[PASSED] Commend Ballotonia

[Unibotian WA Mission]

Although commending someone for defending may leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, Mahaj -- I suggest you put the new additions at the top of the resolution, not the bottom of the resolution. They're the main showing and should be given top billing -- Ballo's contributions to NationStates as a defender are what is really 'outstanding' about Ballo.

Of course that's what you would think.....

And of course that's what you would imply. When two positions, mine and yours, ρ and Ϙ, conflict in existence.. this mean either ρ ⊕ Ϙ. Because either Ballo's defenders contributions were outstanding or they were not, they cannot simultaneously be outstanding and not be outstanding. Understand?

(1) Outstanding can be described as the state of being 'especially praiseworthy' in relative to others of the same ilk, because outstanding implies relativity -- the quality is defined as 'standing out' from something else, not a definition in and of itself.

(2) A contribution shall be identified as “the part played by a person or thing in bringing about a result or helping something to advance” which is worthy of distinction from an achievement, “a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill”. The difference is, a contribution is the investment to bring about a result, whereas an achievement is a kind of a result.

Therefore, to be true, my argument must satisfy all of these conditions:

1. The commended aspect is the contribution not necessarily the result,
2. The nominee has actually committed the contribution,
3. The 'contribution' is praiseworthy,
4. The 'contribution' is relatively rare,

Praiseworthiness is a specific evaluation of the agent in relation to his or hers actions. If the act of bringing about a result is praiseworthy, we shall assume (1) the act is good, (2) the act was not morally obligatory, and thus supererogatory. I believe this is rather self-explanitory, we would not praise an act that is bad or simply permissible (e.g., torture or choice of toothpaste) and we would not praise an agent for commiting to a good act that they were morally prohibted from not doing, (e.g., praising hundreds of nations for not being genocidal -- as opposed to simply denouncing the few that are genocidal).

Thus we can clarify the third condition by implementing further conditions needed to be satisfied for my argument to be true:

1. The commended aspect is the contribution not necessarily the result,
2. The nominee has actually committed the contribution,
3. The act of making this contribution is good,
4. The nominee was not morally obligated to make this contribution,
5. The 'contribution' is relatively rare,

If any one of 1-5 is false then Ϙ is true and ρ is false, only on condition that 1-5 is entirely true is ρ true and Ϙ, false. Therefore you only need to make a good case to disprove that my argument meets any one of those conditions! Perhaps you could argue that the act of making this contribution is not good -- you would have to argue that the act of defending which Ballotonia actuated was not good. However, I don't believe you have an argument there, a utilitarian who ties the moral evaluation of an act to the consequence will recognize that greater overall happiness is achieved with the protection of native freedom than the more exclusive provision of happiness that is experienced by raiders when they raid. Thus, utilitarians like Bentham would chastise raiding over native sovereignty for being inferior in various elements of felicific calculus such as extent, duration and fecundity.

Whereas deontologists like Kant would wipe your shoddy morality with toilet paper because the act of raiding contradicts the categorical imperative ( (a) if everyone raided, NationStates would be absolute chaos and would not be stable enough to foster the impressive political and game culture it has, (b) raiding uses native communities in some sense as a means to achieve their own pleasure). I suspect then, the Kantian argument would follow that raiding would be a breach of a perfect duty and preventing or undoing this breach of the categorical imperative is likely an imperfect or meritorious duty -- in simple terms, this means raiding is blameworthy and defending is good because it fulfills a desirable duty but the act of not raiding would not be blameworthy. Perhaps you could argue that everyone is morally obligated to defend regions... but would that not be hypocritical of you? Alternatively, you could argue that Ballotonia's contributions are not relatively rare or special, but instead simply a needle in a haystack -- I think the evidence suggests the contrary but perhaps you could provide some historical records to argue that case?

[Flemingovia]

tl:dr.

Summary: "In yo face, mutha."

[Mahaj]

tl:dr.

Summary: "In yo face, mutha."

Yeah, way over my head there, Uni.

[Unibotian WA Mission]

tl:dr.

Summary: "In yo face, mutha."

*winks*

Dahm right.

[Astrolinium]

Of course that's what you would think.....

And of course that's what you would imply. When two positions, mine and yours, ρ and Ϙ, conflict in existence.. this mean either ρ ⊕ Ϙ. Because either Ballo's defenders contributions were outstanding or they were not, they cannot simultaneously be outstanding and not be outstanding. Understand?

(1) Outstanding can be described as the state of being 'especially praiseworthy' in relative to others of the same ilk, because outstanding implies relativity -- the quality is defined as 'standing out' from something else, not a definition in and of itself.

(2) A contribution shall be identified as “the part played by a person or thing in bringing about a result or helping something to advance” which is worthy of distinction from an achievement, “a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill”. The difference is, a contribution is the investment to bring about a result, whereas an achievement is a kind of a result.

Therefore, to be true, my argument must satisfy all of these conditions:

1. The commended aspect is the contribution not necessarily the result,
2. The nominee has actually committed the contribution,
3. The 'contribution' is praiseworthy,
4. The 'contribution' is relatively rare,

Praiseworthiness is a specific evaluation of the agent in relation to his or hers actions. If the act of bringing about a result is praiseworthy, we shall assume (1) the act is good, (2) the act was not morally obligatory, and thus supererogatory. I believe this is rather self-explanitory, we would not praise an act that is bad or simply permissible (e.g., torture or choice of toothpaste) and we would not praise an agent for commiting to a good act that they were morally prohibted from not doing, (e.g., praising hundreds of nations for not being genocidal -- as opposed to simply denouncing the few that are genocidal).

Thus we can clarify the third condition by implementing further conditions needed to be satisfied for my argument to be true:

1. The commended aspect is the contribution not necessarily the result,
2. The nominee has actually committed the contribution,
3. The act of making this contribution is good,
4. The nominee was not morally obligated to make this contribution,
5. The 'contribution' is relatively rare,

If any one of 1-5 is false then Ϙ is true and ρ is false, only on condition that 1-5 is entirely true is ρ true and Ϙ, false. Therefore you only need to make a good case to disprove that my argument meets any one of those conditions! Perhaps you could argue that the act of making this contribution is not good -- you would have to argue that the act of defending which Ballotonia actuated was not good. However, I don't believe you have an argument there, a utilitarian who ties the moral evaluation of an act to the consequence will recognize that greater overall happiness is achieved with the protection of native freedom than the more exclusive provision of happiness that is experienced by raiders when they raid. Thus, utilitarians like Bentham would chastise raiding over native sovereignty for being inferior in various elements of felicific calculus such as extent, duration and fecundity.

Whereas deontologists like Kant would wipe your shoddy morality with toilet paper because the act of raiding contradicts the categorical imperative ( (a) if everyone raided, NationStates would be absolute chaos and would not be stable enough to foster the impressive political and game culture it has, (b) raiding uses native communities in some sense as a means to achieve their own pleasure). I suspect then, the Kantian argument would follow that raiding would be a breach of a perfect duty and preventing or undoing this breach of the categorical imperative is likely an imperfect or meritorious duty -- in simple terms, this means raiding is blameworthy and defending is good because it fulfills a desirable duty but the act of not raiding would not be blameworthy. Perhaps you could argue that everyone is morally obligated to defend regions... but would that not be hypocritical of you? Alternatively, you could argue that Ballotonia's contributions are not relatively rare or special, but instead simply a needle in a haystack -- I think the evidence suggests the contrary but perhaps you could provide some historical records to argue that case?

Giovanni blinked several times."Gtfo. This is the security council, don't try to bring sound logic and reasoning in here."

[Mahaj]

So, yeah, all of the below isn't final or a concrete decision, just some thoughts i'm having:


I'm thinking I should abandon this. For a couple of reasons. One is that the writing isn't exactly that great, and if someone else was writing it they could probably improve on it. Second is that defenders have recently taken to spreading myths about me to different regions. I'm afraid that if I tried to push through Commend Ballotonia, it'd get voted down, purely because of the name in the author's box. Its silly, but it is what it is. Ballotonia doesn't deserve the, well, sorta shame you might get if a commendation on you fails, and it'd be, well, all because of me, and I don't want that to happen.

So i'm thinking that very likely I will just completely abandon this.

[Aetrina]

I praise the delegates obvious zeal for the topic. I am not going to quote any profound philosophic statements or drag this into a "I'm smarter and therefore obviously better than you are" kind of thing. I applaud your passionate defense of defenderism and would not try to change your stance. I respect your opinion and your right to it as passionately as you deride my position and my right to it. In that regard perhaps I should clarify my position. I believe that a region has a right to protect itself and expand it's interests when it sees fit. Whether this result is brought on by "raiding" (which for clarification I define as the taking of a region for no other reason then to take it) or by the more diplomatic although certainly still potentially violent "Imperialist" method. I hold that the imperialists wish to see their colonies grow and prosper taking regions that have declined into obscurity and bringing them back into the light. The original intent of my post was a not so subtle rebuke of the fact that you believed the delegate from Mahaj would have a "bad taste" in their mouth for attempting to commend a "defender". I think you might have misunderstood that. I continue to support the delegate from Mahaj for drafting resolutions where they see the need. It is unfortunate that certain factions within the defender camp feel the need to slander the delegate from Mahaj for doing good work.

[Unibot II]

I'm thinking I should abandon this. For a couple of reasons. One is that the writing isn't exactly that great, and if someone else was writing it they could probably improve on it. Second is that defenders have recently taken to spreading myths about me to different regions. I'm afraid that if I tried to push through Commend Ballotonia, it'd get voted down, purely because of the name in the author's box. Its silly, but it is what it is. Ballotonia doesn't deserve the, well, sorta shame you might get if a commendation on you fails, and it'd be, well, all because of me, and I don't want that to happen.

(1) Going Postal submitted and passed "Commend Wysteria". (2) Honorable defenders don't spread 'myths' about people, you can rest assured that what suspicions we have of you are simply protocol regarding new entries in a region, these suspicions have remained within our decision-making headquarters and will remain private for your own reputation's protection out of fairness -- we're not going to spread around things we don't know for sure. Doing otherwise is simply not what we're about.

[Unibot II]

I continue to support the delegate from Mahaj for drafting resolutions where they see the need. It is unfortunate that certain factions within the defender camp feel the need to slander the delegate from Mahaj for doing good work.

It's slander to say I was slandering him. I was practically joking.

[Nolaerie]

I appreciate the effort at commending Ballotonia. I hope it is not discarded for the struggle with its drafting.

We might also consider commending Ballotonia for being NationStates' master archivist -- resolving many disputes within regions -- especially during the old days before the era of regional influence.

[A mean old man]

I'm pretty sure you could pass this, Mahaj.

[Mahaj]

I'm pretty sure you could pass this, Mahaj.

I guess i'll give it a go, then.

If you want to post those little edits you said you wanted me to make, I can do those and then submit, say, tomorrow?

[A mean old man]

I'm pretty sure you could pass this, Mahaj.

I guess i'll give it a go, then.

If you want to post those little edits you said you wanted me to make, I can do those and then submit, say, tomorrow?

Oh yeah. I'll get to that today. Sounds like a plan.

[Mahaj]

I guess i'll give it a go, then.

If you want to post those little edits you said you wanted me to make, I can do those and then submit, say, tomorrow?

Oh yeah. I'll get to that today. Sounds like a plan.

Awesome.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

You can count on the Minoa Government's endorsement on the grounds of their expertise on issues.

[A mean old man]

THE SECURITY COUNCIL,

ACKNOWLEDGING Ballotonia as an ardent champion of the defender cause during discussions about raiding and defending,

The clause would be more powerful if that last part was simply omitted.

NOTING that Ballotonia is the mastermind behind the liberation approach called the 'PuppetMaster Attack,' which was first used in a liberation of The North Pacific in the largest successful liberation to date,

Changed "was" to "is." It's not like he isn't still that same person.
Strike that to avoid redundancy.

AWARE that Ballotonia presided over the Allied Liberation League, or A.L.L., which was connected to the ADN and at its peak had a membership includeed regions such as The West Pacific, The North Pacific, and The Rejected Realms, Nasicournia, Equilism, Nederland, Belgium, Utopia, and North America, and in turn was allied with the larger ADN,

“And” is in the middle of the list?
Restructured this.

ACKNOWLEDGING Ballotonia’s leadership role in the close alliance between the regions of Nederland and Belgium which has helped keep the liberated region of Belgium active and secure under its native delegate of West-Flanders for almost two years to date,

*clap, clap*
Good work, me!

RECOGNIZING the existence of the Ballotonian "office of almost-useless stats," which produced an interesting survey entitled "Flag Use Stats" which recorded statistics such as the most used flag in the world,

That’s fine.

APPLAUDING APPLAUDING the work of Ballotonian number analysts who conducted a population growth investigation with the goal of determining how quickly nations gain population and uncovered results that surprised many and debunked the old myth about population gain, which was that the population growth would be random as opposed to a systematic increase,

He is just so great that we have to applaud him twice!

ASTONISHED that despite over 85000 nations currently existing, the same issues keep popping up in all of these nations,

Good.

COGNIZANT COGNIZANT that Ballotonia has, through extensive research, catalogued these issues and the most common responses to them by nations, given the different issues names and numbers, and also listed the options that nations frequently take when addressing these issues,

The WA must be two times as cognizant as it would originally have been had this text not been edited.

RECOGNIZING Ballotonia as the author of the Security Council proposal 'Repeal Commend Sedgistan,' the only Security Council proposal yet to pass in the wake of the coup of The South Pacific by Devonitions, a puppet state of Sedgistan,

Alright.

HEREBY Commends Ballotonia.

Co-Authored by [nation=short]A Mean Old Man[/nation]

Marvelous.

[Mahaj]

etits made.

[Astrolinium]

etits made.

Giovanni ran over as fast as he can, much like a cat might run at the sound of the opening of a can of food. "Did you just say you have eTits!?"

[Mahaj]

etits made.

Giovanni ran over as fast as he can, much like a cat might run at the sound of the opening of a can of food. "Did you just say you have eTits!?"

lol

eTits. Because the regular ones aren't good enough.

[A mean old man]

AWARE that Ballotonia presided over the Allied Liberation League, or A.L.L., which was connected to the A.D.N. and at its peak had a membership included regions such as The West Pacific, The North Pacific, The Rejected Realms, Nasicournia, Equilism, Nederland, Belgium, Utopia, and North America, and in turn was allied with the larger ADN,

You fudged that.

[Mahaj]

AWARE that Ballotonia presided over the Allied Liberation League, or A.L.L., which was connected to the A.D.N. and at its peak had a membership included regions such as The West Pacific, The North Pacific, The Rejected Realms, Nasicournia, Equilism, Nederland, Belgium, Utopia, and North America, and in turn was allied with the larger ADN,

You fudged that.

Typical. fixed. I think. I hope.

[A mean old man]

I think it's ready. Are you ready to campaign for it or do you need help?

[Mahaj]

I think it's ready. Are you ready to campaign for it or do you need help?

I'll submit it tomorrow just after the minor update to give it 3 days and 12 hours.

As for campaigning-- help is always nice. I was thinking maybe I'll do the odd number pages and you can do the even number pages, you don't have to do a lot, but some helps.

Plus I'd imagine you command some influence over delegates.

[A mean old man]

I think it's ready. Are you ready to campaign for it or do you need help?

I'll submit it tomorrow just after the minor update to give it 3 days and 12 hours.

As for campaigning-- help is always nice. I was thinking maybe I'll do the odd number pages and you can do the even number pages, you don't have to do a lot, but some helps.

Plus I'd imagine you command some influence over delegates.

It's more the wording of the telegram than the author that can convince them to support the proposal, but I'm sure I've earned myself a few friends here and there. Even and odd sounds terribly confusing; we could just do what AD and I did when we worked together on the 10kI commendation - one of us starts at the end of the list lobbying the little guys and one of us starts at the beginning lobbying the big ones.

[Drop Your Pants]

Your TG was a bit on the long side

1) Ballotonia is a respected champion of the defender cause. Both raiders and defenders have tremendous respect towards him.

Hardly know the guy, champion of the old defenders maybe but of you pick 5 defenders who don't visit the NS forum and they won't have a clue what your on about.