MSL: PEACEful Imperialism?
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by SirEkim
Greetings everyone!
My name is Ekim and I would like to welcome you to the first edition of Montani Semper Liberi, the West Virginia based newspaper written by a native West Virginian! For those of you who are wondering "What in the heck is 'Montani Semper Liberi'", it is the state motto of WV, a Latin phrase meaning 'Mountaineers are Always Free'. Staying true to that theme, I will speak free-minded in my articles, attempting to cut through some of the rhetoric, or in the usual case with eRepublik: real life comparisons where they simply don't belong.
USA's Mexican Invasion = Imperialism??
Since the most recent topic on everyone's minds lately has been the US invasion of Mexico, I believe that is where I will start. Almost immediately after the war was declared and the troops began to march, almost everyone began to call the United States "imperialists" yet again. Before I go any further, I believe that it is necessary to define "imperialism" for future use:
im·pe·ri·al·ism (noun): the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas. Courtesy Merriam Webster
Now, according to this definition, it does appear that the United States was, in fact, being imperialistic in it's war on Mexico. The only problem with this is where most of the criticism was coming from: PEACE.
Now... PEACE... what an odd name for an alliance who currently controls Asia (via Pakistan and Iran) and most of the Southern Hemisphere (via Indonesia). Not only that, but up until recently, another PEACE member, Turkey has completely subjugated two other nations: Israel and Greece. My advice to the members of peace: before you criticize the US for being imperialistic, look at your own member nations first.
And with that same type of criticism, I look at ATLANTIS in the same light. Yes, it is true, we do have imperialistic friends in ATLANTIS as well (note Romania and Norway); however, the fact of the matter is, this is a game that is based around one thing: WAR. Think about it, every single facet of this game is based around war in some way: Food, Gifts, Homes, and Hospitals - To Heal Wellness; Moving Tickets - To Move To The War-Adapted Area (i.e. Florida); Oil, Wood, Diamonds, Iron, & Grain - To Supply Everything Else; and Weapons & Defense Systems - Rather Obvious, Don'tcha Think?
What I am trying to say is, this is a game based around war. What is the point in arguing over being "imperialists" when that IS the object of the game? To that point, PEACE is causing us to watch every single action we take in order to avoid being called "imperialists", and it's working due to the Real Life implications of the word! Our government is crippled to do anything militarily due to the fear of being penalized by the public for disgracing the United States' "good guy" reputation! Now do I believe that we should just go around attacking anybody and everybody? Absolutely not! But should we be afraid to attack our own enemies on our own border? I'll let you answer that for yourself.
In the end, the war on Mexico was justifie😛
it is a PEACE nation, controlled by another PEACE nation (Poland was being imperialistic in it's political takeover, if you still want to use imperialism with a negative connotation - reread the definition). At most, we are fighting the imperialistic PEACE out of Mexico, and at least, we are fulfilling the object and purpose of this game: to fight other countries.
Just one Mountaineer's point of view
-Ekim
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Comments
Awesome article. Finally someone wrote what I've been putting off for weeks now. Thanks lol
Calls of imperialism came from inside the US as well.
Also, this game does not center around just "one thing". You can own a business, run for office, and do a million other things other than go to war.
@Bill You're exactly right, you can do things other than go to war, such as own a business, but what does that business contribute to? No matter what business you own, it helps out the war effort. When you're a political official, what can you vote on? Taxes (to fund a war) and.. well.. to declare war. Oh! You can also change the greeting message as well... That's pretty much the basics of it.
Don't forget impeaching you can do that too.
The admins make the war module interesting, why? Some people use the credit card to get gold in order to buy weapons, wellness packs, etc
We can still hold the good guy persona through warfare without wiping countries off the face of the earth.
And we never Helped Mexico. They were not a threat even after the Pole take over. They damn well are now that we have pissed them off. If I recall the MPP's hit the table well after we started our conquest of our neighbor. If they hate us and are now hostile it is our own fault.
@xurxo See, another link in the whole war idea!
@Daisy What do you expect when we attack a member of PEACE? They are just wanting an excuse to declare war on us, and using the veil of American "imperialism" to do it. I do agree with you; however, that we can be the good guys through military force, but only if the term "imperialism" ceases to have a negative connotation in this game. Until then, we would be called imperialists if we do so much as to secure our.. uh.. security (which is what we were doing with Mexico).
Welcome to the newspapers! Voted!