So, in his book The Occult Mind: Magick in Theory and Practice, Christopher Lehrich talks about the idea of Ægypt, which is the imaginary country that Renaissance occultists like to talk about, as opposed to the actual country of Egypt. This is important, because across their writings Ægypt has some consistent characteristics — it’s not just sticking any old bullshit on Egypt, but a relatively fully-imagined mythical place.
This is Egypt:
And this is Aegypt:
Right?
I propose that we need more of these dualistic terms. For instance, the mythical Emerald Isle that many Irish-Americans imagine could be renamed Oirland, or Jaysustopia, or Erin Go Fuck Yourself. Horrible caricatures appearing in Hollywood films could be called Injuns to distinguish them from Native Americans (unless that would give Hollywood license to do more of ’em, in which case never mind). And the actual German army of the 1930s and 40s could have its hyper-effective, tournament-winning hardware fetishist equivalent in the group I like to call Zee Chermans.
People who get all misty about MG42s and eidelweiss blossoms aren’t endorsing Nazi atrocities (they are usually not, in my experience). They’ve just fallen for the romance of Zee Chermans as opposed to the Germans. If you are conflicted about the fate of some hapless 19-year-old conscript in a war film where he gets mown down by the goodies as a disposable mook, don’t worry; those are Zee Chermans, not the Germans.
(Although I may have just created two different sets of Zee Chermans, the fun Rommel ones and the bad Himmler ones. Hmm. Might have to rethink this one.)
Can you think of any other useful second names?
The Gonzo History Project 
There’s the Gromans, those old-time guys who wore little skirts and helmets with crests on them. They had gladiators and aqueducts and philosophers and stuff. Groman ladies wore sexy slavegirl outfits and Groman dudes were all totally ripped.
I am researching ‘Merrie England’ which contained, simultaneously, King Arthur, Robin Hood, King Alfred, dragons, wolves, druids, evil witches and wenches in taverns, servicing(!) knights who wore full metal armour and all lived in the same castle which had extraneous turrets and a moat.
And like Aegypt, Merrie England has a relatively consistent body of lore, in that the authors who made use of the concept shared a roooooouughly consistent pool of stories and “facts.” I think Merrie England may very well be a good parallel to Aegypt. I’m sure there’s equivalent parts of any nation’s history — I suppose the Wild West is another example.
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