Stages of Impotence

Day 3,684, 08:21 Published in USA USA by J.A. Lake

I read a pretty good article in the media today entitled, Stages of Power Hungry by Kobble. While it was certainly well-written, I found it the same kind of listless rhetoric that BSP and SFP have been spouting for years (and yes, some of that rhetoric came from my own keyboard).

In my sabbatical from SFP, I've spent time with the Federalist Party. They're a cool group of people, and easily the most effective party in the country where it comes to electing Congresspeople-- they've sent double the delegation to Congress that SFP has, and more still than BSP.

Criticism is no doubt incoming that I've turned coat, that I'm one of the elite. Perhaps I've even graduated from PIG-SATELLITE, Rosa Harmony will no doubt inform us all in the comments. Maybe it's true, but I can write an entire article about why it might be better to be an elite than it would be to hide on discord and accomplish nothing.

Politics is a numbers game, though, so let us look at the numbers. Today we have 58 Congress people: 23 from the Federalist Party, 10 Socialist Freedom Party, 9 from each the Black Sheep Party and the United States Workers Party, and 7 from We The People.

Combined, the SFP and BSP might form a formidable voting bloc: 19 votes would command a lot of respect from the other parties were any legislation to come down the tubes. Yet... 3 Socialist Freedom Party members signed in to Congress on 18 December. No Black Sheep Party members did. Political power has finally come to the two parties who craved it most, and they squander it in an empty protest.

Let us step through the Stages of Impotence, then.


RAGE

The game is unfair. The little guy doesn't get a fair shake in the revolving door of Washington politics: the same people take the same positions and do the same things months at a time, while nobody does anything about it! I will run for Congress and make my mark.

REJECTION

How... why can't the Federalists and USWP see things my way? I'm right, I've talked to the rest of my party. This is outrageous! My propositions were well-argued, and my positions tested and true. Still they shout me down!

I know.

They've all known each other for so long. I was stupid to think I could break into that cabal and change anything.

RESENTMENT

Elites! Those disgusting elites. They're afraid to change, they don't want to lose their power. They can't imagine living without those Congress buttons to press, or their meta-junk forum where they just agree with each other. Everyone in my party agrees, they're all a bunch of elitist losers.

RETREAT

I'm done. I'm not going to play their game anymore, I'm done with it. I don't want to talk to them, I don't want to vote, I don't want participate in their stupid meta-parliamentary garbage sign ins and PROPOSAL-DISCUSSION-VOTE nonsense. It's all built so that nothing gets done, and they hate my party and I. It's obvious now.



I find the SFP and BSP have retreated. In my time as SFP PP I wanted to undo this, at least for the SFP, and was refused unanimously by the Revolutionary Committee. I realized that none of us will make our mark on society if we retreat from it. I also realized that we'd been going about it wrong for years: expecting people to just know the righteousness of the SFP's cause was folly. Expecting anyone to agree with you for no reason and with no discussion is folly.

BSP, SFP: passive-aggressive articles about how much the "elites" are afraid to hand over their power have never worked and will never work. Targeting broad swaths of players who happen to run in different social circles and hurling insults at them is not socialist, is not free, and does not make you a black sheep. It makes you unpleasant.

Instead of raging against the majority of players for not handing over their power to you, why not use the power you already have? The irony that players who have left the eUS Forums and surrendered their voices are thumping their chests about "elites" keeping them down is so thick it defies words.

Get back into the game, friends. The only ones keeping you down are yourselves. You've got no right to complain about impotence that you've forced onto yourselves.