8th Wonderland

(8th Wonderland)

There exists a virtual country on the internet, its name: 8th WONDERLAND.

8th WONDERLAND secretly gathers people from around the world which have one point in common: the wish never again to be subjected to news broadcasts, without being able to react. And as it is true that an individual barely has any chance of being listened to, a country on the other hand, has many more possibilities of intervention at an international level.

Every week, each inhabitant of 8th WONDERLAND gives one euro. Every week, they vote for a different motion by referendum. Should one be adopted, the inhabitants of this virtual country take it upon themselves to apply it to the real world. They have only one line of conduct: to improve things.

The small country starts in good spirits. Their operations resemble more those of students in lack of amusement, than the thoughtful acts of a serious country: the Pope pronounces himself yet again against the use of condoms? The following Sunday Vatican worshippers discover the walls of their churches have been covered with" host flavored” condom distributors. The USA persists in practicing death penalty? The turkey pardoned by the American president the day before Thanksgiving is kidnapped. A video is sent to the media, showing men masked and armed with blades surrounding the animal and forcing it "to pronounce" an abolitionist speech …

But soon, 8th WONDERLAND politics change. Their inhabitants become more committed and more ambitious motions are voted. At the same time, the media start to gain interest in the accumulation of unusual international acts being committed, by 8th WONDERLAND, which can hardly be considered a coincidence.

Everything evolves very fast when the virtual country prevents the creation of nuclear power plants in the Middle East, without succeeding to preserve their anonymity. The media blow out: formerly undercover, 8th WONDERLAND suddenly finds itself in the limelight. Everybody wants to know more about this mysterious virtual country, which as a result, records an unprecedented surge of immigration.With several million inhabitants, 8th WONDERLAND becomes a true force of opposition. Even the politicians from traditional countries, although feeling overshadowed, hesitate to openly criticize this country which obtains unanimity around it.

New threats loom: what would happen if the motions of 8th WONDERLAND became little by little more reactionary? What if its way of behaving became slowly but surely similar to terrorist behavior? We are left to hope that the inhabitants of 8th WONDERLAND can control their creation because irreparable problems would arise for traditional nations: how do you counter a country whose inhabitants infiltrate all the worlds’ bodies of decision? How do you capture millions of people disseminated throughout the world? How do you fight a country that doesn’t exist?