[MOO] Asgard is the Hairshirt that eCan Must Wear (Day 1941)
Day 1,941, 06:20
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by Addy Lawrence
FORWARD
A hairshirt is uncomfortable clothing that one chooses to wear as a sign of repentance or atonement, it’s an archaic religious tradition.
I have said that “Asgard is the hairshirt that eCan must wear” and I’d like to expand on this because I’m being quoted on it.
What if eCan's past actions didn't influence our present situation...
Let’s consider Asgard as an alliance option for eCan at the moment but ignoring the past. Asgard is very small at two nations and packs a weak military punch in game. This is of no value to eCan as we are wiped at the moment and we need additional resources to Resistance War our regions back. EDEN, CoT and TWO each have more power than Asgard and represent more attractive alternatives from the perspective of adding resources. eSpain, our oppressor, is in TWO so that kinda rules out TWO which leaves EDEN and CoT.
The problem is that we can't ignore the past...
In the past, eCan left EDEN. We did not burn bridges per se but we did turn our back to that alliance. That has consequences. We left them more than three months ago so we are eligible to reapply, but to draw a parallel in RL, have you ever called up an ex-girlfriend that you dumped and asked her if she’d like to start dating again? It could work if you can work through the complications.
In the past, from the perspective of eUS, eCan committed a transgression against eUS. The whistle blowing incident between Rylde and the eUS Cabinet over CTRL did a lot of damage to eCan/eUS relations. Up until that point, eCan and eUS were in the Brolliance and could count on each other for help. There are valid arguments that the Brolliance was weakening leading up to this point however this event was the catalyst that led to the end of the Brolliance. At the time, eUS was in Terra and so was eCan. Terra crumbled following this international incident leaving eCan without membership in an alliance and having spurned eUS who is in CoT now.
One of the outcomes of this event was that eCan’s loyalty and credibility as an ally was in doubt. We had left an alliance and we had sold out an ally and moved along the dissolution of the alliance that we were in. We had our reasons for these decisions. We left EDEN because we did not think we were getting the respect we felt we had earned and we did not believe we had enough influence in the alliance given our contributions to it. We called out eUS because we believed that they were abandoning not only us (eCan) but the “us” in the Terra alliance; we did not believe they were acting with integrity and they were definitely being a dick.
So, we looked at options. Asgard was a fresh and small alliance. eCan would have a genuine opportunity to have influence in a small alliance and could have an exciting time building something new in a new alliance. We knew it was small and that military resources were limited, but the benefits of “influence” and “new car scent” exceeded the cost of “small damage”. We proceeded with trial membership in Asgard.
How the past makes our current situation uncomfortable...
When you factor in the past, eCan stands to lose more by walking away from Asgard than it does to stick it out. If we walk away from Asgard, we confirm the loyalty and credibility issues on the foreign relations front. If we cite the excuse, “the alliance is too weak”, then we are flip-flopping because we knew the alliance was weak going into this exercise but we went ahead anyways for the “influence” and “new car scent”. We will frame ourselves as fickle as well. If we stick with Asgard, we dispel our loyalty and credibility issues and reinforce our stance about acting with integrity. Despite being wiped, we would be sticking to our word and helping build a new alliance with Asgard where eCan would have influence.
An eRep example to consider...
In the spirit of learning from another country's mistakes, eUK went through a period in this game where it was branded disloyal, without integrity, and a flip-flopper, and they had to work very hard and endure a lot of strife to get past that. eCan should learn from this and avoid that mistake.
Asgard is a good thing...
I do not intend to sleight Asgard by referring to them as a hairshirt, I apologize if that is the case. eCan's past and current situation make for an uncomfortable situation, but we should stay the course and wear the hairshirt we have made for ourselves, or sleep in the bed we have made for ourselves, and Asgard is it.
Asgard represents renewal and revitalization. A new alliance where eCan will have influence and where eCan's fingerprints will be on the foundation seen by future members of the alliance.
Reconciling Asgard with the prospects of reclaiming eCan...
All this said, we still only have hope and faith that somehow Asgard is part of the path for eCan to reclaim its regions. It is up to us to act with integrity and be a good ally and find that way. I don’t know how it will happen, but I have hope and faith that it will.
Hail Asgard!
The MOO Party Platform...
Character platform:
Opportunity #1: Don't be a dick.
Opportunity #2: Pay It Foward.
Opportunity #3: Forgive and Forget
Opportunity #4: Act With Integrity
Game platform:
Opportunity #5: Be A Good Ally
Opportunity #6: Relentlessly Pursue Self-Sufficiency
Opportunity #7: Know Your Stuff
Opportunity #8: Government's Role Is To Provide A Competitive Advantage
SHAMELESS PLUG, SON
Party Founder, President, and Director of Policy - Addy Lawrence
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Asgard is the Hairshirt that eCan Must Wear
http://tinyurl.com/WYD-1941
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/debate-trained-soldier-or-a-tank-what-is-better-for-ecanada--2228648/1/20 - I think you should see this text!
Well said.
close pole, addy you have a nice day.. xd xd xd
Great read Addy.
If a government insists on being instrigent with its country's alliance choice, then it only sets up further alliance flip-flopping as new voices take over down the road. This defeats the purpose of its hard headedness for the sake of being a good ally.
Excellent point. This reinforces why it is important to select our leaders wisely. The more often we open the alliance debate, the more likely we are to flip-flop.
~hyuu~
IMO CoT, TWO and EDEN (and flat-out neutrality) can be a more uncomfortable hairshirt for eCanada to wear. CoTWO had a lot of historic enemies, especially against EDEN which we remained tied to despite leaving the alliance. As for EDEN, we've been in it before, left it, and remained out of it for the same reasons that we left it in the first place.
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If its not uncomfortable, it isn't a hairshirt.
I agree, those options would be less uncomfortable from an alliance perspective however our "hairshirt" would become our reputation as a disloyal flip-flopper/Fairweather Johnson type.
This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRXURE7z7g
Brilliant metaphor Addy - especially for Lent!
Great article!
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/debate-trained-soldier-or-a-tank-what-is-better-for-ecanada--2228648/1/20 - I think you should see this text!
Nice party platform. May need to borrow that... :-]
well said
I agree with your analysis of the situation.
at first I was like uhhg... tldnr, but then I got into it and was not disappointed. Great read and scope of our situation!
Let's suppose that TERRA (earth) and EDEN (tree) are the wasted/lost opportunities that eCanada once had to improve and protect itself, and Asgard (our new sapling) is the budding new alliance that we must live with as a symbol of atonement for what precipitated our lost opportunities. When I look back over the history of eCan in the last few years, I can describe what has occurred (speaking of our internal struggles that lead to external consequences) as an unintentional scorched earth policy, or maybe since we are talking about trees, a clearcutting of resources we once had.
Or to put it in the words of John Vaillant from "The Golden Spruce"
"In Man and Nature, Marsh laid out, in no uncertain terms, the negative impact of human behaviour on the natural landscape: "Man," he wrote more than 140 years ago, "who even now finds scare breathing room on this vast globe, cannot retire from the Old World to some yet undiscovered continent, and wait for the slow action of such causes to replace ...the Eden he has wasted."
http://books.google.ca/books?id=LpSMEzYIw-UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=golden+spruce&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GaFGUZXKPJD1qAGPvIHwBg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Seems that it is human nature to waste a good thing (whether online or in RL), though perhaps eCanada doesn't have to attone some of the forces in the New World that lead to our 'banished but blameless' situation of being wiped as a sign of faith for being a selfless ally. Let's hope our budding alliance grows into something stronger that isn't weighed down to heavily by out past faults.
Anway, that's what I read in the hairshirt metaphor. eCan got what it deserved and now we have a chance to put things right by leaving behind the in-fighting.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ob_0wm4DBEI/TcvQsXnKdWI/AAAAAAAAAEw/l9chWMCfc5s/s1600/Asgard-9Worlds.jpg
hmm, but it looks like Asgard is not a tree itself, but rather something at its base, perhaps where the roots meet the trunk that holds up something greater. Not that it matters exactly if we're focusing on the hairshirt analogy.