In the Book of the New Sun, the Autarch is ruler of a Commonwealth, a land of many nations and races ruled by him (or her). They are sometimes called 'men without shadows' (Ascia) because they were believed to come from the waist of the world, although in fact they come from further north. Since the south, and the Commonwealth, are lands where people take matte (a spicy tea) that is presently drunk in various places in the continent of South America, it is reasonable to think of the Ascians as an end product of technologification and standardisation.
'They are blinded by their technology, deafened by it.' Ascians speak only correct thought, set sentences laid out in official texts. To speak of a beating, an Ascian may say 'No one is to receive more than 100 blows.' 'The populace shall be strongest when disagreement is banished so that all only speak Correct Thought.' There must be a reference to ASCII as well, American Standard Code for Information Interchange - the common standard for simple text. This standardisation of the units of text
I was listening to Twilight of the Idols recently and Nietzsche was complaining about the terminal phase of human life under the disease of constructed reasons (I think). I was struck by the coincidence of noon and the high point of humanity, but I may be guilty of taking a surface reading in thinking that the terminal abolition of the true and apparent world is anything to do with the terrible state of Ascia. I was, perhaps, primed by a reference to the old sun.
Except from Twilight of the Idols or How to Philosophize with the Hammer -
HOW THE "TRUE WORLD" FINALLY BECAME A FABLE.
The History of an Error
1. The true world — attainable for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man;
he lives in it, he is it.
(The oldest form of the idea, relatively sensible, simple, and persuasive.
A circumlocution for the sentence, "I, Plato, am the truth.")
2. The true world — unattainable for now, but promised for the sage, the
pious, the virtuous man ("for the sinner who repents").
(Progress of the idea: it becomes more subtle, insidious,
incomprehensible — it becomes female, it becomes Christian. )
3. The true world — unattainable, indemonstrable, unpromisable; but
the very thought of it — a consolation, an obligation, an imperative.
(At bottom, the old sun, but seen through mist and skepticism. The idea
has become elusive, pale, Nordic, Königsbergian.)
4. The true world — unattainable? At any rate, unattained. And being
unattained, also unknown. Consequently, not consoling, redeeming, or obligating:
how could something unknown obligate us?
(Gray morning. The first yawn of reason. The cockcrow of positivism.)
5. The "true" world — an idea which is no longer good for anything, not
even obligating — an idea which has become useless and superfluous —
consequently, a refuted idea: let us abolish it!
(Bright day; breakfast; return of bon sens and cheerfulness; Plato's
embarrassed blush; pandemonium of all free spirits.)
6. The true world — we have abolished. What world has remained? The
apparent one perhaps? But no! With the true world we have also abolished the
apparent one.
(Noon; moment of the briefest shadow; end of the longest error; high
point of humanity; INCIPIT ZARATHUSTRA.)
