Glen-Rhodes wrote:<snip>
This isn't a point by point response, but I think it touches on most of your points. I've been ill lately so my train of thought occasionally leaves the station if I try to do a point by point thing. It's easier for me to focus if I just stick with the broader points and don't get into the weeds.
1. I'm not Syberis and we don't even speak anymore, because I don't trust most of the Empire/Rahl family, especially when they jump in to start an argument with me in my home region so they can defend their family's political maneuvering in TEP. I don't expect you to know any of that, to be clear, but it would be nice if you could avoid constantly making all these assumptions. I wasn't joining in alongside him, I was inviting you to make an unambiguous rebuttal to his bullshit precisely because I saw you making a strong rebuttal to the same bullshit in TSP.
2. I got concerned, and frankly irritated, when you once again -- and extremely needlessly -- brought up your calling for regime change in Osiris as though there was nothing wrong with that. There was something wrong with it. You can dance around the issue all you want, but when you tell people to throw out the government in a region where that cannot legally be done, sorry, it's hard to see how you're not encouraging them to overthrow the government by force. There isn't any alternative way to throw government officials out in Osiris, except the Pharaoh firing them all, which clearly was not what you meant because that obviously isn't democratic. I can accept, at this point, that you maybe didn't intend it to come off as hostile as was intended, but it would be nice if you could accept, at this point, why it did.
3. I also got concerned and frankly irritated because by needlessly going there, you played right into Syberis' hands. He wanted you to say something like that. He only does this stuff to bait you into saying something he can use to prove his point, and you went for it hook, line, and sinker. That's very frustrating to me, because I would like to see cessation of grievances and a commitment to non-aggression between TSP and Osiris sometime before I retire. You've once again made it harder, for no particular reason except you're arrogant and stubborn. Thanks for that.
4. If you say you meant what you said about all this in TSP during the alignment debate, I'll take your word for it. I just wish you could have said it again here without the added and totally unnecessary side commentary about Osiris that muddied the waters. What was the point in that?
5. I'm not out to get you. I don't want the Cabinet to disavow you. I'm not your enemy at this point -- if anything, with the Empire/Rahl resurgence and their brand of authoritarianism poisoning a Feeder and threatening other regions as well, we probably agree more than ever before. I just wish you would stop shooting yourself, and others, in the foot for no reason. You are helping them by diverging off into this nonsense.
Unibot III wrote:Perhaps Osiris could just embrace democracy and save Gameplay an argument. A democratization of Osiris would put pressure on the East Pacific, an ally, to walk the talk on civil rights and democratic governance.
*shrugs*
I don't see Osiris ever democratizing, given its history with democracy (or what passed for it, in the KRO's case). It's not even that I don't want Osiris to democratize. I actually think if it did, things would be fine now, for a variety of reasons. But it's just not in the political culture of Osiris to go that route. The community is strong the way things are, everyone gets input on major issues without formal democratic processes because that's our political culture now, and Osirans -- even the newer folks, sometimes especially the newer folks -- remember the region's history and don't want to see this all come tumbling down. There's no particular reason for them to trade a stable, strong community for the uncertainty of democratization. There's nothing they feel they're missing from not having a democracy instead of this form of government.
TEP and Osiris aren't allies anymore anyway, and most folks in TEP are so indoctrinated into this isolationist mentality -- which preceded Fedele, by years, so this is one thing I'm not blaming exclusively on him and his ilk -- that they have no idea what any other region is saying or doing anyway, unless Fedele and his government decide to tell them. When they do tell them something, they tie it up with their own little propaganda bow of pseudo-Francoist elitist derision and edgy mockery, and they win them over every time because no one there knows any better. So I don't have any confidence that Osiris democratizing would have any positive impact in TEP. I'm not sure anything can have a positive impact in TEP until TEPers themselves get sick of being ruled by these people. I'm sure that will happen eventually, but it's going to be over the long haul.
