[Kemal Ergenekon] The Art of Diversion: Builders and Destroyers

Day 3,083, 14:37 Published in USA USA by Kemal Ergenekon


Sup America. It's me, "Kemal the Destroyer."

Very interesting days, huh? No? Sadly, this is what we get after the game has started its long and painful death. Since the game provides no challenge or excitement anymore, any news is just drama of those in the purgatory ripping each other a new one. Once it was SFP vs the trrbl metalords and dictatorship, now it's the Oblige USAF fiasco. The topics and the actors change, but most of it is now inconsequential because the game mechanics and the dwindling population murdered the excitement of foreign affairs and wars. But I digress. That's a topic for another day.

Today I chanced upon an article by Israel Stevens. If I hadn't seen who wrote the article, I would have thought it was a Franklin Stone article given the obsession about me. But it was a legitimate Israel article, which is evidently triggered by his dissatisfaction about the USAF fiasco being called out. Joy.

Now, don't get me wrong, there is a lot that's true in the article. Some paragraphs I would sign my name under. Here, take a look:

You see, the problem is that the most active portion of our community exists solely to protect their own legacy or mini-empire. They’re here to settle old political scores. To block people from doing something new. They aren’t here to build anything new. Or to work together to improve our country. They’re not builders, they’re destroyers.

The problem is that the people at the highest levels of both the military and political side of things, aren’t here to build anything anymore.

Now who could disagree with such statements? Is eUS filled with people here to settle old political scores? Check. Are there people who just want to occupy positions of power, and do nothing (Oblige *wink wink😉? Yes, of course. These are valid problems that have not been solved for a long time (but also probably insolvable, since nearly all active players that remain in the game are here because of the sunk cost fallacy, myself included, and the petty in-game hatreds that calcify into blood feuds.)



However, this article was not a piece on what can be done to alleviate this problem. Oh no. It was, unfortunately, triggered by my troll article highlighting the Oblige fiasco. A fiasco the details of which many citizens probably do not know about, since all the build-up and the discussions took place in Israel's and Melissa's PDBs, and private congressional proceedings. I managed to get one of the threads moved to Public Congressional Proceedings, although Oblige wasn't so happy about it, xdxd.

So what really happened? This was all about Israel Stevens wanting to overhaul the USAF into an effective fighting machine. Well, that's a noble and lofty goal that I can get behind, though it has been argued in the past that too much meddling with USAF was counterproductive. But, anyway, it's a good plan, right?

The problem was what Israel Stevens had in mind in particular. He wanted to sell USAF to Oblige and make him the permanent CO of USAF. No longer would any president be able to replace Oblige as the CO of USAF: He would own the in-game MU. He would still get funding from the congress, but it would be impossible to replace Oblige from his position by any future president. To quote Oblige exactly, the presidents who weren't satisfied with Oblige's decisions and performance would be "shit out of luck 🙂" (yup, the smiley is also copied verbatim, xdxd).

There were extremely heated debates about this idea. It generated pages upon pages of discussions during the beginning of Israel Stevens' last presidential term. And these discussions contained many alternative plans which could make USAF a very efficient fighting machine that did not include Oblige, or did include Oblige with a different set of contracts. If I tried to summarize everything that has been said, it would take multiple articles. But just to give you a glimpse, there were:

- Proposals to appoint Oblige as the CO without giving him in-game ownership of the MU
- Introducing periods that are longer than a month after which Oblige would be subject to executive evaluation (instead of him owning the MU for an eternity)
- A merge of the USAF MU with one of the best private MUs in eUS and making it a private-public hybrid
- Letting Hale Kane undertake his own USAF reforms without appointing Oblige as his boss, etc.

In fact, the "escrow money" that has been obtained from Oblige is an idea I proposed instead of a sale, so that Oblige would have *some* incentives not to get lazy. So on and so forth...



You will not be able to see any of these debates any time soon. They are in Israel Stevens' PDB. But suffice it to say that Israel received ample comments and warnings about his idea, as well as very viable alternatives. Once he faced too much criticism, he stopped responding to the people, and started developing his idea in private with those who were supporting his plan. There were no USAF related posts in the PDB for a long time.

Fast forward to the end of the month: Without any discussions in the PDB, Israel started the discussion of the law required to appoint Oblige as the in-game CO of USAF in Private Congressional Proceedings. You don't need my summary for it anymore, since I had it moved to the public. You can read it yourself and reach your own conclusions.

Several people who were lobbying for the idea waxed poetic for Oblige:

"I have worked with him and (mostly) against him for years. But I believe he can do what others have been unable to do; return USAF to their SF glory." - Israel Stevens

"Oblige is capable of recruiting. He is obviously popular. He has the most PotUS medals of any American. That is not a reason on it’s own to give him this position. But he is a massive name within our community. Easily top 3 for most well known. He has personality to pull this off. He wants this to be successful more than anyone else." - Israel Stevens

"When he ran the Special Forces, they were a top MU in the world. Not just in the United States. And yes, it’s a different time period now. But if you think that Oblige won’t do everything in his power to return USAF to the top of the rankings in the United States, then you don’t know him." - Israel Stevens

"He has both the desire, and the experience to return USAF to their former glory. He can do what others have failed to do." - Israel Stevens

"Despite all of the negative history between the two of us, I believe that Oblige is one of maybe 5 people in the country that could actually turn USAF into the best MU in the country. Oblige’s plan is more than just his desire to turn the USAF around. He has a detailed vision for USAF, as well as his own assessment of what the problems facing the MU is." - Israel Stevens

"Oblige can offer things that we really can't. Interest, Time and Money. We have shown little interest until now in the USAF and it's needs. It took Oblige's offer to bring it out of the woodwork. I would be more than happy to believe that this interest is genuine but if this proposal fails and the next CP comes to congress asking for that support to materialize, will it?" - Melissa Rose

"Some of the very things I can't stand about him are exactly why I believe he will succeed with this. His Vanity will not allow him to let this fail. I doubt he'd give Kemal the pleasure of saying "I told you so"" - Melissa Rose

"I'm in full support of what IS has proposed. Oblige can bring much more to the table than any OC could ever do, and that's simply true. I actually can't see any better way of handling the USAF." - Senryaku


I could go on, you get the idea.



Against this was the majority of the people who had interacted with Oblige in the past, and knew what his modus operandi was: Get the position, do nothing, claim credit for other people's work. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice? For a fourth time? Fifth? Sixth? Oh boy, I am starting to see a pattern.

And we warned Israel. We told him it would end in tears. And yup, "I told him so."

And our resistance bore fruits. Because of the resistance to his original plan, Israel Stevens did not sell the MU to Oblige. Instead he just made him the in-game owner of the MU, but with the option of future presidents removing him from the spot (as was the case with all previous USAF commanders.) And today, after witnessing a month of zero effort on the part of Oblige, we have not lost the MU to him. It was awful to lose a month, and there are shenanigans about how Oblige used the 2m worth of reserves of USAF in order to pay the 3m escrow, but overall, it could have been worse.



And what do the people who advised Israel on the issue get as reward? They are called destroyers. "They’re here not to solve problems, but to beat their chests and say ‘I told you so.’"

Really now, Israel? Are these people who didn't accept your idea as is, and prevented the disaster of losing USAF to Oblige the bad guys now? The people who gave you more than a fair discussion, and provided myriad alternatives to choose from? Those people who helped you come up with the contract to bind your favored Oblige as the leader of the MU?

I apologize, then. I apologize for my help. I apologize for being right. I apologize for being able to foresee what would happen given our experience with Oblige and knowing how he would act once he got the position of power. Like he did in his six presidencies. Like what he pulled when he was being removed from Special Forces back in the day. I am utterly, terribly sorry. You are the builder, and we are the destroyers for criticizing bad ideas and proposing better alternatives. Gotcha...

Those who you seek to demonize by calling destroyers, those who opposed your idea which is now revealed to be a bad one, are called advisors. They advise. They do not try to hide the truth to make you feel happy about a bad decision. They do not support you just because they are your friends. When a newbie comes and tries to mess up the tax rates, we cannot just go ahead and let him change it to a suboptimal level. We cannot agree with him solely to make him comfortable and feel like a genius because he came up with a bad policy. It is not a crime to have discovered how the game is best played.



Don't blame the players, blame Plato for making this game what it is: a boring husk of what it once was, populated by disenchanted grumpy zombies like you and me. New players cannot contribute much, because all the mechanisms in which they could contribute have been stripped out, and there is nothing to do but play the stupid metagame which has become extremely stale. A metagame which is too crowded for the current state of the game. I could give you 5 names who could run the whole country without any problems at all.

Yes, I know your penchant for adventurism. Back in the day, you had written a POTUS election article in which you had criticized eUS for focusing on 100/100 bonuses and safety as opposed to making dangerous moves for the thrill. Back in the day, I silently disagreed with you. Today, I would probably side with you in terms of adventurist foreign policy. But selling the national MU to Oblige of all people? Sorry, man, I am not willing to see everything burn down just yet, xdxd.

Or maybe this was your master plan all along and you wanted to burn it all down, so that we could leave the game and rescue ourselves from this purgatory? In that case, I bow before your wisdom. That would have been cool indeed.

Wow, too many words already. Time to log out.

I kiss you from your gidis 😘
Kemal the Destroyer