Intergalactic Summit

It is just people trying desperately to remain relevant, important. We all know the militias will not cease their fighting, and we all know that those involved are just another cog in the machine. Some have a hard time accepting that and feel the need to make their actions feel grandiose. If you want to fight, then fight. But don't be mistaken: you are simply just another pilot. Fighting in a proxy war does not provide one with elite status - it is an occupation just like any other.

Nuh-uh. I don't question your competence. I'm not there on the field, I don't have the right to second-guess tactical calls "on the ground."

But I'm damn well going to question the mission. I don't see the profit in it unless we are, ourselves, ruled by our military-industrial complex, and I don't see why what you clearly think is a bad thing for the Federation would be a good thing for us.

The prosperity of the State is supposed to be brought for the benefit of the citizens of the State, not with their blood. Show me a true existential threat to the State, and I'll gladly fight that off, no matter the cost.

But I don't see one. At least, not from the Federation.

The existential threat I DO see is an internal one, and it's a meme. A mind-virus, a toxic idea. And the idea is this: We are afraid.

We fear something, and I don't know what, nor why. And our fear is making us irrational, driving us to lash out and wound our own armed forces in the name of hardening them to fend of an external military threat that, from where I'm standing, doesn't really appear to exist.

I don't mean there aren't threats out there, of course there are. There's every good reason to be cautious and sensible, there are little hazards which could weaken us everywhere. But as we are now, if there's something looming on the horizon that threatens to swallow the State whole and snuff us out forever, I just can't see it. If it truly exists, please show it to me, but if it doesn't, then for the Maker's sake please stop squandering good resources and souls fighting shadows and Oni.

Whatever that threat may be, it certainly isn't the Federation. They know full well that a genuine war with us would be a bloodbath that they'd have no guarantee of winning, and even if they did it would be a pyrrhic, broken victory that left them with a mountain range of dead and a handful of blood-washed world cinders. They don't want that.

Neither do we. And I'm pretty sure that the militia war isn't going to erupt into full-scale open war or else it would have done so by now. Which means that we're sinking manpower and materiel into enhancing our preparedness for a war that's unlikely to happen.



I realize that such low-tech solutions as a paperclip are uncommon in the vicinity of a capsuleer, but if you can get your hands on one, I'd appreciate it if you indulged me in a physical demonstration of something - unwind it a little, and bend it back and forth a few times.

You should notice that it very quickly becomes warm, and then shortly afterwards it becomes increasingly difficult to bend. You are work-hardening it, toughening the steel by putting it under repeated stress. This is a good thing - the metal's getting stronger.

And then, without warning and with practically zero effort, it will snap - just fall apart.

The appearance of strength is not the same thing as actual strength, and while you can certainly toughen something up by stress-testing it, that same stress-testing can compound tiny flaws and bring them together into a sudden and un-forewarned catastrophic failure.

Every ship is valuable, every life a resource. Every loss may toughen the paperclip and make it harder to bend, but it will also shift around the tiny flaws until one day, you stress something that has passed every test so far and...

Snap.

This war is not a test that will harden the survivors against failure - it is a failure in itself. We will not benefit from it in the long term.

Clearly the solution is to split the planets of Gallente Prime and Caldari Prime in half, and give half to each party.

Basically, this.

Although I'm sure Gallente leaders could be convinced to split sovereignty if the caldari leaders would give up half of Jita to us.

You seem to be misunderstanding the function of representative government. Agendas are not set and followed by whim.

The treaty does give Caldari pilots in Luminaire security. As long as you are in decent standing with the Federation you will be allowed to enter and exit at your leisure. In addition, the Gallente Navy and CONCORD will protect you from unwarrented acts of agression against you.

You advocate meritocracy, yes? Then prove you are merited to enter Federal space by repairing your standings.

You advocate the greater good, correct? Then stop trying to push foward an agreement that will inconvenience the majority so a select minority can do what thet want.

Of course, being a Provist means that you probably dont hold those traditional Caldari values.

If any Caldari are so interested in having a say in how the Federation runs its systems, perhaps they should request to rejoin the Federation.

Well.



Apparently not.

What was all of that earlier about "Dual Sovereignty"? Instead I now find the ranting of a madman and an extremist.

It is clear to me your only agenda, Pilot Horn, is to add coals to the fire and fan the flames of the situation.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the monster hiding behind the Provist's thin, fragile veneer of civility.


With the attitude you have, is this honestly a surprise to you?