Quotes of People in Your Nation Mk. VI

[Bereia]

"Those who abuse their power often do it in the name of 'gods'."
-- former President Mickey Chang

"Mickey? Mickey, there was a point there, and you basically missed it completely. You're smarter than that. Whether you believe they come from God or not, if you want those in government to legitimately respect your rights, it is a good idea to make sure they are not there in pursuit of personal advancement, but out of a sense of civic duty."

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

---

"Ah, so we should take Donald Trump and David Rockefeller's money away, lest they control employee's lives, massacre strikers, or influence political discourse, got ya.

But one problem with your plan: Those people who wish to utilise the power to keep people who want power from attaining power... Surely we should be keeping them from that power?"

-Satirist Ezekiel Thrombosis

"Nice attempt at a logical paradox, but no cigar, I'm afraid. Money does not necessarily equal political power, and if we take it from those who earned it as you would wish, to whom would we hand it then? Governments? They have caused infinitely more bloodshed and death in history than even the most evil and barbaric of corporate executives, and throughout history have shown they have as much propensity for using wealth to influence the people to their own ends.

In answer to your attempted logical paradox itself, the answer is simple. Democracy is not a free ride. If you sit on your ass you will eventually be trampled by those who do not care about basic human rights as long as they get what they want. The single answer, in the end, is a sensible framework of codified laws meant to safeguard the dignity and liberty of the people, and an active, highly educated, intelligent citizenry free to act on their own initiative and well-informed as to the functions, duties, and restrictions of the government."

-- President Dalton Barbosa.

[The Yorkshire Commonwealth]

"Ah, so we should take Donald Trump and David Rockefeller's money away, lest they control employee's lives, massacre strikers, or influence political discourse, got ya.

But one problem with your plan: Those people who wish to utilise the power to keep people who want power from attaining power... Surely we should be keeping them from that power?"

-Satirist Ezekiel Thrombosis

"Nice attempt at a logical paradox, but no cigar, I'm afraid. Money does not necessarily equal political power, and if we take it from those who earned it as you would wish, to whom would we hand it then? Governments? They have caused infinitely more bloodshed and death in history than even the most evil and barbaric of corporate executives, and throughout history have shown they have as much propensity for using wealth to influence the people to their own ends.

In answer to your attempted logical paradox itself, the answer is simple. Democracy is not a free ride. If you sit on your ass you will eventually be trampled by those who do not care about basic human rights as long as they get what they want. The single answer, in the end, is a sensible framework of codified laws meant to safeguard the dignity and liberty of the people, and an active, highly educated, intelligent citizenry free to act on their own initiative and well-informed as to the functions, duties, and restrictions of the government."

-- President Dalton Barbosa.

"Well done honey. You've very almost understood how satire works.
Not quite there yet, but it's a learning curve.
Firstly, 'government,' even if inappropriately used as a catch-all term to tar Olaf Palme's regime with the same brush as Genghis Khan's and Richard the 1st's, has not caused as much bloodshed as private individuals... Private individuals commit spousal abuse, child abuse, and drunken abuse, governments do not... So if it were a competition, it would be one that government's have consistently been second best in throughout human history, (despite notable momentary surges... Fuck you Germany... You shouldn't have even been in the 1954 World Cup, the fact you won it by taking roids is fucking disgraceful... No I'm not over it!)
For you, 'Governments' may be the evil spiders that crawl around your brain, and under your skin and leave you paranoid and scratching and scared, but for the rest of us they are a function of human society, the open, transparent and accountable organisation that takes us from Mad Max's thunderdome, or at the very least a pulp-fiction meat-market to something approaching justice. Unlike private organisations, which are unaccountable, undemocratic, insular, hidden, grasping and greedy and are run according to the market, and therefore can do as many evil things, commit as many environmental atrocities, and ruin as many lives as they wish so long as they make a profit."

-Satirist Ezekiel Thrombosis

[Greater Mackonia]

"Nothing better unifies people than something they hate more than each other."

-Proverbial.

---

"The tired old 'merit is subjective' argument is nonsensical. By that logic surgeons are but the tools of a corrupt regime of patronage, academic panels are clearly just 'patting themselves on the back' and promotion in the armed services would be better decided by ballot. Merit can easily be defined as human ability in a field, the field of all politics is power."

-Zilkas Soekthar-Mesok.

---

"Welfarism is the prime enemy of Meritocracy in society, indeed Welfarism is merely Capitalism's conscience. In a meritocratic society those who fail have no one but themselves to blame and are deserving of no aid but the euthanasia booth."

-Premier Lithastir Mythurin.

[Estainia]

"The depopulation of entire nations, the extermination of whole peoples, done in the names of republics, kings and gods, does not pale in comparison to the subhuman who strikes his wife, thanks for trying, though." - Stephen Jones

[Bereia]

"The depopulation of entire nations, the extermination of whole peoples, done in the names of republics, kings and gods, does not pale in comparison to the subhuman who strikes his wife, thanks for trying, though." - Stephen Jones

"Thank you for that, Stephen. Pretzels?"

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

---

"To the Bereian, government can never be good. At best, it can be necessary, and at worst it is intolerable."

-- Dr. Kevin Powell, Frieburg University.

[Greater Mackonia]

_{"I have yet seen an argument to successfully divorce the ludicrous idea of natural and universal rights and thus the very basis of the Democratic system from the playmate God. As far as I'm concerned nobody who accepts these without accepting the God who justifies them has no business calling themselves an atheist."}

-Z.Maglos.

[The Yorkshire Commonwealth]

"The depopulation of entire nations, the extermination of whole peoples, done in the names of republics, kings and gods, does not pale in comparison to the subhuman who strikes his wife, thanks for trying, though." - Stephen Jones

In number, however, there is a clear winner. my point being, that if a ludicrous anarcho-nut can point to every abusive government figure as a reason to justify the notion that governments are evil and malignant, then we may, with equal validity (in other words: equally little validity) condemn private individuals with the same inappropriately wide-lens. More people have been killed, beaten and brutalized by their spouses, their parents, mob rule, drunken violence, racist bullying, homophobic bullying, genderist bullying, psychotic and random acts of violence, etc, etc. than have been killed by the acts of government, despite a few notable surges, and this can surely be used with exactly the same level of logic (ie: no level of logic whatsoever) to justify limiting the freedoms of individuals, in other words, in Julissia's 'mind' American's are not allowed to have a government with the freedom to administer that nation competently, because that power would naturally be abused, and yet... That's an odd opinion because generally most abuses have been committed by private citizens, so surely if the fact that governments have abused in the past was some kind of justification for restricting a government's ability to aid people, then the same restrictive argument must be leveled towards the far more historically abusive private citizen.""

-Satirist Ezekiel Thrombosis

[Greater Mackonia]

_{"The cruelty of man is a tragedy. The cruelty of his masters is a voluntary suffering."}

-Saepnir the Purple, Poet, Anarcho-Egoist.

[Bojikami]

"Corruption is not all that rampant in the government, as most who are even suspected of corruption are taken from power and banned from holding any government positions in the future. This may seem extreme, but remember that in the days of Regovishki, these people were taken to the firing squads."
-Antony Belinsky

[Greater Mackonia]

"The phoney anti-establishmentism of the so-called 'radicals' in the west has been perhaps the greatest success of modern moralistic, conservative capitalism. The 'rebellion' against 'traditional morality' was consigned to the bedroom alone, and was the perfect front by which to create a new generation of hedonistic consumers. Likewise the supposedly avant-garde of art served merely to legitimise the vulgarity of capitalism. Individualism for these "rebels" was in actuality just indicative of a deeply conformist obsession with image. Politically "activism" replaced genuine criticism of the reigning order of things and became the most fetid and revolting epitome of moraline ignorance in the field of politics. Paving the way for politicians who could win elections on appeals to said farcical morality. You're not radicals, you're not rebels, you're pathetic sheep who are making a lot of men very rich by your superhuman idiocy."

-Z.Maglos, Paris, circa.1968.

[Star Trek America]

"Government only becomes malignant when the people allow it to do so. You have a duty as a citizen to rise up against such corruption, not bitch about it from the soap boxed walls of academia." - First Minister Daniel Martel

[Sovetskaya Rossiya]

"Corruption ceases to be an issue once you take anyone even remotely considered to be corrupt, and publicly execute them."
-General Secretary Garry Kasparov, on the policies of Yegor Ligachev and the decline of corruption in the Soviet Government in the mid to late 90s.

[Bereia]

"Government only becomes malignant when the people allow it to do so. You have a duty as a citizen to rise up against such corruption, not bitch about it from the soap boxed walls of academia." - First Minister Daniel Martel

"The soap box is one of the primary weapons against corruption in government. If used properly, energetically, and in the right moment, it can stop the rot before more drastic steps are needed, before its failure, coupled with that of the ballot box and the jury box, compels the people to reach out for their final, most dreadful option - the ammunition box."

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

[The Nexus of Man]

"Meritocracy is what you get when you eliminate excessive inheritance, private schooling, and all child poverty, including ensuring all children have nutritious meals and adequately large houses, so that being 'born-well' doesn't give you an unfair advantage. The next step is to place limits on high-end pay and enforce a high minimum wage, then create an adequate welfare state and free healthcare system, to ensure that people's work is actually being rewarded for what it's worth, and not for how little they are willing to work for when the alternative is starvation, or how much they can reward themselves with once they make it to the gravy train, and so that a freak illness or injury doesn't result in unearned penury. Next you need strong unions, so that a work-dispute isn't being fought one-on-one, with a massive corporation with a fleet of lawyers and inexhaustible money and influence on one side, and one single underpaid worker on the other... I mean, those are Goldberg vs V.K. Wallstreet odds. Next you'll need a strongly-funded system of legal-aid, so that the law isn't a two-class system, and money doesn't buy you justice... Look at the companies like Apple who blatantly ripped off the exact design for the iPod from a university student's idea in the 80's, when it was merely an academic exercise, and then turned around and sued Samsung for creating 'a tablet computer with Apple's trademark rectangle with rounded corners design.'

All in all, it takes a lot of work to even get close to meritocracy... Surely the closer we get the better, as a fairer world is no doubt worth building? Or perhaps theres' a limit... Perhaps no one's actually talented enough to legitimately and fairly earn the fortune required to fund the building of a new cable-network or a new satellite-design, or even a new Ribbleshead Viaduct... Or maybe these super-projects could be funded by co-operatives in the future, who knows, or indeed cares, we're far from there now. The fact remains that if a person sat on the modern equivalent of a gold throne carried by slaves says that the only thing required for meritocracy is 'Government leaving well alone,' they fly in the face of basic logic, common sense and established fact, and should be ignored, regardless of how many ads they pay for or conservative stooge politicians they pay to elect."

-The Great Long-Conk MP (Famed for zer humorous luminous nose)

"That is called a dystopia fabricated by the left wing. Everything being handed to you is the destruction of the human labor psychology."

---

• The Politician

[Auzkhia]

"The Orthodox left-wing, in its efforts to be very anti-fascist, has lost all hopes of being true to freedom. They do have conformist morality, just like the far right and the fascists, their opposition. How could you believe in progress if you really weakened yourself in groupthink? Question bad ideas, even your own ideas."
-Heinrich Erdély

[Ashkera]

"...the role that chance plays in life is rather formidable. While not all-dominating, it can easily overpower other concerns - whether by illness, war, injury, or simple misfortune. But in practical terms, this makes the judgment of merit difficult, unless luck is also to be considered a form of merit."
- ancient scholar of Brizaranism

"To answer 'who is best', we must first ask 'at what?' The second, implicit consideration generates more argument than the first ever has."
- another ancient scholar

"This government does not accept the philosophical argument for the existence of natural rights, or of rights independent of a state."
- excerpt from legal document issued during court case after military coup returned the Oversight Council to power

"And then he says to me 'merit can only ever have instrumental value, not intrinisic value, and therefore must be subordinate to utility' - can you believe that?"
- mountain guerrilla to other guerrilla

[Greater Mackonia]

"The next political revolution of our lifetimes won't be carried out under the morality the last one abolished. Socialism is capitalism of the looser, the difference between Jeremy Corbyn and Jeremy Clarkson is, fundamentally, purely a matter of how much money they believe the government should spend. That's it. No, I assure you gentlemen, Agonocracy is the philosophy of our time and all of you gentlemen, Liberals, Conservatives, Progressives, Libertarians, Socialists, Reactionaries, Marxists...you're dust on the boots of history."

-Z.Maglos.

[Zarzadon]

"Allahu Akbar"
- a solder from the holy empire era

[Star Trek America]

"Government only becomes malignant when the people allow it to do so. You have a duty as a citizen to rise up against such corruption, not bitch about it from the soap boxed walls of academia." - First Minister Daniel Martel

"The soap box is one of the primary weapons against corruption in government. If used properly, energetically, and in the right moment, it can stop the rot before more drastic steps are needed, before its failure, coupled with that of the ballot box and the jury box, compels the people to reach out for their final, most dreadful option - the ammunition box."

-- Julissa Hickman, Citizen.

"Moaning does nothing, voting does less if the system has become corrupted, likewise for the courts. You disassociate with the idea that all nations are of equal political background, this is untrue, many are unable to take the approaches you advocate. Take for example the Imperials, they cannot even look at their overlords, much less complain about them. Our Republic here? The last time this nation's system became malevolent? We drown the so called lords in their blood, and would do so again if it came to it. I do not mean to disrespect your stance, Doctor Hickman, however it seems that you speak from the idealistic perspective of a person who has never seen their nation torn apart, of one who has read of it only in the history books so it is a fanciful idea that could never happen again. Suffice to say it in this application you are wrong. Put them down when they abuse you, do not tolerate it with words, end it with bullets. Otherwise, to do nothing of meaning, is to agree." - Ferdinand Sauveterre, Citizen.

[Estainia]

"Bollocks, yes we can. Rights have these things called consequences. Yes we have the right to look at a lording, and he has the right to beat the fuck out of us for it. That's what a right is, you idiot republicans. What you all want is the privilege to do something without the consequence of the response from the other party." - Henry Wallace, Farmer

[Senatus Populusque Americanum]

“The ever increasing monotony of progressivism is utterly incredulous and imprudent. They declare that, unless ‘Humanity’ as a collective group of carbon copied homosexual liberals do not reach the ultimatum of total humanistic fervor in their ‘Human Rights’, that everything will be immoral, bigotry, and derogatory. They do not seem to understand that cultures do not need to be forced upon liberal tripe such as ‘gender dysphoria’ and ‘misgendering’. Humanity is indeed immoral; by these fools’ existences.”

---

— Anthony Kaur Lawson, famous reactionary and critic of liberalism.

[Las Palmeras]

"Eh, the killer of the American Left...if there was ever a serious contender to begin with...was most definitely Post-Modernism and it's seemingly total relativism on everything except the speakers' assertions. Their social networks and the idiocy resulting in anonymity and/or physical detachment free of more -intimate- confrontation did the rest."
-José Zorilla

[The Andromeda Confederation]

"I'm not saying a sociocratic mindset is the future because we practice and like it, as we have in its forms for 500 years, I'm saying it is the future because, well, because it is. If you can work in the sociological imagination, you can create a utopia."

-Vox

[The Nexus of Man]

"The story of the Nexus of Man's ideology from being completely rejective of any body modification to becoming supportive of transhumanism under Christian banners (though a Mack would say that theocratic and 'secular' transhumanism don't really have differences) tells us that no ideology, no matter their psychosis, is absolutely solid."
-Philip Pines

"It was always like that. They just don't augment more than they need, unlike the Russians, and they evolved biologically to Homo renascitur anyways."

---

• Barney

[Auroya]

"Throughout the centuries, in this archipelago's innumerous and isolated villages, in its valleys and its darkest forests, and all the most remote places, the witch and the mage have had a special traditional role as those who enforce a sort of justice. It was already ancient in the times of the Astral Empire; it must, then, be far older than the beginning of the feudal system. Who knows how many witching societies, practicing and non-practicing alike, have a history which dates to many centuries ago? They allowed for the population to flourish here, under their protection, without which the native forces would have made settlement far more terrifying and slow.

And so, over many centuries, the Witches' Code developed. Originally a vast collection of spells useful for the upkeep of justice, and a set of axioms to keep close to heart when doing so, it naturally grew. It became the repository of all the darkest aspects of magic as well as for much else.

But much of it - especially those parts - are, in the modern day, lost to most. The records kept by the societies are the primary repositories of parts of the Code. Should one wish to read parts of it, they would travel the land and see if there were not societies which were willing to share what they knew. The Crystmont Society still sends forth its agents in such fashion, and they gather much useful information; it is, after all, the most prestigious witching society in the archipelago.

In the modern age, naturally, one may visit a public library and find a copy of a lot of what is known of it compiled in a book, but expect parts deemed 'dangerous' to have been omitted in many editions. Of course, in the age of information and telecommunications, you can always search for that and find yourself on some website with a black background and red papyrus font, featuring creepypastas to get in you the mindset, and then rituals and spells which are allegedly from the Code and which allegedly work. Probably a bit of harmless fun, sure. It's a favourite among older schoolchildren to attempt to perform these for thrills. But this magic is not like much other magic; some of it can be performed 'successfully' by those without any magical ability, unlike most magic. People have been found dead and there are so many theories about how this or something other from the Code killed them... it's mostly a hyperactive imagination on the part of the theorists, of course."

-- Mena Tufi