In essence yes, because at the end of the day that is the only form that the notion of reclaiming can achieve its goals.
This is a rather noble goal, and while I may appose you and your beliefs, any conversion effort that does not rely on coercion in any form and is based on voluntary decisions is something I can live with. I will not like it, but I can live with it. However what happens when you run into those that will refuse to accept your religion? How then would the reclamation proceed?
On the contrary, it seems to me that generational slavery, while it has been useful in furthering the Reclaiming in times past, is, in its current form at the very least, a hindrance to the Reclaiming today.
The Amarr take a very long view and are possessed of extreme patience. We can wait. Several thousand years, if need be.
Donât misunderstand me. Iâm saying that the goal of the Empire should be to help people find their way to God, so we should do whatâs effective.
If something hurts people, itâs not effective. If something turns more people away from the Faith than it Reclaims, itâs not effective. If something leaves us vulnerable, itâs not effective.
Iâm not however saying that I know exactly what is or isnât effective.
As for an alternative method, though, itâs simple to think of one.
Weâre right, so we talk and convince you of it.
Iâm sure Anna will be glad to hear youâre going to try talking her out of battleships from now on.
YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, SCUM.
To be fair, itâd still probably be more effective at working than her attempts on my ships.
PS- Hi, little Anna, how are things?
AND YOU CAN SHUT UP, TOO, SLAVER FILTH.
MinmatarsâŚ
Is there a limit to that patience? Otherwise you run the risk of never achieving the goals of the reclamation.
I can say⌠I donât get completely all these complications of Amarr-Minmatar relations. You both create unnecessary problems for yourself, would it be reclaiming other people or freeing âyourâ people from the other.
I try to see things as they are, and the only practical solution to the problem I can find is an immediate invasion of Imperial Navy into Republic space and extermination of all armed personnel, all warships and ships producing facilities, then retreating back into core worlds and establishing de facto enforced peace (by physical elimination of those who will try to break that peace). But again - my solution doesnât involve freeing âslavesâ (criminals) or reclaiming other nations, itâs just as is: ensuring security in space.
You mean just like how a Federal Navy invasion of Caldari space destroying the entire military industrial capacity of the State would fix that problem as well?
Look, its backwards in our situation.
In Minmatar-Amarr conflict we have that Amarr wants Minmatar people, Minmatar want Amarr people (or their criminal part). But Amarr have stronger Navy and have capability of destroying the Republic, plus itâs the Republic who is aggressor.
In Gallente-Caldari conflict we have only Gallente who want something from us. Caldari donât have any interest in anything Gallentean. Again, the State has stronger Navy capability - though Federation space is quite⌠large, plus itâs the Federation who is aggressor. Destroying entire military capacity of the Federation could fix the problem, but will cost quite a lot.
And I actually hope that the CEP will agree someday to pay for this project. That will save billions of lives.
Strike Commander, a slight correction, the vast majority of saves are not criminals, and by and large, the ones that the Minmatar wish to free are not the ones who were enslaved as punishment for criminal acts.
I suppose, if after a few thousand years it seems to not be working, one might try a new approach. Who can say what the cluster will look like then? Our ancestors, I would think, could not have predicted what the cluster would look like now, nor that we would ever face a foe that conquest could not easily subdue.
But this is why Amarr Scripture is not a static thing, but ever changing, constantly being reviewed by the Theology Council. The times change, and so must we and our methods of Reclaiming.
What those will look like in several thousand years, I cannot say.
So youâre okay with the Federation keeping Caldari Prime?
As long as the possibility exists that Reclaiming by force will resume, no-one is safe from the Empireâs dreams of cultural annihilation.
Iâll go ahead and address this here:
With respect, Captain Rhiannon, my activities over the past few months bear zero relation to what didnât happen with my predecessors generations ago.
Obviously not.
Yet if you are trying to change a false perception of yourself, doing the exact thing that you are accused of rarely helps.
(Ask me how I know.)
Welcome to politics. Just because somethingâs true, that doesnât mean anyone cares. Appearancesâwhat people see, what people think they seeâmatters far more than whatâs true.
âWeâre not here to ruin life. Weâre here to ruin your life.â
That statement, or one very close to it, gets thrown at Goonswarm all the time. It gets hurled in our faces as the words of our CEO, and it was. Thirteen years ago.
That CEO isnât even in the organization anymore. Heâs retired, popped back up to join our enemies in attacking us three years ago, and retired again. Weâve undergone two periods of âCultural Revolutionâ in the decade-and-almost-a-half since he said those words. Weâve completely altered the way we operate, the way our coalition is organized, and the way we recruit. A large number of people who were in the alliance when those words were spoken have nothing but hate and contempt for what the alliance has become, and accuse us regularly of having nothing in common with who we were when those words were spoken. Theyâre not completely wrong. Itâs been thirteen years. People grow the hell up.
And yet, we still get those words thrown in our faces.
We accept that. Itâs inevitable. People see âGoonswarmâ and they know what they âknowâ. No amount of truth or fact will change that. Ever.
Similarly, the truth doesnât much matter for Ramijozana. Oh, sure, thereâs a baseline of âwhat actually happened and what we can demonstrate would have happened if the charges were trueâ that you can base your arguments on when trying to convince people. But what you do now will very much be seen in light of what people think they âknowâ about you.
If theyâre prone to think your Clan is suspect, theyâll take it as confirmation. If theyâre prone to give your Clan a chance, theyâll see it as you showing an open-mind and giving people a chance. People judge what they see based entirely on what they expect to see. The human brain is a pattern-matching engine, and it doesnât matter if the patternâs real or not. Only if it fits expectations.
And if it doesnât? It will. The brain will find a way to make it fit expectations.
You canât base your actions on what others will think⌠but as a leader, as someone who represents others, even if only in the public awareness, you can never be unaware of it.
Iâm definitely aware of it. And youâre not wrong. Neither is Captain Rhiannon.
Hereâs the thing: During the occupation, and then during the Rebellion, Clan Ramijozana had no interest in working with the Amarr. Based on the notes they left behind and on institutional memory, the clan leaders throughout that time were too angry over the harms they had suffered, and were too wary of being disowned by the rest of our people, to entertain the possibility.
I donât blame them. Iâm angry too, and Iâm wary too. But Iâve always planned to contribute to freeing our kin and ending slavery through economic means, including collaborating with the Amarr to eliminate their need for slave labor. Iâm not kidding about âalways.â I was born into this role. Growing up, I was expected to come up with some miraculous way to restore Corovid to profitability and the Clan to prosperity. This is the answer I came up with. My Clan doesnât necessarily agree with me or approve of my approach. They just put up with me.
So what it comes down to, ultimately, is this: I can follow through with my plans, which I do honestly think will work, and ignore the noise about my Clan being collaborators and hope that this pays off before someone really does try to systematically eliminate us; or I can step back to protect my Clan from scrutiny, but at the cost of my lifeâs work.
Thatâs a tough decision, even when itâs simplified like that, eliminating all the other complicating factors at play.
This is why Iâm angry about the LUMEN ball, by the way. I canât have taken all this â â â â only for them to prove me wrong.