Intergalactic Summit

At least you're candid.

Looks like tensions are running as high as always!

Comforting.

Ufff. All sounds waaaay too complicated for me, Mr Baracca, sir.

I'm glad I live in isolation!!

I'll leave this Empire warring politicing stuff to you lot and my sister.

Honestly, I think we give it a bit too much press. While we like to say we're at war (and while it's true in a legal sense), we all have stations in each others' space, whether for diplomatic or industrial purposes. That means there are Matari stations in Amarrian space and vice versa. Caldari corporations operate in Gallente space and vice versa.

The problem is that politicians find it favorable to their chances of winning public support to say that, 'out there', things are worse. We capsuleers know better because we've been allowed to travel and to see how wonderful others' cultures can be. I've been to Pator and been on safari in the last remaining jungles there. I've been asked to consecrate otherwise tribal games and competitions. I've even finished a whole Mgaerna as hot as they could make it... which I'm not sure is a tribal custom but I'm fairly sure won me more respect than I probably deserved for it.

We know better, but most of your non-capsuleer population does not. They know what they're told, and they're told that we're at war, but Quafe is somehow exempt.

I don't dismiss the fighting or those who fight in it, but the fighting isn't for us. It's a piece of law that essentially forces us to take part in engagements that cannot actually be won nor can they actually make a difference. The best either side can hope to do is to hold as much territory as possible and wait for the pendulum to swing the other way, and to make sure that nothing of value that can be moved remains.

Perhaps the first step in ending this conflict is the recognition that we aren't so culturally bankrupt as we think we are.

It might be different if, God forbid, we were talking about total warfare. However, we're not. Your maximum gain from taking planets is limited to those CEWPA systems alone. Not that you shouldn't be fighting for them; unfortunately you don't have a choice in that matter. But the factional warfare's ability to make a difference is limited by the CEWPA legislation that governs it. In essence, it means SOMEONE has to be dying over there, but not everyone needs to be worried about it. For the most part, those conflicts are part of the political background noise.

I think everyone is hoping for the warfare to wind down, since the only other options are continuing the war as it is (unpopular) and invading each others' space to begin a real, total war (hopefully something that will never happen).

Until then, it's simply a place to waste resources so that politicians can point at the warzone and say, "But what will happen if they win all of the systems?"

If you simply measure making a difference by systems gained and assets lost it is somewhat limited. But whenever people are fighting and dying in the name of their own the culture and populations are affected, as well as the general political sphere. As you said, those populations may not be aware of the entire context; but even if they were, the activities of those fighting in their name always has an affect on someone.

It seems to me that, despite your frequent discussion of culture and populations, you are not realizing the impact these conflicts have on said cultures and populations. Frankly, capsuleers becoming tired of the war is of no consequence. This fight is not about us or our egos. All conflict is about those who are back home.

There are values and traditions at stake far beyond mere propaganda and popularity contests. In your love affair with culture in the abstract and some utopian collaborative future you seem to be missing the implications in the present. Cultures and peoples are intrinsically interwoven with these conflicts in ways that cannot be separated by mere accusations of propaganda and dupable citizens infinitely primed for political maneuvering.

You state that culture will "go on without warfare," but how that warfare is handled is intrinsically linked with culture, people, and citizenship. Because of this, one cannot detach conflict from those involved either directly or indirectly by actions in their name. How that conflict unfolds implicates each of us in the present and future manifestations of culture and the lives back home.

War teaches us the best and worst about our enemies but, more importantly, about our friends.

Who mouths pleasant words and pats you on the back? Who belittles you and denigrates your service? Who is willing to fly with you, out where the metal meets the meat? Who are the barracks soldiers and who are willing to get their hands dirty?

And who is really willing to sacrifice in the name of their people? Sacrifice more than mere money, more than just blood, but the things that they thought made them who they are?

This is why we fight. The shadow is still there.

Unfortunately, Veikitamo, this isn't even about being an Amarrian for me.

War is something we're fed as children and told will always be there. It was something I believed until not long ago. But I do truly believe that war is Hell, because Hell is that state of mind that prevents a people from moving forward. It's become fairly obvious that our narrative as a cluster is not moving forward with the war as it is. We keep coming back to it, letting it dictate everything about who we are and what we do.

Our cultures are not all predicated by racial warfare. I've never had to engage a representative of any empire in gunplay, yet I've been in your systems. I've seen the real beauty of your cities and your people. I've eaten your food and drank your wine. I've played your sports and seen your artwork. It told me about more than being an Amarrian, it taught me about being a human.

So many people say that everyone just wants to live in safety, work in peace, and not have to worry about someone coming to take their things. I've seen it and lived it. Imagine how I feel about the little wars we've created, so that all of those people can lose their families and friends to the conflicts. I may not think you are a monster, in fact I don't think you are even able to stop the warfare if you tried. But there is nothing about the nature of our two factional gladiatorial contests that makes me respect any of our respective governments. If they ended tomorrow, we'd be better off. Combat is sometimes necessary, but it is wholly unnecessary between our peoples. We're fighting purely out of habit at this point.

You once told me that I've never seen what you've seen nor done what you've done. I must not understand. But all those of my faith in the Matari Republic, those people are my charges. I've been to their weddings, consecrated their children. I've buried them. I've presided over funerals of my own parishioners who joined the Republican Navy to protect their people and died fighting mine.

That's not something I was prepared for in school. It isn't the same, burying someone you've come to love and loving the person who killed them. I've been there, seen the entire process of a kill from knowing the capsuleer on one end having been trained and burying one of my parishioners that was aboard a destroyer he engaged in the warzone. I know why both went to that warzone, I had been there when one friend departed and was there when another went into the ground.

That's not something most people have had to experience, and not a question most of you will ever have to ask yourselves. To see it all, know everyone's motivations, and have to look into a child's eyes who asks you, "Why does this happen?"

There isn't a satisfactory answer. It may be necessary, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing, about this that is beautiful. There isn't anything you can do about it, and many of you fight for noble reasons. But the warfare itself? It's an ugly thing when you aren't plugged into a capsule, a depriver of family and friends and a vociferous consumer of resources best spent elsewhere.

There isn't anything in any of our cultures worth the blood of good men spilled by good men. It's the bane of God and the success of our own petty natures. I don't condemn any of you for having to take part, but I'll be damned before I say that life isn't more precious than whatever life lessons we learn from this waste.