Intergalactic Summit

By what right do Minmatar loyalist capsuleers get to claim that any Minmatar outside the Republic are "not Minmatar"? I refer specifically to the one-fifth of all Minmatar who live in the Federation. Like free Minmatar anywhere in New Eden, they still organize themselves into clans, still practice the Voluval, still call themselves Minmatar while forming Federation member states based on tribal democracy. Many have lived here since the Minmatar Rebellion, those who decided to use their free will granted to them by the blood spilled by both themselves and their brethren.

This is what we call absolutism, or the tool of tyrants. The Amarrians did the exact same thing when they first enslaved the Minmatar. "You do not believe in our religion and are thus not worthy" is not that different from "You do not believe in our tribes and are thus not Minmatar". One might say you are undermining the very freedoms that many Minmatar have died for, only to replace it with a different type of slavery regarding identity. You are no different from anti-religious Minmatar who murder their brethren for following the Amarr religion, especially those recently emancipated individuals from Jamyl I's 110 edict.

If Minmatar wish to live in the Federation, that is their choice. If they wish to live in the Republic, that is their choice. If they wish to not be called Minmatar at all, that is their choice. Who are you to say whether or not they're Minmatar? Are you worried about Gallentean influence? Last I checked, Minmatar culture is thriving more than ever. I don't see any evidence to suggest the Minmatar identity is being 'subsumed' by the Gallenteans (whoever they are).

By what right do *I* have to call certain Minmatar out on this? That is simply the paradox of free speech. However, the difference is that I'm not telling the Minmatar as a whole who they are and who they should be. That is their choice. I am calling out the minute number of potential absolutists and tyrants who wish to dictate to the Minmatar in a similar vein to how the Amarr dictated to them a generation ago.

Minute compared to all of New Eden, granted. But this is a capsuleer forum, where we're all minute in number as it is.

How are they defecting? there have been Matari states in the Federation since the rebellion.

I am half Matari myself and I find the insinuation that my dad, who was Sebiestor in just about every way was not Matari to be bizarre.

Has anyone in particular been voicing this opinion pilot Inhonores?

I don't hold to that way of thinking myself.

I am most curious as to whom has claimd such, Pilot Inhonores

I too have noticed this, Seriphyn. It is a painful shame that anyone who doesn't fall in line with the Republic's jingoistic war-drum is called a traitor. Every day I see people of Minmatar ethnicity (whetever their tribal and clan identities may be) furthering the well-being of the Minmatar people, or even all people, in ways no less important or spectacular than those of the Freedom Fighters.

The Brutor scientist living in the Federation who comes up with a cure for Vitoxin, or a way to raise many crops quickly and efficiently, is just as much the freedom fighter as the Republic-dwelling warrior in a Rifter. The fight may not be against the Amarr, but one does not always have to fight against something. One may simply fight for something, building up the people's strength and very soul. Because if our struggle is anything, it is for our very souls and identities, is it not? Are we doomed to simply be defined as "anti-Amarr", or will we rise up as equals of our own identity in the cluster? Will we become masters of our own fates, free of both human overlord and the blind fury of our tragic history? Now more than ever we must strike a careful balance between freeing our currently enslaved brethren and building a viable lifestyle and strong identity for ourselves, neglecting neither task in favor of the other. Yes, we have it tough, but not for the reasons most people think.

"We Rise to Our Future"

Seen not in these channels, but figured to pre-empt such a discussion.

As Miss Jormagdnir has pointed out, one could easily argue the Minmatar are stronger than the idea of a Republic. Is it not to a Minmatar's credit that they can live anywhere and still call themselves Minmatar? Do they need to cling onto a political construct to define themselves? I do not believe they do. This is what separates them from, say, the Caldari, who do not believe you are Caldari if you are not a citizen of the State.

The Republic is the current incarnation of the Minmatar political framework. The same can be said about the Federation for the Gallente, Intaki, Mannar, and Jin-Mei, and the State for the Caldari (as much as corporate propaganda might whitewash details about non-State Caldari nations in the Federation). Who knows, perhaps it will evolve into the New Minmatar Empire? Perhaps it might join the Federation, then proceed to dominate it economically and politically.

Either way, my impressions of the Minmatar throughout my life is that they are far stronger than having to rely on a system to tell them what to be.

I've known few Minmatar who voice this idea, even fewer of them wise or influential.

If we would shed blood and claim kinship with those Minmatar still held in the Empire, would we do less for those in the Federation?

Well Pilot Inhonores.

Every group has it's hotheads and fools. It is hardly a surprise that the Republic has some.

Likewise every group has something to admire. It is harder to see with some of them, but it is usually there.

If you have met some Republican fools then I hope you can spend some time here and meet some of the not so foolish. Indeed a brief perusal of your employment record would tend to indicate that you already have. Fools are best ignored or taken as a source of amusement.

I've noticed this sort of behaviour, both here on the IGS and in places like the summit. There are a lot of Republic loyalists out there who seem to have no problem painting me as a race traitor because I associate with groups their government doesn't like, and so doing relegates myself, and my entire clan, into this realm of 'other' that they don't need to consider as valid in any way. As if my associating with the Angel Cartel in any way besides shooting them completely negates my 'minmatarness' and invalidates my cultural perspective completely.