Dictators Part 2 - Opinionated Ilene's Opinions
Ilene Dover
This is Part 2 of a a 2-part series concerning dictators. Part 1, which was a factual statement of how you both contract and rid yourself of dictators, is here. Some of the ideas I have are perhaps not quite mainstream eAustralian ideas. Certainly, nobody from the government has attempted to filter/censor me. Yet. Besides, a helthy debate is what we all need to get things going. If you disagree, agree or are ambivalent toward my ideas, please let me know in the comments. A healthy and robust media scene is what we all need to keep on keeping on these days.
If you made it through the wall o' text in Part 1, I apologise because you're going to have to do it again. I can be verbose when I care about something, which is a fancy way of saying you can't shut me up. Given I can type faster than I can think, well, you can imagine the sceanrios...
Also, fair warning. Democracy and governance is something I am pasisonate about. Rude words may follow. Kiddies should look away.
You might be wondering, after the last article, who gives a shit? Why should I care which rich wanker decides how much tax I have to pay? Well, you're partly on the right track. To help you give a shit, you need to understand that the President/Dictator (lets just call that unholy combo the player-in-charge) has a lot of responsibilities. It isn't just a fancy trophy in your profile and a stack of gold for building factories with. The player-in-charge decides, at their own discretion, a whole bunch of things - mostly at war. Who and when and where we attack. If we withdraw without a battle. The signing of MPPs (Mutual Protection Pacts), which influence who helps us out in exchange for us helping them. I'm sure there are a bunch of other in-game duties, but they're the important bits. There is one last important bit. Organisations. A legacy from older versions, organisations are places where countries put money so it is quarantined for a certain use. The JDS is a good example. A dictator gets access to ever single organisation he/she can name. And, all the money in there. Just like all the money in the Treasurer's vault.
Attacking and retreating are massively important. If you successfully defend a region, your enemies can't have another crack for a day or three. Then we can counter-attack. That sort of shit is called strategic initiative, and I'm sure a host of other players can tell you more about it (me, I just like the sound of my own voice...). Likewise, withdrawing a contest we can't win makes people conserve their energy and guns for the important battle.
You might be thinking, the President could be a total dickhead and just do stupid shit. Well, they can. And do. Frequently, in fact (no disrespect, Callum, you broke the mold when you came along). But the Senators (Congress, offically...) can get rid of a dumb-arse President through a vote called Impeachment. You can't get rid of Senators, but there's normally so many of the bastards that getting rid of one won't change squat.
Part of the problem with our current dicktaker (sorry...) is, in my ever-so-humble opinion, that he/she is not Australian. The miserable git is/was Polish. And all his mates. How did this happen? Because he found an old and unused military unit, assumed control and had a big pile of money in the bank. How he won the battle was, if I'm honest, an exercise in planning and preparation. Good timing Xanthus. You're still a dickhead, but respect where it is due. The dicktaker also emptied our treasuries (the offical one plus all the organisations). A few hundred thousand dollars and a few hundred gold gone to some self-important wanker.
The issue could be entirely resolved by only allowing citizens of a country to launch a coup d'etat. But that is another issue entirely. We are back to Ye Olde Dark Ages where small countries have to bend over and touch their toes when a big countries come swaggering around. Before citizenship was introduced...
In the time since we have been taken over by ugly Pole Dancers, a number of other countries have inflicted dictatorship upon themsleves. Even the Kiwis, who you could easily dismiss as "those crazy Kiwis again", except for the fact that a lot of big-arse countries like Peru are going at it too. In these self-inflicted dictatorships, a trusted member of "the governing elite", for lack of a better term is nominated as Supreme Dicktaker, sorry, Dictator. They act on instructions from the (still) elected Congress and President. Everything is good, and streamlined.
Except, it's not. You're reliant on your DickTaker remaining active (i.e. not killed in a car accident) and following their word. There is no recourse other than revolution if they turn into an actual dictator, and refuse to do anything they're told (or their 14 year old gets access to their account...). So, why the fuck would anyone trust a player to such a degree? Partly because we do already. The job of running an eCountry is too much for one player, even for a minnow like Australia. There are minsters and deputies etc. that don't really change with changing Presidents. You have to assume they will take instructions from the President, even if they were a Presidential candidate themselves. You also gain a measure of protection. In the event of some serious shit going down, like, say Serbia v Argentina, you can bet your house to my $0.05 coin that their opponents will start a coup d'etat. The risk is low ($200k is not much for a country), and the rewards are high (you win the war). If you already have a dictatorship in place, first you must evict the dictator for a President. Then you must wait 3 days to evict the President. 3 days is a long time in the eWorld...
Finally, I had a series of links that have informed my opinion over the past week. It seems most have gone to wherever old newspapers go (the recycling plant?). The only one left is Where the Americans wax lyrical about democracy. The comments are where it gets interesting, you can see some people bring too much of themselves and their culture to what is, effectively, a game: Crazy Yanks with guns...
Comments
"Besides, a helthy debate is what we all need to get things going."
Yes, that is 100% correct, but the current state of the official message threads are the polar opposite of that, shit is flying everywhere but no-one is actually doing anything.
TBH, Callumh123 is not actually that much of a superstar, everything has been a bit of shambles since he took over, the cabinet was pretty much a disaster last term, (warranted he did come in from a double impeachment and we were already in a bad place) and I am glad I stepped down when I did.
I have a few friends who keep me up to date with the happenings of the Congress thread, and it isn't all rosy in there either.
The main problem is that we seem unable to have a debate without shit flying everywhere, and everyone refuses to calm down and see the possibility that they could be wrong, or that someone might just be allowed to have a different view to you. Well, we don't seem to even be able to hold a conversation, let alone a debate...
These last 10 days or so since the dictator took over, half of us have been saying one thing, and the other half shouting another, whilst no-one does anything at all. And quite frankly it is shocking.
Welcome to the eAustralia I remember from 2009... At our core, most Aussies are nasty negative people. I'm sorry, but that's my personal observation from 30+ years on this planet.
Perhaps this is as good a forum as any to air our dirty laundry. Callum, party loyalty aside, has a light hand on the tiller. And, to keep the metaphors coming, was dealt a shit hand. It would be hard to achieve anything with that. His second term has been a vindication of the impeachment a and nothing more.
I'd like a shouting match snot what we do next. Can this can be fucked off, but what then? How do we stop it from happening next week?
[removed]
P1: Hmmm, that is true to an extent, I think it is amplified because people use online forums as a way of venting from RL stress n shit.
P2: Yes he most certainly 'has a light hand on the tiller' possibly to the extant that is damaging because we don't have many clear pointers on what we are doing. Yes as I said, he didn't have a very good situation to come into.
P3: Yeah I seriously can't make out much of this... Please try that paragraph again LOL
"TBH, Callumh123 is not actually that much of a superstar, everything has been a bit of shambles since he took over, the cabinet was pretty much a disaster last term, (warranted he did come in from a double impeachment and we were already in a bad place) and I am glad I stepped down when I did.
I have a few friends who keep me up to date with the happenings of the Congress thread, and it isn't all rosy in there either."
First off, I'm so glad you had the courage to say something after you left cabinet (Which you were close to being fired from a few times).
I took over with 12 days left after 3 weeks of nothing. In that time Bulgaria was kicked out, an alliance that puts us in a good position was formed and we were a pretty active nation for a while. I would never call myself a "superstar", I have no idea where you got that idea from.
Where the bad stuff comes from is the Dictator Module. People such as yourself and several others in the cabinet were conspiring to take the nation for yourself.
People have different opinions and that has been evident in the Resistance thread. "Few friends"to me means something different to what you were trying to infer.
"(Which you were close to being fired from a few times)": Oh, thats convenient to bring up now, you never mentioned anything you wanted improved? Or was it simply because I had a different opinion about some things? - By the way I am still waiting for the 400 Q7 tanks you owe me.
"In that time Bulgaria was kicked out" Yes, thank you Peru, who under DoFA's own admittance was acting without communication with us for the majority of it.
"I would never call myself a "superstar", I have no idea where you got that idea from": I never said you did?
"Where the bad stuff comes from is the Dictator Module": A lot of it yes
"People such as yourself and several others in the cabinet were conspiring to take the nation for yourself.": I have never heard so much shit come from you in one sentence. If you are referring to us SUGGESTING to ELECT someone to be a patsy Dictator so that the exact scenario we are in now didn't happen, then yous seriously need to work on your English and interpretation skills. Every time we suggested that, we ALWAYS included that they would do everything the ELECTED CP said, after a vote from the congress.
" "Few friends"to me means something different to what you were trying to infer.": I'm sure it does - to you - On that note, where has your 'friend' Lord TJ and all his Multies gone? Now that you successfully won the CP elections?
Out of respect for the person that gave me the information, I will not put it out on a public forum. If you wish to know why you were almost fired feel free to send me a message.
"TBH, Callumh123 is not actually that much of a superstar,"
There is no point talking to someone who does not even read their own shit.
To the first thing I said, I have information that suggests otherwise and am happy to discuss what I have been fed.
What TJ does is none of my business, nor do I know anything about multies.
I also have been told by people of your own operations.
And if you're alluding that TJ is my multi, he was on my radio show last week so that makes no sense. Plus I think more verifiable people than you vouch that I am probably the cleanest player in this game.
Worth noting the Orgs were cleared out by Australian government.
Very true. At the time I think people said we salvaged about 70%
100%, nothing is lost
So your saying XenthuS that should we revolt and win, you would put the money back?
Hail Xanthus o/
Your beloved cabezapolla!!!!
We aim to please. 🙂
I am going to follow on from pr3zzy's comment and say it is currently poor.
The lack of following directions by people who are constantly going against the CP is just down right appalling.
When you have people who are not even in a government position who have access to our funds as they have passwords (not talking dicktator here) it shows that the lead up to this time has been run very badly (over quite a few months this is)
Just one last thing pr3zzy if you want to sling mud then tell the whole story as opposed to parts of it
There isn't even any funds in the Org's anymore is there? And I don't have access to any Org's for the record.
Yes before Rusty most of them were quite terrible, Rusty just wasn't in long enough to solidify anything, and it doesn't help that the admins never replied to his emails asking for password resets, and email changes etc. Basically everything he was working towards came crashing down when his RL turned to shit 🙁
As usual eAustralia has been dealt a shit hand, and has to work with the cards we have...
Not slinging mud, just saying that there is a lot being slung 🙂
Side note: Elected CP makes ticket about Org's, no respond. Dictator overthrows government, makes ticket about Org's, response within a week.
Guag, unsure where you point was aimed at, but when the take over began, I passed on the passwords etc of the Orgs I had listed. Between myself and two other people we managed to save the Org's money.
Yes I am not in a government position, just cabinet. But if I did not pass those passwords on, we would of lost a shit load more money then we did.
Also some of the Orgs are rented to none government people. I know for the Org I was using for the MM, 50% of all profit went to the government. That was coming from the original capital that I put in (approx 50k cc).
I know some orgs are rented out, if I look hard enough I could find a terms of conditions that I wrote for renting orgs out to the public
Excellent article llene
Public airing of dirty laundry wasn't quite what I had in mind. Regardless, it's the sort of frank and fearless discussion we probably need to have about "what next".
"We are back to Ye Olde Dark Ages where small countries have to bend over and touch their toes when a big countries come swaggering around. Before citizenship was introduced..."
Fucking gold. I love it.
excellent and very long article.
Sorry about the length. Complex and emotional topics are rarely dealt with quickly though.
No thing to sorry, its a salute, coz I think/feel I can't write for the same length.