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What is happening people?

At a time when our country needs unity of purpose, we are in the process of tearing ourselves apart. Newspaper columns are full of calls for 'revolution'. What is actually meant by this is another matter but one thing is certain, there is widespread dissent.

The situation is not helped by the response of the government and their supporters. Patronising ridicule and derision is not going to help matters. I've previously called for better communication and explanation of government policy and for the setting up of a PR department to help further such aims. I now believe that this is more necessary than ever.

I can understand WHY the response has been as it has. Much of the dissent is disorganised, amateur and ill thought through. There appear few clear aims and lots of name-calling, unsupported by evidence. None of this should disguise from the fact that the dissent is real, heartfelt and widespread. The people involved in the various groupings, of dissent, genuinely want what is best for their country. The response of the government and their supporters has been knee-jerk and overly defensive. Such a reaction is not a sign of a mature and confident administration. We need less condemnation and more explanation.

Thus we arrive at the heart of the matter, the dissenters themselves. They really need to get their act together! I'm not going to generalise too much, as the dissent has taken many forms. I'm going to focus instead on one particular group and use it as an example of how not to proceed. I'm focusing on the group in question as they are the ones who have been most visible to me and with whom I am in closest contact with. The group is called the British People's Party and was created and supported mainly by senior figures within the British Foreign Legion MU... of which I am a member. If nothing else, this article will test just how much their declarations of support for freedom and openness really mean. Particularly for freedom of speech! 😉

The British People's Party (or BPP, as I shall refer to it from here on in) was flawed from the start. The causes that led to it's creation were real enough. The founders were angry at the situation the eUk finds itself in and they were disillusioned with the government that had led us here. Their anger was aimed fairly and squarely at The Unity Party (TUP). No matter whether you agree or disagree with the TUP administration, the focus was fair, as they have been the party in power both before and during the present crisis. This is where we (myself and the BPP) part company. Their main aims were twofold. Firstly, to cause and foster as much trouble and dissent as they could towards the government and the TUP. Secondly, to attract as many dissenters as possible into the party. How do I know this? It was advertised and discussed widely, on the British Foreign Legion's (BFL) forum. There are ongoing attempts to sign-up all members of the BFL into the BPP. I disagree with this on a personal level. I don't believe that an MU should have it's own political party (I recognise that the game mechanics allow it). On a more practical level, it will cause problems for the MU itself. Those members of the Legion who do join the BPP could easily grow resentful towards those members who don't, potentially leading to discrimination and cronyism. One of the very things that the BPP are meant to be most against. Conversely, those members of the legion choosing not to join the BPP, for whatever reason, will come to feel excluded and become more likely to join a different MU, where political freedom and freedom of association are considered more sacrosanct. However my main concerns lie elsewhere.

Other than defeating the TUP administration and replacing it with a BPP one, the BPP appears to have no clearly articulated aims. Nothing has been said about how they intend to improve things, if elected. Instead there have been endless calls for 'revolution' and 'fighting for what's right'. what do these kinds of phrases mean? Revolution can have a variety of meanings and that's before we place it in the context of eRepublik. Winning an election is hardly a revolution, if that's what they mean. As for fighting for 'what's right', 'freedom' etc. Everybody wants 'what's right' and freedom. Without a clearer explanation, such phrases are merely empty platitudes and sloganeering. We need an objective and informed debate, not meaningless propaganda. Win the argument and you'll eventually win power (or have your ideas accepted by the government). Unfortunately, you'll never win the argument with such tactics. It would also help if the articles were better written, rather than being the ungrammatical, spelling error ridden, badly thought out, emotional splurges that most of them presently resemble. Such immature amateurism does nothing to help a cause but does everything to undermine it.

Finally we come to the playground tactics being employed. Endless bouts of name-calling, ad hominem attacks and unsupported accusations, (of corruption and/or of being traitors) really don't help matters. They only serve to make the BPP appear immature, disorganised and unprofessional. They undermine the party they're trying to promote/defend and they inevitably attract exactly the kind of criticism and derision that the BPP is now complaining about. Complaining about such tactics when you have employed them constantly, make you appear both hypocritical and as if you're unable to take the heat of the political kitchen. Nor do such attacks make you 'martyrs'. Martyrdom is earned, not self-declared. As an aside, telling people not to read, or criticise, an article if they don't like it, (as I have seen said) is ridiculous. It is ridiculous because the reader won't know whether they like it, or not, until after they have read the article. It is most ridiculous when it is coming from members/supporters of a party that declares itself to believe in freedom. Well, do you believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press, or not? You publish something in a public domain and it's free game. If you don't like it, don't publish!

To sum up, I suspect that the BPP (and others like them) view themselves thus:



Unfortunately, their tactics mean that they are often viewed thus:



Enough childish in-fighting, people! Healthy political debate? Yes. Pointless propaganda wars? No. We need unity and clarity of purpose. This should be the aim of everyone from the top of the government, to the lowliest 'noob' citizen. We are shooting ourselves in the foot by such behaviour. Time to put our toys aside and pick up our tools. It's not time to divide. It's time to unite! (now THAT'S what I call a platitude) 😉