You Are As Smart As Any Minister of Defense
Day 2,054, 00:37
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Published in Ireland 
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by
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by Arjay Phoenician III
You’re counted as a reader, you might as well vote!
I’d been saving a Big Bomb since I got it during the Prestige Point thing last week. I was going to hold onto it for a special occasion, maybe wait until we neared its expiration date, then use it. Ireland is at a general state of peace right now, so unless I wanted to use it when the occasional knucklehead started a RW in Cork, even though it’s been plastered everywhere for weeks to not do so, I needed to find a good battle for it, one that was competitive, where its usage would make a difference. I kept holding out for the US to make a showing in one of their many wars and resistance wars, but every time I checked, they were getting humiliated by Poland or Serbia, and I wasn’t going to waste it in a futile battle.
Then my friend from Belgium, Elynea, shouted about their RW against the UK to get back Flanders. I checked it out, Belgium was ahead 63-47, in good shape, but not yet out of the woods. I began to fight in Division 2, was piling up damage, but wasn’t making much progress, the UK was well ahead in the given battle. I debated about using the Big Bomb, wondering if this was the time to use it. I did. For the effort, I got a Battle Hero Medal, Belgium won 85-58, and I stood proudly in Flanders as the Union Jack came down and the Belgian colors flew above me.
It’s times like these that make me the proudest. I tend to ignore anyone’s battle orders, I could care less what any Minister of Defense tells me to do. Of course, I’ll fight for my homeland when the need arises, and Ireland’s closest ally, the United States, could use all the help they can get these days. But instead of going along with orders and national or alliance logic, it’s when I see a friend shouting about a battle, a hard-fought battle with some real meaning behind it, that I become inspired.
Elynea is running for President of Belgium, and if you’re a Belgian, you’d be doing your country a favor in voting for her. She considers it a co-presidency, and should she win, she will be sharing the task of service with fellow individualist, MaryamQ. They’ve both been president before, they’re well-experienced, and they can potentially bring stability to a country with its own share of small-country blues. The Irish know all about that, about being forever on PTO alert and at the mercy of their bigger and badder neighbors.
This is my alliance, this informal worldwide affiliation I put together for myself. I don’t really give much of a damn about CoT or TWO, they can burn and die for all I care. I don’t give my battle damage to hierarchies, I give it to friends. I don’t consider orders from any Minister of Defense orders per se; I consider them more like suggestions, ideas on where to fight. I’ll think about it, maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I’ll look into it, consider the context of the battle in question, think about how the two countries came to this pass, and see if the side I pick to fight on has a realistic chance of winning. There’s no point in giving my damage to a lost cause. My damage means something more to me than just a statistic, and when used thoughtfully, especially for people I care about, it’s even more.
I’ve come to believe the average citizen is at least as smart as any Minister of Defense when it comes to picking a war to fight. Any citizen in the world with a modest sense of world awareness and a willingness to think for himself can pick a war that will make the most of his battle damage.
Truly, we see many such citizens chasing Battle Hero Medals and Mercenary Medals. They’re in it completely for themselves, their own personal quests. If medals and gold motivate a player to fight battles of his own choosing, so be it. Just camp out on eRepublik Analyzer and swoop in on the battle of your choosing.
There are certain military units that, though they are based in a given country, will follow their own orders. Many countries have one or two like this. They consider national fighting orders an option, not a command.
If you think about it, the Minister of Defense in any country really has no power over you. He can give an order, but you are under absolutely no obligation to follow it. He gives his daily order based on national and alliance desires, not yours. You are, at best, a statistic, a drone. He’ll call you a soldier in the expectation that you follow orders without questioning your superiors. He’ll tug at your patriotic heartstrings to goad you into fighting on his behalf. He’ll tell you the horror stories of what will happen if you disobey his command; your country will fall prey to the evil clutches of your archenemy, your alliance will lose ground to the global menace, and your countrymen will lost their homeland, all because you didn’t follow his order.
Bulljive.
It’s YOUR battle damage. Use it the way YOU want to. YOU use YOUR gold, often using YOUR real-world money, to train and buy food and weapons and to travel to countries to fight. However YOU get the most satisfaction, YOU should follow YOUR own path. Consider national or alliance orders a recommendation at best, because, truly, you’re nothing more than a number to them.
Me, I truly get the most satisfaction when I am fighting for my friends. Sometimes those friends are my fellow Irishmen, but truly, the really good friends I’ve made in this world, they live all over. Belgium, Bolivia, Venezuela, the US, Austria, among other places. When they give a shout to come fight in a battle, especially to liberate a region from foreign rule, I’ll take a look, and if it’s not in vain, if they’re fighting their asses off to win the day, I’ll gladly jump in, just like I did today.
I can’t vote for Elynea, but I gave her a Big Bomb, and I did my small part in winning a region back for her Belgium. I followed no one’s order but my own, and everybody’s happy.
Belfast Lough Times: Issue #29
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fiiiirst
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nope.avi
Really interesting views, and thanks for yr help in Flanders!
Yes \o/ Friends not hierarchies
Yes it is our damage. You also need to tell that to the crowd who thought it was theirs and let the eUS go under as a result.
How is a country meant to build a reputation if its soldiers won't follow orders? Or survive as a country at all?
the battle of cork wasn't started.
It's helpful to have orders that the soldiers believe in. Just because leadership thinks a battle should be fought, doesn't mean the troops will put their fullest efforts into it.
Perhaps, but that doesn't invalidate the concept of national military command, that just means you have to work hard on military competency, as well as political grace.
You'd better be building a country worth fighting for if you want your citizens to waste their battle damage for it, shouldn't you?
What reputation?
A country that bendover to brits and gratefully accepted their leftovers?
A country where CP's closest people are taking british cz and fighting against ireland in rw?
A country where Commander of Irish Army and MoD accept one of those traitors, Conway, back to IA with open arms saying Conway is a real asset?
Turning this once proud country into worthless british subject is not a definition of building a reputation!
Thanks for helping
Thanks for your support for eBe!
@Brian Boru - That certainly is something to take into consideration. But truly, a country cannot coerce its citizens to follow a certain path. Rather, it should follow the path the citizens choose. And if many of them are choosing not to follow orders, maybe it's time to re-examine priorities.
No, but failure to follow orders can and does lead to the downfall of countries. You can only really question leadership if it does nothing and fails, or if it does something and fails. The idea that you should do whatever you want regardless of the competence of leadership is suicidal in a game where the state is hardcoded into the mechanics of the game.
As for priorities, soldiers choose their priorities every month by electing their leaders. There is no such thing as dictatorship.
I vehemently disagree. You should ALWAYS question authority. Period. It's not up to leadership to decide when it is appropriate to question them. Leadership comes from the consent of the governed, and if that set of leaders can't hold up to the scrutiny, perhaps they ought to step down.
I'm currently sitting bored on a farm, so I'll take part:
MoD's job is to give military suggestions. Its a strong suggestion if its called an order. No one is under obligation to follow those suggestions, just as a Minister of Immigration has no game mechanisms to enforce a suggestion - neither does a MoD.
If I refer to your own piece; you point out 'knuckleheads' starting RWs and then proceed to say, in the respect of knowing where to fight, most players are as well informed as a MoD - I think highlights alot of my next statements. While its certainly not true in all cases, usually a MoD is picked because he/she is most informed, just like any Minister in their field - the idea that "orders" should be followed because of a hierarchy is false, "orders" should be followed if its sound advise.
I could be wrong, but you understand that starting a RW in Cork is waste of your resources and benefits no one. You fought for Belgium recently because you are friends with a few Belgians, at that moment, Army was helping 2 other countries be liberated - the different targets wasn't a case of MoD being more informed, all 3 battles were good causes, simply those coordinating troops to the good causes committed to a single battle.
The purpose of a MoD is to coordinate and organize our military damage in the best possible way to increase the odds of success in "national goals"; those goals will be set in two ways 1) the will of population and 2) indirect routes set by government to aid point No. 1. Obviously individuals may disagree with the majority, and see the orders expected of them as a clamp down of individual expression, when rather its a MoD using his/her abilities and attempting to persuade citizens in the best method in pursuing the goals of the population.
Continuing, the game is too interconnected to be concerned with only yourself - community is the best part of this game, you shouldn't isolate yourself from it. You are friends with some Belgians, so you fought for Belgium - you're not friends with all Belgians, you'll probably find some Belgians you dislike - you fought for their country aswell. This is a team game, our team is Ireland - the "collective" isn't top heavy as you've suggested, its a bottom up thinking. Sure maybe not everyone agrees on a certain target the MoD publishes (a liaison of the team's wants/needs) but we're a team, we' put on a united front and next time around I'll see if I can get the team picking another target. Its about respect for your teammates.
I fought in Belgium because of my friends there, but as I said, I took a look at their situation and the given battle and believed it was a good battle to fight in.
And I agree with the start of the second part of your comment. Community is the best part of the game. I just choose to be part of a different community. It's not a national or alliance community. It's based on friendship. It's one we all mutually created. It's not predefined. Individualists are not hermits. We pick and choose our inspirations.
I'm glad these philosophical articles generate thoughtful discussions. And I'm glad to see you furthering them at eIrish University from time to time. I wish more of Ireland's leadership corps would make the effort you're making.
MoDs... Unite!
And what did you organised lately?
So much gibberish to say you did crap.
Sweet got british leftovers and that it.
You did nothing to liberate anything....if we do not count your attempt to provide false story how a proven traitor Conway organised RW and gave ALL HIS MONEY AND ASSETS!
You say Conway gave all he has and yet Conway still failed to return 200 000 ieps he admitted he stole from Ireland...
Be a good MoD and actually support real patriots..not british puppets and traitors..
Thanks a lot, i saw yesterday few fighters who were in our side to take our region again.
The freedom is an important thing.
@Seanan : i was happy to participate in your battles last week.
I hope you wil find good solutions for your country ^_*
For those who are saying, how can a country be defended if its citizens have the audacity to think for themselves, my reply would be, leadership had better give them a solid reason for them to do so, shouldn't they? The president and MoD have to do a good sales job, If they're hacks, if they're no better than used car salesmen trying to sell their citizens a lemon, you can hardly blame them for taking their battle damage and looking elsewhere for a worthwhile fight. When a country's leadership takes its citizens for granted and just assumes they'll do the patriotic thing and defend their country without question, those leaders had better be creating a society worth fighting for, or they run the risk of people eventually thinking for themselves.
So it's on you, wannabe leaders. Not your free-thinking citizens who have the battle damage you desperately want to exploit.
I'd add that, in this game as well as the real world, a position does not make a person a leader. We see some very hard working and talented leaders here, but we also see some who look mostly to fill in their resume with positions held.
And the self-aware citizen that pays attention knows the difference.
That is certainly true. Leaders lead - but there are moments which require trust. I think many Irish players will have witnessed at one point or the other, when government purposely does not give reasons but asks for cooperation regardless with the promise of an explanation afterwards. Might be because a fast response is needed or giving the reasons could inform an enemy of our intentions. What then?
And I also believe there are moments, where political enemies of whoever is in government will purposely seek to undermine their orders, not because of the merits of them, but as a means of throwing them off balance. The damaging effect of political interference with military objectives is grave, more so in a small community where our only advantage over large countries is tight coordination. Peace is the enemy of memory? Its a lesson learnt from the 2010 Dec Wipe, our political disputes were interfering with military coordination - EDEN accepted us when we got that sorted out, what use are we to another people when we can't put the little damage we have, into the most important battle?
Suppose that comes back to the individualist relationships over national mind-frames discussion.
That's the thing, Seanan. If a leadership corps doesn't develop a real relationship with its citizens, if they don't display professionalism, if they don't make the effort to talk to people and get them on the same page, what can you expect but desertion?
I'll take you as an example. You are very professional, you know your stuff. You are very straightforward, you don't mince words, and you back up what you say with knowledge and experience. Just as important, you're not on an ivory tower, expecting people to fall in line merely because you say so. You make the effort to talk to people, and your presence at eIrish University is evidence of this. You don't troll, you don't mock others, sometimes I think your bluntness may be seen as meanness, but from what I've seen, you don't seek to be malicious, and even when you're in an argument with someone, that someone tends to appreciate what you're saying.
Ireland has a handful of people like that. Ian E. Coleman is the same way, always making the effort.
Ireland also has its set of knuckleheads, but every country has its knuckleheads.
You, Seanan, instill trust. As always, it depends on the war, but if you personally shouted and asked to help in a battle, I would fight for YOU.
Give me too much of your confidence, Arjay but thanks for the high regard. The problem is what if it wasn't me? Someone new with skill, but maybe not particularly liked or known. I'd like to see people fight for our community, not whoever is CP or MoD determining if they fight together. Bigger picture and all that, we're all on the same side.
Part of the problem is we need an intelligent citizenry that pays attention to the issues. What we get are two clickers who have no interest in being informed, but are more than willing to complain about results they don't like.
I'd compare it to not voting in an election, but being mad about who won the election.
That's the thing, Seanan. I know you. I'm sure, believe it or not, there's a MoD in this world more experienced than you, but I'm not going to listen to him, because I don't know him. I have no connection. Why am I going to give my battle damage to someone with whom I have no connection?
Me and my Clerics always fight for ireland no matter what.
Everything else is questionable...especially with this british-irish government we have now.
Well that's not true, is it? A quick look at your 16 Mercenary Vanity medals would show that. Also, as I have said a gazillion times before, YOU STOLE AN IRISH MU for your own vendettas, too. Go ahead and make a big rant on why you think you were justified...it's irrelevant. you stole it. You are no more an eIrish patriot than those you accuse.
Actually...and you know that very well...when there is NO BATTLES in Ireland we are devoted to spread The Word by gnociding heretics around the globe....
We do not have mercenary medals but mercy medals.
We save heretics from themself.
And to correct you a little..i saved irish libertad from massive betrayal you and your so-called libertad planned.
It was clear your corruption and betrayal of your own ideals was result of agressive atheism so in order to protect last true Libertad unit from you i had to illuminate it with the holy light of The Word.
You heretics and spawns of SATAN! could not stand the ultimate truth of Heavens so i was forced to kick you out like a dirt....
And Grainne..i know it is those days in the month and you can't think clear but Libertad is not an irish MU or any nacionalistic unit.
As you showed me clearly when you tried to stop irish libertad from fighting for irish freedom and free Dublin.
And i will never get tired to repeat that over and over and over....
Again : "YOU STOLE AN IRISH MU for your own vendettas, too. Go ahead and make a big rant on why you think you were justified...it's irrelevant. you stole it."
But surely by now you realised you are wrong Grainne.
If i as commander of irish Libertad try to uphold evey single ideal and idea of Libertad and you and the rest of backsabbers broke evey single one of them, who is real Libertad?
If you and the rest of backstabbers tries to destroy irish Libertad isn't my duty as commander of irish Libertad to protect it from the enemy PTO?
Its not my fault you brag about your ideals in public but do not have stamina or spine to uphold them.
Fact i was the only one from all Libertad commanders who did not let an unit under his command to get corrupted and betray Libertad principles.
Its also the fact irish Libertad under my command was the only Libertad unit where all decisions were made by voting of all of its members.
The only Libertad unit who brought "Rules of Engagement" where we covered ALL options regarding for who and when we fight so we can have ireland as prio and in the same time without braking a single ideal, idea or rule of Libertad.
Not even i as commander could not order a battle that is against rules of engagement.
Anf that is one of a number of democratic ways of irish Libertad you and the rest of backstabbers could not accept.
The Fact you could not use irish libertad for battles you got payed or had personal interests..even those battles were braking all of your basic rules.
Defy that fact Grainne..your female hysteria will not work here..
Again : "YOU STOLE AN IRISH MU for your own vendettas, too. Go ahead and make a big rant on why you think you were justified...it's irrelevant. you stole it."
Funny...Grainne seems to be stuck in groundhog day
http://prntscr.com/1doz3o
What we've got here is a failure to communicate
Eh, I'm used to the discrepancy. Yeah, I want the votes and subscriptions, but as long as people are reading this and giving it some thought, this article is serving its purpose to get people to realize they are the most important part of this world.
Ireland has a fair record when it comes to MoDs. Yes there are times when we get a turkey and ofc everyone is entitled to fight wherever the hell they want. But generally our MoDs(and the people who help them agree on strategies) are proven in their field. Not every person has the knowledge or experience of an MoD. Noobs, 2 clickers, even someone with vast experience who is not as active as they used to be, are all more likely to be of use to furthering their Nation's goals if the country has capable people in charge of Defence. It's just the natural order of things in a game like this. It's the natural order of things because it works. That doesn't mean you can't fight where you want, but in general, MoDs tend to know more than the average player about which battles are more important to the Nation as a whole.
Individuals come and go, the country is a permanent presence.
Respectfully, I beg to differ, and any citizen with a small degree of world awareness and sense of self can do just as well in picking a battle for his own needs as an MoD. I truly believe that a month-old newbie who has made a few friends and learned the general alliance paradigm is just as skilled at making the most of his battle damage as any MoD who has spent years honing his craft.
Like I said, if a month old newbie wants to go find out which battles he/she should fight in then that's fine. He/she would probably learn more by asking the MoD why an order is for a specific battle anyway and then make their own mind up. Many times we've had to explain to players the reason it was important for Ireland to actually lose a battle. Not many(probably none in fact) month old newbies can understand the reason for such an order without conferring with someone in Defence.
There is however plenty of people who just log on, work, train and hit wherever the daily order for their MU is set, and have either not the time or desire to do any more. Not every person has the time to find information on which battles are the best use of damage. The MoD plays a major role in directing damage from this denomination. These people by choice put their faith in the MoD. They willingly accept that the MoD is better placed than they are to decide which battles benefit the nation the most.
You're article will not change how much time a person has to play the game. The MoD exists for good reason. We can all be as individualistic as we want to and individual brilliance is a great thing that can give your team the edge(which is a trait found in the best MoDs), but this is a game of nations and teamwork is required to get the optimal results for your nation. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Again, I respectfully beg to differ. I know it's been drilled into you that the game can be played only one way, but I'm here to tell you, everyone has the ability to make their own conclusions. Don't underestimate your citizens, they're smarter than you think.
Nothing has been drilled into me. I know there are many ways to play the game. Nowhere have I said you're wrong to play the game however you want. All I have done is explain why every country in the game has an MoD.
As an individual, I am entitled to an opinion and have always formed my own opinion without needing anything 'drilled' into me. I choose to play this game in a way that benefits my country in the best way I see fit. It is my choice and the choice of many others here. It is your choice to play it your way and no-one here whether MoD or otherwise is trying to take that away from you. In fact it seems by your tone that you are trying to impose your way of playing on others just as much as any MoD imposes their way on us. Ironically, you are the one who seems to be implying that because I choose to play the way I do that it must have been drilled into me as I am incapable of making my own mind up and that I need you to be 'here to tell me' that I am free to do as I please. I mean no offence by that and I know it probably was not your intention, but that is how you're coming across.
Great article. Really great article.
Voted.
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sorry replied to wrong person
voted for Belgium \o/
as an ex-MoD, I find it frustrating when people don't follow orders as those orders are actually set for a reason, some times theres a long term goal to be met. There are reasons behind the orders and people dropping damage elsewhere frustrates the goal, which is winning a campaign.
The Minister has more experience and access to wider knowledge above the level of a private indiividual because of their role and the circles they then move in. They know more the of big picture than you can actually see on the ground, especially when in an alliance.
so, as an ex-MoD I find your attitude frustrating
Just about every MoD who has chimed in on this has said the same thing.
I hope this attitude frustrates you. It means you can't just take for granted that citizens will follow your orders. You can't just talk about patriotism or team play. You're going to have to give your citizens a reason to fight.
And if you can't, the failure is yours, not theirs.