Nebulous Referendum and Why I Vote No!
Konrad Neumann
[disclaimer] I do not write a lot of articles anymore especially wall of text like this one. I am really busy in real life and the game has changed a lot for the negative. However, on the issue of the eNL referendum to join Nebula, I designed to offer my 2 cents.
Before anyone dismiss my perspective, I do want to offer you my background and CV. I was one of the founders of the Phoenix Alliance as one of the representative of Germany. I was active in the inner circle of Phoenix when it was active. I was the CP of Germany for 3 times, congressman for 37 terms and I lost count of the times I was PP but it is more than 18 terms. I give you this notice for my perspective is an "old timer" perspective. I do operate on a slightly different perspective and standard other than what is "fun" with war galore etc. I will try to offer you a rational perspective. But these are my honest opinions with no BS. Some of you might not like what I have to say. I know some will even try to deny the contents of my perspective. However, you will have it regardless. To understand this perspective is to also help you understand others within this community. For we do live in a democracy where rival opinions and perspective are equally valued. This is why I am writing this now. [/disclaimer]
Let's get this straight, there is something really wrong with this vote to join Nebula a weak and insignificant alliance that serves no real purpose. I am very disappointed in how this whole incident was handled. In this article, I will discuss the procedural aspect of my grievances as well as the stupidity of seeking membership of such an alliance. In the end, I do honestly believe the process was hijacked and the constitution did not intend how referendums work and function.
The Procedurals:
I am honestly dismayed by how this government handle procedure. While he claims that it follows the letter of the law, I am not a fan of how he does things. He rushes votes based his own interest. For example, both the MPP (Aussie and Argentina) and the emergency power votes was rushed using the "emergency powers" clause. The combining of the two MPP's in a single vote was not fair and ethical as the congress does not have any means to vote for the individual. In addition, both the funding and MPP vote did not have any real meaningful discussion as the vote took place at the same time as the "debate" section opened and there was no means for congress to change or have any input into the content of the vote itself. This administration neuter the congress to a simple yes or no with no means to truly modify the contents of any bill.
The same can be said about this alliance. While there are some talk within the private section of the congressional forum. The prospect of joining Nebula was made known very recently with the congress vote to hold a referendum on this issue on the 11th of June. The referendum closed on the 12th and on the 13th we are already holding the referendum in public. The government never offered the common people any information. What are the pro's and con's. Why do we need to join an alliance? What is the capability of such an alliance? What is wrong with just MPP's? How would this alliance damage our existing friends like Belgium and the United Kingdom? etc. The government never explained anything. There was no discussion of the terms. There was no discussion about the responsibility of being in this alliance etc. Once again, it is a yes or no vote in which the people and the congress does not have much information about. The people and congress does not have any real say in the issue as we have no real means to evoke change within the votes. We are forced to say either yes or no and nothing more. This is extremely problematic as we are led to believe in an illusion of democracy via voting while the procedures used are to neuter any real voice that we have to address the details. To have a real meaningful and effective debate that allows the content of the item being voted to change. However, we are being rushed with detail-less yes and no vote with no real transparency, information, and most importantly, a meaningful and effective voice. So I see this as a huge constitutional problem as the very fabric of democracy is eroding.
Foreign Policy:
From my perspective, joining Nebula is extremely foolish. There is no need for such as move as Nebula is weak and pathetic. I see proponents of the alliance evoke image of minnows united to combat larger fish, but in the end, this analogy is not accurate. The nations that comprised Nebula are very weak and is unlikely to do any real harm to the powerful elites of Poland, Serbia, Hungary, etc, even if they combined forces. In addition, the "big fish" also have mates of their own. The reason of "power" is totally invalid as the power of Nebula is just not there.
Therefore, this brings us to the next problem. Nebula are hostile to our traditional allies and friends. We have great lasting relations with countries like Belgium and the United Kingdom. However, Nebula and countries they are sympathetic to are hostile to them. The recent Argentina airstrike as well as the Aussie AS against Denmark is problematic as it requires us to turn our backs on our old friends and allies. The same people who were "outraged" by the German "betrayal" are now pushing to turn our backs on innocent Belgium who did nothing wrong. Instead of supporting our brothers and sisters there, we sign a MPP with Argentina and is in the process of joining an alliance which is hostile towards them and UK.
eNL like many other nations in Nebula will be weak and insignificant. Alliance especially Nebula will not bring prestige and influence to eNL at all. Instead, it will make us turn away are traditional friends and allies. In addition, it forces us to deal with the problems of Nebula. This draws us into their conflict and makes us more vulnerable to rival attacks. Never once do the supporters of Nebula address the issue of why do we need an alliance. What is wrong with MPP's and great relations with countries around the world? Being neutral has its benefits as it allows us to be flexible. However, we will lose this flexibility when we are drawn into this alliance that is not powerful and cannot do much on the international setting.
In the end, eNL is weak and insignificant on the global stage. We will never have absolute security as we can never have the manpower of a Serbia or a Poland. We will always be regulated to be pawns of the elite and powerful. Nebula will not change that. Nothing will. With that said, I see no reason to join Nebula. It does not offer us greater protection, power, and influence. I am not in favor of joining an alliance for the sake of being in an alliance. There must be more, much more. If we are to turn our backs on our good allies, it must be a damn good reason. Nebula is not that. In a hot war, Nebula will struggle defending itself let alone doing anything significant and worthy. This is why I vote NO!
Comments
voted
" I will try to offer you a rational perspective"
That's subjective.
It follows a proper discourse of argument and factual defense. My structure is not baseless conjecture and rhetoric without evidence.
A minion of Germany, threatened by the concept of us joining an alliance.
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I think it's too easy to dismiss his arguments because he has links to Germany. He does actually bring up good argument but yes it's easier to just dismiss them right and not take him serious because of his link to germany and your dislike for him. It's a cop out argument saying what you did.
The minion that would not defend his country against German aggression can say what he wishes here, we all know by now where his loyalties lie, and it is definitely not with the Netherlands.
He did not fight for Germany either, he is a politician not a fighter. And yes you always use the "if you're not with us you're against us" which is a False dilemma fallacy in your argument. Just because he did not fight for eNL does not mean he isn't loyal to eNL.
Yes it does! Minions of Germany will not fight against their masters.
You clearly want to ignore arguments you do not like although they are valid arguments based on some fallacy argument. You're like a little petulant child putting his fingers in his ears because that child does not want to listen. Ignoring argument and dismissing them for some invalid reason is easier right?
gen. quit with this retardness
I didn't fight against Sweden when they attacked us this week. So according to your argumentation I'd be a Swedish puppet right?
GEN. DE LA REY and logic isn't a combination that goes well together KTTRS.
Retardness = after playing this game for 4 years still not being able to find the train button
This statement shows how little you know the game. First I have play this game since 2008 so it should be 7 years not 4. Also in the past you can put your energy on strength as well as production/ construction skills. These skills was to determine how much food, tanks, moving tickets, housing, defense systems, and hospitals you can make. I invested in production as most people did strength. For many years I was the best producer of things in eUK and in eGermany when I was in those countries. It is only with the updates and eRep beta where they made the same overly simplistic did they remove the production skills. Sadly they did not give me of my resources into strength. So I suggest you learn about the game first before you make lame attempts to ad hominem attacks...
Funny how Konrad feels he also qualifies as a retard, even though he has over 39 000 strength. well if you feel so I am not going to argue with that.
Since I started playing again I had ONE talk with Konrad about eRepublik. He surely is a minion that only does what I/we tell him.
And in the end, why should we care if you join Nebula. The Argie MPP and a membership in Nebula only means that I can have war with NL without people criticizing me.
If you think that anyone suddenly is scared of NL because you are a part of such an alliance think again, the only thing that let's these countries barely win fights is the Serbian MPP they sometimes have. The whole alliance itself didn't even manage to win against us in Denmark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
He is wrong about it being a weak insignificant alliance. We are supported by Orion and Asteria, and they will help us and send support whenever we ask.
Sure, Asteria does not have better things to do
Fully Supported
Great article! Tbh, I see pro's in both joining and not joining. Now i'm a 'loyal dog' and don't want to forsake our friendship with our NSPP neighbours.
That MPP with Argentina is completely irrelevant.
And our "NSPP brothers", namely eBelgium and the eUK will not be our enemies if we join Nebula. We will have sign at least a Non-Aggression Pact with them.
Unless that Argentina move is making that impossible, but also then that's not Nebula's fault.
Alright but I would like to aid them in the battle not aatching from the side line saying "It's not Nebula's fault"
I cannot promise that while being in an alliance they will not have a more important battle for us to participate in...
So unlike with the NSPP we can no longer guarantee that we would protect our "NSPP brothers"...
Of course, if there are no other important battles eNL can still help them, and all citizens can of course choose their own battles (as long as you're not fighting against eNL or allies).
well said.
I started the referendum late in the evening of the 14th. Definitely not the 13th (or in-game the 12th at 23:00), though that would have been the ideal time, if there would have been enough information...
So basically, I postponed it already by 40 hours...
I could have postponed longer you say? Maybe, but I feel the decision should be made during this congress term. So that does not leave us with infinitely much time...
And it wasn't even your job to postpone it: Congress wanted a referendum, you started it. In no way are you to blame.
I agree that it was the government's job to provide us with information about the choice we're making. Other than that, the procedure was fine, especially considering that our window of opportunity for joining Nebula was, perhaps, closing.
As for the decision: I'm not convinced joining Nebula will do us any good, so I voted no.
The funny thing is, that all this only happened, because ArcanicMindje couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Good Job Arcanic, maybe an apology is in order?
Which is a blatant lie, Germany wanted that region for the bonuses since the resource switch. This was just a (lame) excuse
🙁
you can't punish one country for a bad comment from one gamer KTTRS
You can stop telling this because no one is angry with him and no one is believing it 😃
It's not that i have hard feelings to any of our allies or friends, but the brotherhood rant is getting to be a bit old..... , new times , new directions, maybe new opportunities might do eNL some good.
"Therefore, this brings us to the next problem. Nebula are hostile to our traditional allies and friends. We have great lasting relations with countries like Belgium and the United Kingdom."
I can still remember the time when we where wiped for a long time by Poland...... funny thing than was that our traditional "friends"Belgium , U.K & Germany had deals with the polish.
They didn't bother with eNL back than ........ the situation was as it was, and i'm not blaming anyone for not helping us back than
But to get congress we where aided by the Canadians that gave us some regions to get back on the map.
The argument i'm trying to make is that we shouldn't be clinging to the past and and try to look forward for once.
Maybe ur right and this will backfire at some time, but maybe ur wrong...... there's only one way to find out and that is to just "Do it"
At least it will break this boring stalemate that we're in for ages already....
And above that Nebula won't prevent us from being friendly with the eUK and eBelgium...
It's not like we have to totally throw away our old friendships like the article suggests...
It is like an affair. You caught your girl or boy friend sleeping with a different person. You are outraged at your partner but you will have a huge dislike and very negative view of the person who your partner is sleeping with...
as long its another girl that she sleeps with i got no problem with that 😉
In most normal relationships it is about trust. Affairs and betrayal of trust does not bring good relations.
ur right , all relationships are build on trust and i trust my wife with another woman.
And we have a "normal"relationship, at least we think so .
Who decides what is normal or not?
Things that aren't normal to you can be normal for others, and the other way round....
If both parties don't have a problem with it , who cares what others think or say about it?
it's a good article, you must see rules of game too.
Sure the democracy is not realistic in this game, ( the proof) a person can take one decision without the view of the population.
but wait a little soon a new alliance will come and will put troubles in others.
what we see now
Asteria
Alliance pro-Asteria (they defend normally, but they attack too because they have no activities).
Alliance friendly Asteria (they are afraid to be againsts it and they are fighting for them)
I can say you, if one country leave Asteria (big country) all others alliances are in troubles too.
It's impossible to continue with the situation actually, all countries are occupied or no region.
Now, it's my personal view, a country like ebelgium can see the view of another country, we must not be selfish, you have your way to do. Anyway if you join or not. Good luck
Sometimes we need some new adventures in the game.
Your argument about the UK is invalid. Norway is good friends with the UK and has had a rental deal in place for what, somewhere between 4-5 months also being a Nebula member. Nebula has always respected that.
Vote no if you enjoy being irrelevant.
Why do you people think I left NL?
eNL will always be irrelevant. To think differently proves you are inexperienced in the game and lack basic understanding of international relations.
Why the hell would anyone listen to you when you clearly show such little faith in the country?
Because they are realist.
because you failed to win the election.