Intergalactic Summit

You and your kind have been arguing for years that it is always better to be free than to be a slave, so it is good to see you admit that you are wrong.

Well, Bella, having seen the conditions of those people firsthand and seeing the official figures of their numbers, I am confident in saying that this is not double-speak. This is simply what I have seen to be true. To take your argument as read, I have to assume things I have observed to be untrue. First and foremost being the idea that people are really universally free to stop working at their jobs and living where they live. That simply isn't true. Sometimes, we capsuleers who are so flush with money and power forget how the people beneath us live. The simple fact is that people are no more free to live outside the Empire than inside. They are given an opportunity to be free only if they meet the correct criteria, namely that they have the ISK, means, and methods to do so. Three things the government does not provide them to be able to do this.

One thing that you certainly can say is different about our system of slavery is that we are directly giving slaves the skills they need for eventual freedom. They are learning valuable trades, the Word of God, and how to exist in our culture directly. I don't think that it is necessarily a horrible idea to limit people's freedoms until we know they have been trained well enough to trust in their use. Freedoms are not universal rights that we can demand like children demanding candy in our society. They are precious gifts and responsibilities that must be earned and can certainly be lost. I believe this is why our system of slavery is more effective than yours, essentially. You simply don't call being saddled by debts and knowing there is no way out of your current situation as such. All the elements are the same.

However, the idea you bring up about the behavior of Holders is as valid as it is universal across our empires. It is the responsibility of those operating society at the highest levels to fix the situation below by any means necessary. As God's chosen, the effectiveness of our system rests directly on us taking the Scriptural doctrines about slavery seriously. As obviously demonstrated, when the church and central government takes a less active role, Holders (be they true Amarrians, freedmen, or otherwise) are subject to precisely the same problems. In essence, the only reason we have the problem we currently have with justifying our culture is that our Holders were not properly trained or overseen.

Steps we are taking to make sure this does not happen again must be proven in our work program before we can move them on to the rest of the Empire, as we will need to convince some powerful people who do not like change that we need to return to the legal codes of the Scriptures and to prove our system to the rest of the people outside the Empire. People have been taught, from very young ages, that our system is ineffective because the Minmatar Republic is largely made up of slaves who desperately wanted to leave less able Holders. It is obvious that many of these practices need to stop if we are going to successfully convert the cluster. Taking over with military force and then using force to keep slaves in line is not keeping in line with the original tenets that produced a merger with the cultures we took before. That does not produce believers, it simply means that an external hostile force has become an internal hostile force. If we return to the Scriptures and add what we have learned from our Caldari allies about labor management, however, we can do as we are meant to do. If we had done this in the first place, the Minmatar would have been successfully merged as the Udorians have been.

In essence, the reason you are justifiably angry at us and are not well educated Amarrians is not the invasion, as you'd expect. Plenty of people, including yours, invaded and assimilated people. What we need is to regulate the system into something more rigid with behavioral conduct fitting the role. Holders are just as responsible for making this system work as their servants.

So, here are a few ways we are enforcing good Holder behavior. To take part in the program, the following conditions must be met. Some of these are Scriptural, and some came from a Caldari theorist who wanted to remove wages from society by regulating production and labor. So much of what he says rings true for our system:

It is not permissible to have sexual relationships with slaves.

Vitoxin and vitoc, in fact any controlling of slaves with drugs any more than humanely delivered incapacitating agents (to stop violent fighting) will not be permissible.

Live-in slaves serving at an on-call basis will be given four hours a day of education, eight hours of education on one day of the week, and four hours of leisure time on another day. Time spent on-call but not actually working will be counted as leisure time (we assume this will be a post for slaves who have already moved far in their education.

For laboring slaves, we are implementing a Caldari (as mentioned above) work schedule as follows,

Five working days of 10 hours of work, two hours of education and 4 hours of leisure time.
One education day, of 4 hours of work, eight hours of education, and 4 hours of leisure time.
One leisure day, of 4 hours of work, two hours of education, and 10 hours of leisure.
All days will spend the remaining 8 hours sleeping at set times.

We also have several provisions for when force and punishment may be meted out. We are urging the use of slave collars only in the case of violent slaves that would require immediate control.

I have a more complete list, but these are some basic outlines that enforces our own role as educators and providers. Results have been positive in the domestic program. We would have expanded farther, but our facilities only contain so much and we have a rule against overcrowding. We are attempting to recruit more Holders willing to try this new system to see its benefits.

No Offence taken, Constantin. I think a good part of the issue is exactly what you have highlighted. For most of the Cluster, Slavery is seen as something abhorrent, usually due to horror stories regarding the worst of your Holders. You have to admit, not every Holder has the well-being of their charges as a priority. Between overwork, overly harsh punishments and under provision of basic necessities such as food or shelter many of these slaves die with your system having failed them.

I can see a lot of good possible in the program you're proposing. For the Impoverished, Trading their Labour for Guaranteed Food, Shelter, Medicine and Training is a Good Deal. However I believe the point where we differ is that I believe the Program should not be a "Golden Handcuffs" Deal. If this is intended to get the Impoverished back on their feet and being productive members of society they should be able to move on from the program when they feel ready and a suitable opportunity arises, not be trapped until others feel they are ready.

To paraphrase some of the teachings of my Grandfather, Truth comes in many forms, Constantin. I can tell you it exists, but I cannot tell you what it is or how to get there as for each man, it's different and has a different road to it, all I can say is you'll know it when you find it. For you, your Truth may be found in your Faith, but I cannot guarantee that it will be. For me, I've looked at your Faith and realised my Truth lies elsewhere.

You ask that we need to understand your peoples position. I would counter by saying you need to understand ours as well.

The worst off in your current system live in worse conditions than our slaves... all the while you were putting loads of money into building an invasion fleet to procure more People to throw into these conditions, instead of raising those conditions for those worse off. Think about that.

Also, when is a Patient ready to be released from hospital: when he thinks that he is healthy or when he is healthy? Who's more qualified to determine when a Patient is healthy: the Patient or the doctor?

To this, I simply Point towards the Reclaiming the Sarum Heir recently called for. Sinking so much resources into building an Invasion Fleet to procure more people to throw into Slavery instead of raising the Conditions for the Worst off in your society is indeed Madness.

Well, then you agree that your entire Nation did sink so many resources into a senseless invasion that would throw the people 'freed' in even worse conditions than slavery must be an even greater madness?

As I stated above, Gabriel, you have to remember that one of the reasons we believe in a Reclamation (which is, by definition, the eventual claiming of the entirety of the universe in the name of God and its rule according to the Scriptures) is because we don't necessarily look at a problem and think of it as someone else's problem. Just because a person is sick and dying in Heimetar doesn't mean we only worry about our less numerically daunting problem with poverty in Domain. Those people are still in trouble, and the Republic is using almost the entirety of its funds to procure invasion fleets.

You have to understand, the Elder Fleet invasion into our system set back calls for a Reclamation by charity and ministry in favor quite a ways. We are managing to maintain some calm, but the Sarum family is using precisely your argument that you use against us. That you are going to invade us and kill all the Amarrians. Whether true or not, that rhetoric has very little moderation in your government.

At present, we at least realize that it is more important to shore up our domestic situation. Amarrian ship design is the same as Amarrian domestic policy design: before you build a better gun, make sure you build a better armor. We are focusing on domestic spending, our foreign investment being built by shipping in goods from nullsec corporations rather than taking them from you. We are strengthening our interior first, and that has given us some time.

But with your government's clearly and unequivocally belligerent stance, rather than your former government's acknowledgement that domestic issues are exceedingly important in your space, you've essentially become exactly what you preach to hate. A hostile invasion force that threatens a people who are really, honestly trying to find peaceful methods for achieving our goals.

And in the same way, the people who made your government the way it is today are now beginning the cycle anew in our government. By making the claim that your violent people will never stop until they destroy us and our way of life, the Sarum family is making its case for war.

In the meantime, poverty in your systems is becoming endemic. People are laboring in often terrible conditions (as noted by even the Republic's own citizens) that they have absolutely no chance of escaping. The entirety of the Republic's efforts has become a hostile invasion fleet.

The Scriptures have stories and stories where good people in good pursuits who lose sight of their faith for a moment sometimes create the monsters that destroy them. You've become the monster our people created when they lost sight of their faith.

What sort of monster are you birthing here in Amarr?

I think you've managed to hit the central issue squarely on the head there, Constantin. Lack of Trust.

Specifically, We've seen the effects of the Last Reclaiming on the Matari People, effects that continue to this day and beyond. No matter what assurances are laid on the Table that this Style of Reclaiming would never be allowed to be repeated, we can see those in your Government clamouring for exactly that. For the Matari, we cannot trust that the Velvet Glove of these Programs does not have the Iron Fist of an Invasion Fleet concealed within. For us, the Day of Darkness can never be allowed to reoccur so we act to prevent a reoccurance and to undo the damage wrought on our people by those events.

The Problem is, in acting to undo the effects of the Day of Darkness, we fuel the fears of the Amarr. They see our gathering strength as a Nation and realise that it is a dagger pointed towards their own throats that they cannot trust will not be used. So they advocate a strong reaction to the gathering threat fuelling the fears of the Matari.

A Vicious Circle indeed. We've both created our own Monsters in each other, knowing that to show weakness in the face of the monster is to risk total destruction. Sooner or later, the pressure will build, someone will snap and it will lead to Ruin for us both. I only hope that enough cool heads can prevail over the extremists on both sides to bring us back from the brink.

I understand fully that believe you are trying to help. However, please understand that for every Amarr like you, we see far too many "Slaver Filth"'s looking only to put our people in Chains and expose us all to Vitoxin, purely for our labour value.

In fact I do, but the issue is that I've taken the step to come forward and extend the loving arms of God unto people outside of the Empire. It is my place to serve as an example of what is best in my people.

I looked at the situation and realized that no one will win this inter-cluster war with weaponry. Especially now that so many of its soldiers find the effects of weapons mild inconveniences. Neither of us will break, far from it. The Minmatar Republic is funded from abroad and the Amarr Empire is simply built, from the ground up, to withstand assaults like this. In essence, we will go back and forth, like a civilian mowing grass, until all that is good and just in our people is gone. I do not know yet what price you will pay, but we Amarr will certainly have forgotten that the entire point of our existence is not to make money with cheap labor. We Amarr will have finally forgotten that we are our brothers' keepers.

We sometimes forget that our distinct purpose is is our greatest strength. While most outside the Empire believe there is nothing left after death, there is something beyond for those who have worked hard and endured suffering. It is towards this goal, not our own means, that we must work. We must bring the Word to all people, wherever they are and in whatever circumstances, until all of the universe is united in His love and wisdom.

So instead of complaining about extremists, especially outside the Empire, I thought that it was time to set a better example.

Thus do I implore everyone who has done nothing with their lives but fear and worry about the depredations of others to leave these behind. God chose us to spread His message, but we are not the only benefactors of His glorious bounties. He trucks in cleanliness of the soul, and that is not meant for only one people descended from the ancient inhabitants of one island on one planet. God's grace is too large for that. It envelops the universe and calls out to us to stand firm. Not just against our enemies, because to do that is easy. To stand tall for the wisdom of the Scriptures, that unity is of paramount concern and that God wants to teach us, all of us, universally.

Without wisdom, we all live down to our bad reputations. When you look at people calling for war in our Empire, do you hear the entirety of the calls from there? More importantly, do you worry about the words thrown over your shoulder from behind? Do you wonder about the great cosmic irony that, as a people who are obviously drawn from one image, we cluster together in our groups and point our fingers across the vast expanses of space?

We are pointing at ourselves.

I knew that to go out among you was perilous. Amarr who travel into other empires must shirk their beliefs at the doorstep to gain acceptance, we have been told. But the Theology Council gave it a chance. Its boons are obvious. Here, you have separated me, a mere preacher and minister of a faith not all of you even give credence to, as someone apart from my people.

Perhaps I am not apart from my people, but I am apart from what you have been told about my people. All that you know about us comes from fiery accusations, aimed at us by people who are often no better than those they accuse. Often, we see our own demons reflected back at us in our supposed enemies. Instead of seeing what is truly there, we see only what we fear most. We do not understand their true problems and true virtues. We only see dragons.

One day it will not be so. Some wonder why I believe so strongly in the Amarr, but the answer is obvious. One day, we will all come to live in one house, undivided, at the hand of God. That house will not be the one that encouraged internal division by war, government, or economy. It will be the house that called for unity, as the Scriptures ask of us. When that day comes, our suffering will cease and God will reveal Himself to us collected, drawing us with Him into the Heavens to walk with Him, having learned His lessons at last.

Until that day, I know my enemies will seek to define who and what I am. They will not.

There is only one who will ever define who I am, and He does not fear the barrel of a gun.

I find it quite amusing you claim to be a Speaker of Truth and other such nonsense despite doubts and lack of proof, and then turn around to doubt someone elses appointment by the Theology Council. I guess we should just take your word because clearly someone who's been in the Royal Amarr Institute for over a year before founding their own corporation is a true representative of the Theology Council. Why would they send a Speaker of Truth to a school that mostly teaches industry anyways? Did they want you to refine lies into undeniable facts?

-Eran