Intergalactic Summit

CONCORD is nothing more than an extortion ring. Though if you listen to Jade Constantine, she will tell you that the high cost of maintaining a 50-entity war declaration against us is proof we have them in our pockets.

I welcome your input, Scherezad, but I caution you against assuming that I am or represent a moral character.

With that said, I did enjoy your comments.

I am nothing if not someone's left hand.

It's less about a coherent system of values, and more about a grab-bag of instincts, yes. Quite strong ones. Stepping back and analyzing exactly how I managed to get so gloriously screwed up, it's less a matter of losing or supplanting my moral beliefs and instincts, and more circumventing or co-opting them. We're wired to help, support, and love our in-group, and ignore or stomp on the out-group. Rather than fight against that, I've simply shifted the definition of what's a worthy target. And not by much.

It's easy. All it takes is a little ignoring, maybe a slight tweak of a mental switch. Almost everyone out of capsuleer school knows how to do it. That, or you realize in full your actions every time you pop one of those fat red crosses on your overview. In which case, Maker help you - you're probably gone farther than I am already.

I suspect that anyone who's ever received any sort of military training has such a mental switch.



I don't see why these two points need be separate. I know what I do: I kill people and break things, the same as any other combat pilot of the common era or any soldier of any era.

Some things are conspicuous primarily in their absence. Oxygen, for example, or the reluctance of a weapon of mass destruction for hire to detonate unarmed, unhardened, inhabited civilian structures in order to watch the pretty lights.

Or the capacity of same to feel guilty about it, after.

The Demented pass from caring to not caring. Unlike certain other types of dementia, it is not our reason that erodes, or our minds as a whole; it is our emotional, instinctive capacity to give a damn. My going theory is that this has to do with a distortion in the scale of our perspective-- exemplified in the capacity of a hunting pilot to regard a freighter full of thousands of people (not always, or usually, cargo-- it takes a large crew to run a starship of that size and complexity) as a single target and a desirable kill.

The process appears distinct from the usual de-socialization and retribalization (not like the Matari, more like a street gang) that characterizes pirate crews: it's an estrangement from the very humanity of the target. A kill such as the one described above is unlikely to draw any emotional recognition from the predatory pilot that somebody, to say nothing of thousands of somebodies, just died. The first (and often only) thought is usually for the capsuleer pilot, which draws a shrug-- the capsuleer is safe and sound in a clone bay, likely light years away.

The descriptive analysis above is what reason buys you, pilot. Morality is instinct shaped by culture, which is why attempts to encode it as a matter of logic fail without exception.

Perhaps I am unusually, or even unnaturally and obsessively, aware of this because of my determination to track my own state. Whatever the reason, my capacity for moral impulse is a quality I miss like a severed limb. So yes, my status as one of the Demented does give me a particular perspective on this subject.

160.800 lives lost to senseless violence; this was the beginning subject of this thread. This image has occupied my thoughts and even my dreams a great deal and I have pondered how to attach significance to these lives lost in some demonstrable way. Besides the ongoing work of freeing those under the bondage of slaver, I felt that some symbol needed to be put forth to remember these lives. 160,800 are sadi to have perished though I hope some survived and maybe were rescued. However, assuming all perished, I felt the need to honor their lives with the same number of lives.

160,800 slaves have been freed from the clutches of their slave masters in Amarr and Khanid space. NUVOS has secured these individuals bringing them safely to a center in the Aharalel system. We thank DSTON for receiving them at their Center there. These men, women, boys and girls have been told the story of the loss of their brothers and sisters and that freeing them from slavery honors the sanctity of those lost. These 160,800 shall not be lost to the violence of pirates; they shall never again come under the lash and shackle.

"This is a good beginning to freedom," one of their Elders said. Would that we could do the same for every life lost. Though we have not the resources, we shall not be deterred from doing what we can and freeing as many as we can.

Perhaps for some it was significant, that these newly freed ones were transported aboard a specially fitted liner; an Obelisk christened the "Emancipate."

I've been following with keen interest. Perhaps a separate thread is in order?

Do you run when the inevitable pirates show up on those exploration outings, or do you simply consider them non-persons by virtue of the bounty on their heads?

What do you trade, and to who? What do you think it gets used for?

If by “getting one’s hands dirty” you mean “committing unspeakable atrocities” and by “afraid to” you mean “morally opposed to with every fiber of my being” then you are correct. Otherwise I’m afraid that you are mistaken.

Inevitable pirates? Excuse me, dear? I didn’t know that Sleeper Drones were granted human rights by now.

Implants, mostly, and to fellow capsuleers. As for their use, I suppose they are bought to improve their perception and what have you not?