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In a few days the congressional elections will be held, so I feel compelled to discuss the impact of the political polarization in the eUnited States of America which contributes so significantly to the division we experience collectively as a nation. As I have mentioned before, I have had the good fortune of serving in Congress twice, observing congress for an election cycle as a citizen, and, currently, considering a run for congress…though, fear not, this is not a campaign article.

There is a general theme that runs through our virtual culture that emulates RL, and in many ways exceeds what might be found in RL due to the general safety of virtual anonymity, and that theme is to blame the government for all perceived ills. What is the source of all of our problems?
Obviously, it would have to be the elected officials, they are the ones with all the power. Right?

Possibly, this may be true for you.

However, I will submit that it is only true if we, as citizens, are willing to forego the responsible application of our own power.

I have observed that the similarity between our virtual lives and our real lives extends beyond the simple chronic dislike and distrust of “government” to the socially paralyzing, and politically polarizing, embrace of a “victim mentality”. Those that are most characterized by such a mentality are those that can be heard shouting in their articles “Look what they are doing to us!” rather than “Look what we can achieve!”

I appreciate the fact that I am teetering on that thin line that marks the border between jingoistic real life applications to a game, and the comfortable confines of anonymity within eRepublik, but I ask that you bear with me.

As I have mentioned before in previous articles, there are only two possible results of your participation in eRepublik, improvement and inactivity. And, contrary to several very vocal members of the media, you are in control of which outcome is realized. While it is possible to be banned from forums and, for particularly egregious violations of the Terms of Service, eRepublik itself, unlike in real life your character cannot be killed or even imprisoned for your actions. In fact, the only thing that can happen to you if you choose to arm yourself and participate in battle, is that you will experience and increase, however nominal, in your experience and progress toward the next rank.

Now, while we might dispute the impact of government actions on the rate of your in-game improvement, the fact that you are improving in one area or another is a settled matter unless you have chosen the route of inactivity. Therefore, by virtue of the game mechanics alone, the potential victimization of eAmericans by the perceived “dark powers” of our collective egovernment is a ridiculous distraction to our common purpose.

In order to avoid the expected comments regarding how I might be exaggerating the pervasiveness of the “victim mentality” among the citizenry of eAmerica, I submit to you that even the current president, as well as former president, have published articles suggesting that they themselves are victims. I found is extremely disappointing to find that many of our foremost citizens have pretty much institutionalized the mentality of victimization through their, nearly continuous, vilification of the eUS Congress; not that congress exemplifies all that is right in the world, as there are also many voices within congress that further the rhetoric by pointing to the competing political parties as the primary agents of abuse.

No one’s hands are clean, but more importantly so very few hands are dirty.

To clarify, the majority of us have indulged and comforted ourselves, at one time or another, with a victim mentality that has manifest itself in unproductive actions and far too few of us have applied ourselves to working the soil as contributors to national progress.

As a former congressman, though I cannot speak for the motivation of all candidates for office, I usually applied at least four to six hours of my personal RL time campaigning. I do not intend to project the victim mentality with that statement, it’s just what I did to improve my character. Once I got into office, I generally spent between two and four hours every day as a congressman in eRepublik and the eUS Forums. All told I probably spent 80 to 100 hours of online time dedicated to my primary responsibility, in-game, as a congressman. While, by now, I know that many of you are questioning my sanity for doing so, but during my tenure my rationalization was clear…I wanted to work the soil as much as I could for one central purpose:

To increase the rate of improvement for the eUS citizenry collectively.

And my efforts were certainly not altruistic, my primary motivator was to improve myself; but a funny thing happens when we all follow the selfish motivation to choose improvement instead of inactivity…we contribute to the community. I offer the following theory for success as a nation, and, because it is my article, I will call it the Ananias American Unity Theorem:

Where individual contributions and effort toward common national purpose = improvement;

and where “victim mentality” paralysis and political polarization = inactivity;

then, whenever I, individually, pursue improvement instead of inactivity, I increase my improvement rate;

therefore, when we collectively pursue improvement instead of inactivity, we progress as a nation;

thus, when our collective improvement rate surpasses the collective improvement rate of other nations, we will begin to catch up;

finally, when our collective level of improvement surpasses the collective level of improvement of all other nations, we, as a nation, win.

As you can see, in my opinion, our success as a nation has never been contingent upon who is leading or who is governing…it has always been contingent you and me, and, perhaps more importantly, our commitment to improve ourselves and, by extension, our nation, together.

So, when the 25th rolls around, and you are in your virtual voting booth, I encourage you to make a radical departure from the status quo, do not vote based on experience, or party, or name recognition, vote for the candidate that represents improvement and vote for the candidate that shows the willingness through promise, or performance, to get their hands dirty for eUS success.

In conclusion, my fellow eMericans, it’s time to turn the power of the phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” on, and start getting our hands dirty together. And, if after completing this more citizens ask “How can I contribute?” rather than “Why should I contribute?” then the revolution we all have been waiting for has begun.

Thanks for your time.