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Today's deep thoughts are provided courtesy of the SFP's rogue

by Phoenix Quinn


Greetings friends, enemies and frenemies! I don't want to leave anybody out. So hello to one and all! The question on my mind tonight is "The Anti-Dictatorship Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?", or more simply "What Next?".

In my humble little way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.

Or probably both.



First, I'd like to clarify something about myself. Yes, 'm still an SFPer. And the SFP is a Big Tent anarcho-leftist party. My particular political orientation within the SFP, my faction if you like, is multi-faceted and flexible.

I tend towards being e-libertarian-socialist in the morning, when I don't want to rile up the old dogs too much. Know what I mean? Let 'em lie. Then it generally segues into e-anarcho-communist after I've had several cups of coffee and am ready to do some serious coding. Then later in the day, when I'm a bit pooped but still buzzed and just want to chew on things for a while, it is more like communitarian-municipalist. Finally, later at night, especially on those rare occasions when my old friend Bill Galaxia has stopped off from his inter-galactic travels for a visit, I sometimes even dabble in a bit of hard-core left-libertarian intersectionalist revolutionism.



The Bill Galaxia century note, from the SFP's wild attempt at creating an entirely alternative in-game economy.




Now there's other SFPers, dozens of 'em actually, who don't follow my religio-political dogmas around. They have their own eggs to fry, if you see what I mean. For instance, whereas I like to enthuse about the e-Global Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement (the eGASM), many of my colleagues, like that irrepressible old hippie Jude Connors, for example, are more oriented towards the good ol' SFP free-socialist mother-earth vision of a kinder, gentler, more equal, and more compassionate eUSA.

Jude's dedication to gaining a stronger foothold for the common player in the grand scheme of things America-wise is well known. His vision is one of an e-state that encompasses, protects, and defends its e-citizens, especially the most vulnerable, from both external enemies and internal robber-baronish oligarchies. It's a good and decent vision.

Many of the fine comrades in the SFP believe in this kind of more-or-less gradualist approach to reforming and improving the system. Furthermore, there is little doubt in my mind that a Congress with a strong bloc of, or better yet, a majority of socialist-freedom-minded Representatives, would serve in fact this e-country very well.





Jude is spearheading an effort to revitalize the Young Socialists, an SFP program specifically to support new players.




But I myself am an e-revolutionist. I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.

Still, I'm not here to press for my views or try to get anybody to change their e-religion or their deeply-held convictions. I'm not concerned about arguing or even discussing anything that we differ about.

Because it's time for use to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that sticks whether you're a Dioist, a Sheepist, a Federalist, a Peoplist, or any of the 52 varieties of Freedom-Socialist.

Doesn't matter if you're over level 100, a super-duper Uber-God-of-War, or an illiterate noob, or a worn-out old-fart, neither whether you prefer to cruise the boulevards of the meta-game or chase your dreams down the alleys of the default-interface. You're going to catch hell just like I am.

We're all in the same boat and we all are going the catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be the Admin. All of us have suffered here, in this game, in this country, in this party: spirit-numbing at the hand of the Admin, economic dumbing-down at the hands of the Admin, and now, more than ever, social degradation at the hands of the Admin.




One of the many delightful leisure centers supported by the SFP.


Now speaking like this, tt doesn't mean that folks with my point-of-view are simply anti-Admin. But it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the Admin doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us.

Let's forget our differences. If we have differences, let us discuss them over coffee at one of the SFP's marvelous leisure centers. When we are out in the game, let us not have anything to argue about until we are finished arguing with the man.

The Admin has put us into a terrible position, especially for us voluntarist, internationalist e-anarcho-commie types, who believe only in creating One Big Union of All the Players.

He has doubled-down on the e-State, forcing folks to adapt to friendly fascism in the form of "friendly dictatorships" out of the fear engendered by Admin's insatiable lust for credit-card cashola.

This is untenable. It is a shame on our honor to "have to" embrace dictatorship, no matter how much anyone wants to polish that turd.

If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the other. It isn't that time is running out. Time has run out!




The SFP's famous bicycle brigades are at this very moment fanning out across the country and world, build up a network of intersectional correspondents who have not given up on the idea of Freedom.



I'm not a politician. Not even a student of e-politics, really. In fact, I'm not a student of much of e-anything. I'm not a USWPista, not a Fed, not an AMPerino, not a Black Sheep nor a WTPer. I'm not even very active in the SFP any more and I don't even consider myself an e-American. Not yet anyway.

But I don't believe in deluding myself. I'm not going to sit and watch Admin eat everything on the table, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Nosiree, Bob. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner. Being here in e-America doesn't make you an e-American.

No, I'm not an e-American if that means swallowing the hog-swallow of dictatorship. I'm one of the victims of Adminish e-Americanism, of a disguised hypocrisy. I'm not a flag-saluter, a flag-waver or a flag-lover -- no, not I. I don't see any e-American dream; no, in this turn to "friendly dictatorship" I see a nationalist nightmare unfolding that is the very opposite of an eGASM.




PQ, having been thrown out of the leisure center after consuming way too much coffee



The victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. They're beginning to see what they used to only look at. They're becoming politically mature. They are realizing that there is an entirely different way to think about politics in eRepublik.

And they see how the election counts are getting closer. With the SFP hunting down multis and pulling together in elections, the votes are starting to reflect (though still through a glass, darkly) the actual popular sentiment.

What does all this mean? It means that the pool and the pull of Admin's loyalists is shrinking. The day is coming when it will be the Socialists who determine who is going to be the CP of the eUSA.





An early SFP campaign poster opposing both foreign invasion and creeping fascism at home.



I'm not anti-Dioist, or anti-meta-gamers, or even anti-Admin. I might question the sincerity of some, but even more I question a strategy that always seems to find a way to say you must give up just a bit more of your freedom, or else Big Bad Ajay, or Evil Admin will come along and steal your cookies.

A vote for the dictatorship is a vote for the Admin. It's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet.

It's either a ballot or a bullet.





Some people refer to it as Civilized Anarchy.


I might wrap up here by pointing out one thing. Whenever you're going after something that belongs to you, anyone who's depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal.

Understand that.

Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within your natural (and game-mechanical, and game-role-playing) rights to lay claim to it. And anyone who puts forth an effort to deprive you of that which is yours, is breaking the natural law and is trying to break your spirit. That is criminal.

When you rise up against oppression and degradation and regression and the man has the audacity to put a dog on you, then kill that dog, kill him, I'm telling you, kill that dog. Go down to the head of government and the e-police departments and tell them to pull their dogs in. That's all you have to do.

And if you don't do it, somebody else will. It might be another generation, but it will happen. If you don't take this kind of stand, your e-children will grow up and look back and think "shame".

Be uncompromising. I'm not talking about going out and getting violent. Nonviolence is great. Be nonviolent when people are nonviolent with you. But act in accord with justice. Die for what you believe in. And don't die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal with that of your enemy. That is what is meant by equality. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.



Do you follow me? Dictate to the Admin. Work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, in any way, with those who are genuinely interested in tackling this problem head-on, nonviolently (the ballot) or violently (the CW) as needed.

Get-out-the-vote, boycotts and strikes, raising your voice, looking for alternatives, whatever it takes. Don't give up. Arm yourself.

If I get banned in the morning, I'll go out saying one thing: the ballot or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet. Don't wait around for somebody liberate you. Free your mind.



And let the spirit roar.





XOXOXOXXOXOXOX,
PQ