Join the new world

Following my last article, I wrestled long and hard with the problems that were being faced. Through regular game mechanics changes and the odd population situation in India, the political party system no longer holds any muster. I am going to tell you why, and I know many will not agree with me - but there is truth in what I say, and while I don't expect you to be able to openly state that you agree, I want you to measure the truth of my words in your head and against your consciences.

1. You don't really care
Most of us don't give a flying fuckeezus about party politics anymore, except when some election comes around. This is mostly because voting for Congress and jockeying for those seats, much as they happen through the aegis of the political party machinery, is of little actual value or impact through a party identity. No party embodies any tangential ideological position, it's mostly some haphazard platitudes thrown together.



2. You're in your party because ... well, you're in your party
Most of us pick a party for whatever reason when we join eRepublik, but then don't want to shift primarily because we're worried that a shift will make us seem weak minded/weak willed/traitorous, etc. Some of us stay with parties because they give us things we want, but for the most part it stopped having real 'meaning' a long bloody time ago.

3. You're a slave of peer pressure ... and so am I
This is a form of weird cowardly coercion - which we're all subject to, or at least have been to a degree. Essentially, it becomes hard to discount for the obvious fact that our existence within the political sphere has more to do with how competent we're perceived to be, how active we are, and how little parties matter - a quick gander at the cabinet will make that clear. Further, we've had several CPs from myriad party affiliations take the centrestage not through party mechanisms but because of their personal integrity. This is good, but it means that the party system is failing or failed.

Congress is decided by a party voting for itself. Parties have gained numbers through the generic guiding of n00bs without any substantive reasoning to provide for why that choice should be made.

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So I know what you're thinking. Is this really a problem I should care about? Even if so, what can I do about it? And is it worth it?

It is a problem you should care about - without an active discussion taking place on an organized platform regularly, people can't figure out which side people of a specific debate to weigh in on. But given the game mechanics, what can we do?

It is my idea to use Forward Bloc not as a traditional political party at all - but as an understanding of what political parties were intended to be, a platform for like-minded individuals to discuss issues, and to lobby for certain changes in society.



Let's change why we vote and who we vote for! Party Membership should not be exclusive, and FB membership needn't be. There is no need to leave your existing political party just yet or ever. There is merely a need to discuss before major elections what our expectations of the next term are and then working tirelessly towards it under whichever candidate wins, facilitating a political evolution that will take our political discourse to the next well.

Please let me know if you're interested, via PM or in the comments. As I said, party affiliations need not change.