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Dear Comrade-President Gnilraps, my fellow e-Americans, proletarians of the e-Worl😛


My name is Phoenix Quinn. Tonight, in expectation of the Revolutionary Events soon to unfold, I have been made (temporarily) the Commander of the SFP Bear Cavalry. The Supreme High Commander of the Bear Cavalry is the Great Warrior Spirit that animates freedom-loving players:




I am delighted at the chance to speak out at this important and this historic juncture in e-American history. The Socialist Freedom Party has long been an outstanding center for the education of New World revolutionaries. Its militants and friends hold a wide variety of views and they come from many countries of the world. It is truly a working example of democratic excellence.

Our eRepbulikan earth is the home of revolution. In every corner of every e-continent players charged with hope grapple with ancient obstacles in the pursuit of justice. They have reached for the newest of weapons to realize the oldest of dreams, that each may walk in freedom and pride, stretching their talents, enjoying the fruits of the e-earth.

Enemies of freedom -- such as the mindless minions of the Dealer and the sleep-walking zombie-elite of the Meta-Game -- may occasionally seize the day of change, but it is the banner of our revolution they take. And our own future is linked to this process of swift and turbulent change in many lands in the e-world.

But nothing in any country touches us more profoundly, and nothing is more freighted with meaning for our own destiny than the process of reform and revolution sparked today by the Socialist Freedom Party.



In far too many ways the majority of American players have been for too long another nation, separated, ironically perhaps, by too much devotion to the 'real', cut off from their aspirations by the dank wall of 'meta', and the shmarminess of a revisionist "Workers" state led by the anti-principles of a Pfluffernutty ideology: deprived of freedom in the name of a stranglehold "Unity", crippled by trolling, the doors of opportunity closed to hope.

And now. Today. In our time change has come to this Nation, too.


The Socialist Freedom Party and its friends, allies, occasional dancing partners, soul-mates, secret lovers, fellow slackers and so on, acting with impressive restraint, have peacefully protested and opinionated, entered the "courtrooms" and the seats of "government", requesting and demanding a justice that has too long been denied the proletarian players.

The clarion call of the Freedom-Socialists was the call to action. And it is a tribute to e-America that, once aroused, many of the strong and thoughtful Voices of the Nation, even some sections of the Congress Critter Cabal, and even now, spectacularly, the President and the majority of the voters, have become the allies of progress.





"LEGAL" PROTECTION FOR DEMOCRACY

Thus we have seen a candidate -- and not just any candidate, but the very architect of the "demoractic dictatoship" -- put forward a bold and reasonable plan to turn the country away from its despicable embrace of "friendly fascism". And we have seen a majority of players in an open in-game vote embrace this path and this promise.

Every opportunity has been placed in front of the fine gentlemen and ladies of the off-game "Congress" to recognize the Will of the People in this matter, guaranteeing every e-American the right to participate in a Lively and Engaged in-game social experiment rather than one that is Aloof, Safe and Boring.

The use of in-game mechanics to reverse the course of an out-of-touch and elitist "Congress" has, understandbly ruffled some feathers. Even now, the minority of malcontents of the (literally) un-popular "Meta Congress" will probably attempt to reverse the Will of People by impeaching a freely-elected President in order to restore their Dictatorship. (Ironically, using a privilege restored to them by said President... and in all likelihood, contravening their own "laws" in the process. LOL.)



But no act of my long wild anarchic ride through this muppet-muddle of a social simulation will give me greater satisfaction than pressing the Big Red Button of Revolution, knowing that that Click has the full support of both the President and a majority of voters who want to play This Game and not simply hang around doing little or nothing while a few play That Other Game.




The Revolution of December 2015 will be the latest, and among the most important, in a long series of battles. But this event -- as a well-known player in another Realm said of another triumph for freedom -- "is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

That beginning is freedom; and the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down.

Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society -- to actually vote in-game, to participate in self-governance, to fully enter and "occupy" a public space, to have one's time spent in eRepublik be time well spent. It is simply the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others.





But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of e-centuries (OK, I know, it's only been a few years, but in eRep a few months feels like decades, right?) by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you splease.

You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate her, bring her up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.


Indeed, the meta-minority has already promised to reverse the Glorious Revolution as soon as they possibly can.


Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.

This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for socialist freedom. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity for in-game play but a true, on-going sense of excitement. Not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result. An equality that "lifts all boats" and does everything possible to encourage a true warrior spirit. Not the equality of "shut up and play along while a few of us over here play our 'eusaforums' game."


For the task is to give hundreds of in-game players the same chance as every 'meta' American to learn and grow, to work and share in society, to develop their abilities--physical, mental and spiritual, and to pursue their individual happiness.

To this end equal opportunity is essential, but not enough, not enough.

All players are born with the same range of abilities. But ability is not just the product of birth or of a fast Internet connection or plenty of leisure time. Ability is stretched or stunted by the gaming community that you interact with, and the party or militia you belong to, in short by the poverty or the richness of your e-surroundings. It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing upon the player.





PROGRESS FOR SOME

This election cycle in the eUSA is witness to the indomitable determination of the freedom socialist method, which is to say, of a free-thinking anarch who recognizes no authority over them, to win his or her way in this e-American life.

The number of Socialist Freedom Party militants in government has grown. The number of democratic e-socialists and free-willed e-anarchists in the media has exploded. The benefits available to soldiers and fighters in the SFP Bear Cavalry are second to none and this anarcho-communist militia provides one of the best training programs as well. There are also the enormous accomplishments of distinguished individual SFPers -- both men and women, new players and veterans, in nearly every field of endeavor.

These are proud and impressive achievements. But they tell only the story of a growing band of proletarian militants.


Even within the SFP, these are typically the most active, those with the time and resources to play the game. And these cadre, those who choose to "present" as well as to "represent", are steadily narrowing the gap between themselves and the class of players they have emerged from, versus their elitist counterparts in the bourgeois parties.






A WIDENING GULF

But for the great majority of e-Americans - the poor-in-spirit, the underemployed, the bored, the tired and the dispossessed -- there is a much grimmer story. They are still, as we celebrate this historic vote today, another nation. Despite the great debates and the revolutionary vote, despite the speeches and the clear desire of the majority for change, for them the walls are rising and the gulf is widening.


Without a widening movement that engages this other nation, then neither the traditional elites nor the proletarian militants will be able to ignore this e-American failure.


The isolation of the average player, the ordinary in-game citizen from the 'meta'-communities is increasing, rather than decreasing.

Of course all e-Americans share in our multi-resourced national abundance. But the harsh fact of the matter is that in the battle for true equality and true fun is moving away from too many. Far too many are losing ground and losing spirit every day.







THE CAUSES OF INEQUALITY

The truth is that we are not completely sure why this is. We know the causes are complex and subtle. But we do know the two broad basic reasons. And we do know that we have to act.

First, the average players are trapped -- just many meta-elites and socialist militants are trapped -- in an inherited, gateless poverty of spirit. They lack training and skills. But more importantly they are shut in, in psychological dead-ends, without decent inspiration. Private and public psychic poverty combine to cripple their capacities.

We in the SFP are trying to attack these evils through our anti-poverty programs, our give-aways, through our education programs, which is like our version of free health care, and perhaps most of all through our determination to encourage free, open, and wild-assed thinking -- all aimed at the root causes of this poverty.


Whether the dictatorship is put into the dustbin of history this month or not, we will increase, and we will accelerate, and we will broaden this attack on mental slavery and mental poverty until this most enduring of foes finally yields to our unyielding will.






But there is a second cause--much more difficult to explain, more deeply grounded, more desperate in its force. It is the devastating heritage of these long years of mental slavery; and a virtual century of income inequality, trolling, and injustice.






SPECIAL NATURE OF PROLETARIAN POVERTY

For the poverty of the proletarian player, the players of that Other Nation, is not meta-poverty and not even the poverty of a refugee who has finally made it to the safety of a Socialist Freedom Party Leisure Center. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences -- deep, corrosive, obstinate differences -- radiating painful roots into playerdom as a whole, and into the parties, and the nature of the individual.


These differences are not inherent differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of a brutal way of thinking, of past injustices, and present prejudices.


These differences are anguishing to observe. For the proletarian they are a constant reminder of meta-oppression. For honest and good meta-players they are a constant reminder of guilt, of having not done enough, of having not yet solved a tricky problem. But they must be faced and they must be dealt with and they must be overcome, if we are ever to reach the time when the only difference between proletarians and meta-players is the number of times per day they log into some off-game forum.



The proletarian players, like our meta-elites and like our revolutionaries, will have to rely mostly upon their own efforts. But they just can not do it alone. For a true revolution to take place, these differences cannot be understood as isolated infirmities. They are a seamless web. They cause each other. They result from each other. They reinforce each other.

Much of the non-engaged proletarian community of players is buried under a blanket of e-history and real-life circumstance. It is not a lasting solution to lift just one corner of that blanket, to ONLY do away with the "wet blanket" of the Defensive Dictatorship. We must stand on all sides and we must raise the entire cover if we are to liberate our fellow citizens.










THE ROOTS OF INJUSTICE

Players are shaped by their world.


When it is a world of decay, ringed by an invisible wall, when escape is arduous and uncertain, and the saving pressures of a more hopeful society are unknown, it can cripple the newbies and it can desolate the veterans.

Blighted hope breeds despair. Despair brings indifferences to the learning which offers a way out. And despair, coupled with indifferences, is often the source of destructive rebellion against the fabric of society.



There is also the lacerating hurt of early collision with meta-trolling or prejudice, distaste or condescension. Success and achievement could wipe the accumulated sins of such intolerance. I have seen this uncomprehending pain in the eyes of the little, young socialists who stumble, nearly broken, into the safe havens of the SFP rest centers.






It can be overcome. But, for many, the wounds are wide open.









COMMUNITY BREAKDOWN

Perhaps most important -- its influence radiating to every part of life -- is the breakdown of community amongst the proletarianized players. For this, most of all, meta-America must accept responsibility. It flows from years of bullshit and division. It flows from the long months of degradation and discrimination, which have attacked his dignity and assaulted his ability to produce and to participate.

This, too, is not pleasant to look upon. But it must be faced by those whose serious intent is to improve the life of all Americans.




Only a minority of proletarian players get beyond the first few weeks of play. At this moment, tonight, despite the great debate and the astounding ascendancy of the Revolutionary Road we have just witnessed, most don't even both to vote.

The community is the cornerstone of our e-society. It's foundational units are the Party and the Militia. More than any other force these organizations shape the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the noob. And when the party or militia collapses it is the younger players that are the most damaged. When it happens on a massive scale the community as a whole is crippled.



So, unless we work to strengthen the parties and militias, to create conditions under which most players will find an engaged and lively gaming community -- all the rest: Congresses, budgets, "laws" and "constitutions", will never be enough to cut completely the circle of e-despair and e-deprivation.













TO FULFILL THESE RIGHTS



There is no single easy answer to all of these problems.




Trying an alternative to the spirit-killing "Defensive Dictatorship" is one (joyful) present we can bring this holiday season. But it will not be, in and of itself, enough.



Jobs are part of the answer. They bring the income which permits a player to provide for themself.

Decent 'health care' (houses, gold, weapons, food) and a chance to learn in a non-threatening atmosphere -- is definitely part of the answer.

An open, lively, engaging press that encourages thinking and fun. That is very important.

The ability to actually participate in this game, the one the player signed up for. That matters.



An understanding heart by all e-Americans is a big part of the answer.



And to all of these fronts -- and a dozen more -- the Socialist Freedom Party will continue to dedicate its resources.







But there are other answers that are still to be found. Nor do we fully understand even all of the problems. Therefore, I want to call on the thinkers, scholars, and experts, the writers and doers, the poets and artists, the "community organizers" and "policy wonks" of all parties, and officials of Government, Party and Militia at every level -- but especially amongst the proletarian and revolutionary players themselves -- to bring your best thinking to bear on "How to Fulfill These Rights."

Let's all work to make sure the proletarian players can fulfill the rights which, after the long time of injustice, they are finally about to regain, at least in part, at least temporarily, through the Restoration of In-Game Democracy.



We must move beyond opportunity to achievement.



We must shatter forever not only the barriers of ersatz "law" and meta-practice, but the walls which bound the condition of many by their relationship to the gaming community.



We must dissolve, as best we can, the antique enmities of the heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy, and do wrong -- great wrong -- to the beautiful children of the Universe.






I pledge you tonight that the Program of the Socialist Freedom Party will never surrender on working towards this great goal. And I hope, and I wish, and I believe -- as my finger hovers over that Big Red Button of Revolution -- that it will soon be a part of the program of all America.













WHAT IS JUSTICE

For what is justice?

It is to fulfill the fair expectations of man.




American justice is a very special thing. In the e-World as in the rl-World, this is a land of towering expectations. It is MEANT TO BE a nation where each player could be ruled by the common consent of all -- enshrined in common sense, given life by vibrant institutions, guided by players themselves subject to no rule but their own.

And all -- all of every station and origin -- would be touched equally in obligation and in liberty.


Beyond the mechanics lays the e-land. It is a rich land, glowing with more abundant promise than players have ever seen. Here, unlike any place else, all can easily share the harvest.

And beyond this is the dignity of players. In order for US to win this game, each citizen MUST become whatever their qualities of mind and spirit would permit -- to strive, to seek, and, if they could, to find their happiness.



This is what we truly mean by American justice. This is the actual spirit of socialist freedom. We in the SFP -- along with many of our allies and friends -- have pursued it faithfully to the edge of our imperfections, and we to this day still have failed to find it for the American Proletariat.









So, it is the glorious opportunity of this generation to end the huge wrong of the American Nation and, in so doing, to find America for ourselves, with the same immense thrill of discovery which gripped those who first began to realize that here, at last, was a home for freedom.




All it will take is for all of us to understand what this country is and what this country must become.



Together, and with millions more, we can light a candle of understanding in the heart of all America. And, once lit, it will never again go out.









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To Support the Revolution to Restore In-Game Democracy, join the SFP Bear Cavalry and donate to it's Fund for the Glorious Revolution. If you want to donate to the Revolution but prefer not to join the Bear Cavalry, you can donate to me directly and I will forward donations to the Bear Cavalry.



Yours, for Love and Revolution, Sub-Comandante Phoenix Quinn, from the mountains of Colorado, inside the Free Zone.