Intergalactic Summit

You seem like someone who believes the news. Or moreso, believe your empire follows the law to the letter.

You're cute.

Tradition doesn't change overnight, even your Amarrian capsuleer ships are occasionally still manned by slaves despite the legality of them. Even if you bust someone for the law here, notice how often eradicating slaver elements within the foreign sectors makes the news. It never does. The Empire has been doing this trade for centuries, it's gotten incredibly skilled at it, and it's not going to stop anytime soon.

The Empire is still the Empire. There's still slavery, even if there's no publicly expressed support for it.

The age old topic of slavery, discussed again by some of the freest folk in the cluster - capsuleers.

In some ways, this is a matter of labels. There are countless people who are enslaved by their circumstances, from the wage slaves of the Caldari State to the mainstream followers of the Federation, who are practically in the same circumstances as their legally and semantically enslaved cousins in the Amarr Empire. Yet, there are people in all those circumstances - even among the right and true slaves of the Empire - who do not fit the bill and thrive in their niche.

Ultimately we all have to strive to attain personal sovereignty and free us from the circumstances that created us and sought to bind us. The path is the same for everyone. Perhaps the true crime against nature is denying people the chance.

I concur with my friend Ibrahim, but because of those who do not understand the subtleties of the Amarrian culture or our view on slavery, I would phrase it somewhat differently.

Basically we see it as a duty to bring the word of God to the masses, not as conquest or a resource to exploit. I cannot say in good conscience that raids are necessary to bring the light to the dark places. Missionaries can do just as well with less resentment or margin for error.

Also, I personally do "pat myself on the back" because I look out for my "lessers", but not in the way you are insinuating. I entirely agree with Naomi Tichim on this in a logistical and empathetic fashion.

However, I do not think that Slavery can be abolished immediately, nor should it be, nor would doing so be wise economically, or practically. This is why I try to rescue slaves when I can, and then provide for them in the way I have posted about. Because of the logistical impossibility of abolishing slavery in the Amarr empire, for religious and practical reasons, I have come up with a more reasonable approach.

Hopefully, the Amarrian version of slavery, and not the exception, becomes how we are viewed. It is not actually evil. We have been charged by God to take care of those he has given us. How we carry out this mission is what can be called evil or not.

We're fine, thanks. Take the word of your god somewhere else.

I just find it humorous that people like Andreus are so quick to say "No thank, you now move along" but when it comes to points they know to be fact he is the most vocal about pushing said point.

So arguments ensue and feelings are hurt, feathers ruffled and everyone goes away thinking the other is an idiot.

At the end of the day the Federation is just as forceful about shoving freedom down your throat as we are about shoving our religion
when all along we both want people to do what they want as long as they don't hurt anyone around them or themselves.

So consider this the olive branch, accept that men/women need guidance to do good and we can hash out the specifics as to how.

Slavery may just very well die and frankly maybe it should but I'm never going to believe that men should be free outside a moral code any more then a government enacts laws to the same effect. People must be held accountable for their actions and prevented from hurting society. I'm sure or lest I hope that's something we all can agree on.

So called 'freedoms' be damned, your free when you can prove you can respect the rules and the people around you.

Not before.

Great!


Don't bother! You just said I don't need to convert.

Or that we are not commanded to bring the light to all of New Eden. And yes, you don't have to convert. However, that choice does not negate the duty we have been charged with as an Empire to spread our scriptures. Thus why we still "bother", even when people react in a hostile way.

It pains me that the word of God was used against you in such a fashion. If you read my topic on slavery, you may feel some comfort at the evidence of a Holder who does care for those under his charge. My hope is that more will take my approach, and not see slaves as possessions, but rather persons given to them as a responsibility.

It is there, technically. Anyone can accuse anyone of anti-Scriptural behavior, and there is actually a rather high success rate for that sort of prosecution. The reason you, and most people, don't know about it is an educational failing, and a deliberate one.

I mean, let's say you're a terrible Holder trying to make sure your charges are nothing but a cheap source of manual labor. In the education you provide, would you make sure that your slaves knew they had a process by which they could take you to court and say you're violating your Scriptural duty?

So yes, it does exist in the legal code, and a slave is justified in taking their case for poor administration to a council representative. Such prosecution is rare, though, first due to most people not knowing about their recourse, second because even when they do know, they usually are cut off from their ability to complain.

But the law is fairly simple, any citizen of the Amarr must abide by the Scriptures and any other Amarrian can, essentially, bring their case before the Theology Council's courts. Even a slave can bring testimony and evidence against his master. It's just harder to do in practice than in theory, unfortunately.

Whilst this may indeed be true, do not for a moment lure one's self into thinking that such moral pitfalls exist only within the Empire or our customs. How many Gallente senators have lost their positions over the years due to scandals of embezzlement and dishonesty? How many Minmatar warlords treat their underlings with far less respect than we treat our own servants? Even our Allies in the State, as noble as they may be, still recently had quite a bit of a conundrum with corruption at their very highest office. Of course, unlike the other two powers that I just mentioned, the State actually solved their little problem. Still no word on what fates awaits Blaque or Shakor, hmm?

However, my point still stands: No great nation has ever been truly free of corruption entirely, for no great nation shall ever be truly free of the hierarchies of power itself. They do not truly increase or decrease, either. Rather they merely change form. In authoritarian nations such as the Empire and the State, power is wielded openly and without shame. The same could be said of the Republic, but they seem so hypnotized by their own "freedom" mantra that they often fail to realize that they are more slaves to their own dogmas than the most pious of Amarrian high priests. The Gallente, to their credit, are the far most subtle in the ways that they manipulate their people into believing themselves to be far more free than they really are.

So if you wish to address the heart of the issue then you need to realize that slavery is just another one of power's many faces. It is a manifestation of power, but not by far the only way people are controlled in New Eden. It is simply the most honest, open and direct form.

The advantage to our system is entirely this: Faith. Through religion we Amarrians all acknowledge that no matter how powerful we may become as individuals that there is always a higher power than ourselves. All Amarrians may bow before our Great Empress, but even She in turn must bow before God. Compare this in stark contrast to so many mere mortals (both common and capsuleer alike) whom not only forsake God but have egos so enlarged that they often mistake themselves for God.

So I present to you another axiom of wisdom: In the end there are no good or bad forms of government, only good or bad people. Whether a monarchy, dictatorship, or elective democracy one's government is only as morally correct as the people who hold those seats of office. Again this is where the Amarrians have a distinct advantage. In most societies the rule of power is this: Those who seek it the most are the people you would least want to have it. Sociopaths, liars, con-artists, power mongers and other mental malcontents flock to the banner of political office, seeking power for themselves purely for their own personal gain. In the Empire, however, being theocratic in nature, power goes not the most wicked but the most pious. Here it is strong moral character that advances one in rank, whereas elsewhere such a trait would be an obstacle to achieving power.

Since moral character operates in direct opposition to the temptation of corruption, our system has a build in check against it. True, the system is not perfect, and bad apples slip through, but I still firmly believe that if one were to strip away all veils of secrecy and deception, then laid our every human's true nature & soul before the eyes of God for judgement ... it would be quite obvious that the only real contestants would be ourselves and our Caldari allies.