Intergalactic Summit

Baseliners hate you?

Clearly you need to do more hair product commercials.

Trust toward any particular group can be shaken when that group, as a whole exhibits the following: Gossip, Passive aggressive behavior, false blame, broken promises, etc. When these are directed against you when you have been loyal it can generate great distrust in that group and sometimes in humanity as a whole. So, yes and no. I could come to a place of great cynicism about humanity as a whole if pushed or hurt in the right combination. But, even then, I believe that I would still see enough good not to abandon hope and not to abandon the pursuit of doing good. Whether this optimism is naïve I am perhaps not fit to judge for I am sure that I also have failed others who have been loyal to me. Forbear and forgive, I guess.

I think the most common fallacy here is that baseliners are harmless, weak and in every aspect inferiour to the capsuleer.

Note that the former is plural and the latter singular; but even when it's not a matter of dominance but cooperation and coexistence it's simple to notice we live in a decent symbiosis with baseliners on an everyday level.

What are you going to do, substitute them for drones? Or turn them into drones, Sansha style?

If someone is othering baseliners to the extent that we see in this thread, it is unlikely anything will change their minds. One would have to actually interact with them in order for it to change, but if one considers them universally unnoticeable, that interaction will not happen.

Part of the discussion at hand is whether capsuleers care about baseliners, which is entirely possible within your statement.

There is an ancient saying predating Wayist teachings. I'm not a professional student of the old forms, so you'll have to forgive me for paraphrasing but I believe it says something to the effect of:

"An evil act travels a thousand miles"

This was something one of the steward monks of Landfall Temple told me as a child. At the time I had been content to consider the proverb a commentary of how swiftly bad news travels or conversely how quickly one can acquire a poor reputation. But now after my years have passed and I have had time to contemplate the saying I wonder if perhaps it also has some significance on the wear of evil on our kame... our soul.

How far does evil perpetrated by ourselves and against us by others move us? Is there not a distance between who we are and who we wish to be? Is that not the same thought when applied to the whole of humanity? As a capsuleer I've witnessed and taken part of atrocities, many of which I'm not proud of, and a few I admit sadly I might have been able to stop but didn't. In turn, my response to these acts was not so unimaginable. I shut down and quieted myself, I avoid the crush of life brought by others and seek out solitude as armor or penance or at least a means of coping.

I am told that to stay sane, I should release notions of remorse, that because I am immortal I must think beyond the notion what appears to be coined 'baseliner thought'. It is more maddening to me to lose that last sliver of the boy who swept the temple paths. The universe has taken much from me. Far more than I believe I ever got back.

There is more than a strict and narrow lane of morality beyond the stars, I for one still try to believe that it's not all bad.

The Empire is my homeland, and although it has wronged me, it has also sought to make amends. As capsuleers, we have the power to do immense good in this world. That's what I try to do.

We should talk, Astera, I want to know what happened to you since we last talked that made you question yourself like this.

Now, regarding your question...

I serve the State because the State made me what I am and gave me everything that I have. In return I'm now perfectly placed to perform a unique service for her. I can defend her Citizens, her Resources and her Interests directly. Not only can I take direct action, but by my example I can hopefully prod others into action - and not just Empyreans. I can motivate ground crew, soldiers, factory workers - everyone is capable of putting their shoulder to the wheel and making life better for everyone else.

The State is a collectivist society. We all put a little extra effort into our joint projects and it results in a slightly better standard of living for EVERYONE.

Reach for the stars there Kernher, never lose that ambition...

Not in my experience....then again I have **** luck so maybe the stars just hate me.

UP YOURS STELLAR SOLAR OBJECTS!! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT HOT GAS!!