[TRG] Any Which Way But Right

Day 3,030, 20:36 • Published in USA USA • by J.A. Lake

Our friend Phoenix Quinn published an article, To My Friends. It covered several topics, but the most interesting to me and the most relevant to the subject matter of this article is as follows (emphasis added):

"To be clear: the Russian Revolution was a catastrophic error because it distinguished the means from the ends, thinking that labor could be liberated through the same chains of capitalist assembly. In fact the ends are not inscribed in the means: each tool and each technique configures and embodies a certain conception of life, a world of sensibilities. It is not about "taking control" of the existing techniques, but subverting, transforming, reappropriating, detourning, hacking them."

When we think about revolution, indeed when I thought about revolution, it was the grand overthrow of the oligarchy in a violent revolt, rendering of the eUS Forums obsolete, et cetera.



How the opposite belief came to me is an organic evolution of thought, born from experience.

The story begins in late November, 2015. An election is upon us, and as a joke PilotPhil is put up as a blocker candidate in our primary. However, our new friend Gnilraps also wants to make a joke run on a much more ideologically pleasing platform of overthrowing the dictatorship.

What came to pass was the infamous (or famous, depending on your perspective) December 6 Revolution. That, however, is a story for another time. Here we're focused on the ideological results.

December 7 was a watershed moment for me. Revolution as previously imagined failed. 24 SFP members landed on the "blacklist", though it hardly mattered to most of them, so far disenfranchised by the off-site concentration of power were they. The country rallied for the other team, by and large, though I am forever mistrustful of numbers given the propagation of multies in the eUSA.

A mide-life crisis, panty raid included.

When confronted with contrary information, ideas must necessarily adapt to it or risk being cast aside as a footnote in some history book. Radical e-socialism was not the right tool for the situation, and while it worked it had the same effect as hammering a square peg through a circular hole.

It wasn't long after the December 6 Revolution I tried to be more active in Congress. I began writing about efforts to radically transform our metagame to be more fair and less exclusive. I took aim at the e-Constitution. The effects were instant and drastic. Where once I was a writer of curious propaganda pieces, now I had sitting CP/Ds naming me as people they'd like to assume that office one day.

That rapid and powerful turnaround got me thinking. Perhaps an in-game echo of Bernie Sanders' flavor of democratic socialism was what we needed?


Yeah, feel the e-Bern!

I've seen it described as using socialism to dilute capitalism down to a level survivable by the working class. It isn't optimal, but it's still better than unbridled capitalist exploitation. The same concept could be enacted here. Use the same formula to dilute the toxic oligarchic tendencies of the eUSA to a level that leaves the game enjoyable to everyone.

Though it isn't far from the ideals that Jude Conners ran on (and that I assailed as a betrayal if I recall) in November, 2015, I think that this democratic e-socialism could prove to be the remedy we really need.

This brings me back to PQ's article. When we think about a transformation of gameplay, a re-appropriation of the means of entertainment, we should think all-inclusively. That was the error of my ways in advocating for revolution of the first kin😛 in targeting the oligarchs, we exclude the oligarchs. There will always be a way for them to subvert or re-re-appropriate the game, which I suspect lives in their wallets.


At any rate, there can still be a revolution. It will be a political one, though. While I lambasted this course of action several months ago, let me lambaste the way it was done one more time.

We cannot compromise our core ideas for votes. We cannot pander, we cannot bend to the will of anyone but the people. In order for a radical transformation of the game to occur we must stay strong and not be pulled to the side in any direction. In our hearts we must believe that our course is the right one, and as such we have to review it often and make adjustments when new information comes to light.

Political Revolution is absolutely possible, and only we can make it happen.