We all made this journey for a reason. It’s humbling, but in my heart I know you didn’t come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this game can be. In the face of peace, you believe there can be war. In the face of scarcity, you believe there can be hope. In the face of politics that’ve shut you out, that’ve told you to settle, that’ve divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what’s possible, building that more perfect game.
That’s the journey we’re on today. But let me tell you how I came to be here. As most of you know, I am not a native of this great game. I moved to Eve-Online over a decade ago. I was a young man then, still in university, I knew no one in Eve, was without money or corporate connections. But a group of hi-seccers had offered me a job as a community organizer for 13,000,000 isk a week hauling dirt. And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea - that I might play a small part in building a better Eve.
My work took me to some of Eve’s poorest neighborhoods, Molden Heath, Lonetrek, Syndicate. I joined with industrialists and mission-runners to deal with communities that had been ravaged by stargate re-routing. I saw that the problems people faced weren’t simply local in nature - that the decision to close a stargate was made by distant executives; that the lack of textbooks and computers in stations could be traced to the skewed priorities of developers a thousand miles away; and that when a child turns to low-sec piracy, there’s a hole in his heart no government could ever fill.
It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had, and where I learned the true meaning of playing Eve. After three years of this work, I went to nullsec, because I wanted to understand how null should work for those in need. I became a ratter, and after a time, I came to understand that our cherished rights of liberty and equality depend on the active participation of an awakened electorate. It was with these ideas in mind that I arrived in this forum as a CSM Candidate.
It was here, in Eve-Online, where I saw all that is Eve-Online converge - farmers and ratters, pirates and industrialists, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. I made lasting friendships here - friends that I see in the audience today.
It was here we learned to disagree without being disagreeable - that it’s possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we’re willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.
It was here, in Eve-Online, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the Eve-Online people - where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful Eve-Online.
And that is why, in the shadow of the Burn Eden Monument, where DB Preacher once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for CSM 17. I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness - a certain audacity - to this announcement. I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Jita. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Jita must change.
Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what’s needed to be done. Today we are called once more - and it is time for our generation to answer that call.
For that is our unyielding faith - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their game can change it.
And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what’s filled the void. The cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who’ve turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we’re here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It’s time to turn the page.
But Eve has a long way to go. And it won’t be easy. That’s why we’ll have to set priorities. We’ll have to make hard choices. And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes we need, more money and programs alone will not get us where we need to go. So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this game.
And as our economy changes, let’s be the generation that ensures our game’s workers are sharing in our prosperity. Let’s protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised. Let’s make it possible for hardworking Eve-Online players to save for retirement. And let’s allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this game’s middle class again.
Let’s be the generation that ends poverty in Eve-Online. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills.
Let’s be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.
The Zealot should be red.
-Furnok Dorn
