NationStates

"Hey, that looks like Latin."

"Because it is Latin." - two non-Tellurian archaeologists having the utter misfortune to be digging on a Sealed World.

The text? "Entry barred under pain of death, do not enter under any circumstances."

What is-
-Test Subject of Lv-292 6.1.2 Matter Dismantler

Heh. Remember the time when our kids were starving in the streets? When the rich killed the poor for looking them sideways? I think... I think that's over now.
A rebel soldier after the signing of the "Proclamation of Liberty" which ended the Civil War and united Velistan under a democratic government.

"Yes, there is torture resistance factored into Orderian special operations programs, but really it is more towards avoiding getting tortured, staying calm in the face of it, and how to manipulate your interrogators. Other than that, there is really not much in the way of beatings and proving how tough one is. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of pain- it's brought on by extreme exercises that challenge a prospect's willingness to complete the mission, though. When you're rucking dozens of miles over mountains with full kit, yes, it is going to fucking hurt, and a lot. That is conditioning, though. We don't just beat the shit out of each other, we don't 'permanently numb' the nerves or whatever you want to call it, because the truth is this: no matter how many broken beer bottles and bricks to the head and sledge hammers to the stomach you can take, it doesn't fucking matter. A .22LR to the tear duct or a 6.5mm Mozambique drill does the same damn thing to a man who's never known pain his whole life to the most drugged up, pain-resistant psycho 'super soldier' in human history. It kills them pretty close to immediately.

The first training course that special operations troops go through is also not that long or that extreme. Most of what we learn is learned at our unit. It does not matter how long you study doctrine, because each unit operates slightly differently. We train daily to handle our missions our way, and in fact much of what it taught at the first schoolhouse is forgotten and replaced by unit doctrine." -Captain Chukwa-ma Onobanjo, Marine Corps Special Forces

Call it cronyism, but the corporation and the state must be cooperative with each other, as well as inherently opposed via competition to ensure that no one entity overtakes the other for dominance. State sponsored capitalism works well to ensure constant exports and is particularily adept at bringing formerly impoverished nations out of their poverty. This is clearly proven through the miraculous and monumental development of the South Korean, Chinese Taipei, and Singaporean economies during the 60s through the present. The Japanese also used a very similar method to attain their position as an export superpower, although the 90s weren't too kind to them in the end. Yes it can be a hit or miss situation, however this ensures high levels of economic stability, especially compounded with the 'thrifty savings culture' that many east Asian societies have.

―Sima Irri, CEO of Kanyong Confectioneries

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Classical liberalism and neoliberal policies have proven to work under very specific conditions. For example Lebanon and Hong Kong alongside modern day Singapore and South Korea are key economies that thrive with these ideologies. But from an ethical standpoint, it only serves to divide society into isolated individuals with bloated unrealistic egos and further divides the core unit of many societies, the family.

This is highly hypocritical when western 'conservatives' hold high horse values of the 'traditional family' and 'traditional values' alongside the self destructive classical liberal ideology. This materialism and this intertwined notion that one's identity is tied to the material wealth they have accumulated serves as the final straw in destroying any notions of traditional―ahem―romanticist values of the 'family' and morality.

It's pathetic. It's harmfully egoistical. It's idiotic to believe in to diametrically opposed beliefs.

An individual's sense of self and identity is more than the material wealth that they accumulate. But the classical liberal philosophy twists the individual into believing in such a destructive illusion. What about their narrative? What about their talents and their work ethic? What about their sense of being and meaning? All of those do not matter in the most hypocritical form of classical liberal philosophy combined with the toxic romanticism that such 'western conservatives' endorse.

―Tsoiyev Sahairō-zhi, Householder of Jinrong-myāo

"I did not crawl out of the war-ridden deserts of northern Africa to accommodate the idea of joining my Empire to some internationalist festival of love and hugs doomed to failure and war that you morons are so short-sighted you cannot see. I would mourn your passing but you're so idiotic you're running towards it." - Tsar Alexander Yordanov, declining with verbatim the idea of the Empire joining the Sotian Confederation, July, 2060

"This over here is the North Korea experiment. It allows people to live life as if they live in North Korea." -Mr. Badd/Akudaijin

"The last some some little brat threatened to kill me if I didn't stop criticizing Socialism on my blog, I sent him my home address, my choice of weapons, and a list of dueling grounds in my area."

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

"You think I'm afraid of you, Victor? You're nothing compared to the demons I've been fighting. The demons you gave me." -Grand Commander Athena Agatha Griffith, after getting her eyeballs gouged out by former Grand Commander Griffith Victor who is actually her brother

(the demons she's referring to are her PTSD and injuries from serving in several of Victor's wars as a recon officer in the Federal Army)

"Big Sis actually looks kinda... revolting."

"There are more ways to turn people pretty than one."

-The Eye Guy and Shinji Sakahara, on Big Sis

"I used to live in an island chain with a almost certain single-party state, corporate policies, historically patronizing to it's neighbors, and which considers itself culturally unique partly for being supposedly so homogeneous and millennial. It's reluctantly allied to America. Oh and people fake stoicism to save face. The population is declining.

Now I live in an island chain with a clear single-party state, corporate policies, patronizing to it's neighbors, and which considers itself and it's culture unique for having many different ethnic groups united in suffering just under a few centuries. It's also reluctantly allied to America. Oh and people fake overt emotions to save face. The population is a plateau."
-Tsuneko Zorilla

March 14th, 2128
"Every day, I always have this thought that I missed something as my job as President of the Federal States of America. I opened trade with Desseret, brought peace and order to Wyoming after the Farmer's Rebellion, oversaw the growth of the nation's economy, and rebuilt the nation's air force. I even oversaw the readmittance of the Great Lakes to America, thanks to the leadership of General Aaron Chung. With this many accomplishments, why do I feel incomplete? Every day, I just couldn't shake the feeling of not being fully accomplished. But today, the answer hit me. I am the President of America without having the American heart. This country does not have the East Coast, the birthplace of this country 300 years ago with larger than life founders such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and George Washington. To bring New England and the Chesapeake back to the Union from the heretical Ivy Commonwealth and the despotic Atlantic Dominion is what I need to do as President. I must bring back the birthplace of America back to America."
- Journal entry of James Kimball, President of the Federal States of America, three days before Congress declared Operation Reunion.

"I've been sitting here for the last two hours, just fishing by the lake, and the phone hasn't rang once. That's...rather nice, actually."

-- Dalton Barbosa, President from 2012 to 2020, now a private Citizen once more and very pleased about that.

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"Global Strike Command is responsible for jointly coordinating and maintaining the nuclear and chemical arms of the Republic against the day when they are needed. Personnel from all services have been carefully selected and appointed to perform the myriad tasks required to make this mammoth undertaking a success."

-- Gen. Archer Tufts, U.S.A.F., Global Strike Command.

"What better is tyranny from one's neighbors than government ensuring equal protection for all?" -Chancellor Heinrich Slaag

- Valorea Merlith, rogue Magisterial Agent, and William Black, Inquisitor of the Three.

"Caw."
-Tracked bird 244

"The Seventh Sector are the tamers of state and market at the behest of culture. If you imagine revolution as transition between states, we are the third-term which prevents another state from forming. We are the aristocracy of the anarchists."

---Tseila Kathangi, trying to appear slightly more benevolent than he has warrant for.

"I've never actually been on a gauss freighter, but don't tell anyone." - Gerar Logartson, author of the popular book Gauss Freighters and Fly-By Drones, written and published in 1994.

"You do indeed have a right to health insurance, just in the same way that you have a right to a lottery ticket. It is what is called a negative right. You are under no obligation to have it if you happen not to want it, and nobody else is obligated to provide it for you at their expense if you cannot afford it."

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

"Two contradicting binaries don't make a convincing argument if bound together in seemingly endless codependent chains of interaction limited in practice and also in intensity- this further tied to consequences and results which eventually end up creating a shared reality...That's why I spent my obliged study hours reading about far away tribes. Things seemed smaller and...less complicated. Not really, they never are...or I think too much...or too much on the not measurable..."
-Tsuneko Nagi, 2009

- Philipe Dugaulle, Professor, lecturing an International Human Rights Class*.

*And apologies to Mackonia, and other similarly-minded individuals, for propagating the Christian-Islamo-Bhuddist-Humanist falsehood that is human rights, of course. : p

Citizens, I come to you with great news. The leader of the Junta of Velistan, Gregory Kolanipos has been captured and executed for his crimes against Velistan. We have finally eliminated the Loyalists, and brought justice to the monsters who brought our lovely country into ruin.


-President Halos Folani, informing the public of the total destruction of the Loyalist movement.

Bereia wrote:"You do indeed have a right to health insurance, just in the same way that you have a right to a lottery ticket. It is what is called a negative right. You are under no obligation to have it if you happen not to want it, and nobody else is obligated to provide it for you at their expense if you cannot afford it."
-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

"The language of rights obscures more ethical discussion than it clarifies."
- student

"Sued. We are getting sued. This is absolutely ridiculous! Your society needs this power plant, and these idiots seem to think electricity grows out of the ground or something. This an absolute nightmare and such irresponsible behavior would never be allowed in Ashkera. Do something about it."
- liaison to York-I&2 Reactor Project from Ashkera Nuclear Energy Corporation, United States of Elan, 1984

"THE NUCLEAR TIGER - Ashkera's Elusive Government Continues to Push for Nuclear Energy in the Face of Worldwide Green Initiatives - Here's what it means for the global energy market."
- headline from a magazine, United States of Elan, 2005