The Council Democracy of Beyond These Things is a gargantuan, safe nation, remarkable for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, anti-smoking policies, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic population of 21.714 billion Beyond These Thingsians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded, outspoken government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Policy, and Environment. The average income tax rate is 93.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but underdeveloped Beyond These Thingsian economy, worth 855 trillion farthings a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is solely comprised of the Book Publishing industry. State-owned companies are the norm. Average income is 39,384 farthings, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Innocent defendants often plea guilty for fear of receiving a much harsher sentence before jury, the government pours millions of farthings into rehabilitation programs annually, crime has increased substantially since the police concentrated all their efforts on arresting the rich for loitering in their own homes, and terrified neighbors cower behind concertina wire and machine gun nests. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Beyond These Things's national animal is the rattle snake, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Beyond These Things is ranked 30,414^th in the world and 3^rd in Soviet Union for Highest Food Quality, scoring 65.77 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.