Intergalactic Summit

I find much irony in this simple statement. You agree, then, that the Federation has an invasive, expansionist agenda. And then, go on to imply that this is something more than simple cultural genocide for those who lack the will or the intellectual strength to dispute it on Gallente terms.

With no backing argument as to why. Simply that the cluster must, inevitably see the right of it. Which they will, under your assumptions, once the Federation has crushed all resistance to it's ideological preconceptions. The Caldari have been a part of your Federation, in the past. We suffered under the onus of requisite adaptation. We rejected it and moved on.

The majority of our citizenry did this. We built an Empire, that, while smaller and supposedly inferior to the Federation, has managed to survive and flourish in direct competition with it.

We have adapted. We have chosen, under the “free will” you so ardently espouse, to go in another direction. To hold on to our notion that the needs of our society outweighed the needs of our individual right to success at the expense of the whole. And we are decried for it. So, your live and let live stance is only valid if it conforms to your personal worldview?

Many of you would use Tibeth Heth as an example of our failings. Yet, it was the direct result of Gallente arrogance that his opportunity to assume power was created. Arrogance in assuming that you know what is best for everyone else. Ethics, morality and the way things should be is not always so simple.

Capsuleers are a perfect example of anarchistic, cultural adaptation at it's finest. Those who hold the power, the intelligence, the ISK, make the rules and those less fortunate or less able to adapt, for whatever reason, become extinct. What I really hear, then, is that the Gallente prescribe to a “survival of the fittest” dogma. Then, they have abandoned any moral high ground they may once have commanded. They have abandoned the cause of humanity for the narcissistic desires of the individual.

Individualism will never lead to a Utopian society. The average individual, above all, desires one thing, survival. Once that requirement is met, they desire comfort and stability of the status quo. It is evident in every power structure in New Eden. While I would agree that the desire of individual freedom is inherent in the majority of New Edenites, I disagree emphatically that the realization of that desire, is, in fact, desirable.

I have a hypothetical for everyone. What if the majority of Federal citizens, for whatever reason, no matter how outlandish, chose to accept a religious monarchy as their direction of choice? Would Federal politicians accept this, or would they stamp it out as a cultural ambiguity that should never be? Strength of character is most often illuminated in the light of adversity. Does the leadership of the Federation truely possess it? Or is it an ideological sham behind which they retain the comfort mechanisms that they have instituted?

Echerie, I owe you a drink.

Nicely put Aria, I will write something in reply to reciprocate - if I try I might even be able to find something to argue about in there.

I gotta admit Aria Jenneth's essay was pretty spot on. Growing up my parents would often tell me about the nature of freedom and how it was the essential right of all living beings to be free, and that life should be respected for all forms are aspects of Ida.

Naturally when I grew up and moved out into the universe I found it to be a bit of a shock and even a little mortifying living among cultures that did not share these values. As naive as it may sound I often thought to myself, how can human beings enslave or otherwise force into servitude other living beings, much less a fellow human, when even the very concept of servility fills me with such a profound sensation of gloom and despair.

I suppose in the end one of the reasons I enrolled in the Federal Naval Academy was because I realized that it is indeed a cold and dark universe, and that the freedom and liberties I took for granted growing up are something worth fighting to protect, at any and all costs.