The Fons Honorium, or To Peek Behind The Curtain

 

 

What gives a State legitimacy? What is it that gives a State the right to make decisions for its people?

 

Some would say that a State is only legitimate if other states recognize it. If this is so, then what makes those other states legitimate in their own right?

 

The question of legitimacy and the right of the State to make life and death decisions (quite literally, on occasion) for its Citizens is not a question that it often taught in schools, as it is a very confusing and hazy subject that “little people” are seldom encouraged to ponder. They are seldom encouraged to ponder this, as most States are loath to surrender their power and authority…As with any biological organism, bureaucracies are driven to attain and maintain control over those things which it needs to survive and grow – in the case of bureaucracies, this is an ever-increasing amount of control over the State they are supposed to serve.

 

States derive their authority from one – and only one – source: the Fons Honorium, from the Latin for “Font (or Fountain) of Honor”.

 

What is this ‘Fons’, and where does it come from?

 

A Fons has no specific form. Various Fons’ do share one thing, however: Belief. People who believe in an intangible ‘essence’, a ‘thing’ or an ideal, believe in a Fons. For instance, the Constitution of the United States and its Declaration of Independence both constitute the Fons of the United States – they are the documents that most Americans think of when they think of the edifice that is America.

 

This brings us to ‘micronations’.

 

Do micronations possess a Fons? The answer is yes, they do. When a person, or a group of people gathered together, collectively says words to the effect of “[Nation X] exists – because we say it does”, they have created a Fons. That Fons exists from that instant, and will continue to exist, until no one understands, believes in or remembers it.

 

This extends into the realm of noble titles. A noble title, such as Knight, only has a reality if people believe in that title. People in Britain believe that a person is a Knight when they are "knighted" by the reigning Monarch; 'micronations' are no different.

 

This is why micronations exist, and will always exist: when one person says “I am free”, they have taken a Fons of and for themselves; they may subsume it later, by joining a group and lending their Fons to support that one, but their Fons still exists until their physical death, or until no one remembers them.

 

A Fons, and thus legitimacy, needs no recognition from anyone but those who believe in it.

 

 

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