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Intergalactic Summit

 
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Open Letter To The Republic Security Services and Freedom Extension

Author
Myxx
The Scope
#1 - 2017-02-12 07:19:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Myxx
Historically, the relationship between Capsuleers and Baseliners – mortals – has been, at its best of times, fraught with tension, skullduggery and distrust on both sides. With the quarantines in two facilities in republic and caldari space becoming, from our own perspective worse by the day, we are left to speculate and discuss between ourselves. I can understand that from a certain perspective, you would like to ignore our presence and not attract our intervention for many reasons. Alas, attract it you have.

From ours as Capsuleers, however, we have the capability to lend significant assets to assist in controlling a situation that many of us believe is spiraling out of control. The tactic of using silence and obfuscation to avoid involving us has historically never worked. Further, when it has been employed, it has never gone well for anyone involved. Still, the possible outbreak of a biological agent not only presents a threat to Baseliners, it presents a threat to Capsuleers. Threats are not usually taken lightly, and as you can see from others speculating on The Summit here, options ranging from hoping it burns up in re-entry to bombarding the area it lands in as a method of decontamination by fire are being discussed. Neither of these options, in my opinion, are anything anyone wants.

With all of that said, I am asking for two things:

Firstly, inform the Capsuleer community as to what is going on in Muttokon and Oijanen. Answer our questions as to what caused the quarantines to be put into place to begin with.

Secondly, and more to the point, allow us to lend aid not only in bringing your problems under control, but to actively assist in finding resolutions to the problem. There are quite a few of us with assets that are prepared to do so on short notice.

Make use of us and our ability to assist.


Signed,
Myxx
Black Eclipse Corporation
Haru'kai Vidaraltyr
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#2 - 2017-02-12 10:50:44 UTC
It's been a long time since I was employed in the security services, but I doubt if the general attitude towards capsuleers has changed much. We are regarded as untrustworthy at best, piratical mercenaries at worst. You even note this in your own preamble.

Your demand that the 'capsuleer community' - whatever that is - be informed, and your questions answered, is a perfect example of the arrogance that makes the baseline state actors blanch with contempt. You are correct that we have assets of great wealth and power, but these are invariably deployed to ensure we obtain more of both for ourselves.

The government of the Republic is accountable to its trillions of baseliner people, not to a few thousand capsuleers. If they require our aid, they will ask for it, and direct that request to the few they believe they might trust. The issues they face might well be best solved without our brand of destructive desolation.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Kolodi Ramal
Sanxing Yi
#3 - 2017-02-12 13:33:13 UTC
Haru'kai Vidaraltyr wrote:
You are correct that we have assets of great wealth and power, but these are invariably deployed to ensure we obtain more of both for ourselves.

Not invariably.
Look at the humanitarian efforts of the Villore Assembly/Isonomia. Look at Gradient's programs for integrating freed slaves into the Republic. Look at the people trying to help in Muttokon and Oijanen by deploying cans and depots with medical supplies.
It doesn't absolve the capsuleers who have never done things like that and it doesn't nullify any harm done by capsuleers who do participate in humanitarian efforts. But examples like that should be remembered if only because it proves we can and should be better than doing nothing that doesn't advance our own wealth and power.
Sinjin Mokk
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2017-02-12 13:46:42 UTC
I can understand some of the reasons for the continued lack of credible information and access from CONCORD/DED/The Scope.

Imagine if you would that they allowed Capsuleers access to one of the quarantine zones. Imagine then that Nauplius decided it was time to collect more people for sacrifice. Imagine a terrorist who was able to smuggle infected away and seed them into the populations of Athra or Luminaire.

Imagine having to try to track a killer when a mob of poorly-trained and heavily armed enthusiasts was trampling over your crime scene.

Imagine some decent Capsuleers did manage to mount an effective rescue attempt and a Diana Kim decided it was time to start arresting "Enemies to the _____." Or CODE decided they needed "rescue permits." Imagine if CONCORD used it as an excuse to "bring to justice" those of us who openly operate against CONCORD?

Denial of access is entirely appropriate.

Denial of information however, is not helping matters at all. And in that facet, I agree with you.

CONCORD, in it's usual fashion, has taken its usual "Father Knows Best" attitude. And we've seen time and again that they do not know what's best and their ever increasing greed, coupled with their neolithic incompetence, threatens humanity much more than Capsuleer interference would.

So I'll agree that that this "need to know" attitude needs to end. But I caution allowing Capsuleers more free reign in situations like this.

"Angels live, they never die, Apart from us, behind the sky. They're fading souls who've turned to ice, So ashen white in paradise."

Saya Ishikari
Ishukone-Raata Technological Research Institute
Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive
#5 - 2017-02-12 13:48:09 UTC
Kolodi Ramal wrote:
Haru'kai Vidaraltyr wrote:
You are correct that we have assets of great wealth and power, but these are invariably deployed to ensure we obtain more of both for ourselves.

Not invariably.
Look at the humanitarian efforts of the Villore Assembly/Isonomia. Look at Gradient's programs for integrating freed slaves into the Republic. Look at the people trying to help in Muttokon and Oijanen by deploying cans and depots with medical supplies.
It doesn't absolve the capsuleers who have never done things like that and it doesn't nullify any harm done by capsuleers who do participate in humanitarian efforts. But examples like that should be remembered if only because it proves we can and should be better than doing nothing that doesn't advance our own wealth and power.

Well said, and agreed.

"At the end of it all, we have only what we've left in our wake to be remembered by." -Kyoko Ishikari, YC 95 - YC 117

John Revenent
Revenent Defence Corperation
Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive
#6 - 2017-02-12 17:47:55 UTC
Considering the nature of the majority of capsuleers. I find their move to withhold information acceptable.

Ishukone Loyalist - Private Contractor

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

Mizhara Del'thul
Kyn'aldrnari
#7 - 2017-02-12 18:04:14 UTC
Information is largely harmless in our hands at this point. Speaking as someone who spent four days in a row looking at that rather dull planet to the point I can now draw a fairly accurate map from memory, it's not like any of us can do much harm with that information since we still can't even see or interact with... say, a Space Elevator.

Worst thing we can do is post something snarky, but at best it would allow people to gather relevant equipment or resources and otherwise prepare in case we are at any point called in to provide help. Be it humanitarian or the orbital bombardment variety.
Myxx
The Scope
#8 - 2017-02-12 18:09:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Myxx
Haru'kai Vidaraltyr wrote:
It's been a long time since I was employed in the security services, but I doubt if the general attitude towards capsuleers has changed much. We are regarded as untrustworthy at best, piratical mercenaries at worst. You even note this in your own preamble.

Your demand that the 'capsuleer community' - whatever that is - be informed, and your questions answered, is a perfect example of the arrogance that makes the baseline state actors blanch with contempt. You are correct that we have assets of great wealth and power, but these are invariably deployed to ensure we obtain more of both for ourselves.

The government of the Republic is accountable to its trillions of baseliner people, not to a few thousand capsuleers. If they require our aid, they will ask for it, and direct that request to the few they believe they might trust. The issues they face might well be best solved without our brand of destructive desolation.



I truly don't expect a response. As I put it some hours ago, I expect more silence, obfuscation and in general as Sinjin so eloquently put it,
Sinjin Mokk wrote:
"Father Knows Best" attitude


until it gets out of control and we are left with no choice but to act. Its just that it is irresponsible to not try at this point. At least, this way, we can collectively say "We told you so" when it comes to that.
Aria Jenneth
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#9 - 2017-02-12 18:29:20 UTC  |  Edited by: Aria Jenneth
John Revenent wrote:
Considering the nature of the majority of capsuleers. I find their move to withhold information acceptable.


The real problem is that not knowing fuels speculation, and not just from us. Telling us means also telling the public.

By this time, usually, you'd think they might have said something, even if the problem's nature isn't yet known: whether and how the outbreaks are related; what's happening; what's being done. The fact that we haven't been hearing from the affected city probably means there's a communications blackout there. People with family in the area must be going a little crazy with worry. That would be the case even without the kind of weight Caldari give to family ties.

All this so far suggests that they know what it is but it's something do deeply scary that they don't want to tell people, and apparently they've gone as far as to try to suppress efforts to report on it in more detail. There aren't a lot of situations that would justify this kind of silence, considering that the longer they wait the more frightened people will become.
Pieter Tuulinen
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#10 - 2017-02-12 18:34:17 UTC
I cannot imagine a group that is better equipped to break a quarantine than capsuleers. Do the maths, people.

For the first time since I started the conversation, he looks me dead in the eye. In his gaze are steel jackhammers, quiet vengeance, a hundred thousand orbital bombs frozen in still life.

Haru'kai Vidaraltyr
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#11 - 2017-02-12 18:52:42 UTC
Aria Jenneth wrote:
John Revenent wrote:
Considering the nature of the majority of capsuleers. I find their move to withhold information acceptable.


The real problem is that not knowing fuels speculation, and not just from us. Telling us means also telling the public.

By this time, usually, you'd think they might have said something, even if the problem's nature isn't yet known: whether and how the outbreaks are related; what's happening; what's being done. The fact that we haven't been hearing from the affected city probably means there's a communications blackout there. People with family in the area must be going a little crazy with worry. That would be the case even without the kind of weight Caldari give to family ties.

All this so far suggests that they know what it is but it's something do deeply scary that they don't want to tell people, and apparently they've gone as far as to try to suppress efforts to report on it in more detail. There aren't a lot of situations that would justify this kind of silence, considering that the longer they wait the more frightened people will become.


That strikes me as a remarkably Gallentean viewpoint. The Caldari that I've encountered seem to be quite content to be given information when it's deemed relevant by their corporate masters, and have a remarkable trust in the wisdom of their superiors to make those decisions. Amarr also appears to have an excellent control of information to their masses, and a ready explanation in the form of god's will.

Only the Gallente get obsessed with the idea that information - especially unfocussed, 24 hours a day, off the cuff reportage puffed out by panels of half-qualified speculation and the half-baked opinions of z-list celebrities - is somehow a right. I note from the reports that journalists are being arrested, which sounds very Caldari to me, and also quite wise.

The public are idiots. They'll make stuff up anyway, whether they have the facts or not. Once the emergency is over, they can be told what happened - and half of them will still believe it was a conspiracy implemented by lizards.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Mizhara Del'thul
Kyn'aldrnari
#12 - 2017-02-12 20:05:35 UTC
I don't particularly care what is a Gallente, Caldari or Amarr viewpoint on information dissemination. One of these events are occuring in tribal space, and that means our kin is involved and in jeopardy. Some are actual blood kin, others are of the Tribes which still means brothers and sisters. To deny basic information about our kin and people when there is frankly very little to gain from doing so is... curious, at best. Malicious at worst.

I will assume they have a damn good reason for doing so, but at the same time it is a choice that will have repercussions in the future if it proves to have been a poor reason. The State may be a bit more... shall we say 'coldly efficient' in such matters, but if it is shown our kin has been mishandled in a time of need, the Matari tends to take a more... passionate approach.
Hetu Hegirin
Doomheim
#13 - 2017-02-12 20:12:23 UTC
John Revenent wrote:
Considering the nature of the majority of capsuleers. I find their move to withhold information acceptable.
I believe I have a sense of your perspective, Taishō Revenent. I am not certain this is the best course for public security, as capsuleers are immensely outnumbered by the baseline counterparts with whom they share space, in the Republic as it is in the State.

Tartatven is home to many Republic citizens, and RF are understandably loathe to incite public disorder through the dissemination of alarming information. However, whatever information they do possess could easily be curated to focus specifically on what jeopardy, if any, faces the remaining baseliner interests in Muttokon and neighboring systems.

Is the threat of the FE Platform fully neutralized? If so, what purpose does the continued blackout serve in this situation? It is unlikely to prevent open speculation and agitation among those who feel they are affected, either on the surface of Muttokon II or elsewhere. A one-sentence confirmation of containment would be sufficient to forestall unrest.

If the platform still bears hazard to the greater public, operating from a position of ignorance will not ensure the welfare of Republic citizens. If commerce is the vector, as it presently appears, then why has commerce been permitted to continue through Tartatven into greater Molden Heath? If commerce is not the vector, a one-sentence confirmation would again be sufficient.

My suspicion is that they will not confirm what they don't know, as FE freight may have left the platform before the initial lockdown, and the resulting reticence to issue guidelines for risk prevention will not serve the Republic.
Aria Jenneth
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#14 - 2017-02-12 21:10:07 UTC
Haru'kai Vidaraltyr wrote:
That strikes me as a remarkably Gallentean viewpoint. The Caldari that I've encountered seem to be quite content to be given information when it's deemed relevant by their corporate masters, and have a remarkable trust in the wisdom of their superiors to make those decisions. Amarr also appears to have an excellent control of information to their masses, and a ready explanation in the form of god's will.

Only the Gallente get obsessed with the idea that information - especially unfocussed, 24 hours a day, off the cuff reportage puffed out by panels of half-qualified speculation and the half-baked opinions of z-list celebrities - is somehow a right. I note from the reports that journalists are being arrested, which sounds very Caldari to me, and also quite wise.

The public are idiots. They'll make stuff up anyway, whether they have the facts or not. Once the emergency is over, they can be told what happened - and half of them will still believe it was a conspiracy implemented by lizards.


You might misunderstand a little, pilot.

This isn't stuff I'm saying the authorities should tell us because I think we have a right to know it. It's not a matter of "rights," but of perception control. Normally, the purpose of official silence on a matter of this scale is to prevent panic. The question is at what point the silence itself becomes panic-inducing. The Caldari are pretty good at pulling together in a crisis, but I don't think there's a population in the world that really doesn't care why things are happening.

Information for its own sake might be a Gallentean value. Information for the sake of knowing the situation of family is maybe not so much. I'm not sure a society exists in which people are content to receive no news about parents, children, and siblings in what seems very likely to be mortal danger.

The pattern of silence and extreme measures from both the Matari and Caldari authorities kind of points towards a certain conclusion, which very unfortunately isn't just a story told to scare children. At this point, they'd likely benefit from giving us some details if it's anything else.

If it's what people are afraid of ... well. Maybe continued silence might be a good idea.