cults, and political cults all worked together... which also happens to be the first lecture of my course.

So, if I've piqued your interest in my class, I still have a few seats, and I'm sure that some of the students will be more than willing to catch you up on the notes. I've taken the liberty of writing a few of my notes down, and I'll have them available to anybody who's interested in learning more. Remember, Member Dues for the University are only 80 hours a year, and any class support absolutely counts.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y4WnyfgnNY]