Intergalactic Summit

Speech given at the Federal Consensus Outreach alliance meeting on 14-07-114YC

Yesterday, I was watching Caille through the panorama window in the Gallente Lounge.

The unmistakable jagged skyline of the city is unmistakable - spires and skyscrapers, splendor and development, constantly in slow motion towards higher levels of sophistication, as a result of countless individual decisions and actions.

This triumph of human advancement has persisted for thousands of years, and there is no end in sight. In contrast, we have more experience and better tools to let progress win more ground by every passing day.

The ships we fly are constantly getting more sophisticated. Our citizens are better educated and fashionable than ever, our buildings reach higher and higher into the sky, and we, capsuleers, are the most devastating weapon mankind has ever produced.

The Federation is the only democracy in New Eden, and there is no other society which is more dedicated to letting everyone to be themselves and pursue the interests they find important. It is the embodiment of happiness and love.

The destiny and ultimate goal of all cultural, social, scientific, technological and military progress is to enable people to get closer to their dreams.

In my vision of the future, the war has ceased. The skylines of Caille, Troux, Lenoika, Radonis, Rens, Poitot and Asakai are jagged with Crystal Spires, and all peoples of New Eden co-exist in a joyful, democratic union, co-operating and respecting one another.

There is no reason why this cannot be achieved during the lifetime of our generation. By working together, we can meet this challenge, beat every obstacle that comes our way and finally bring the history of mankind to its highest culmination.

I too envision a future of peace, but our visions are vastly different. Do not think the undertones of your message are lost on me, chancellor. Your vision of future peace requires that all people of the cluster be subservient to your Federal democracy, that your form of government be impressed upon or embraced by all.

The irony of your statement is simple, you claim the Federation is the most dedicated society to letting everyone be themselves, yet state that only when all people are "united" under your democracy will peace exist and further claim that everyone should respect one another while you continue to suggest that only the Federation's law system and government are worth maintaining; a claim that inherently disrespects all other peoples and governments.

I am not often one to challenge a message such as yours with hostility, but masking your dreams of conquest with passive aggressive wordplay and illustrative poetry is dishonorable, at best. Peace can happen, it can start when your Federation realizes that people are free to govern themselves and free to be independent of you.

They already do, and we're already there.

When you say "the lifetime of our generation," I assume you refer to your peers and not the baseliner masses teeming with disease, hatred, and ignorance. In which case, I fully agree, because until we reject open conflict in support of ancient hierarchical structures, we simply will not make any significant progress.

Does your dream also include the rights of self-organized groups outside the Federation structure that follow democratic principles? That is, assuming they provide substantially similar guarantees of rights to their members, do you recognize their right to peaceful and cooperative co-existence with your Federation?

If we agree on these two points, then I share your dream.

That almost sounds as though you want impose your values on the rest of New Eden.

How terribly democratic of you.

Unity may be achieved someday, but that will unlikely be through factionnalism.

The skylines in Poitot have no spires. Because the Intaki exiles were forbidden from colonizing the planets and moons, they live their entire lives within the confines of space stations. For generations, they have been breathing mechanically recycled air and only seeing land from tens of thousands of miles away.

Your speeches are full of fine talk, but fine talk and dreams of sunny days cannot undo the past sins of your glorious Federation.

You will excuse me if I don't make my ancestors' mistake of buying into your promises of Utopia.

I'll take your spectacular display of incoherent thinking and bad posting as a "no" to my question.

Ah irony, an amarrian speciality it seems

Pots and kettles.