Intergalactic Summit

Greetings faithful, and if you are truly interested, those of lesser faith.

I would like to share with you something very interesting that has happened while I was planetside. First some background;

As some of you who know me well would already be aware of, I spend some time speaking with young students on planets around the Empire. Sometimes this means speaking with the 'unenlightened' as well, those that are being reclaimed.

During my talks, I often have to find ways of relating things of faith to simpler, material examples. Two examples that I use to help explain the reclaiming are the 'hover-bus' and 'oasis' stories, depending on who I'm speaking to.

If you are walking down a road, and you see a hover-bus coming at great speed in your direction, your first instinct would be to move out of the way. The same if you were in a desert and after days of searching, you see an oasis of pure water, you would be drawn to it.

Imagine if you are sharing that road, or that desert, with many others, some of whom see the bus or oasis, and some that don't. You would tell the others about it, to ensure that they get the same chance to move out of the way, or find sustenance.

Now imagine being the others, who are being told about some 'invisible object that is coming your way and will do great harm if you don't move'. You would think they were crazy. There's no evidence that there's a bus coming. If there was, surely you would see it. You would ignore it as the rantings of a madman. If someone was shouting about some 'oasis' in the desert that only a few of them could see. You would pass it off as a mirage. Something their mind has fooled them into thinking to give them hope.

But you know better, you CAN see the bus, you CAN see the oasis. You are now fighting with them, to get them to believe you. They won't listen, you shout, you scream, but they won't move. They are insistent that they know better. Now you are faced with a choice. Leave them to their own devices and let them be punished for simply not seeing what you see, or, do whatever you possibly can to prevent this from happening. Yes, they should have just listened in the first place, but you cannot just let this happen.

This is the reclaiming. They can't see these things we speak of. Their lack of faith prevents them from understanding that which we know to be true. Yet we will not let these things happen to them. We will do whatever it takes. If I have to knock someone out and drag them out of the way of an incoming hover-bus, I will. If I have to chain someone up and carry the to the waterhole and force feed them water to help them survive, then I must. They will hate us until the very moment that they are saved. Then they may even resent us for seeing what they could not. But it is no matter. We must do what is right. That is why God has sent us on this path.

After explaining this to a group of children that were a mix of released slaves, true amarr, and other interested parties, I was faced with an unusual question.

One of the Minmatar children asked me "Why are people trying to push them back in front of the hover-bus?"

Only through many hardships
Is a man stripped to his very foundations
And in such a state
Devoid of distractions
Is his soul free to soar
And in this
He is closest to God
- The Scriptures, Book of Missions Verses 42:5

I hope that this touches you as it has me.

Amarr Eternum

The greatest pain, the greatest tragedies, the greatest perils in this universe have come from those who wish to help others, no matter what those others want or not.

I saw an infant try to get into a slaverhound's cage once, the child was very upset when I pulled it away, kicked and screamed. I still have no doubt that I did the right thing, and I'm sure that child will one day appreciate that and do the same for another if in a similar situation.

*sighs*

Claiming that everyone who does not agree with you is an infant does not make your actions more sensible. There is no reason why you are more right than anyone else except "you said so". Everyone else could claim just the same.

For example: "You see, the Amarr are little children who believe in an invisible friend. It's important for us to teach them that they are wrong."

If everyone would use such reasoning, the cluster would be in an even worse state than it is right now.


... of course, looking at it, it seems the Amarrian culture is at least exporting that lesson quite well. Another export of the Amarrian culture that would have best stayed on Athra.

First off, please let me congratulate you for your fine work. I realize how difficult it must be to go planet side for so many speaking engagements. I also want to thank you for your eloquent and apt comparisons. I was moved by the question the Minmatar child asked you, as I have often wondered why so many resist the help that the faithful extend to them to better the bodies, sharpen their minds and save their souls. Frankly it is not something that is easy to understand.



In an attempt to answer this question, allow me to continue within the analogy of the hover-bus.

As we are travelling in such a large group, some of us would be up on a hill, in the light. Many others would be travelling below in the shadow of the valley. This would mean that those of us upon the hill could see the bus long before those in the valley. Worse is that it would be too late for them to save themselves when they finally see the bus come over the hill and into the valley.

With that said, from their perspective we would undoubtedly be seen by many as crazy for raving about something that they cannot see. For many seeing is believing, and they cannot fathom that which they cannot experience for themselves. Many of our faithful have chosen to run down into the valley of shadow and try to save the people therein; trying to explain that there is a bus coming over the hill without being believed. It is unfortunate that they simply cannot be thanked and believed.

What is most sad of this situation is the small minority in the crowd on the valley floor covered in shadow who speak out against the existence of the oncoming bus, not believing those who stand on the hill in the light about what can be seen from the elevated position.

These people, who do not beleive those of us who are able to see farther because of our position on the hill, are placing their friends, relatives and fellow people directly in harms way.

The problem with your analogy is that it discounts the potential that the person warning of the hover-bus, or talking of the oasis, is in fact, delusional.


Yes, you might believe that Reclaiming is the right and proper thing to do. People disagree with you. The moment they disagree with you, you categorize them as wrong, and hence people who have to be forced. You take away their will, because of what you believe.

I live Free. I will die Free. I have the right make to my mistakes, and take their consequences. That is the core of being alive.

Unfortunately explaining faith to the faithless as something similar to being at a higher vantage point with a better line of sight, is...at best an optimistic and simplistic metaphor. I could take the time to disassemble the hover-bus metaphor in further detail but I see no point in doing so. Surely it would help some people, in some cases, somewhere in the cluster, but there are no catch-all answers and metaphors to explain something like faith to all the various people in the cluster.

Now, as for the oasis, that is another helpful metaphor in some cases for some people. But would you truly chain someone and drag them to the oasis if they thought you were simply seeing a mirage? Obviously most goodnatured and well intentioned people would go to great lengths to provide for their fellows, even if those fellows were stubbornly refusing aid. However, while the metaphor is suitable in some cases, it alone cannot and should not be an example of the thought processes of trying to Reclaim a person.

The "child who doesn't know better" is a common argument between some Amarrian faithful and the Matari who speak up against them. Before I continue with that "child" argument I must stress that I am not a mother, as no doubt some mothers and fathers might see what I am saying and take offense, which if it occurs, is totally unintentional. With that out of the way I can say that while I have yet to be a mother, I have been a child and some would say I still am, so I believe I can speak with some small authority about children. Some children are dutiful and obedient, mindful of what they are told. Some are willful and challenge what they are told and seek better reasoning than "because I said so." Some are even blatantly defiant, doing the opposite of what they are told, to either prove their parents or teachers wrong or to simply seek attention. Each of these different types of children requires a different approach to not only provide for them, but to satisfy the child's own nature.

The obedient child is perhaps the simplest. You tell them to clean their room and they do. They may or may not understand why their room should be neat and tidy, but they nevertheless did as instructed and trust that you had a good reason for telling them to do it. The obedient child, however, may fall victim to authority figures that have less than good intentions. They run the risk of making quite a few naive mistakes and being trusting of those who would abuse that trust.

The willful child, as some might have guessed, is something of the middle-of-the-road or moderate example. When told to clean their room they may try to explain and justify that their room is clean enough for them. That since they live in their room, they should be the judge over when it needs to be cleaned. This sort of child might be convinced to clean their room if you take the time to explain to them, as an equal, why they should clean it. They may also refuse and eventually, through losing track of a toy or tripping over something in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom, they may learn by virtue of personal experience that they should keep their room clean. A willful child can be frustrating, but can also challenge their parents and teachers to truly and adequately fulfill the responsibilities of parent or teacher.

The defiant child may be the most challenging of children for parent, teacher, or really anyone to deal with. When told to clean their room they might refuse outright and provide no justification. When asked or when explained as to why they should clean their room they may become crass, even angry. They may refuse simply to spite you, or perhaps they see no need to explain perfectly valid reasoning to you at all. Some parents or teachers usually meet this sort of behavior with much more stern measures. Shouting and punishment can ensue. However, eventually their room does get cleaned. Perhaps the parent does it themselves out of frustration. Perhaps after living in veritable squalor for weeks on end, the child does it themselves, and when confronted about it will more than likely make it perfectly clear they cleaned their room because they wished to, not because they were told to do so.

Now, I'm not suggesting people of a different faith or no faith at all are simply children. What I am suggesting though is that those three types of attitudes are not restricted to children. In fact many children carry at least some part of their attitudes with them into adulthood. The simple fact that there is such a wide range of personality and attitude among people should be evidence enough that no single approach to teaching a spiritual belief will be sufficient for all people. I would go so far as to say that it is also evidence that no single spiritual belief is even capable of being suitable for all people.

Further, as I'm sure members of any various clandestine intelligence agencies across the cluster can verify, there is always a point where the threshold of force overcomes a person and they will do or say anything to lessen the forces arrayed against them. Point being, too much force may indeed draw out the words or actions you might with to see and hear, but those words and actions aren't rooted in truth. They come about as a means of escape and are pretty fallacies. Now I can't speak for anyone else, but that certainly doesn't seem like a proper way to spread a faith, unless of course you worship pretty fallacies.

This "reclaiming" is nonsense. You cannot reclaim what was never rightfully yours. If you steal your neighbors sugar from his home in the night, does that make it your sugar, or does it make you a thief? When your neighbor takes his sugar back can you rightfully reclaim it? You may attempt to take it back by force, only this time your neighbor is ready for you and it gets ugly.

The Matari have rejected your proposal in what we call the Minmatar Rebellion, and sent a message with the Elder Fleet. We are no children to be led by the hand and scolded when we disobey, we are a strong and willfull people that will lead ourselves, and meet with force anyone that fancies themselves deliverers.

Your mistake is believing you can force yourself upon us as if we were a concubine in a harem. Im here to inform you that you might not like what you find here.

SWEEPING GENERALIZATION: (dicto simpliciter) assumes that what is true of the whole will also be true of the part, or that what is true in most instances will be true in all instances.

The rest of your post was baseless, meritless drivel. This part was too, but unlike the rest, it was happily illustrative of the inferiority of Amarrian reasoning, which I shall now demonstrate:



With good reason, because we call people who talk about mostly-invisible objects only they can see madmen.

Please leave Minmatar space, return the enslaved to their homes and begin the process of reparation payments to the Republic and the Federation.