[SUI] Ireland: The Military State
Brian Boru
Irelan
😛the Military State
Like no other country, Ireland can be said to be a military state. To be precise, a semi-technocratic centrally-planned e-communist military state. While in reality this is a source of great weakness more often than not, democracy is almost assured in-game by the mechanics, the market even when it isn't broken is inefficient, and military expediency demands a level of solidarity that can only be created through what we have in eIreland. We are also a very open society, with a very unusually active media for a country our size, with a clear respect for practicality in government.
While there are minor details to iron out, as always, Ireland as a country can be said to represent essentially the archetype of military optimisation: A huge proportion of national damage DIRECTLY answerable to the elected government, a set of professional administrators who are recognised on a cross-party basis to be the best at what they do, and a sense that the country's progress is how best to measure success.
So, imagine my amusement when good Citizen Death and Taxes founded the Irish Military Party. Ireland has no need of such a party, as I have already explained, we are as optimised in a general sense as it is possible to be under current resources and circumstances. Apparently the objective of the party is not military optimisation, but to remove the political module from the considerations of the military.
The Importance of the Political Module:
Where once great battles were fought in the political arena over how we should organise eIreland, now battles are fought over two things: How we should maintain what we've built up, and what we should do with the very same thing. The answer to the former is a technical question, one that Sweet and Appleman have largely answered in the course of both their articles and in the carrying out of their duties; financial reconstruction being key.
The answer to the latter, i.e. the direction the country should take, is where more ideological notions can set in. RL nationalisms are complained of, and the idea that we should form alliances based solely on geographic and historical (presumably in-game history-based) motivations. There are distinct problems with this perspective.
The People's Choice
The first of which is the will of the people. The people are the ones who ultimately wield power via the elections that are impossible to avoid. The people are also the vast resource of the game that keeps the state and country afloat; The damage reserve. Dismissing their motivations for liking this country and hating another is generally useless. You can't argue simple practicality, you have to sell it.
The second is the nature of the people themselves. The largest single proportion of eIrish is consistently RL Irish people. They can, and have every right to, bring their ideas to bear on the country that bears their name, regardless of origin. Another huge proportion of the population are from the Irish diaspora or are highly sympathetic to the cause of Ireland for various RL reasons. Many of these people feel that "winning" the game isn't enough, they want to win in a way that is in line with their ideas about what Ireland is.
While this often does get in the way of practicality, it doesn't mean that it can be changed on the drop of a dime. Furthermore, associating that change with a single party can be highly divisive, as I know from personal experience when I founded the Labour Party to bring about the changes we can see evident in the foundations of the modern Irish state. The difference in this case is there is cross-party support for the change this time, making the founding of a party around the idea an isolating thing rather than a uniting thing. Not only unnecessary, but potentially damaging to the cause in the first place.
The cause of Irish military development, that is.
As I have pointed out, the country is so intertwined with the military that politicising it is a step backwards, not a step forwards.
Comments
nice banner
Click it, see what happens
Ugh, the Barney theme song came up, was that supposed to happen?
Yes
Rabble, rabble, rabble.
... Political bickering...
Rabble, rabble.
" Many of these people feel that "winning" the game isn't enough, they want to win in a way that is in line with their ideas about what Ireland is."
Well for once i actually agree with Boru....even if he is kunts......
Malbekh will never understand how it is to have an ideals or to belive in something.
Malbekh only see a personal gain..that it...
Honour is for malbekh only something that stands in his selfish ways...
I'm voting for this article as it deserves airplay, in reality though, you are addressing a perceived threat to your own political party. If IMP wasn't around, you wouldn't be writing any articles and that sums up this country, reactive rather than proactive.
But thanks for the free publicity.
Anyone who wants to join a party that wants activity, a good alliance, fun wars and ideas based on game mechanics rather than role-playing will find us here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/party/irish-military-party-4478/1
Nothing personal against D&T, but I generally agree with what Brian has put forward here. As Brian has said, eIreland already embodies a military focus to the extent that it could probably serve as a good international example of the concept...
Anyone who wants to join a party that wants activity, a good alliance, fun wars and ideas based on game mechanics rather than role-playing will find us here:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/party/eire-aonair-3462/1
http://www.erepublik.com/en/party/society-of-united-irishmen-3517/1
http://www.erepublik.com/en/party/irish-military-party-4478/1
+others
^ That's the problem... claiming that you're a military focussed party is fine... claiming that you're THE military focused party and that everyone else are nationalistic roll-players is counter-intuitive rhetoric to your own platform.
Take for example EA... the essence of the party is that you create and replace stances as mechanics and circumstances change... centrism, free-thought, quite simply effective government absent ideological discrimination or motivation...
And you're right, we wouldn't be talking about this if you hadn't started a new party... and in that way maybe its a good thing that you did. But when you claimed a monopoly on game mechanics that was a bit of a challenge to the other parties to come out defend their fundamentals.
I'm not going to apologize for contesting such claims either. Is it politics? Yes.
Here's the thing though... that's not a criticism.
Hello Ian, thank you for your perspective and I agree with what you are saying. Ultimately, the state of politics in Ireland is quite stale and needs shaking up. So job done. As far as why we think we are approaching the game form a new consensus, I believe you and I are due a conversation about this shortly.
You've only shaken things up because I decided to counteract what is actually some bullshit on your part, i.e. that you have authority to speak on military and diplomatic matters that goes beyond what either myself or others possess.
🙂
People can judge for themselves Brian. People can judge someone who writes an article once per month, and then writes three articles in succession all at the behest of reacting to another's actions. People can judge why the individual chose to pay money to get one article in the press - a defence of Spain - over this well written article as a priority. People can ask themselves, are these the actions we expect to see from an MoFA? As for the BS, I never said I was an authority, what I did say is that we intend utilising game mechanics to improve our position along with all the other diplomatic niceties.
I would have thought an MoFA would welcome a new perspective in the room rather than trying to stomp it down. Aren't you as MoFA interested in new perspectives or is it just you can't keep the personal Party view separate from the state?
"People can judge why the individual chose to pay money to get one article in the press - a defence of Spain - over this well written article as a priority."
LOL he sounds like Pasch when he was bitching on an article I made about me buying gold.
Ah, the myth of you being a gold buyer. I'm sorry Marcus, but your str and dam output shows you were never a gold buyer, or alternatively, if you were, that you never spent it on where it counts. Of course, your str and training has improved drastically since you stole 1m IEP from us, but that's not gold buying, is it?
I agree with Brian and Ian, this is a very well written article with excellent points. Good writing BB.
Brian wishes he was british, true story
Brian technically was British until 1998. Well, according to the British government anyway.
Voted. Nice article.
You won't get many votes if you continue to be reasonable though.
Controversy sells. 😉
nice work Brian
Srsly, I read that twice and still didn't understand why it was published.
eExpat blues ;_;
Srsly, I read that twice and still didn't understand why it was published.
eExpat blues ;_;
More "I'm right, you're wrong", I see.