The Third Rail
Day 2,869, 19:53
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Israel Stevens
The Third Rail
I’m not usually a fan of starting out articles with a definition, but I think it is appropriate here.
Third Rail - The third rail of a nation's politics is a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable"; any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically.
In the United States, our Third Rail has always been Serbia. They have been our bogeyman in the closet for years. No matter what our MPP stack has looked like, or whom we’ve aligned ourselves with, it has almost always been against Serbia.
And while Serbia has been our #1 enemy, #1a has been Hungary. We’ve had one President completely wipe Hungary, and we had another torpedo an alliance with Poland because of his refusal to get into bed with Hungary. Our relationship with Hungary has been non-existent for years, due almost entirely to how close they are to Serbia.
And yet, 3 weeks ago the President of Hungary proposed a Mutual Protection Pact with the United States. It was proposed during the brief period we went without a dictator, and Congress somewhat surprisingly approved it.
Hungary was one of the last dominoes to fall, as we get closer and closer to signing a MPP with Serbia. With them in our MPP stack, it won’t be long until we sign with Serbia.
What was once our Third Rail, seems to be a rapidly approaching ‘friend and ally.’
Ever since Wild Owl put us on this path, it has seemed like the final goal has been a Serbian MPP. With the Hungarian question solved, we are coming ever closer to the endgame.
Currently, 16 of our 21 MPPs are shared with Serbia. That comes out to 76%. Over three quarters of our Military alliances are also aligned with the nation we consider to be our mortal enemy.
On the one hand, we have witnessed unprecedented security as we’ve snuggled up to Serbia. There hasn’t been a serious invasion, or threat to our resources in over a year.
But just as in real life, this security has come at a cost.
Serbia put us through hell in 2013. We came within a hair of being PTO’d. The measures that we had to enact, put an incredible amount of strain on our community. When we should have been focused on fighting off Serbia, we were at each other’s throats.
Even if they were never successful, that period of time was probably more damaging to the community than any other period of non-admin induced suffering.
This is the country that has occupied us. That has attacked us directly in our home land. That has marched across continents to damage us.
This is the country, that above all others, has sought our destruction.
We have always prided ourselves on being better organized. On having a smooth, high functioning forum. We were never the strongest dog in the fight, but we were often the smartest. And even when that fight wasn’t going our way, we stuck with our friends, and fought it out. There was a sense of pride in being the underdog. We cared more about the victories, and the meant more to us.
We’ve gone to war to defend our tiny bro Albania. We’ve appealed directly to a foreign Congress to stop Brazil from MPPing Serbia. We’ve given up our Democracy to protect ourselves from Serbia.
We used to do things because they were the right thing to do. Not because they were the easy thing to do, or because they gave us the most security.
You know what is a lot of fun? Defending ourselves. Having battles that matter.
I could not care less about Spain. Or whatever crap country we’re fighting at the moment. I haven’t fought in months, because none of it is worth it. None of the battles we pursue anymore mean anything.
And yet, we keep getting closer to Serbia. It’s a slow process, but little by little, administrations have been able to slip another piece of the puzzle into place.
At some point in the very near future, a President is going to approach Congress and ask
”Why not Serbia? We already share every MPP with them. It would be silly not to get that damage on our side.
We’ve sold ourselves out in the name of security, protection and foreign damage. We’ve given up on having fun, and taking risks.
And for what?
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I actually learned things from this. 10/10 would be uneducated again
Very well written
voted
Well said.
I never thought I'd say this, but the moment serb mpp passes, I'm outta here.
Good article. Voted.
Well done and I agree completely.
I'll try to offer my perspective on this. First of all, thank you IS for writing this, its probably the first article I've read all month which makes me want to comment and it really made me think.
We "joined" the Serbian side of the world, because the anti-Serb side, led by Croatia and friends did not treat us well. We were often their bonus cow, and their interference in our internal affairs, our Congress and our MUs was huge, as you yourself can attest. After a certain point, we'd just had enough and it was time to change. I believe that some individuals tried this with CTRL - which worked until a certain President blew it up. Say what you will about Serbia, but their government and allies have never interfered in our internal affairs. Serbia also did officially condemn the PTO against us - and the Serbian group that PTOd us, Cipelici led by Hannibal LA, PTOd Serbia too and stole millions of CC from there.
Our regions are free, we have full bonuses in our cores, and constant war against a country that has participated in most US invasions and is considered an enemy to our State ereligion (not that I give a crap about that). I think that this 'price' was worth paying for a "semi-ally" that doesn't interfere in our internal affairs, doesn't demand citizenships from us or dictates to us what we can or can't do. We have also been able to wage war against many hated rivals from the past, like Indonesia and FYROM, while enjoying protection - and actually kept Indonesia wiped for 2 months during Trekker's Presidency.
That being said, I did support the NAP with Croatia simply because I would not want us to go completely overboard on the Serb side. Also, while our 50 regions are considered a huge advantage and are a cause of jealousy for most nations, they're a pain in the bum to free if we do get actually wiped at some point, which was another factor which just made picking the Serb side easy.
To many Croatian came to help against Serbian PTO at that time. Serbia cordinated the whole plan to whipe Usa and you are telling me that they never did interefere with US internal affair. The war agaisnt Spain is directly helping Serbia agaisnt its wars.
Its been long time now that US fights alone and bearly wins any war without CO's. We bearly win agaisnt N.Korea because you wont see any of allies fighting by US side (few greeks sometimes) it used to be overcrowded with lots of chileans cros turks albanians russians and too many more players helping.
"Serbia also did officially condemn the PTO against us - and the Serbian group that PTOd us, Cipelici led by Hannibal LA, PTOd Serbia too and stole millions of CC from there."
You are of course aware that the current Serbian CP was heavily involved in a Serb attempt to PTO the eUK 18 months ago!
CTRL was shit.
we can say this for many countries...
the players killed the game.not plato
"We’ve sold ourselves out in the name of security, protection and foreign damage. We’ve given up on having fun, and taking risks.
And for what?"
”Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.”
B. Franklin
From an average eAmerican point of view, this article has a huge sense, and I really appreciate it.
It makes clear that, despite it makes things "easier" for eUSA, this new state-of-things makes very hard to find motivations and doesn't really satisfy the need of fun and struggle in playing the game (which is much more needed now than 3 years ago, I guess).
Anyway every player who comes from abroad and had the time to concretely see the dynamics of foreign communities, will think that a piece of this topic isn't taken in consideration.
When a nation flips side, even if it takes 10-12 months, the real change is (or should be) in the foreign players you play with.
Please try this (at home LOL):
The oldest ally of eUSA is eRussia, I guess.
Take an average active eUSA player and ask him 5 names of russian players, by memory.
Then take an average active eItalian player, and ask him 5 names of croatian or albanian players.
You'll see the difference.
The true reason for the change of side, is not that eUSA community was pissed with Sirius people. At least not more than with hungarians or serbians. The true reason is that the eUSA community mainly cares of what happens inside. So the allies can change, depending on the contest and on the game mechanics.
Think of this: when eRepublik will be gone, eAmericans will be still on the forum to argue about work tax (and not about the other taxes because it's strictly forbidden).
Is this a sign of strength, strong internal friendship and warranty of long existance? Is this losing maybe the best part of the game?
You choose.
I'm sorry but you changed the sides because you saw that Asteria is becomming stronger than Aurius. At least it looked like this.
It is normal for proAsteria countries to welcome you at that time becuase they were looking for more dmg and the Pacifica alliance was there for them.
I'd agree completely with the last part though. We choose how to play and sometimes the arguments are those who keep us playing and having fun.
Cheers!
Our fluidity in our Foreign Affairs is our strength, not a weakness. Italy sticking with Croatia can hardly be considered its strength when Croatia has all of its core regions and Italy is butchered for bonuses by Slovenia, Serbia and occasionally France or whoever gets bored.
Also, @ Darman, we didn't change anything, we were kicked from Sirius. The road from that point onwards was pretty clear.
That's why I took for example both Albania and Croatia... 😃
And I don't give a judgement about strength or anything else... I just say that eItalian know more their allies, because they are less self sufficient.
It took a lot to give a stable FA policy to Italy too, in the golden years.
If you check the eUSA forum, there are almost no discussions at all about foreign affairs. That really seems weird to foreigners, but maybe it's a sign of strength.
IMHO self sufficiency has both strength and weakness.
In the end it's just a different way to play.
True WO, but you know the coin has 2 sides. 😉
After you went proAsteria it was ok for us, you have a right to choose. I didn't like the moment when you turned against your former allies such as Macedonia and thus indirectly against us (we were allies for years and we helped you much against PTOs, enemy agression etc.) because of our common war with Greece.
I personally would like to see you having a more meaningful war than this one with Spain from which you don't have a benefit. Rather the opposite.
Our benefit from a Spanish war is kinda obvious. They're our strongest neighbour, and they're opposing us. With this war, we keep their work taxes at 1%, occupy around a third of their country and prevent them from participating in any meaningful coordinated attack against us our our allies. I think its worth it.
Don't try to lecture, lest someone comes to lecture you.
You had options, everything was your choice and in this case literately. You have become the spitting image of Croatia, dealing in allies, of course this is possible for a time, and then you get relegated to 2nd, 3rd choice at best.
Worst of all unlike Croatia, who is empowered by far the most by Serbia, USA has no one to empower it.
Before you start commenting on the above, think it over you'll get it.
V
Servia.
o/
so sad is the truth
All are Guzica
Guzica are All
Blame Canada.
Third attack on eSpain in a year. It seems like we are obsessed.
Naw, just bored.
I learned something of 2013 today, the year before I registered.
And you've also convinced me that i have to re-watch star wars 1-3 with how you ended the article 😛
Good read!
Cyprus has big arms and always a good ear for our American friends < 3
Voted for this about halfway through, endorsed at the end. I was expecting a big KABOOM at that end but it fizzled out, still a top notch article though. Unbiased and factual from my perspective. Anywho...
I think I can lend perspective on Serbia. Those living under a rock should know that I recently moved here from Canada, I've done my share of FA and am still familiar with the US situation as I started out my career as a US citizen.
Serbia/Hungary (among others) have been 'the enemy' for years. There was a time when I first started playing that we saw a Serb behind every leaf that jostled in the wind. I remember when people actually considered that Pizza might actually be PotUS one day. lol On the other hand I look at the Serb/Croat push and shove, the rest of the Balkans too. How many times have we been bored to tears when that's the only thing going on for weeks?
From the Canadian side I must say that I was extremely reluctant to get in bed with Serbia. Being a former US citizen (and Congressman, etc.) I was well versed in how E-V-I-L they are. With the screw up when Canada attacked the UK and the US rejected our application to join the alliance we were forced to look to "the dark side". Let me tell you my take on what Serbia is.
For starters I would say that the majority of Serbs are some of the friendliest people playing this game. They will talk about anything but take drinking and women serious, so if you're not much interested in long PMs stay away from those subjects. Never once to my knowledge did Serbia ever directly try to influence Canada. We were warned that they would make us their puppets. Once when I was CP the Serb MPP was about to expire. Canadian Congress was bitchin' about money and I was dicking around with fyrom. The Serb CP (forget who it was) PM to ask if I was going to MPP or not and mentioned that they thought Canada was a good team player. I don't count that as manipulation.
P.S. I should mention that I'm not advocating for or against Serbia. I just wanted to mention that they seemed to me a reasonable group that just expected members of alliance/friends to do their part. I'm sure there were some politics with other countries that I was not aware.
Damagehood is ALL in this game, sadly...
"We’ve sold ourselves out in the name of security, protection and foreign damage."
No, you didn´t. You sold out your friends and allies. You made betrayal the highest principle of your foreign relations.
And Wild Owl: You were kicked exactly for this reason from Sirius because you betrayed your allies.
Better MPP Canada then. If you thought Poland Spain use to be something. The Canada Serbia duo beats them all hands down.
They abandoned their allies to approach ASTERIA, to Serbia. They want now?
You can argue about this all you want, but having an enemy defined the eUS and brought us together. In fact, it was even FUN to have an enemy, and we always had a goal we were working towards. What are we working towards now? Seems like a never ending stream of election cycles with no purpose and a bunch of bullshit. Let's work towards something. Let's make an enemy, who cares. Let's do something for gods sake.
Couldn't agree more
'We’ve had one President completely wipe Hungary,'
Twice lol 🙂
Well said, well written and I totally agree.
\o/
So let's invade Thailand
Great article. Best Star Wars quote.