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Intergalactic Summit

 
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Patriotism, The Government, The Individual
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Mekhana
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#61 - 2013-02-03 11:02:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Mekhana
Ms. Scherezad,

I'm antagonizing the government and not the people.

The sheep is not a common man, it is as Mr. Louvaki stated. I already told you this before.

One does not blindly have to follow their government to look after their country's best interests. Types of leaders come and go but the people will always be there. One must follow a leader if his intentions and motives are not alligned with the common good and prosperity of one country? No. I don't say set cities on fire to protest that man's rule, just wait until the next elections he'll be replaced with someone more worthy of leadership most likely.

In the Federation, the individual comes before the country. The Federation is composed of an endless conglomeration of individuals, all unique in their own way and all equal before the law and government. A man that doesn't think of himself and acts on his own best interests is the real traitor here.

Your ideals don't exactly apply to Federation society. If all must serve the government mindlessly we may as well turn into a authoritarian country. There's no point in people having rights and laws that protect them, all they would have is the duty to serve the government.

Vide longe er eros di Luminaire VII, uni canse pra krage e determiniex! Sange por Sange! Descanse bravex eros, mie freires. Mortir por vostre Liberete, farmilie, ide e amis. lons Proviste sen mort! Luminaire liber mas! 
Seriphyn Inhonores
Elusenian Cooperative
#62 - 2013-02-03 15:29:19 UTC
From a planetary perspective, better to live under a mediocre democracy than an efficient tyranny.
Simon Louvaki
Khaldari InnoTektoniks and Analytical Solutions
#63 - 2013-02-03 16:19:10 UTC
I would have to say that depended on your definition of tyranny, Mr. Inhonores. What good is having a 'voice' in your goverment if it isn't heeded compared to not having a say but having the nation you belong to run efficiently? a thousand tyrants can be just as bad as one.

-- "The weak of mind are quick to judge with slightest tempt; Thus fools go forth to spread false word." - The Scriptures, Book of Trials 2:13 - 2:21

--"At the narrow passage, there is no brother and no friend." - Hyasyoda Proverb
von Khan
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#64 - 2013-02-03 20:41:13 UTC  |  Edited by: von Khan
I’m going to start with a couple of political paradoxes.
First; Advocacy groups extract commitments from candidates in exchange for their support; candidates realize that they need this support in order to effectively compete for their party’s nomination, and so they tend to move away from the purity of their positions to endorse the pet causes of many organizations. It seems, then, that at least among political leaders, there can certainly be a temptation, at the very least, to shade or trim the truth to make your positions more acceptable to a broader range of people.

Second; Voters are regularly asked if they believe that political leaders keep the promises they make to get elected. Just as regularly, they say no, they don’t.

We have a very strange situation. On the one hand, candidates make promises to do things they don’t really believe in to get people to vote for them, while on the other hand people vote for them, on the basis of these promises, which they don’t actually expect them to keep. But, the politicians do keep these promises—which, remember, they don’t actually think are such great ideas—and yet the people still don’t believe that they will do what they say. As a matter of fact, it is precisely when we become aware of the vacuity of this politics, when we realize that the increasingly frenetic hurling of highly polished rhetorical flourishes that characterizes this campaigns are not the result of personal failings of the candidates, but rather of a deeper, more systematic problem with this political life.

The wise Heideran VII gift to us, is a clear call to re-examine our hidden assumptions about the nature of reason, especially as we apply it to public life. What we can know, how we can know, and the proper scope of our power of reason are all topics that he addresses over and over again, in a variety of contexts. But for him these topics are not just abstract philosophical questions. His speeches, letters, writings and addresses all bespeak an urgent project: not just to define and understand the nature of reason, but to recover a broad conception of reason tied to the pursuit of truth. Again and again the prophet seeks to remind us all that what we think about what we can know is of fundamental importance—not only for pursuing the truth, but for pursuing justice and peace, because our idea of reason decisively impacts public life.

Democracy degrades to a vote between two wolves and a sheep over what's for dinner.

von Khan
Katran Luftschreck
Royal Ammatar Engineering Corps
#65 - 2013-02-07 07:40:52 UTC
Keep in mind that Amarr "patriotism" is both more simple & more complicated. Our loyalty is to God and Empire, in that order. You can imagine the turmoil that would come if those two ever came into disagreement (and this has happened in the past) both within the soul of the Amarrian and the judicial system that they live in.

Many outsiders would claim that our government simply "makes up" the will of God to suit their own purposes, but once you've seen the Empire from the inside you realize it's the other way around. No matter whatever corruption may linger in the heart of any noble or politician, in the end they must answer to God and our Faith, and that is the one thing within our society that outranks even the Empress herself (though, admittedly, only barely so). This... dampens... the potential damage that a corrupted soul could ever inflict upon our culture, for eventually that corruption would come to offend God & Faith, and by that right they would find themselves eventually removed from power by the Faithful.

In other words, even if a Heir or Holder were to commit an act of perverse blasphemy then even the lowliest commoner, peasant, serf, even slave would most likely find themselves vindicated (via the Theology Council) in taking action action against them - for the laws of God are higher than the laws of mankind.

I admit I live "on the fringe" and try to stay away from "proper" Imperial politics, but that's been my take on things from what I've seen so far. The advantage of our theocratic government is that there is always a higher authority than whoever is standing in front of you at the moment, and in the end the Scriptures monolithic nature becomes our best defense against the evil in human hearts: For in them we have a final judge in all maters that can never be bribed, bullied, blackmailed or threatened.

http://youtu.be/t0q2F8NsYQ0