i'm a personifocracy the way people can be theocracies.
just realized i never made this clear on tumblr: a personâif (pronounced person then if) is the collective i personify and personif is shortening for personification and synonymous with avatar. THE PERSONâIF IS THE SENTIENT ONE AND EXISTS EXCEPT FOR THE AVATAR IRL
dnis are pointless i block as i see fit. anti censorship, donât like donât read yadda yadda
i also block a lot of people who i donât actually hate for my own sake so if you suddenly find you canât see my blog and we havenât had a negative interaction assume youâre still free to talk to me and apologies in advance for the alt hassle
please send me personif (theory, meta, individual correlates, your system and mine, things with personif auras) questions i love them and ill never be snappish. i can't say the same if you ask things outside personifocracy jurisdiction though
why do personâifs?
songs that are 10x better as personâif POVs
active projects: btiwspirits. @personifs-beyond-the-ice-wall is where they will be posted. go there to see like 99% of my art
inactive projects: big personâif lore rewrite, icrc
Ellipsus makes it easy for anyone to write together.
average number of searches it takes to make an OTJ: 44
success rate of STJ personiftranslation as a gateway into fandoms: 100%
percentage of my identity based around this character design exercise: 51%
number of better off worse clause violations prevented by this character design exercise: uncountable
most personif fiction: the city we became by nk jemisin
most personif nonfiction: organizational trauma and healing by pat vivian and shana hormann
second most personif nonfiction: battered love by renita weems
things essential to the personif grind:
wikipedia references & bibliographies
acoup
folk costume site (focused on europe)
annaâs archive
posemy.art
reference angle
i reblog from centricide, polandball, hetalia, countryhumans, scandinavia and the world, welcome to the table, the great cities series by nk jemisin, @/thecitysmithâs cityverse, solarballs, the jupitearth fandom, fandomstuck, socialstuck, cgp grey fanart, geopolitical boys, date a nation, and afghanis-tan. i also make avatars of fictional imagined communities according to my own rules; i donât consider my work a part of any fandom because i donât follow any of their memetics but i originate in countryhumans.
also i invented the word âpersonifâ so if you see anyone else using it theyâre probably a friend of mine. except fanaderomans/10/imadewritingmyjob, we have beef
i'm somewhat involved with the whump community and it's merged with the personif interest. the tag for gleeful posting about fictional collectivities getting hurt is #personifwhump tag
i don't like personif discourse because i'm not here to be angry and all energy spent arguing with people on the internet is wasted energy but i do have opinions about most things so on the occasion i voice them less than civilly the tag is #personifcourse
personâifs have sex because people can and sometimes i talk about it in no great detail. the tag is #personifsex facts
i invented a bunch of unnecessarily specialized terms regarding personâifs (academia brainrot) that i use regularly with no explanation. there is a glossary here
Ellipsus makes it easy for anyone to write together.
Greek/Roman The Hadrianic School by Jocelyn Toynbee The Temple of Hadrian in Rome â Campania Sacra Personifications of Countries and Cities
so when i made this account i was very stupid and linked it to my school instead of personal account and it blocks all emails that would allow me to change that. so i am making a new blog under the right account. it will still be called a-personiftranslator and nothing else changes go follow me there
A cleaner breakdown of America's Bipolar Disorder (which consists of mania, depression and psychosis) and perhaps a more in depth reasoning by attaching historical moments to the Bipolar Disorder characterized by mania, depression and psychosis. This will be oriented around Amelia F Jones since I like her better as the representation of America, but this could easily be applied to Alfred as well.
(HYPO) MANIC EPISODES:
Hypomanic/Manic episodes are characterized by intense, persistent moods of irritability and/or euphoria which is disproportionately out of the norm for the individuals character. It causes an inflated sense of ego and grandiosity which results in high risk taking actions with dangerous consequences such as spending sprees, bouts of sexual impulsivity and in America's case war of vanity and expansion in the name of religion/ideology.
Good historical examples of this would be the period of Manifest Destiny, the Roaring 20s, WWII and the Arsenal of Democracy era, the Summer of Love etc. Periods in which America collectively engaged in acts of expansion, wars of vanity, sexual impulsivity which diverted from the Evangelical/Puritan norm, and massive consumer + government spending. A recent example would be the Roaring 90s, the so called End of History period when America became the sole Superpower and rode the high of victory over the Soviet Union after its dissolution.
There was the invasion of Panama, the Gulf War in Iraq to prevent the take over of Kuwait, NATO bombing in Yugoslavia (which to be fair was justified on America and NATOs part considering Serbia was in fact committing genocide against Albanians), peak consumerism spending, the irrational exuberance of the Stock Market due to the Dot Com and Tech Boom which eventually created the Dot Com bubble that inevitably burst. So here you have clear examples of expansionism in the Americas, dangerous risk taking in the Middle East, overzealous spending etc and of course the rise of sex positivity which was a core tenet in the ever growing Culture War.
I imagine this era was intensely euphoric for America having defeated a great enemy without an actual hot shooting war plus coming out the other end the first hyperpower with the strongest economy and military in the world, uncontested and thus preeminent and invincible. Hence the risk taking and expansion. Some of the physical symptoms of mania include restless pacing, rapid fast paced speech, and high energy goal directed activities and I can honestly see America, during an episode of mania (which I imagine for nations last longer than the 1 to 2 week episodes that humans experience) talking over people in a very intense fast paced vomit of speech without meaning to or even realizing that's what's happening. Also lot's of restless pacing during meetings, an inability to sit still, which would come off as rude to others not in the know about her condition. I think only Canada and England would be aware of it, and perhaps Russia due to spies/espionage and/or figuring it out on his own after closely observing her behavior for several decades.
DEPRESSIVE EPISODES:
Depressive episodes are characterized by depression and the symptoms of depression such as weight changes either from increased or decreased appetite, excessive or lack of sleep, lack of energy and suicidal ideation.
Historically this would be exemplified by recessions and depression and unenthusiastic wars. The Great Depression, the Great Recession, the Civil War, and WWI are all good examples but also the lesser known economic downturns like 1987's Black Monday and the 2001 Dot Com Burst which preceded the Great Recession in 2008. During depressive episodes America either increases her appetite (as was the case after the Great Recession and 1987 Black Monday) or decreases in appetite (as was the case after Black Tuesday and Great Depression). I think before the mid 20th century, during depressive episodes (either as a result of economic downturn or the cause of, the whole chicken vs egg and not knowing how connected a personifications emotions are to those of the people and vice versa) she would starve herself out of guilt and shame. If her people were going hungry and living in austerity then why should she be able gorge herself on food?
This changes after the mid 20th century with the rise of nation wide fast food chains, which gave poor people access to cheap yet unhealthy food during times of economic downturn. So, being in sync with her people, sheâd do the same, feasting upon greasy burgers, fried chicken, and pizza bought at the drive thru or ordered to her front door. While I do believe she has a supernatural metabolism that burns quickly through digested food , I think she'd still gain a bit of weight, further tanking her mood since America, canonically, has body dysmorphia and insecurities around weight gain.
The Civil War, in my opinion, was a clear case of suicidal ideation or at the very least flirting with it. One of America's most destructive wars that nearly killed the Union. It was existential. Frightening because it was one of the first times America had to come face to face with her own mortality and the possibility of death. And it's the only war that's been fought on American soil in recent memory with the highest amount of casualties America has ever suffered during a singular war, that's including WWI and WWII combined. It was essentially a prototype of trench warfare as well, hellish and sluggish and seemingly never-ending. So, it is no surprise that this era would be a considered an American depressive episode or a period of suicidal ideation. America probably wanted to die if only it meant the feeling of being torn from the inside out would end, if only to embrace what seemed like the inevitable.
I think depressive episodes could also potentially be characterised by substance abuse and there have been so many cases in which the American public, at mass scale, self medicated either legally or illegally. And America is merely a reflection of her people, so I believe she'd be much the same during a depressive episode.
PSYCHOSIS:
Moments of Psychosis are characterized by delusions and hallucinations. I can think of a number of historical events in which America was captured by mass psychosis. Chief among them being the Salem Witch Trials and the Satanic Panic. During the latter, the nation was convinced (with the help of sensationalist media and tabloids hungry for viewership) that there were Satanic cults carrying out rituals of human sacrifice, cannibalism, and sexual abuse. There were (now uncredited) claims of recovered memories about ritualistic abuse and baseless accusations that destroyed the lives of many.
A good example of this is the McMartin Pre-school Trial in which unfounded claims of secret tunnels and murder were flung out into the open for the general public to digest without further thought. The charges were of course dropped but only after years of trials that rode the high of the Satanic Panic and 200 wrongful convictions in other cases that were later exonerated, with some convictions being exonerated until this day.
The panic was also fueled by a fear of heavy metal rock music which was seen as devilish along with cartoons which were deemed inappropriate for children and controversial board games like Dungeons and Dragons. A more historical case of America's psychosis is of course the Salem Witch Trials in which innocent people were accused of witch craft and devil worship, subjected to unfair trials before meeting brutal prosecutions.
The McCarthy era is another case which famously saw the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and of course the black listing, imprisonment and political persecution of others. One thing I noticed about these periods of Mass Psychosis is that wrong doing by the accuser or society at large is never acknowledged until much later, after the dust has settled and the wrongfully accused have already perished or been thoroughly ruined.
But these moments of psychosis cause within America great bouts of paranoia and delusions sometimes fueled by manic and/or mixed episodes. There's an increased amount of poor foresight and insight, anxiety and overall hostility toward the current scapegoat. She gets literal tunnel vision and starts going after the accused with everything she has, there is no room for nuance or understanding. The world merely becomes black and white in which she is the righteous torch bearer of justice and the accused are deplorable villains that must be destroyed by any means necessary.
It's one of my headcanons that she was one of the accusers during the Salem Witch Trials, driven by hallucinations and delusions and the result of excessive neglect by her father into a state of psychosis. An incredibly lonely child who did not yet understand her own existence, surrounded by dark wilderness as ancient as the mountains within it. It is only when she herself is accused of witch craft, before being put on trial and perhaps executed that her opinion (and in some ways as a result public opinion) begins to take a turn.
Another headcanon is that the accusations always boomerang back to her. During the beginning of the First Red Scare she is lock step with her government in the persecution of potential communist and anarchist right up until things go to far, innocent people get hurt and she herself comes under the persecution of her government. The same happens with McCarthyism as well. A hawk-like obsession with tracking down potential subversive communist forces within her government, infiltraters within the Manhattan Project and spies within intelligence agencies, only for the eye of Sauron to fix its sight upon her with regards to past relations with Russia.
That's not to say that her initial fears aren't credible. In the case of the the first Red Scare and McCarthyism there were indeed subversive communist forces trying to undermine America from within, but these fears were then sensationalized and used by bad faith actors to go on a witch hunt, causing the very credible fears to be discredited in the long run.
-
I want to say, I don't think any of this makes America a uniquely bad country because almost every nation on earth has had wars of vanity, expansionism, economic downturns, religious and political persecutions. Some of them are doing these things right now as we speak or at the very least have long term plans to. I don't believe there is a single innocent one, if you go back far enough, so don't take this as a "America uniquely bad" post because I know enough about the world to know that no nation is uniquely evil or uniquely good regardless of how they sell themselves to the world. This post is merely a character analysis and in some ways a real world analysis of the American psyche. I like to give all characters I'm obsessed with depth and there can be no depth without a bit of shadow. I don't necessarily like the idea of nation's being entirely detached from the actions of their government or the actions of their people, who are also capable of doing awful things at a mass scale. I think it strips away all the fun that comes with the concept of personifications.
If they're all goody two shoes who never do anything bad on a personal level, never engage in prejudice or folly, never make mistakes, never showcase vanity or blood lust or hatred then they feel kind of stale to me so I try to keep a balance of good and bad. America can be a very generous nation in my mind. My favorite headcanon is that she volunteered for the American Relief Administration during the aftermath of WWI to help feed hungry children in war torn Europe, even in nation's that she considered hostile at the time. But this of course doesn't mean she isn't capable of doing awful things while believing she is completely in the right with a "the ends justify the means" gung ho mindset. Having an untreated or undiagnosed mentall illness perhaps worsens the affects of this or even creates the problem to begin with.
I do wonder when she would have been officially diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. I'm not certain it would have been before the late 20th century during a time when people were still grappling with the concept of mental illnesses and Bipolar Disorder was then known as Manic Depression Insanity. I'd say she gets officially diagnosed and treated in the 21st century when mental health awareness and therapy became more mainstream and accepted, wouldn't be surprised if the beginning of her therapy coincided with the release of the Sopranos tv show, a product of her own subconscious. An alternative time line is perhaps the late 1960s but the treatments aren't that good (and I'm not ruling out a lobotomy or MKUltra meddling) and neither she or her superiors are to pleased about the whole ordeal.
This is all a bit of a mess but I hope you guys enjoy the read!
I've been reading this book about the famine that took place in Soviet Russia between 1919 and 1923 and the American Relief Administration's involvement in providing aid.
So far, so good. The contents that I've read so far:
I'm on page 165, for reference, so Part 2 Chapter 6: Funds, Food and Ships.
The general gist is that America started off providing aid for Central Europe after WWI, with the ARA administering food to hungry children in Belgium, Hungary and Poland. I believe the ARA tried to offer aid to Russia two or three times before finally succeeding. The first time it failed was due to rejection by the European powers (France and Britain) and the Archangel anti-Bolshevik government (the Whites). The initial Hoover plan (approved by President Wilson) was to have the Europeans organize and administer food relief to Soviet Russia with American funding and supplies. But this was rejected because Russia was still in the midst of a civil war between the reds and the whites, with France and Britain still backing the Whites. The Allies felt that administering aid to all of Russia would be a betrayal to the Whites with the undesired effect of acknowledging/giving political legitimacy to the Soviets.
The Bolsheviks had their own objections, such as the cessation of hostilities in order to administer food aid to both the red occupied and white occupied parts of the former Russian Empire, unless they received political recognition from the Entente powers via an official conference. This all happened in 1919 when the famine began.
In 1920, the ARA tried again, and strangely enough, an opportunity truly arose during the Polish-Russian War. Not going to get into the intricate details of that (though the book does), but during this war the ARA was present in much of Poland, and as the Red Army advanced further into the newly independent country the ARA found themselves caught in the middle of the fighting, scrambling to save supplies and keep kitchens running for as long as possible before fleeing (they ended up evacuating to Congress Poland, where it was believed the Polish Army would be able to defend Warsaw against the advancing Red Army). This caused the Americans to plead with the Soviets to allow the continuation of food relief in Poland since the ARA was regarded as a neutral humanitarian organization. This was when the Americans offered to give aid to the famine stricken areas of Russia as well (in a meeting in Minsk during negotiations between Polish and Soviet officials I believe, after the Polish Army held off the Red Army in Warsaw and later had a meeting in Moscow).
But Soviet Russia was more interested in establishing diplomatic or trade relations with America, in their belief that this action would eventually relieve the famine issue:
While this was happening, Hoover and Co were running a campaign that raised 33 million dollars, which they believed would eventually be used to help an ARA mission in Russia. In 1921, talks finally progressed with Gorky's Appeal (âGive Bread and Medicineâ https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1921-2/famine-of-1921-22/famine-of-1921-22-texts/gorkys-appeal/) to which Hoover and the ARA (with support from the president) readily replied:
At Riga, Latvia, an agreement was hashed out between the ARA and the Soviets, much to Europe's surprise (there had been rumors going around during the Riga negotiations that it had predictably failed). The European powers + the Empire of Japan, after having seen the success at Riga, attempted to form an International Commission to administer relief in Russia, but it failed. They wanted the existing Russian government to recognize old debts, they also wanted Allied controlled transportation systems inside of Russia but not before the Commission sent representatives to do extensive data collecting and studying of the famine in Russia to truly gauge the situation and effectively administer aid as a result. Though the book implies their true intentions were counter-revolution and potentially overthrowing the Bolshevik government (i mean they wanted to control the transportation systems, lol). This was, of course, rejected by Soviet Russia:
After that, the book goes into detail about the operations, organizing, politics, and economics/finance that went into the ARA Russian Mission and the social and cultural factors that were born out of the revolution and the famine. From what I gather, it was a joint Russo-American effort, with the ARA employing Russian civilians to help organize and deliver aid while also working with Russian officials/party members to get supplies, transportation into more remote regions, overall cooperation etc.
This is truly an overlooked part in Russo-American history for Rusame enjoyers, and where I think a lot of people get it wrong about them in the post-WWI/Russian Revolution era. America indeed was anti-Bolshevik, and during this point, was going through a feverish Red Scare. Prior to the relief effort, America had sent the Polar Bear Expedition to back the White Russian forces during Russia's civil war, to no avail. There were attempts at coming to terms with the events taking place in Russia with the failed secret Bullitt Mission (1919, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/bullitt-mission) in which William C Bullitt was tasked with negotiating a potential peace and compromise with Lenin's government (an agreement was made but the proposal was rejected at the Paris Peace Conference).
So, you have an America that on the one hand has come to fear and grow resentful of this red menace that wears Russia's face ( a fear showcased with the closing of the US embassy, the Red Scare, the Polar Bear Expedition etc) and on the other an America who desperately wants to find some sort of compromise (the Bullitt Mission), an America who desperately wants to help an old friend despite the path Russia has taken (repeat offers of humanitarian relief).
This British journalist sort of sums up what I'm trying to state above about America's feelings and mindset during this time:
Meanwhile, Russia is desperately clawing his way out of the brutal inferno of revolution and civil war only to find himself engulfed in famine. He's an outcast in Europe, his whole world has been remade, and he finds himself constantly on the warpath. At this point, it seems that there is no one in the world who cares for his plight due to fear of Bolshevikism, old debts left unpaid, and centuries of resentment and prejudice unearthed. And then there is of course a matter of pride that tells him to not reach out for help, or if he does reach out to at least demand the respect he believes he deserves, a respect he knows Europe and America will not give him (they refuse to recognize his Soviet controlled government, a constant point of contention between the two forces with regards to delivering humanitarian aid). But America keeps reaching out, and for one singular moment after their fallout, between 1921 and 1923, they are together again. Not friends but not true enemies yet either, and they work together to help feed Russia's people.
What I'm trying to say is that they didn't completely cut each other off after the Russian Revolution. Russia wanted America to recognize his government and conduct trade and eventually asked for aid with the Gorky Appeal, despite his pride and his growing resentment of everything America stood for as one of the greatest champions of capitalism.
America at first wanted to aid the Whites with the Polar Bear Expedition, and when realizing that was a pipe dream, tried to find compromise and come to terms with this new version of Russia with the Buillit Mission (though this also failed), and having failed that set aside American resentment and fresh fear for Bolshevikism to, at the very least, help an old friend feed his people, if nothing else. It's like they went through the 5 stages of grief (or something similar) before cutting each other off or developing genuine hatred for the other. (America would cut Russia off for a time, after the ARA mission in Russia, but they would rekindle diplomatic relations again almost a decade later).
They nourished this foolish hope that somehow they could still maintain any form/semblance of friendship, even though so many political proponents had been introduced to make this near impossible, and I find this far more interesting than them jumping into the Cold War mentality immediately after the Russian Revolution.
roman Senate perfec t size for put caesar in to ru\le! inside very Soft and Comfort caesar lead peacefully put caesar in Roman Senate. Put Caesar In Roman Senate. no problems ever in romman senate because good Shape and Support for caesar neck weak of big caesar head. Aroman Senate yes a place for a dictator put caesar in roman senate can trust senate for giveing good love to caesar. friend senate
tiny ancient greek and roman craftspeople in my circulatory system are using accumulated microplastics to decorate the insides of my blood vessels with beautiful mosaics. Nobody can see them, but theyâre still art.
Imagine,,, Cal and Hollywood who were married at some point. Their relationship was lwk very toxic and Hollywood convinced him to marry her because they were on really rocky ground at one point (it was a bit later into their relationship, closer to the end than the beginning). It made everything worse, and Hollywood was worse than ever now thatâs it was harder for Cal to leave her.
Anyways, all that to say, Cal who flinches anytime someone calls him âMr. Hollywoodâ as a joke or jab
it/its makes girl part of me upset but person'if and translator parts of sum happy. i didn't choose to have an internal sense of being a girl like wei chose to have an internal sense of being a country though and wei'll always value labels wei made the fuck up and then chose to define for mauerself than what was prewritten for me so she can go fuck herself wei have to live with her but wei don't have to look at her
if i had a nickel for every general standard in personif doctrine that i made specifically to stop myself from putting person'if sexuality in a little box away from the other correlates and making up strange taboos about it I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice
(oc slop, badly and vaguely written nuclear testing, memory stuff, the girlstate used to be an empire and acts like it)
New Adjre-Teremaina would probably avert its eyes even without Tanmuâs blindfold, enforce its own silence without her soldiers to muffle the signals, but the urge to crane oneâs neck at disaster doesnât decrease with scale and sheâd rather be safe than giving a journalist-driven apology.
Tanmu told NAT it wouldnât feel anything. It wonât have a clear memory of this regardless.
NAT agreed but it doesnât remember. It wasnât told what Tanmu was burying beneath its skin. Tanmu doesnât remember either. She is faintly aware that what her arm is pushing down the concrete hole in its nerveless dirt is a weapon sheâd invented, too dangerous to risk herself on, but its name and its consequences are hidden behind government blackbox amnesia. Her fingers, while she forgets what sheâs doing and begins arguing with herself about who she wishes to govern her in the next year, and then bemoans that she canât come to an agreement with herself and half of her will probably vehemently hate whoever the other half chooses, close the dirt over the hole, and then the bomb detonates.
NAT twitches violently, momentarily blinded by the flash, suddenly loud with confusion and an attempt at soothing song. It coughs at the dust. It vaguely reaches to pull at the blindfold, but Tanmu pushes it away and whispers a minor threat she forgets as soon as it leaves her mouth. It breathes cautiously. Something hurts, not enough to overwhelm by far, but in a way it hasnât known before; it senses the shape of a crater pressing around its sparse nerves. How could that be with only one instance? It asks, in thousands of voices, in speech and writing. Nobody answers.
Tanmu widens her eyes, focused to a point. She who can see blinks with the clicks of thousands of camera shutters. She does not even need human magnifiers to see; from the vantage of a thing measured in hundreds of thousands of kilometers which in truth has eyes all over its body, she sees the light at her south unfiltered. It was one bomb. It was one bomb and she can see it from a coast, she can see the wound on her allyâs supine body, she knows of no weapon which shows on a country with one firing.
What could she do with this? She is sure she will remember the name and how she made it soon, now that sheâs seen it. She is the only one who has this. Her old imperial urges to steel in her fingers have not left her; what would it be like to dig in with thousands of these instead? Who could stop her if she showed them?Â
She wraps the injury with warning signs on fences to deflect NATâs eyes and undoes its blindfold. She watches its body differently as it falls back asleep into fortification dreams: idly roving over its sparse parts, wondering where best to put more scars, so it wonât notice but the world will.
happy international women's day! here is my piece for the latest issue of @hwsfemmephenomenon all about national costumes, fabrics, and fashion! for this one i wanted to go back to finding inspiration from 20th century fashion illustration â¨
check out the femmeâphenomenon: traversing textiles zine here!
and you can find the high resolution file on my patreon here :)
