Meccania the Super-State

Meccania - The Super-State by Owen Gregory. Meccania: the Super-State is a dystopian novel by Owen Gregory first published in 1918. It is noteworthy as A remarkable forecast of the origin and development of totalitarianism....Owen Gregory (occasionally misidentified in secondary sources as Gregory Owen) was a schools inspector for many years was a deep thinking man and worried about many things including the state of the country.Most of the book describes the fictional country of Meccania a nation in Central Europe with obvious resemblances to Germany: Meccania is surrounded by Franconia (France) Luniland (Britain) and Lugrabia (Russia). Meccania is a place where dissenters are sent to mental hospitals and concentration camps. The state maintains a eugenic breeding program and commands its common citizens when to have children. All letters are censored and all telephone conversations are monitored. All citizens wear the uniforms of their occupational classes. Among the very complex regulations of the Super-State are those regarding control of worker fatigue: if a given worker's calculated fatigue level is below average he must work more hours until he is as tired as his compatriots.. AS this book is little more than a transcript of a document originally written in the form of a journal by a man who until about a year ago was an entire stranger to me and as the document itself contains not a few statements which make large demands upon the credulity of the average reader it seems necessary to offer some explanation regarding both the journal and its author Mr. Ming—or to give him his full name Ming Yuen-hwuy.. If I were able to go bail for Mr. Ming and assure the British Public that he was an entirely credible and impartial witness the book might have stood on the same foundation as other volumes of ‘revelations’ concerning a country with which Englishmen are still insufficiently acquainted. But I cannot go bail for Mr. Ming. The chief source of my knowledge of him is the journal itself. It has even been suggested to me that Mr. Ming did not write the journal but must have stolen it from some European probably an Englishman. On this point I shall have something to say presently. Perhaps the best solution of these difficulties will be to say what I know of the origin of the book.. Mr. Ming was introduced to me by a friend whose name it is unnecessary to give in November or December 1917. My friend said he remembered meeting him in London as far back as 1909. Since then however Mr. Ming had not only lived in London and travelled throughout England but had also spent about two years in France and Italy and had visited America. What his previous career had been I do not know nor did my friend know. He appeared always to have plenty of money and we surmised that he might have been attached in some way to the Chinese Legation; but he never gave the least hint about any such connection. What I do know is that he had a remarkable knowledge of our language and a remarkable familiarity with our laws customs and political institutions. He professed a great admiration for our British Constitutions a circumstance which may account for some of the political views to which he gives expression in his journal.