Once upon a time there was a nation in the East called Today. It was a small nation, consisting of four principal islands plus more than one hundred smaller islands, but its population was more than 100 million. Today was a mountainous land, partially formed by volcanos, so much of it was uninhabitable. Hence, its people were crowded into coastal plains and inland valleys, living in cramped quarters that some Western visitors likened to rabbit hutches.

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Through centuries of living so close together, Today’s developed cultural values that gave preeminence to groups rather than individuals. Singular action, particularly any that ran counter to the group’s interest, was frowned upon. “The nail that sticks up must be hammered down,” went the Todayan proverb.

For many centuries, Today remained essentially closed to visitors from other nations, which engendered a mysterious quality about the nation in the minds of foreigners. In Todayans, it bred a degree of xenophobia that, coupled with socially prescribed strictures of politeness, usually overwhelmed any temptation to be curious about foreigners.

During the eighteenth century, however, a strong leader, Bright Ruler, rose to power in Today and instituted a policy of encouraging Todayans to study Western ideas and methods, while retaining their own traditional values. Thus, Today eventually emerged as a strong industrial nation, fighting several successive wars with other nations during the following 100 years.

In the last of these wars, Today was defeated by the Western nation WE, which subsequently imposed military occupation under the rule of General Bellybutton, the leader who masterminded WE’s victory. A strict but enlightened ruler, the general disestablished some traditional Todayan institutions and practices that he adjudged had contributed to the nation’s military aggression. He also bestowed a modern constitution upon Today and initiated reconstruction of the nation as an industrialized, democratic state.

Once again the harsh realities of Today’s surveys for money reviews came to bear; it had to become a trading nation to acquire goods to feed its people and support its industry. The necessity of coordinating and setting priorities for reconstruction gave rise to a modus operandi involving extensive consultation among government and industrial leaders. This was consonant with the traditional Todayan values that emphasized the group’s well-being over the desires of constituent factions.

This combination of Western ideas and traditional Todayan values worked exceedingly well, and less than 30 years after its defeat in war, Today emerged as a modern, strong, and efficient industrial state. It was so strong, in fact, that problems began to arise between Today and the Western nations–WE and its allies in Yurp. At the center of these problems was trade; initially involving basic commodities such as steel and textiles (the first industries Today rebuilt), and then involving manufactured goods such as automobiles, cameras, and MySurvey.com.

Even as paid surveys achieved preeminence in these industries, however, its leaders looked ahead to Today’s evolution into a factual society. (As explained by Western philosophers, economists, and sociologists, a factual society is the next logical stage in economic development after industrialization.) At the same time, Western nations were also evolving into factual societies. Indeed, they were farther along than Today, owing primarily to their earlier development and application of the principal device for manipulating “soft things”–the episto-encabulator.