Intergalactic Summit

They wont be silent for long , if the few remaining Gallente zones are not closed and handed over to Caldari administration, a process which does now seem to have stalled. Ishukone as the Caldari administrators of Caldari Prime have to be held accountable for the failure to bring about an end to the Gallente zones.

No Caldari patriot , is ever going to accept the joint administration of Caldari Prime with the Federation. With our blood sweat and tears we won back our home , never again will we give it up. This faustian pact Mens Reppola made with the Federation will have to come to an end.

Oh dear Maker. Only a Garoun lordling could have delivered that accusation of smug superiority with any more smug superiority than it contains. I am amazed you didn't actually sprain a muscle in your face from sneering so hard when you wrote that, my friend! I've been out of Gallente space for far too long, I'd forgotten how amusing our cousins can be.

Lordling! Well... I would never sneer at you Pieter.

To quote our inestimable Dear Leader...

The Smug Must Flow.™

Entry Eight: Just a Person

I said before that it took the Gallente to make a Caldari of me. Looking back, that wasn't quite accurate.

Visiting the Federation was going to be a problem for me, one way or another. The only question was how. The way is ... I guess, an unexpected variation on an expected theme. Caldari tend to go on about the corrosive effects of Federal culture as though it were some sort of acid. Mostly, they do this without being in personal, direct contact with those effects on a large scale, themselves-- this is something happening to someone else.

Well, now I know what it feels like to be that someone else. It's not something seductive or sinister. It's just ... an assumption that gets quietly made about you, everywhere you go, everywhere you look: that you're a person.

Just a person. That's all. You might be a Federal citizen; you might not. It doesn't make all that much difference to most of them.

For any other empire (and maybe the outer powers, too, and even some societies within the Federation), this is an absurd idea. Matari are divvied up by tribe (and maybe other things I don't properly understand); Caldari by corporation and caste; Amarr by feudal hierarchy.

In any of these societies, you're something else before you're a person.

The distinctions aren't meaningless; a feudal vassal's will, for example, is not fully her own. She has a duty to act as directed by a liege. A Caldari Navy marine has rights and duties that an Ishukone laborer does not-- and vice versa. And those rights and duties go before any rights or duties they might have as human beings; where those conflict, they're supposed to play their parts.

This isn't something unusual. It's pervasive. It's mundane. ... Just the way that the assumption in the Federation is: hello, fellow person.

That's what's corrosive.

People with a really strong sense of identity might not be affected much. The Jin Mei still have their own castes, after all, and there are still the Raata Caldari, who apparently maintain a culture more similar to original Caldari practices than those who live in the State.

Those whose identity is malleable, though ... it could make a big difference, especially over time.

I've got a perception that Gallente capsuleers are mostly, well, respectfully, a little "off," at a much higher rate than the rest of us. This manifests in a lot of different ways, and I'm not really sure of it or anything, but it seems like Gallentean capsuleers tend strongly to either noisy self-righteousness or eccentricity.

I think ... maybe it's because they're being exposed to this blood-soaked business of ours basically unshielded. There's not a lot of existing structure to support them, so they're stuck trying to match more or less naked moral impulse up against the realities of living as a frequently-used weapon of mass destruction (or instrument for the supply of same).

Some decide that they're standing for the cause of freedom and justice, and all several thousand people on that hostile battleship were (somehow) bad people and deserved to die. Others shield themselves in some form of duty, or just don't think about it much. Only, that last strategy isn't maybe very sustainable, so a lot of them ... crack.

Maybe. Like I said, it's more an impression than anything solid.

If it's true, well, having fled the Federation to try and recover my equilibrium, I can really relate.

I've built my own identity and ethics on an Achur tradition of the wandering warrior-monk-- a seeker after wisdom, who's nevertheless martially skilled and willing to put those skills to use in the service of this cause or that, as the situation seems to warrant. It's a good structure for a rootless person such as myself; it serves both my eagerness to learn and my determination to be useful and still to serve in my intended role as a fighter.

So many resources have gone into creating a creature like me. If I can't fight-- why should I exist to begin with? What right do I have to so many resources others could put to as good or better use? That's what I thought.

I still more than kind of think that, but it didn't take the Gallente long to crack such a frail sense of purpose and of self. I'd come downstairs from my room to get a coffee, and the barista would chatter away to me about something like some bit of news or last night's Mindclash match, and I'd be thinking, "Do you have any idea how many people like you I've killed?" Then maybe I'd wander over to a table full of students bickering over politics, and they'd possibly give me a quick look over and have some questions, but they'd move on from that and I'd be just another audience member, or maybe participant, it didn't really matter to them.

It kind of got into my head: I was a person. Just a person. ... no special role, no special duties.

For people like us, that's a problem. Ordinarily, a person has no right or license to kill another. That's pretty basic to people being people. Even soldiers have to be trained to do it. To a large degree, I think things like duty and honor exist to create a psycho-sociological workaround-- to let people serve as guardians, or weapons, without breaking down into little quivering balls of doubt and guilt. That's even for soldiers with ordinary bodycounts.

For creatures like us ... it doesn't seem like those structures are something we can do without if we want to remain ... intact? Maybe this is one of those places "capsuleer dementia" comes from. As noted, the Gallentean capsuleers do seem to have methods, but I think I'll be seeing about getting my sense of purpose nicely resolidified before I make an extended return trip. I'm not ready to go retiring from this grim business of ours just yet.

Lady Farel, your analysis is based on an incorrect premise.

Equality in the Federation means equality of opportunity and equality of rights. It does not mean a 'promise' that everyone will have the same status or possessions. It means each person may achieve or shape their destiny by means of their gifts - which are all individual and unique.

It's proven impossible to explain to those brought up in a hierarchical society, and even more so to those who consider society to be more important than the individual. In the same manner, one supposes, as I cannot conceive of otherwise apparently moral people condoning slavery based on race.

Captain Jenneth, your reflections are interesting but I do wonder about the loathing so prevalent in your view of capsuleers. Many have high and noble motives. Many more perhaps, are base but this does not invalidate the devoted. And whilst our lives may be very different for a spell from the barista or farm-worker, we make a grave mistake if we think ourselves different from them. Capsules are wont to think of themselves as 'distinct' - even trans-human - but more and more are retiring back to 'normal' life. One day, we'll be superseded by something more efficient (a drone variant, no doubt) and we'll have our charmed lives turned off.

Knowing that we have stood for something will be important for many in that twilight.

Respectfully, Mr. Kinnison, you may misunderstand a little. I don't see capsuleers as "different," particularly; that was my antecedent's way of looking at it.

I don't hate us. But we are, almost every last one of us, killers. Those of us who don't kill are mostly arms merchants or manufacturers supplying those who do. And we typically become extremely wealthy because of it.

Those are facts. They're objectively true. The nobility of a motive, though, is subjective.

I'm interested, of course, in your sense-- a Gallentean sense-- of what makes motives noble, or not, but I'll admit to being skeptical about this subject.

There seems to be a lot of overlap between Amarrian and Gallentean ways of looking at what makes a righteous killer. I've met what your societies would probably agree were bad people-- came just shy of being shot by them, even. There's a certain Amarrian Templar I owe my life to, or at least my continuity of experience.

The people Thal Vadam killed that day were "bad" or "base," while his motives were "noble" (right down to the damsel in distress, a role I really don't care to repeat). I think, though, that if it had ended differently his splattered viscera, or mine, would have smelled a lot like theirs did.

I don't really care about moral judgments, Mr. Kinnison-- mostly, I try to avoid making them. I recognize some things as really unacceptable, but ... that's a gut reaction, really. I don't pretend it's a rational thing. Mostly I just want to find out why people are who they are, before I start judging them for it.

But the natural stance of non-judgment is inaction, so, in terms of basic, intuitive morality, my own actions are questionable at best. Achur culture offers a way to validate all that, to live with myself while still being who I am and playing my part. The Amarrian culture also has a tradition of religious warriors, so we kind of understand each other even if they find my relativism disturbing.

Your culture, though, at least the forms I've seen so far, doesn't validate it at all, and it seems my sense of self is frail enough for that to really be a problem. It's hard for me to maintain my beliefs in the face of a situation that undercuts them at every turn.

I guess I hadn't realized how much weight I was placing on an identity I might not be able to maintain. At this point, I'm not sure I really have a choice about my own path: I can either commit, or watch myself go to pieces.

These sorts of questions drove my predecessor into some really dark places. I'm trying not to follow her.

Having been born in one of those "Omega cities" I can say that this isn't necessarily true. I was brought up to understand that equality of opportunity means I have the right to the same level achievement as anyone else. I was also brought up to understand that my starting point means I was going to have to work harder to achieve it. Their was no disillusionment involved because no illusion was ever established.

Perhaps not Ms Farel, but many of us understand the point you are trying to make.

Ms. Jenneth, an interesting and insightful analysis of Galletean culture.

It is always enjoyable to see one’s self reflected through the eyes of others.

We... hope you visit again soon.

Hah! War of the Pamphleteers? This happens all the time in Federation space, and not just physical space either. I wake up to use the Galnet to find banners and pop ups and spam mails that are basically virtual pamphlets, every time I am in Fed space.

In a place where virtually every faction and party is trying to make their views and ideas that of the majority's, this is the norm. It's a noisy place in here.