Intergalactic Summit

Yes, but that's triage. Not: you don't believe like me.

That is not what we were talking about.

Well, there's blood raiders, but we're still on-track to destroy approximately 20,000,000 of their ships this month (Honestly, where do they keep getting the materials to build these things?), even with the decrease in pirate-hunting in Delve lately. Within the Swarm, slavery's in a kind of dark grey area that amounts to 'if you can stamp out the black market, go for it. If not, it'll exist'. Which of course, doesn't mean plenty of us aren't trying, but so far... black markets still exist.

So long as there's a demand, someone will supply it, no matter how objectionable the demand is. Go back and look at what I originally said to Ibrahim, Mokk. You weren't being held up as some kind of incomprehensible scum... merely an example that yes, slavers are still active, no matter what the 'official' Amarr party line is.



No they haven't. The closest thing there is to a 'free society' is the ability for anyone to leave their corp or alliance whenever they want. That doesn't mean the nullsec alliances encourage self-determination any more than the highsec empires really do. When push comes to shove, there are things you're allowed to do, things you're not allowed to do, and things you're required to do—so required, that you can't even opt not to. Just try to avoid paying your corporate taxes on pirate bounties, for example. They're deducted automatically, as soon as you get paid. Same with POCO import/export taxes, and on and on.

Think you're actually free? You exist as a member of your alliance because someone else lets you. Don't believe me? Ask Steve Akoi Aoiki. Once you get past his claims that he was such an amazing FC that Grath kicked him out of Horde because one of PL's top leaders felt threatened by little ol' Stevie, it turns out he got the boot from Gobbins for the high crime of just being annoying. Exercise your 'freedom' too much, and you'll follow him out the door. Same thing happens in just about every alliance. The ones that claim they don't actually have an autocrat or a small circle of oligarchs at the top are either lying, or they're neither successful, nor long-lived.

The difference you see in nullsec isn't that we have free societies, but that we don't have stratified societies. Anyone can rise to high positions—potentially even assuming ultimate command—if they work hard and prove themselves capable. That mobility, that ability to improve one's station, that's what makes the nullsec societies feel more free than the fairly rigid societies of highsec. Even those that have some degree of upward mobility don't really have anything like the dramatic potential for advancement we have.

But don't ever mistake that for a 'free' society. At best, it's a voluntary society. Don't wanna do what the guy in charge wants? There's the door. Buh-bye. And while that's a certain type of freedom, it's the freedom to leave society, not freedom within the society. Some groups dress it up to one degree or another, cloaking that control in terms like 'community' and 'professionalism' and 'loyalty', and most of them have a large degree of latitude when it comes to 'what can I do when I'm not being told to do something', but at the end of the line, one thing remains true: When orders do come down, you do as you're told, or GTFO. Just because you've consented to being controlled doesn't mean it isn't happening. Never think otherwise.