My involvement with Project Mayhem --- Long Read.
•
by Muglack
My fellow eCanadians,
I find myself thinking a great deal about what has transpired this past month and it leaves me feeling more than a little disheartened in eCanadian politics. What I saw as a glorious chance for this nation to work together has been corrupted into something ugly and unrecognizable.
Now let me get some things out of the way.
Was I member of the shadow council to which Rolo and others accused belonged? Yes.
Did I take part in the plan to run the government of eCanada without the knowledge of the regular citizens of eCanada? Yes.
Was it my intention to essentially and secretly PTO eCanada by hand picking Presidents for at least the immediate future? Yes.
Do I find any of these plans or ideas to be against eCanada, or to weaken the nation as a whole in anyway? Absolutely not.
Do I regret being a part of something that at the start had nothing but the noblest of intentions, but quickly proved that power corrupts when what seems like the only person actually devoted to doing good with it was no longer there to temper the wills and wishes of those that wanted nothing but personal power? With every ounce of my eBeing.
Those of you keeping up with this "Project Mayhem" garbage are well aware that I was involved at the early stages of the planning, but due to RL concerns disappeared after the first stage of the plan (taking over congress) was complete. At that time what I knew to be plan, the goals which I was pushing for, was quickly derailed and those left behind began using what we had started for their own personal gains. What was best for the country was quickly pushed to the back burner.
This was a mistake. While I don't support the method we used to try and take control of the government of eCanada, I do support the goals that we were ultimately trying to achieve.
Firstly a Congress that would not only support but work with the President to get things done. A cooperative congress in a country with such a strong and encompassing Constitution is key. Unfortunately, the game is too much like real life in this respect. Partisanship does exsist, and in Congress lines are drawn regularly. The first goal, and the reason PP's were so important, was to get a congress that could work together, so that things could get done to improve the country as a whole.
The second goal was to use the cooperative congress to change the constitution. If anyone was taken the time to read, or understand the constitution you will quickly find that there are entire portions of it that don't apply at all to the game we're playing today. At some point in the past the laws, and rules held within may have been usefull or even required but as with constitutions in the real world the words written don't change while the world around it does.
Changes in the constitution would of allowed for faster more responsive government. Judicial reform would of resulted in a Supreme Court overhaul that would of made it much more applicable to eCanada as it stands today. How long has the Supreme Court in eCanada stood idle because they haven't had enough justices to hear cases? These are things that would of been changed for the betterment of all.
The third goal, and that one that most people will find questionable about the entire process was the choosing of the Country's President. While I'm not proud to say that I was a part of these conversations, I must say that in order for the plan as a while to be a success they were required. It is common practice in most parties in eCanada for the people who want to earn a party's support on the ticket post on their forums, and have their names entered into a poll. From there a candidate is selected, and the party supports it.
The problem with this system, and the flaw we were to use to take advantage of it, is that only a small percentage of the people in a party actually visit or post on the forums. This means that the people selected tend to have the support of a small number of active users on the forum, and the party membership as a whole has little to no input on the process. By having the Party Presidents of major parties in the discussion for who we wanted elected it was easy to control which candidates the parties selected. Party Presidents tend to have more than average input in these small groups of active players (it's how they won the PP position in the first place) so if they strongly supported a particular candidate there was a good chance they'd win the party's support in the upcoming election. If a majority of the major parties (remember 4 of the 5 top parties were directly involved with this "shadow council") supported the same candidate it was a virtual guarentee that our candidate would win the country's Presidency.
Once a "friendly" President was elected, who had the support of a "friendly" Congress we could start really making eCanada better. Wide spread reforms, streamlining government services, even changes to the way citizens are kept informed, and government businesses are run would of made eCanada as a whole much much stronger.
While I don't agree with the methods were willing to undertake to bring about these changes for the better, I must say that given the circumstances it was definately a necessary evil and that the end in every conceivable way justified the means.
eCanada as a whole has been stagnant for nearly 6 months. We were and are floundering. Active citizens are disappearing by the day. Quality articles and papers are no longer being written or posted. Forums are going unread and unvisited. IRC channels that were once bustling and full of people talking about a wide variety of topics now go silent. The official secured eCanada channel that once averaged 40 members had 9 when I joined it before I began writing this.
eCanada is in trouble, and I was willing to do anything I had to make it better even if that meant taking part in a plan I knew to be devious and udnerhanded if it meant that it would make eCanada stronger in the end.
So I write this article today not in an attempt to clear my name, or to show that I wasn't involved in what has been labelled "Project Mayhem". I write this article to tell you WHY I was involved. Why I would be a part of something like this, and why I thought it's what was best for eCanada - a country I have called home for over 530 days.
Facebook
Twitter
Discord
Comments
Yeah, I sorta SVT'ed you out.
Sorry for wrecking the entire benefit eCanada plan.
I had to destroy Canada, in order to save Canada.
^_-
It's more than ok powerown, you had to do what you thought was best of the country the same way I did. Just so happened that at the time our positions were on opposite sides of the spectrum.
I'm glad me being stopped got Rigour elected though. No one deserved it more than him.
Just know it was nothing against you. It was against Jb
Just clarifying
v, good read
Good read Muglack...well said!
Voted
Petz as supreme court justice is needed in any reform
"At that time what I knew to be plan, the goals which I was pushing for, was quickly derailed and those left behind began using what we had started for their own personal gains. What was best for the country was quickly pushed to the back burner."
As you stated in the emergency cabinet article announced by Karsten,
"I think it's funny that 1/3rd of the "new cabinet" were directly involved with "Project: Mayhem".
Apparently it didn't fail."
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-cp-emergency-cabinet-1518513/1/20
Don't you think Muglack that this is the time to put Canada first? It is time to name em all. Because as you said, people have now put their personal gains ahead of our country, and a number of them are still in power. How can Canada turn over a new leaf without removing those that were involved?
Sadly, Canada has turned into a basketcase.
did you spend days trying to deny accusations that you were part of this? yes
are you trying to deny the fact that you broke the law by saying it was all for a good cause? yes
is all this starting to sound like the film Hot Fuzz? yes
😁😁😁😁😁^
well said
Good article, Muglack. We have similar paths with this situation ... the idea of logical players banding together to promote cooperation and intelligent play in order to boost Canada sounded great to me as well. Then IRL took me away from the game (and continues to do so). As I check in during the week it starts looking to me as though a good idea has become a quagmire. I don't know where things went wrong because I haven't been around, but it's really sad to see the current state of things.
"did you spend days trying to deny accusations that you were part of this? yes
are you trying to deny the fact that you broke the law by saying it was all for a good cause? yes
is all this starting to sound like the film Hot Fuzz? yes"
I didn't deny it, I acknowledged my involvement from the day this all broke. I'm not denying we broke the law. I'm saying the ends justified the means. And yah, it's all a little Hot Fuzz'y.
The greater good. THE GREATER GOOD.
And Stelawrat stage one politically was to get control of congress. That never happened. There was a feign at controlling the presidency with Rolo but as his impeachment shows it was a failure. But by that time the entire purpose and direction of the group had changed so drastically that there was nothing left of what we started with.
Also if you'll notice with the "Project Mayhem" group falling apart and fleeing the country two other "Groups" have jumped up in it's place. The Machete Rebellion and the Enlightened. The Enlightened counts traitors and turncoats in it's ranks, and the Machete Rebellion is just as secretive as we were with the exception of announcing their name.
Politics in this country are quickly going to become these groups vying for control behind the scenes and controlling election results before they ever happen.
I know I am going to suggest something that sounds utterly nuts, but here goes:
What if all these top players had come up with an actual "manifesto", stating the changes they agreed needed to be made to eCanada, and annoucend their intention to work together through various parties to accomplish those goals?
What if the public had been given the opportunity to have these great ideas explained to them, to vote on them, and to be a part of them?
Leave aside whether it would have worked or not, since what was tried in secret didn't work. What if it had been tried in the open, in an inclusive, democratic way?
If it had worked, can you imagine how much stronger the community as a team would be right now?
@Muglack: I take on everything you said. But it's hard for the rest of us to accept that this secret plan was for the greater good.
For one thing, it wasn't terrifically honest. Like I say, I accept it was for the greater good, but deception was at its heart.
For another thing, you didn't share it with us, so now we have to try and take on faith from people who wouldn't take us into their confidence.
For a third, the history of us trusting top players isn't great. hello 1ronman.
But finally, look at how these players (present company excepted) have reacted in the aftermath of this all coming to light. I am really thinking of Rolo now. In the aftermath of what he did, does that tend to argue we should have trusted him?
If the political module is so useless, that a group of seemingly well intentioned players, heavy emphasis on seemingly, all playing for the same team, can't manage to come to some consensus, then make suggestions to admin to change the module.
Despite all of your collective political experience, the fact that the decision was made to undermine the system, including long range plans to continue to undermine it, with a series of selected presidents, rather than work within the "flawed?" parameters, begs the question why? Why mock the democratic process?
The answers so far leave much to be desired and frankly, from the oldest eCanadian players to the newest, I don't believe too many people are buying it. From my perspective, it reeks of personal vendetta.
In any case, it's over and done with. There's nothing left to say really. eCanada is a shadow of what she was, for the time being, a pauper on the world stage.
Luckily, we are not fighting for our elife as some countries are, although there is some talk of that, seeing as how we are sitting ducks right now, or rather lame ducks....
Meh