Allow Me to Interject

Day 5,370, 17:25 • Published in Switzerland Ireland • by OogieBoogie3

Before you TL/DR, keep on open mind. Have a drink perhaps. Take a deep breath, and get ready.

Last night I released a very baity (but also somewhat genuine) endorsement of Terry Benedictt for President. In that intentionally on-the-nose endorsement I poked fun at the sitting President for having virtually no public image to speak of - which is odd for a career politician, and especially a sitting President. This endorsement was of course mostly bait - I was fishing for outrage to be met with some level of criticism. This criticism was met with hostility and something along the lines of "That's just the way we do things" - as if running a government behind closed doors as a sort of exclusive private boys club, with no real public image or voice to the commoners, is somehow normal and a status quo worth defending. It's a pretty weak status quo. Politics should be both open and competitive to a point. The President should be public and outspoken, and the common citizens, even those not loyal to your camp, should at least know who you are and what you're all about.

Now let me go on to say that Terry asked me to apologize to President pep_369. I'm not going to do that because I owe him no such apology. I never slandered him in any kind of way or said anything that isn't objectively true. He's not a public figure - his own press doesn't even reflect his administration - he's just another candidate running the ongoing status quo, amongst a long list of candidates to come. There's an election in a couple of days, but you wouldn't know it, because nobody has really made any announcements or laid out any political platforms. That's not how a democracy functions - that's an autocracy. There's a ruling party that stays to themselves, and they make big boy decisions amongst themselves, quietly winning elections, and silently running the government away from the public eye. That's an autocracy - the illusion of a democracy and the façade of a government for the people.

Now before you all tremor into madness over a dissenting opinion, which seems to be something you like to do when your status quo is challenged - I'll go on to say this. I spoke the President privately off the record. He's a good person who loves his country, and he runs his government in good faith. His most vocal critics ramble on about needing to overthrow the "failed establishment". This is of course pretty sensationalized, but in their defense I do understand where they're coming from. Objectively speaking, by most metrics Switzerland is a pretty good place to live. The economy is good, and everyone is mostly pretty happy and there's unity - all of the things that go against the idea of a failed establishment. Way back when, we had people like Blackbeard - that was a corrupt government that didn't function at any real level, and set Switzerland up for failure. But on the other side of this argument against the establishment lies a very real and very valid criticism - that there is a status quo that when questioned, is met with hostility. And to be frank, it's all so boring to carry on this way.

Allow me to break the 4th wall for a moment and come out of character. What makes Erepublik compelling is the Socio-Political aspect of the game. The running of elections, candidates, parties, and platforms against one another, and thus participating in interesting and compelling elections that are both fun and competitive. Switzerland was one such place where the flow of elections was always a sight to behold. Hiding behind some veil and running what are essentially rigged elections - what's the fun in that? Where do you get this idea that dissent from your "status-quo" and vocal opposition is somehow dysfunctional and toxic? Perhaps you just don't understand politics, or Democracy in general, because typically that is how it works, and that is in fact what the biggest draw of Erepublik has always been. Participation in politics and at least the facade of a fair and competitive election keeps the community actively engaged. You guys are running elections like an assembly line behind closed doors - it's not engaging - and it's certainly not competitive. It's basically the WWE - the results are rigged, and it's all just a big show, but without the show, just the result.

Everyone here are good people, but many of the great mind from Switzerland are unfortunately gone, whether gone from the game outright, or just gone from the retirement home like community that Switzerland is now. But I do believe we can be better - more open - more visible - more out and about for the commoner to see and understand. If anything I'd like to challenge Switzerland to try to love each other a little bit less - to disagree with each other a little bit more - and challenge each other in the open forums, the public, and of course on the ballots. Because this fellas, this ain't it.

To wrap this rant up, I spoke to SendoM, who's ironically the party president of my old SDP (which I ran for many years), but whom was also the sitting president at the time in which I had went inactive. He basically said that the lack of controversy, gossip, or any real dissent has made the game more or less not worth playing anymore, and that he like many others, just carries on because he's worked hard to get to where he is now, and doesn't want to just throw it away. When I left the game, there were give-or-take 800K citizens - we can debate on what percentage of those were bots, but that's a huge number, and the game was very active and eclectic. Today there's about 30K, and it truly feels like it's running on empty, a "slowly sinking ship" as USA President, and former eSwiss elite Paul Proteus had proclaimed when I announced that I was back. It certainly feels that way right now. The people that are here in eSwiss are all smart and genuine people, but instead of having a vibrant community that functions more-or-less like a real world small scale parody of itself, it's more akin to looking like a peaceful utopia where everyone wants to hold hands and sing Kumbaya as they watch the clouds shapeshift and drift across the sky.

Take this as you will. It's a criticism, a rant, and also a challenge to everyone to make this community interesting and vibrant again.

Also, I still endorse Terry for President because he's a great public figure, and the quality of his content is top notch - the right man to be the public face of Switzerland. Thank you all, good night.