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"A sharp, indrawn breath,
half groan, half acceptance,
that means “Life’s like that.
We know it (also death).”
-Elizabeth Bishop


^{For your listening pleasure, mood music~}

Sing in me, Muse, and through me write a moderately entertaining article. Tell the story of those skilled in all ways of contending, the survivors, harried for years on end after playing a dying browser game.

In other words, I've been trying to think of something to write for a few days now with little success. I've written a few press briefings, and apparently roused some friends from the dead (in this metaphor, Aramec is Achilles? Or maybe Tiresias? Don't think about it too much). Still, in terms of more meaningful writing, I have always tried to follow the saying that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt. I usually fail, but the effort's worth something, right?

Regardless, while I have always enjoy playing the silent fool, something has caught my eye, and thus inspired my pen. So, brave reader, bear with me as I remove all doubt.

In Defense of Bread and Circuses


^{I do notice a significant lack of wine in the eUS, what gives?}

I will try to be as concise as is possible, by my standards at least. So, not concise at all. I have been playing seriously for the past six months. This has largely been within the Federalist Party, but I've also made the grave mistake of volunteering to be Secretary of Media for a term or two, and am now the Press Secretary, except when I'm not. It's confusing. I say this not to pretend either job is of any importance, they are not, but to say that I have been paying at least as much attention to the current moment as I ever have. I have observed a few things. First, we, as a country, are in the midst of a veritable renaissance in terms of activity, specifically from the executive branch. Whether or not it will be sustained is another quest, but we have had more government media, and more innovative interior projects in the past week than we have had in years. I say this not as a partisan, but as a reporter noting a particularly obvious fact.

We, as a country, are in the midst of a surge of activity, certainly resulting from circumstances originating outside of this game. Still, regardless of why more people have been dragged back into this wretched polity, our government has been working hard and publicly to bring everyone into the fold. You would think that this would be a cause for optimism for our country and community. And yet...

We are in an interesting position as a country, because even as our community has thrived, we have, geo-politically, found ourselves in a much more difficult position. We find ourselves at the mercy of enemies, and facing losses that are both disruptive and dispiriting.


^{This is the level of sophisticated foreign affairs policy analysis that Goodbye Blue Monday brings to the table}

So, perhaps, that is the train of thought that leads a former leader to publish an article that obliquely criticizes the government's domestic activity as little more than "bread and circuses." Perhaps. However, to my mind, these criticisms appear to be the result of bad math. Now, I dusted off my Real Analysis textbooks, and went through my old Logic notes, and I'm pretty sure I proved that {1,2,3,4,...} is the same size as {0,1,2,3,4,...}, and possibly that God both does and doesn't exist, but I was still left confused.

It is a strange arithmetic that allows one to accuse Tyler of absence, while simultaneously decrying the Bubblar administration's media presence as a triviality. It is an equally strange arithmetic that allows notable citizens to cast blame on a new administration for the results of several uninterrupted months of their own party's leadership. I personally don't think blame needs to be cast at all, but perhaps I am naive. Again, perhaps I have created subtext where there wasn't any. I went to public schools, and perhaps I missed the day on subtext. History was always my strong suit anyway. And my ultimate observation has nothing to do with the current administration. It is a larger white whale I am after.

Here is what I really want to say. Interior programs and executive-driven media, or bread and circuses as one might deem them, aren't a distraction from what matters. Bread and Circuses are exactly what matter most. When facing a difficult situation in the military aspects of this game, there is in fact nothing more important than fostering and sustaining our community.

We're all here for different reasons. Some of us are here due to a deep deep lack of understanding of the sunk cost fallacy. Some of us are here, because, in this decade old browser game, in spite of its many many flaws, we've found a community that makes logging in worthwhile.

It has been argued that bread and circuses distract us from the house that is on fire. Still, what alternative do they propose? The way I see it, there is no trade off between enjoying this game and playing it well, and the counterfactual to fostering community isn't competence, it's losing it.

Sometimes, the alternative is just starving to death. Maybe there is a greater philosophical question at work here: Does Rome still burn if no-one is around to see it?

Let's try an alternate title, perhaps more fitting for the mood I was going for:

Let Them Eat Cake


^{In this metaphor, I call being Marie Antoinette}

Because, sometimes, the cake is all that matters anyway.

Yours,
forever in purgatorio,
with love,
Paul Proteus