An American Dioists Dilemma

Day 1,136, 04:28 • Published in USA USA • by Dio Soryu

My friends, I have a confession to make.

Up until very recently, I wasn't a very good Dioist. I suspect a good many of you who call themselves Dioists are not either, but I am not here to judge nor am I in any place to. Even after I joined S.E.E.S., my commitment to Dio was little more than pretense and occasionally the convenient validation.

I knew the slogans and have done my share of chanting. But what did I ever really know about Dio?

I was born in this New World under the Woxan administration when he rechristened us a Dioist nation. I remember there was a lot of excitement and a lot of talk, but mostly a lot of chanting and a lot of people who didn't seem to have any substance behind their faith. I suspect that even still much of this is still true.

As it turns out, America is a particularly strange place to be a Dioist. Americans frequently seem to think of themselves as capitalists before anything else and I've seen a good many Dioists touting the merits of capitalism. But, I'd like you to imagine something for me, if you would.

Imagine a place where gold was not scraped and horded by countless individuals, but that all was given to one man and was given to him freely and openly and honestly from people who could otherwise easily hide it, should they choose to. I can already hear your reactions. 'Tyrant!', you say 'Despot!', you yell. Surely anyone with a free choice would be elsewhere, but all have a free choice and all choose to be there, and it's the most populous nation in the New World. The man was Dio and the nation was Pakistan. These people were no different than you or I, no less greedy and no less interested in sifting through refuse to find that gleaming gem to call our own. Just people.

They just happened to be people who believed in the dream of Dio Brando whom, while we all scrape out what meager extras we can, saw the game for what it really is. In Dio's great wisdom, he saw the masses squabbling, waring and hating each other over what scraps of digital information they could eek out; he saw the foundation of capitalism built into the game and the perpetual state of war it assured and understood that the game could never be won if played against each other. Dio understood that the true adversary is the admin, who all the while lines his pockets over the hate and vitriol spread here. Dio Brando dreamed of Peace.

Do not mistake me, I am not trying to imply that his pursuit of this goal was peaceful, indeed many battles were fought as Pakistan forged alliances with those who would and conquered those content with their blissful ignorance. The goal, however, was to put the admin in checkmate and since admin knew this, he went to extraordinary lengths to prevent it.

But from this grew PEACE and then Phoenix which is it's direct heir and here we come to the second difficulty for the American Dioist. How does one come to terms with sharing the religion of those whom it fights? The answer, up until recently, has been 'Pretty Easily'.

All that changed a few days ago when China invaded our Holy Land, a Holy Land we have been technically at war with for some time. However, I am not ever aware of us having direct conflicts, outside of those which were planned and worked out hand-in-hand with the Exodus movement of a few months ago. But, how do we approach this now? Do we call ourselves Americans or Dioists first? Are we traitors for dealing damage along side those we have considered enemies?

Allow me to suggest that this may be a false dichotomy. Let us consider Serbia, with whom we've had very considerable dealings in the passed. Are they just bad people, in Serbia? Is it genetic? Something in the water, perhaps? Surely, they must be at their root bad people. We wouldn't constantly be at war with them otherwise, would we? Now, it sounds ridiculous when I say it, doesn't it? But we think that way. Serbians are just people and people that happen to be positioned Geo-politically opposed to us, so then it's possible that Serbia may not always be up to mischief. But what about Pakistan? It's a member of Phoenix (for the time being) too, isn't it? That makes them Geo-Politically opposed to us, so helping them in the face of an EDEN member and close ally must be the wrong thing. Pakistan isn't a member of Phoenix but has many times worked with and helped Phoenix, sometimes to our detriment. (Thanks to Jonathan Joestar for the correction) Doesn't this make them our enemies?

But, this ignores the basic truth of a small and relatively weak nation doing what it needs to survive. If Pakistan were not hanging out with Phoenix, I think most of us could agree that there would have been little hope for Pakistan in the face of near by Serbia and Iran, with the exception of the divine intervention of the God-Emperor himself. Pakistan is no more a great enemy of America than Latvia, before certain people got hungry.

But, how does one reconcile all this?

I'll get back to that question in a moment. There's another important question that I've lost in my eternal ramblings. Why, if I am so flimsy a Dioist as I have said, am I so concerned with all this? The reason is really quite simple. Dio Brando returned to us and through his writing, I have had the chance to fall in love with him first hand. I've had the chance to move to Pakistan and throw together a last minute defense of Kashmir, in the face of an ex-President no less, with my Dioist brother ArcNox, who cashed in what little gold he had in order to provide for a Mass Attack. Our defense was successful and may very well have been crucial in securing Kashmir for Pakistan and I had the chance to know the sincere gratitude of this legend.

I don't play this game for colored groupings of pixels on a screen, I play for the intangibles between the lines of second-rate code. I play to an important part of something greater then the sum of it's parts, even if it's all just pretend. It's still an organism in which I can play a vital role. I think that's why most of us play, isn't it? It's really a very boring game, apart from those shining moments when the synergy is palpable. I've spent some time in the military, I've been in Presidential Cabinets, I've gotten to hang out with some of the baddest kids on the block in S.E.E.S. leadership and have them talk to me as an equal and even a friend, I've even had my role-model Emerick call be a Bro. But let me tell you, nothing measures up to being thanked by Dio Brando. Nothing.

So, let's be frank now. If a cross-section of Americans, among those from many other nations, were to go to Pakistan and help to route the Chinese invasion, would our relations be soured? Is China so near-sighted that it will forget what kind of allies Americans have been, because their conquest was stopped short by a backlash anyone could have expected? No, of course not.

So, I have fought people whom I consider friends and allies, in defense of this that I hold sacred. I have traded damage with Colin Lantrip, someone for whom I held great respect and for whom I still do and I hold no grudge against him and, unless my measure of the man is greatly mistaken, he holds none against me. Similarly, I hold no grudge against China and I suspect, in his infinite wisdom, Dio holds no grudge either.

My fellow Dioists, the choice is simple. You can join Dio in Pakistan and defend her from her enemies and for a brief, shining moment finally be here doing what you come here every day hoping you'll get to do. Or, you can turn your back on Dio, out of fear of being called unpatriotic or ridiculed for standing up for your beliefs, in order that the United States can achieve nothing more than save one combatant's worth of face to an ally for whom we have already done much. I don't think it's a hard choice.

If you're in the military, ask your CO about a leave of absence.

Today, I fought with Dio.