Intergalactic Summit

Are you speaking of the Gallente ethnicity, also known as "True Gallente", or something else?

What nation or state is this figurative 'Gallentean' a citizen of?

It's not just a loaded question, it's a poorly defined/worded one.

I find that, when trying to understand a Gallentean, the best thing to do is to think of what you would do in a situation, then remove reason and accountability and throw in a heavy dose of entitlement. Doing this is usually a sure fire way to understand the Gallente.

This is fair enough, but my position isn't deeply changed - wouldn't the definition then be "someone registered as a citizen of the Gallente nation?" Seeing as we aren't talking about ethnicity, because citizenship has nothing to do with ethnicity. Or am I completely wrong here?

I'm going to sidestep the vague wording of the original question, Scherezad and Oniseki-haani have already pointed that bit out.

I have a problem with something that seems to get said a lot here or in other crowded public communication venues. That problem being this oft repeated notion that only the citizens of the Federation have this freedom to, as Seriphyn eloquently puts it, to do whatever the hell you want. It's as if an Amarrian, Matari, Caldari, and Gallentean could be sitting in a room with a button in front of each of them as well as a sign saying do not push this button, sincerely [insert appropriate authority here]. More often than not I hear that it's utterly obvious that the Amarrian, Matari, and Caldari can't push the button because a god, spirit, or wind said they shouldn't, while the Gallentean can jump up and assault the button like a furrier during mating season. This isn't true, it simply is not true. The Empress herself could tell an Amarrian not to do something and they very well can go ahead and do it. The rest of a Matari's clan could tell them not to do something and they can go ahead and do it. The whole chain of superiors, both workplace and personal, can tell a Caldari not to do something and guess what, they can still do it. The freedom to chose the action that is recommended or the action that is recommended against is always present, always. That freedom is simply part of the human condition, and while each society builds laws and traditions, they do not remove that choice, they merely create consequences for it.

Now, with all that said lets go to the question itself. You're asking the question "what defines a Gallentean citizen?" Then the first statement you make is that there is only one real answer...followed by politely calling all capsuleers of any non-Federation culture of thinking in terms that are too strict and rigid. Next you go into your generalizations of the other three empires, and after that you go on about the freedom to do whatever the hell you want like it's some mystical and rare thing that only exists for those with Federation citizenship. After all of that you go into your boxes, and flat out say "...you can't define who a Gallentean is. Gallenteans define themselves." Promptly after that you go right ahead and define Gallenteans by essentially taking those boxes mentioned earlier, labeling one of them "undefined" and throwing the theoretical Gallentean Citizen in it.

Someone please tell me I'm not the only person seeing the irony unfolding in all of this?

I don't find it mind boggling that there is essentially nothing Gallentean A and Gallentean B find as common cause to unite them. What I do find mind boggling is how a person can one day question their self worth, their worth within a system, their course of action within that system, the value of the system itself, and then later in the same week ask then answer their own question solely so they can talk about an aspect of that system that makes it greater than the others.

So, on the off chance you actually are looking for the answers of other people I'll offer mine. What defines a Gallentean citizen? The ability to maintain unflagging belief in the superiority of the Federation regardless of whether or not they are supporting it or bemoaning with all the regularity of a pulsar's emission bursts.

Wrong. This is the first mistake people from societies with more stringent ethnic definitions make. "Ethnic Gallentean" is the specific ethnic term, and even then, many ethnic Gallenteans have immigrants ancestry. "True Gallentean" is something straight out of a Ultra-Nationaist propaganda leaflet, I feel.

I specifically did not use the term 'Federation citizen' because that is easily defined as someone who is, of course, a citizen of the Federation.

The fact that anyone can call themselves 'Gallentean' is key to the Federation value system, though plenty will have disagreements with that value system within the Federation, that is the mainstream opinion at least. But there is the old adage of "who is the average Gallentean?", which is what I'm trying to bring up here.



Again, confusing ethnicity with citizenship, or vice versa.



Naturally, you've just provoking, but I wouldn't bring up 'reason', when many other cultures consider the use of a pre-industrial government system in an interstellar era as somethign that defies 'reason' as well. But hey, whatever works...



It is the human condition, yes, and the Federation is founded on such practices. It's called 'human rights' for a reason. At the same time, Caldari philosophy may disagree as to what the human condition is.



Can you have freedom in religion in the Amarr Empire? I'm sure the Theology Council and Ministry of Internal Order have their own ideas.

By other words, being egoistical bastards.


Well, actually, nothing boggling is here. You know, even when there is no defining feature, it makes defining feature. You may call it with word like 'absence' of defining feature, as emptiness, as freedom, as chaos, as void, as nothing.

A citizen has the right to live and work in a nation's territories and to participate in its political life. A Federation citizen is someone who has those rights in the Federation. Why is this a discussion?

What, I don't get a mention?

Knowing that there are consequences for certain free choices, these citizens will not carry them out, thus their freedoms are restricted through discouragement and/or fear alone. If they regularly did make these choices, then the societies of the Caldari State and Amarr Empire would certainly be quite unstable. They're certainly not incarcerating people in droves, not when they've been conditioned for years to not follow up certain freedoms.

It's a good Gallentean argument, the fact that there will always be choice. In the past and sometimes now, this is how elements in the Federation have justified their actions in foreign empires. It's certainly how the Federation would seek to conquer other territories, at least, using the guise you have outlined. I don't think many Amarrians or Caldari citizens would echo what you've said, as it would admit that the Gallente are onto something.

However, rather than seeking to answer what defines the average Gallentean (or rather, who IS the average Gallentean), you've decided to deconstruct my original argument. No one's yet to provide a coherent answer counter to my own proposition.

Isn't telling a Gallente what it means to be Gallente like, against our religion or something?