Join the new world

(Disclaimer: This does not represent the views of the Loyal Opposition. Personally, I was happy to let articles I wrote a year ago fade into history. Since reporters and politicians have picked it up to judge me, I felt I should give the concept the defense it deserves. If you're here to say, "WE DONT SURRENDER GO CANDA RAH RAH RAH," save your keys. I heard that 'argument' already, 99% of the people agree with you, and it shows you didn't listen. All I ask is that you read with an open mind.)

About a year ago I proposed the creation of Mocadece - the Canadian Movement for Civil Rights in Spain. It was an idea borne of months of occupation, watching battle after battle fail and opportunities to be elected to Congress grow even more dim than they already were. More importantly, it was an idea borne of my desire to reinvigorate my interest in eRepublik and to see something new.

Mocadece, for those who were not around about Day 2000 of the New World, had one goal - grant Spanish citizenship to all persons who resided on Spanish-controlled soil. A little tongue in cheek, sure, but why the crap not. Could it be applied to our current circumstance of American occupation? In a couple more months of American occupation, quite possibly. And here's why.

First off, it's a simple recognition of our military strength, or lack thereof. It's not a romantic notion to discuss, and detracts from the narrative of our proud, independent spirit. It is a reality, though, one acknowledged by the current debate on the proposed issue of a bond. If we had the military strength to match, if we were donating enough money already, if we could, we would have liberated ourselves by now. This is a conclusion that I came to after several months of Spanish occupation.

Let's talk more about what it means to be occupied. The elephant in the room is that it's boring to be occupied. Few things change day to day. Someone starts a resistance war and then it fails. The end. Someone releases an article appealing to our patriotic spirit to keep a stiff upper lip and be patient and we all agree. The end. The President reminds us of our national defense policy of strategic annoyance and we all agree. The end. Things don't change, and they're projected not to change for months. If you were to watch a television show only for it to turn out to be the same two or three episodes week after week, you would have no problem saying that it sucks and changing the channel. Why do we approach the New World differently?

Even if it was repetitive, an exception could be made if it was a new and unique narrative. For those born within the past month or two, it is. For others, it's not. We just came off of a Spanish occupation that lasted almost a year. We were occupied a couple of years ago by a joint Hungarian-Polish force. Other nations have fought this same fight for years, such as Australia and the Netherlands. Playing the occupied nation resisting imperialism is not an original storyline, and in a game that requires daily attention boredom becomes a death knell.

It's the desperation to change this narrative that led to the idea for Mocadece over a year ago. To my knowledge, integration from occupation has not been done before. Integration by choice has been tried once, with the Netherlands and Belgium combining into the United Netherlands for a time, but I have not seen where it's been done under duress. We could introduce this new storyline to the New World. We could change strategy, playing to our national strengths of determination and intelligence, and we could win.

Think of the plot lines it could introduce. Imagine the trolling. Imagine the reaction of the Americans when we jam their radio show phone lines with a mass civil disobedience demonstration. Imagine the disruption to the American naturalization system when we submit a hundred applications week after week. Imagine the reactions when we call the Americans prejudiced because they're denying us something based on national origin (trust me, as an RL American, no American ever wants to be accused of being prejudiced).

Imagine the change to the global calculus. No longer do you have to consider how to conquer a territory, but what to do with the people who reside there. The advent of military divisions (where, because of inflation, only D4 battles matter) and the ability to purchase gold predetermine how most military battles will end, and I'm sure the Americans have planned long and hard what the costs of occupation will be, and ensured they had the resources to do so. But how do you prepare for your media to be shut down with pages of comments of protest saying, "WE LIVE HERE TOO!" How do you fight back against being called a prejudiced bigot? Would it be worth it to get to 10/10? These questions have never been posed in the New World. How much fun would it be to go into this uncharted territory?

Nationalists will oppose this as a dilution or obliteration of our national identity. I don't think so. For one, this would be more a medium term plan. It practices our strategy of strategic annoyance with the end goal of liberation, but simply uses a different module. More importantly, though, I know that our sense of national identity won't be shaken just by a change of citizenship. The real world shows us several examples. The Quebecois have been 'conquered' for over 300 years, yet most would describe them as still being distinct from larger Canadian society. The Kurds of northern Iraq and southern Turkey have never had a country of their own, yet nobody denies that they are a separate group. We have enough national pride that we will always be recognized as Canadian no matter where we are. Consider that it already happens today - Canadians are split between occupied US territory to support the resistance wars, or European countries like France and Serbia to support LETO operations, yet nobody describes us as having given up our identity.

Military module people, the vast majority of Canadians who are left after all these years, would argue that the military module is the only one that matters, and it's foolish and wasteful to pay attention to other ways of struggle. Yet the military module discourages innovation and participation of new players. Consider my stats, for instance. Having joined this game in 2011, without spending thousands of dollars I will remain in D1 for the rest of my life. Reminded that no matter how much damage I lay down, (forgetting for the moment that damage has been so inflated that the maximum 2 million damage per round I can contribute when all the stars are aligned means diddly squat when others blink and put out 5 million), no matter how much I contribute my efforts result in one point for our side. I can't tell you how many battles during this occupation have happened where I've thrown energy bars and bazookas at the wall and seen D1 win round after round - only to still lose the entire battle by a landslide because it was all decided in D4. Seeing the effects I make in the military module, what incentive do I have to keep trying? And if I give up because I'm discouraged and lost all hope that I can contribute, what does that do to our national strength?

Retail workers know that if a customer receives bad service, the vast majority don't complain and seek a solution because they don't want to make a scene - they just don't return. I think we can make an analogy here. Question my patriotism and commitment, but the honest truth is that after several months of occupation this complex MMORPG, one where I can write, pretend to be a pundit like on television, debate and campaign like the politician I hope to be, one where others felt great exhilaration strategizing across the globe for great battles like the Battles of Liaoning and Heilongjiang (ah, Hello Kitty), this game that was far more engaging than any book or television show, had been reduced to playing FarmVille. Click, you plant a tree. Click, you harvest the tree. Click, you deliver 5K of damage. Click, the CP releases another rally the troops piece. And who among you wants to play that lame game? I sure didn't, and that's why I bailed during the Spanish occupation. I didn't give up on Canada - I gave up on the New World. And I suspect that many others felt the same, but did not have the confidence to object - they just stopped playing.

Combating this boredom, plus my patriotism, is the inspiration for creating Mocadece, or whatever it would be called for the US (The Urban League? EGALE?). It's my desire to keep the population entertained and engaged with new and original story lines, which in turn will maintain our population and inspire the continued struggle. I don't promise that this concept will be successful, but then again our current strategy has no guarantee or completion date either. What I do argue is that it will be unique, it will be new, and it will give you a far more entertaining reason to log in every day.

Or we could keep donating until it hurts and drop another $10,000 on a resistance war. That seems to be working so well for us.