[SUBMITTED] Thinking A Little Too Hard?

[Krusavich]

First ever attempt at an issue, any criticism and harsh words of discontent or disappointment are fully welcome!

TITLE:

Thinking A Little Too Hard?

VALIDITY:

Nation has an adequately funded military

DESCRIPTION:

A highly publicized data leak from Maxtopia has revealed the country’s classified expenditures into the study of ESP, astral projection, mind reading and other psychic related phenomena for apparent military purposes. Interested citizens and military staff have approached you to ensure that @@NAME@@ responds accordingly.

OPTION ONE

“It's a new frontier open for exploration!” exclaims General @@RANDOMNAME@@ as they fiddle with a tinfoil “projection” cap. “Just look at the things Maxtopia was experimenting with – mind reading helmets, brain expansion exercises, this “Dream Twister” thing, and so much more! I mean, just imagine if even a few of our troops had these sort of abilities on the battlefield, or on intelligence operations! Sure, we might have to bump taxes a bit to get the projects started up, but we’re already behind on the coming psychic age. You really want to put a price on the future of warfare?”

Outcome: A portion of the military budget is allocated to brain foods

OPTION TWO

“You’re not taking this far enough!” proclaims self-avowed psychokinesis expert and author of the best selling self-help book “Moving Yourself Forward with just Yourself”, @@RANDOMNAME@@. “The nations of the world have only now turned to recognizing the full potential of the human mind, an infinite power beyond this puny material world! With enough training, there’s literally no limit to what a psychic soldier could do! What’s the point of spending anything on guns or tanks if you could just train a man to stop their enemy’s heart with a thought? I say we convert the whole armed forces into a psychic-only legion!”

Outcome: Basic training consists of staring at goats while firearms go unused


OPTION THREE

“Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for this nonsense as well!” moans your rationalist general @@RANDOMNAME@@. “If you had actually bothered to read the leaked documents, you would have seen what all these ‘projects’ amounted to – nothing, nada, zilch, zero! They were all canceled years ago because they produced nothing except a lot of wasted time and money. But now you’ve given these hooligans legitimacy! I’ve got my own officers trying to ‘expand their mind’ with some hyper-meditation-yoga nonsense. It’s time we clamp down on these ridiculous superstitions that have infected our military! Anyone caught speaking this New Age mumbo-jumbo should be sent to the disciplinary barracks until they get their head on straight!”

Outcome: Military personnel caught with good luck charms are awarded months of latrine cleaning duties

TITLE:

Thinking A Little Too Hard?

VALIDITY:

Nation has an adequately funded military


DESCRIPTION:

On an official state outing to the annual Maxtopia national fair, one of your top military generals visited a physic reader booth. Although skeptical at first, they have since become fully convinced of its legitimacy following a few vague but eerily accurate readings. Since then, they have been hounding you to redirect defense spending into potential physic warfare training and equipment.

OPTION ONE

“It’s a totally unexplored frontier for our armed forces!” exclaims General @@RANDOMNAME@@ as they fiddle with a tinfoil “projection” cap. “Those readers knew my name, birthday and how much cash I had in my wallet before I said a word! I mean, just imagine if even a few of our troops had that sort of clairvoyance on the battlefield, or on intelligence operations! Sure, we might have to bump taxes a bit to get the projects started up, but can you really put a price on the future of warfare?”

Outcome: A portion of the military budget is allocated to brain foods

OPTION TWO

“You’re not taking this far enough!” proclaims famous psychokinesis expert and author of the best selling self-help book “Moving Yourself Forward with just Yourself”, @@RANDOMNAME@@. “You’ve only now turned to recognizing the full potential of the human mind, an infinite power beyond this puny material world! With enough training, there’s literally no limit to what a physic soldier could do! What’s the point of spending anything on guns or tanks if you could just train a man to stop their enemy’s heart with a thought? I say we convert the whole armed forces into a physic-only legion!”

Outcome: Basic training consists of staring at goats while firearms go unused

OPTION THREE

“Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for this nonsense as well!” moans your other, less spirited general @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Just a few minutes ago I heard some of my officers talking about getting their palms read before the next deployment, ‘just in case they see something’! This farce has gone on too long; it’s time we clamp down on these ridiculous superstitions that have infected our military! Anyone caught speaking New Age mumbo-jumbo should be sent to the disciplinary barracks until they start talking sense again!”

Outcome: Military personnel caught with good luck charms are awarded months of latrine cleaning duties

TITLE:

Thinking A Little Too Hard?

VALIDITY:

Nation has an adequately funded military, higher than average levels of ignorance


DESCRIPTION:

On an official state outing to the annual Maxtopia national fair, one of your top military generals visited a psychic reader booth. Although skeptical at first, they have since become fully convinced of its legitimacy following a few vague but eerily accurate readings. Since then, they have been hounding you to redirect defense spending into potential psychic warfare training and equipment.

OPTION ONE

“It's a new frontier open for exploration!” exclaims General @@RANDOMNAME@@ as they fiddle with a tinfoil “projection” cap. “Those readers knew my name, birthday and how much cash I had in my wallet before I said a word! I mean, just imagine if even a few of our troops had that sort of clairvoyance on the battlefield, or on intelligence operations! Sure, we might have to bump taxes a bit to get the projects started up, but can you really put a price on the future of warfare?”

Outcome: A portion of the military budget is allocated to brain foods

OPTION TWO

“You’re not taking this far enough!” proclaims famous psychokinesis expert and author of the best selling self-help book “Moving Yourself Forward with just Yourself”, @@RANDOMNAME@@. “You’ve only now turned to recognizing the full potential of the human mind, an infinite power beyond this puny material world! With enough training, there’s literally no limit to what a psychic soldier could do! What’s the point of spending anything on guns or tanks if you could just train a man to stop their enemy’s heart with a thought? I say we convert the whole armed forces into a psychic-only legion!”

Outcome: Basic training consists of staring at goats while firearms go unused

OPTION THREE

“Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for this nonsense as well!” moans your self-proclaimed rationalist general @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Just a few minutes ago I heard some of my officers talking about getting their palms read before the next deployment, ‘just in case they see something’! This farce has gone on too long; it’s time we clamp down on these ridiculous superstitions that have infected our military! Anyone caught speaking New Age mumbo-jumbo should be sent to the disciplinary barracks until they start talking sense again!”

Outcome: Military personnel caught with good luck charms are awarded months of latrine cleaning duties

Thinking A Little Too Hard?

VALIDITY:

Nation has an adequately funded military

DESCRIPTION:

A highly publicized data leak from Maxtopia has revealed the country’s classified expenditures into the study of ESP, astral projection, mind reading and other psychic related phenomena for apparent military purposes. Interested citizens and military staff have approached you to ensure that @@NAME@@ responds accordingly.

OPTION ONE

“It's a new frontier open for exploration!” exclaims General @@RANDOMNAME@@ as they fiddle with a tinfoil “projection” cap. “Just look at the things Maxtopia was experimenting with – mind reading helmets, brain expansion exercises, this “Dream Twister” thing, and so much more! I mean, just imagine if even a few of our troops had these sort of abilities on the battlefield, or on intelligence operations! Sure, we might have to bump taxes a bit to get the projects started up, but we’re already behind on the coming psychic age. You really want to put a price on the future of warfare?”

Outcome: A portion of the military budget is allocated to brain foods

OPTION TWO

“You’re not taking this far enough!” proclaims self-avowed psychokinesis expert and author of the best selling self-help book “Moving Yourself Forward with just Yourself”, @@RANDOMNAME@@. “The nations of the world have only now turned to recognizing the full potential of the human mind, an infinite power beyond this puny material world! With enough training, there’s literally no limit to what a psychic soldier could do! What’s the point of spending anything on guns or tanks if you could just train a man to stop their enemy’s heart with a thought? I say we convert the whole armed forces into a psychic-only legion!”

Outcome: Basic training consists of staring at goats while firearms go unused


OPTION THREE

“Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for this nonsense as well!” moans your rationalist general @@RANDOMNAME@@. “If you had actually bothered to read the leaked documents, you would have seen what all these ‘projects’ amounted to – nothing, nada, zilch, zero! They were all canceled years ago because they produced nothing except a lot of wasted time and money. But now you’ve given these hooligans legitimacy! I’ve got my own officers trying to ‘expand their mind’ with some hyper-meditation-yoga nonsense. It’s time we clamp down on these ridiculous superstitions that have infected our military! Anyone caught speaking this New Age mumbo-jumbo should be sent to the disciplinary barracks until they get their head on straight!”

Outcome: Military personnel caught with good luck charms are awarded months of latrine cleaning duties

[Techolandia]

For the first option, I think that, "It's a new frontier open for exploration!" would better reflect the general's proposal.
Also, I think that "self-proclaimed 'rationalist' general" would be a better description than "other, less spirited general".

[Altmer Dominion]

Welcome to Got Issues! There are a few issues about supernatural problems, but none at first glace that seem to tackle psychic readings in the context of the military. Perhaps as a validity, the nation needs to qualify for a certain medium/high level of ignorance. A highly scientific/skeptical population might not bring metaphysical suggestions into the briefing room.

That said, this issue is much less controversial if Military Generals are following the advice of "Physic readers". Minor typo check, but changing all instances of "Physic" to 'Psychic" should be a priority.

[Australian rePublic]

Option 2- what? What kind of scientist believes that?

[Krusavich]

For the first option, I think that, "It's a new frontier open for exploration!" would better reflect the general's proposal.
Also, I think that "self-proclaimed 'rationalist' general" would be a better description than "other, less spirited general".

Good improvements, I'll incorporate them.

Welcome to Got Issues! ... Perhaps as a validity, the nation needs to qualify for a certain medium/high level of ignorance. A highly scientific/skeptical population might not bring metaphysical suggestions into the briefing room.

That said, this issue is much less controversial if Military Generals are following the advice of "Physic readers". Minor typo check, but changing all instances of "Physic" to 'Psychic" should be a priority.

Thank you. And yeah, having a sufficient ignorance level would make sense for this sort of problem - I'll add that in.
I thought I even made extra sure to avoid that particular typo, evidently not. Thanks for pointing that out.

Option 2- what? What kind of scientist believes that?

The option 2 person isn't a scientist. Unless you're referring to the physic/psychic typo, which hopefully is all corrected out now.

[Techolandia]

Option 2- what? What kind of scientist believes that?

The option 2 person isn't a scientist. Unless you're referring to the physic/psychic typo, which hopefully is all corrected out now.

Maybe you should replace famous with self-proclaimed.

[USS Monitor]

Description is kind of long. The topic seems viable, though.

[Techolandia]

Description is kind of long. The topic seems viable, though.

Yes. Maybe something more like:
During a trip to a fair, some your military officials became impressed with a series of eerily accurate predictions from a psychic. They now want to investigate the potentials of psychic warfare.

[Chan Island]

Description is kind of long. The topic seems viable, though.

Yes. Maybe something more like:
During a trip to a fair, some your military officials became impressed with a series of eerily accurate predictions from a psychic. They now want to investigate the potentials of psychic warfare.

This is a good description^.

I like this. Definitely going to monitor.

[Krusavich]

During a trip to a fair, some your military officials became impressed with a series of eerily accurate predictions from a psychic. They now want to investigate the potentials of psychic warfare.

Seems like people like this enough, I'll add it in for the eventual third draft.

[Valentine Z]

The current title is fine, but just thought I would make some suggestions:

"Put On Your Unthinking Helmets!"

"All Brawl And No Brain"

"Big Green Idiots"

"Change My Mind"

(I'm not making any jabs on any RL armies or anyone, mind you. You did say high levels of ignorance, so... )

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Personally I feel both fortune tellers and psychic readers are pretty similar, so I'd say the overlap with 416 is too strong.

However, I think that if this issue shifted narrative focus from the legitimacy of psychic reader booths onto the idea of endorsing military psychic, that could work fine, especially given the real life situations with WW2 and Cold War forays into researching the supernatural by various major world powers.

Maybe instead have the premise be a leaked document revealing that Blackacre has a secret army base conducting research into ESP, psychic mind control and supernatural telepresence, and reacting to that.

[Techolandia]

Personally I feel both fortune tellers and psychic readers are pretty similar, so I'd say the overlap with 416 is too strong.

However, I think that if this issue shifted narrative focus from the legitimacy of psychic reader booths onto the idea of endorsing military psychic, that could work fine, especially given the real life situations with WW2 and Cold War forays into researching the supernatural by various major world powers.

Maybe instead have the premise be a leaked document revealing that Blackacre has a secret army base conducting research into ESP, psychic mind control and supernatural telepresence, and reacting to that.

I think that there has actually been research into things like mind control in real life, like Projects MKUltra and ARTICHOKE.

[Krusavich]

Alright, third draft is up. I've condensed the description, incorporated some suggestions and redirected the focus of the issue as Candle advised. Let me know your thoughts or further suggestions.

[Techolandia]

Alright, third draft is up. I've condensed the description, incorporated some suggestions and redirected the focus of the issue as Candle advised. Let me know your thoughts or further suggestions.

This might be something good for an issue chain, where choosing one of the first two options would prompt an issue about the ethics of psychic warfare.

[Krusavich]

One final bump before submission.

[Australian rePublic]

Good luck!