From Fire, Fame: Why Unity Must End
Aeriadne
This will not be pleasant. This will not have pictures. Get over it.
Our potential is stifled, our competitive spirit is dying, and we have only have ourselves to thank for it.
A national cowardice has strengthened our apathy. Where once were glorious names forged in the fires of political strife and turmoil, where once came conquerors with grand designs and visions of invasions, where once was true intrigue, posturing, and compromise, there is now only the coward's tool: unity. I never thought I would grow to hate a word whose connotation was so positive, but that is the state we are left in.
We are grey with ennui.
We have castrated ourselves in fear of someone who is at the least a nuisance and at worst a pain and harassment suit waiting to happen. And what for? Month after month having the parties cloister in secret, elect an official they deem worthy, and then tell everyone that that's the way to go? I would rather have the AFA take over than continue this unity. Give us something to sharpen our blunt blades against.
Voting has become boring. One of the most important mechanics in the game has become boring and uninteresting because we wanted it safe. We wanted it secure. We wanted no possibility of any bad thing happening to us.
And now? Nothing happens to us.
The looming threat of an occasional, half-hearted PTO attempt by an old and worn out troll. The quaint discussions on various party boards over not who should run this month, but who should run in the next three months from now just so we know. The lovely ease with which we two-click and supplement our daily orders from on high with only the devices and desires of a system which is killing any potential for new leaders to arise.
Where we should be offering new players possibility, we offer them ladders and hoops. What new player wants to enter a game where the outcomes are already determined?
The admin do a good enough job of sucking the soul out of this game without our help. But we deigned ourselves the assistant nonetheless.
I'm tired of discussing whose time it is to be POTUS. I want to know, in my heart, who deserves it. I want to be lit on fire by candidates, to want them as my leader; not told that they've done enough to deserve the position finally. Not told that it's their time in the spotlight.
I want war. I want an invasion so big and costly that it takes everything from us, and we fight til our last, and our new players can talk fondly years from now about how they gave their all in the sacrifice of something greater and more fun than just the standard doldrums of daily clicking.
I want pain. I want the pain of loss, the pain of seeing parties rise and fall, of seeing players go through terror to try and be the best. To compete. I want the next presidential election to be so cutthroat it forges and breaks friendships.
I want the world on fire.
But we're too afraid to strike the match. Hoops and ladders, comfort and stability. In our noble resignation, we are losing ourselves.
This doesn't just begin with me. It can't be helped with one voice. It takes everyone saying it. It takes the banners being raised and the parties heading off to war. It takes google docs and secret IRC channels being made for plotting and revenge, for takeovers and subversion. It takes a desire to change this status quo.
It takes a voice.
It takes you.
It's time to stop living in fear, ladies and gentleman. Because we are better than this. Our candidates in the coming month have more to prove than just why they would probably deserve it finally. They must earn it. They must show that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they are the ones who not only deserve it but are wanted for it.
Fame? Fame doesn't come from speech, it comes from deed. The propaganda of the deed is what we should desire and hope for from our prospective officials and captains. We should be swept up into the arms of something greater.
We should be romanced.
Wooed.
Taken in with ardor for someone's vision.
Not just told how it should be.
We are past the time of cooperation. We can work together. We've proven that thoroughly. We can work well enough together that nothing can eventually come of it.
It is time to work against each other.
And in those fires, in those envies, in those fights for crown and glory, we will find who is worthy of our following and who should fall to the blade.
We will find our former glories only on the battlefield within.
It's time for war, America. Are you ready to fight?
Until next time, dothras chek.
Comments
Are you ready to fight?
Ready
\o/
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/yet-another-unintended-consequence-of-unity-2263907/1/20
I wrote this earlier in the week. I completely agree
Thought we were fighting if not I'm using a lot of tanks for f*** all reason
Let's just let that RGR guy be CP and be done with it.
ahahahaha how about no?
Yeah, give him one mandate to ruin everything, so he may lose all credibility. Of course if there is any to lose???
Anwnimos, Greeks are almost all with AFA. 😉 So you are betraying your own people.... and Thor.... sad that you are new and bought in to the propaganda.
[removed]
For heaven's sake, you are changing your accounts in this game more often then your socks!
I've been betrayed by certain eGreeks more than once, I am no longer an eGreek. My eCountry is eUSA, so im not betraying anyone by fighting you.
Its that simple!
Well written. It's about time to stop this nonsense and get a little bit of fun back in the game.
o7 Ready.
It's time to let RGR fairly earn his way into office.
I would rather have my eyes gouged out with a spork.
"A national cowardice has strengthened our apathy."
Totally agree. Unity was and is corrupt. I bet all the elitists love it.
Good job.
F**k Yes!
Very well said!
Do I need to ad😛 voted?
yes, lets get this started with or with out the gov... need some more gold and candy bars. 🙂
Well done you should be rewarded, someone take him to a gentleman's club and give him a stack of singles.
Voted, agreed.
A vote for Unity resulted in a British president a vote against Unity results in a Serbian president.
That was how it went, on most elections.
I'll be glad to see it end. It will require a little more diplomacy.
You make some good points but at the end of the day I'm not really sure we can blame all of our problems on Unity. Unity may not be perfect but its not Unity's fault that were getting lackluster POTUS candidates. At the end of the day no one has stepped up and run that wasn't a carbon copy of all the other people running.
I agree. I don't think all of our problems stem from it, but I don't think it's done us any favors. It is a large contributing factor, one of the causes of our current strife. Thus, it should be rid of.
To get rid of Unity prematurely risks undoing months of hard work, something I'm not willing to risk until we know for sure that the time has come. If anything this is exactly when we NEED to have Unity, because getting rid of it now risks the worst consequences.
You see, that's my issue: risks. We're afraid to take risks. We're afraid to lose. This is a game. And while losing is never fun, not really winning isn't any fun either. We're in stasis. We've put ourselves there, with the very mindset you're talking about.
I don't want any part of a system that would prefer to take no risks and stick to what is known. Perhaps that's just me. But nothing risked, nothing gained.
There's a lot of appeals to emotion here, but very little substantive argumentation, and even worse points on the whole. As the guy who actually lost to an AFA candidate in the past, I can tell you that this isn't just a risk. It's an unnecessary risk that could potentially result in us losing control over the country. Let's go point by point;
"We have castrated ourselves in fear of someone who is at the least a nuisance and at worst a pain and harassment suit waiting to happen."
August 2012, the AFA won the country president Election. July 2012, the AFA gained almost 500 votes in one month. The AFA averages about 25-30% of the vote, something that could easily win a country president election if we had two or more candidates running. June 2012: We won by a margin of 9%. July 2012: We won by a margin of less than 5%. Looking back on other non-Unity elections without the AFA at all, November 2011: the margin was 8% of the vote. The AFA controlling 25-30% of the vote not only allows them to swing the election, but also allows for the possibility of them winning if foreign supporters are revitalized.
"parties cloister in secret, elect an official they deem worthy, and then tell everyone that that's the way to go?"
You are aware that unity primaries are entirely public right? That they're not done in secret? If your standard of secret is that the party primaries are open only to the parties themselves, then sorry, but every general election has been secret.
"I want to be lit on fire by candidates, to want them as my leader; not told that they've done enough to deserve the position finally. Not told that it's their time in the spotlight."
You are aware that a large portion of the Unity Presidents have also been elected by other non-unity elections right? Artela, Israel, and Cerb were all people elected by the system that you're saying is going to fix things. If Unity elections are electing the same people as general elections, then how is anything you're...
saying valid? And people like John Killah, Vanek, and Fingerguns are all arguably people that would've been elected by a general system anyway. You don't draw a connection between Unity candidates not 'lighting your fire' when we've had plenty of boring candidates in general elections too. Artela wasn't know for firing you up, nor was Evry. You need a logical warrant here, not just an assertion. And if you want a candidate that does that sort of thing, vote for them. Obviously other people prefer a tested, working person than someone who has no experience but can write an article. That is generally the rational option.
As for your world on fire argument, ask Denmark how they're doing. Or how Switzerland enjoys not having a country. Stupidly fumbling and giving up our entire country isn't a mark of glory, it's a mark of division and loses retention.
You know what does fire up a population? When you succeed in something great. When you can create something that didn't exist before, or do something that no one else has done. If you throw away what other people have protected, what other people have built up, all in the name of a risk because you're bored, you will not get the result that you seek. It takes time to do something great, and it takes intelligence, cooperation, and most importantly, prudence.
How about instead of a rallying cry to get rid of Unity, which could potentially convince the foreign supporters of the PTO to continue supporting it, you help lead a movement against the AFA? Surely a fair indicator of success against the PTO is defeating it at their own game. That gives you excitement, and more importantly, it's not a stupid risk.
Blah blah blah just more bs in order to keep the same crap going month after month