THE IDEA FACTORY

Day 1,249, 07:55 • Published in USA USA • by Silas Soule
THE IDEA FACTORY


Anarchist Bunny sez:


"We are the ones your parents warned you about. No re-plastering, the structure is rotten. Let’s not change e-bosses, let’s change e-life. We don’t want to be the watchdogs or servants of swinish capitalism or vapid socialism."


"We are convinced that freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice, and that Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality."




The Socialist Freedom Party isn't easy to pigeon-hole. It has little interest in following the rules. Its members tend to be inspired by a panoply of RL left-wing experiences and ideas. But the idea of "socialist freedom" was born right here in the New World, not imported wholesale from real life.

If we had to pick an ideological label off the bookshelf, the closest ones are likely to be "libertarian-socialism" or "social-anarchism". Look it up.


Socialism and Freedom go together like peanut butter and jelly: Delicious!


You could even say that there's an element of "social ecology" in the SFP's approach to the game. I know that sounds a little weird, but hear me out.

Think of the eRepublik economic, military, political and media systems in toto as a kind of ecological system. Each of them has a role to play in making the New World what it is: to provide a satisfying spectacle for the players. When any one of them is out of balance, the whole system starts to teeter. After playing the game for a while, most players find that ignoring any one of these major systems reduces the ovearall pleasure to be gained from playing the game.

Balance.


A sexy ladybug

Likewise, there's the possibility of finding a healthy balance within each of those systems. "Healthy balance" refers to the psychological relationship within each player between his sense of "productivity" and the pleasure he receives as a "reward" for that productivity.

A real life analogy. It is common knowledge that we get exploited at work. These days, in the RL USA, it's worse than ever. There are fewer jobs for fewer people. Those lucky enough to have work are driven to extremes: vacation time is diminishing; working hours are extended; benefits are being chopped. Meanwhile, the top CEO's cut of the pie continues to increase, even when they are clearly incompetent or criminal.

And yet... despite all that, we still seek "meaningful" work. A "good job" tends to be one where we enjoy the company of our fellow workers and can get a feeling of accomplishing something worthwhile.

Why is that? Why don't we hang the greedy bastards from a lamp post with the guts of corrupt politicians?

Well, if things get much worse, maybe we will. But people tend to dislike violence and social mayhem. And for good reason. It's too unpredictable. Who is to say that the new "revolutionary" boss will be any better?


Lenin on a Bently


But in our everyday lives we can control -- at least to some extent -- the way we interact with the work system in real life. People do this all the time. "Hacking work" is the most widespread freedom movement in real life. Whether it's starting your own enterprise, going around stupid rules and procedures, bringing in new technology, or simply respecting each other in a way that bosses and bureaucrat find hard to do, that need for solidarity and and usefulness is a powerful thing. It grounds us. It makes us human.

The same thing applies in eRepublik...


In the economic ecosystem:

When a company is run solely for the purpose of increasing the e-manager's profits, things begin to get out of balance.

When e-workers are interested only in the highest possible salary, things begin to get out of balance.


In the military ecosystem:

When a military unit puts more focus on hierarchy and goose-stepping than teaching each soldier to be a leader, then it's on its way to decline.

When soldiers are only interested in winning medals and being "the biggest tank", then they lose sight of overall strategy and can put the national defense at risk.


In the political ecosystem:

Treating all the parties like interchangeable parts of a monolithic national entity is a recipe for boredom and lack of critical thinking.

Constantly trashing and poaching all the parties but your own and refusing to collaborate on projects of mutual interest creates blockages and useless conflicts.


In the media landscape:

Writing stupid crap and thinking that relentlessly posting slightly-warmed-over celebrtized soft porn images is "radical" diminishes people's spirits and juvenilizes the eRep blogosphere.

On the other hand, taking anything too seriously in a browser game is seriously boring, amirite?





Over the next few days, I'm planning to write about some of the ways that the Socialist Freedom Party works to find a good balance in each of these areas.

I hope you'll chime in with your own ideas as well.

Oh. And don't forget to vote, subscribe and shout these articles! I desperately want to put a socialist media mogul award on my e-Bently... LOL


xio,

PQ,
Lecturer in Bogdanovianism for the SFP,
Comrade-Manager for the Harmonic Workers Co-op,
Inspector-General of the International Division of the Glorious Bear Cavalry,

Freedom Writer