Of Parties, People and Purposes

Day 525, 14:45 • Published in USA USA • by Ananias

I recently read Cromstar’s article regarding the necessity to put aside congressional campaign rhetoric and come together as a team in Congress for effective governing. I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment and am inclined to support Cromstar’s bid for Speaker of the House, for which purpose his article was ostensibly written, however I must strongly disagree with an assertion he made within his article that negative campaign rhetoric should be accepted as the norm.

I have had the good fortune of having worked with Cromstar on several occasions in Congress despite the fact that our political ideologies are different, so I am convinced that his intent was to show a facet of his leadership that does not receive nearly enough exposure: His ability to unite diverse individuals to a common purpose. While genuinely respectable in nature, it is also critical to point out that the nature of the purpose that is being achieved is substantially more important than the ability to simply unify people to its achievement.

For instance, if it is the intent of a leader to rally individuals to promote violent racism or sexism, I doubt highly that anyone would disagree that the grossly negative impact of the achievement of the goal would far exceed any positive qualities that could be attributed to the leaders ability to influence individuals to that goal through his powerful rhetoric.

For many reasons, least of all being our uncompromising advocacy for our members and the eUnited States, the United States Workers Party tends to be the target for many “leaders” to rally individuals in opposition to. Obviously, I perceive the attacks as frustrating because I am a member, but probably more so, because it evidences laziness and lack of original thought. Now I certainly do not have the corner on the market of wisdom when it comes to the harried process of social networking on the internet, heck this is probably the first MMORPG that I have ever had an interest in for more than a couple of days, but it seems to me that the overall idea is to coalesce like-minded people around sound strategies for winning the game of eRepublik, but instead it appears that there is more of a draw for some to coalesce around defeating or constraining an organization which is solely committed to…well…supporting an eUS win in eRepublik.

I can only imagine what the rallying cry is for those leaders that support division over victory:

Don’t waste you time on creating sound solution and strategies for an eUS victory in eRepublik, let’s focus instead on the United States Workers Party because…well…because they’re big and they allow their members to participate in the game…and, well…we can’t have that!

Recently, I have been reading an awful lot of inane rhetoric like, ”Well, USWP member X and USWP member Z is alright I guess, I just can’t stand the USWP” or “It’s not the members of the USWP it’s the organization that can’t be trusted” and other silliness. It is important to clarify that, for better or worse, the USWP (and all other organizations in RL and eRepublik) is characterized by its members. Therefore, when sweeping generalizations are made like the USWP is untrustworthy, or unethical, or evil, or whatever, that statement is by extension applied to every member of the USWP.

When Cromstar, in his recent article as spokesperson for the RightCon stated that the USWP was untrustworthy, he was, by extension stating that every member of the USWP was untrustworthy. Therefore he is saying that he does not trust any of his USWP colleagues in Congress and the halls of government…

Hokiehigh, Inwegen, AidenAstrup, Citizen Dru, Killing Time, ProggyPop, Scrabman, GoBucks

…to do the right thing for the eUnited States of America. It means he finds me unworthy of trust as well, but I guess, as the elected Party President of the USWP – the distrusted target of his campaign rhetoric, that should be assumed (though disappointing).

I think the point that gets missed during the congressional campaigns is that words and rhetoric have power, power to unite around sound solutions and strategies for eAmerican success, or the power to divide through the application of negative rhetoric aimed at generalized institutional targets. And, while I may be called an idealist (or an “idiot” which I received on IRC the other night) for saying this, the reality is that this is a social strategy game, not real life, and therefore the perception that we must accept negative campaign rhetoric, designed only to insult well meaning and engaged individuals through institutional demonization for the sake of partial unification in opposition, because that is what happens in real life, is to defy the ideal that the New World is what we make of it.

I would encourage all players to coalesce around the ideal of winning eRepublik through innovative ideas, solutions and leveraging game mechanics to our advantage. The collective members of the USWP want the eUnited States of America to become the pre-eminent and dominant influence of the New World and we are unapologetic for making every effort to engage every citizen we can to that purpose.

So what say you America?

Will you come along side the members of the USWP in accomplishing our goal of eUS Victory? Or will you subscribe to the negative rhetoric which distracts all of us from a unified greater purpose.

We are all in this together, so lets get it together.

Come on by and see what we are all about, we are very excited about what we can all accomplish when we are united for a shared purpose.

Ananias – Congressman for Florida
Party President, United States Workers Party
Proud member of the USWP