I would at least appreciate if you’d drop the “b-b-but I’m neutral!” act at least. You sound more like your masters every day.
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What?
…
I feel like it’s been a long time since I claimed to be neutral.
Certainly I’ve been nothing of the kind since I watched False Light at work in Thebeka and heard her speak.
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Aria “I think everything neutrally, this is neutrally the best neutral course of action” Jenneth, you claim neutralness every time you post.
Edit: You don’t also have to write a novel every time you respond.
I think analytically, Teinyhr; it’s kind of my job. But it might be a little obvious to people who know me or just watch a little closely that I’m not at all immune to personal motives, whether that’s personal love or loyalty or a burning personal dislike.
Also, personal loyalties and attachments or even a whiff of nostalgic sentiment, like for a home I’ve no right to return to, lead on to other entanglements. I value the peace of my fragile home, so I value stability and order. Valuing stability and order, I favor solidifying, stabilizing, and refining the status quo over tearing it down. This leads me to favor certain elements, such as ARC, that stand for the belief that those with a stake in the order of this world should work together to defend it against outside threats. By doing so we both protect ourselves and draw closer together as a community.
Likewise, I tend to react poorly to warmongers of any faction-- not because I’m neutral, but because I don’t want to see this world crumbling around me. In particular, the notion of capsuleers as fit custodians for humanity’s future (much less gods) chills me right down to my osteoplastic skeleton.
Haha-- sorry. I’m not wise enough to know how to say everything I want to in just a few words.
Summing up complex ideas simply … that’s poetry, really. I don’t really do that.
Maybe I should take it up.
Edit (okay, here goes):
It might have been wiser to stay aloof, but I wanted to be useful. Now here I am, tangled in sticky strands, waiting for the spider. It’ll come. But first, maybe if I just pull this thread, something will change?
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If you truly despise warmongers of whatever stripe then why are you so supportive of the cluster’s biggest example of warmongering and conquest; the Amarr empire?
You claim to value the status quo yet time and time again you fight for the only government that seeks actively to destroy every other entity in the cluster (including your beloved State).
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Heideran the Peacemaker, not twenty years dead; on his throne, an Empress of Two Swords. The steps of her dance are hard to follow, but it’s taken her near his tomb. Did the sweeping blades disturb his bones?
Meanwhile, those who call words, weapons, and debate, genocide, sharpen real knives and buy real bullets to write their argument in torn flesh. A profound discussion will follow, but who will be alive to judge the winner? If words are so deadly, why argue in depleted uranium?
I stand by one who tends the old emperor’s tomb. In mutual dismay we smell the smoke on the wind. I hold her shield while the bullet-collectors curse me.
Wretched things. Come the time, I think I’ll curse them back.
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Careful now. Wouldn’t want to start delving too deeply into your history with curses…
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Could of just said, diplomacy is great except when it fails, then we have to get to killing instead.
Twenty years and Pax is forgotten. So fleeting is the concept of peace for the ones called Amarr.
Mendax, Pax? A liars false peace to begin with?
The chameleon claims peace, but murder follows her on her shoulder.
Bah!
The tiresomest of adversaries - the one who pretends to have good intentions but whose tongue is rot and morals she ties in a knot.
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It is easy to attribute to a single factor something which is the product of many. Floseswin is the consequence of choices, some made by your people and some by mine.
In apportioning the responsibility solely to ‘oppressors’ or ‘warmongers’, you strip your people of their agency. In obfuscating their part in this, you deny to them the single point of courage inherent in freedom. Risk.
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“Good intentions?”
… For you, maybe no. You want to make me weep so hard for the children of your family that I abandon my own.
I won’t.
If that is evil to you, then I’m evil.
I must admit, all this talk of curses and the great power that they wield is making my own past self start to try to bubble up to the surface…
The rush of power and control from ganking a ship twice if not more your Catalyst’s size. The swell of righteousness in your chest as you bring down those that are non-compliant. The thought of James’ face as you are eviscerated by CONCORD - arms outstretched, his smile beckoning you home.
Power is addictive and far too easy to wield due to its addictive nature. You don’t need an ounce of good judgement or any understanding of empathy, morality or self-control. And what’s worse? It feels good…
This isn’t me lapsing from the Signal Cartel credo - this is me explaining why its so hard to not go back to dark places when you know the power that lies there. Every ship I see that is left unattended or on autopilot, my first thought is ‘I could kill that’. I have to fight my baser instincts almost every day.
Please don’t say things that could tempt Ms Jenneth beyond the point of her own self-control. It seems the power she once wielded was magnitudes greater than anything I had contact with - I would not like to face into that myself.
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Nah. You’re just as lost, scared, and hungry for validation as the rest of us. And you get that from being a good dog, nothing wrong with that. I just remember you were the one who first threatened harm to those whom I love because of your animalistic loyalty principles, and I pity you. I don’t think you’re evil. I just find the sight of you sad.
You are not alone.
In the most literal sense, of course my loyalties are a little bit animal; a human being is, necessarily, an animal. We like to think of ourselves as rational beings, but mostly our reason serves what our hearts have already decided. And yet, maybe for that exact reason, to address someone as a “good dog,” “animalistic,” and “sad” can’t really help but be an insult.
Do you find it gives you the feel of a good scritch behind the ears when you look down on those who oppose you?
While I appreciate your warm and generous sentiment, Ms. Teinyhr, I prefer the company of people who don’t hold me in contempt.
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Oh? I thought you were cool with the name calling, what with the “false light”, “warmongering wretch”, and so on.
But yeah I feel pretty good looking down on people, thanks for asking.
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Have you tried those heeled shoes from that Gallente designer ? The ones with the bright red soles ?
They’re freaking awesome for looking down on people with.
‘Minmatar-led treaty’? Wow. That’s rich. There was literally only one Minmatar signatory on that treaty, and they didn’t even break even on gains and losses, aside from maybe the sentimental value of Starkman.
I’ll be in touch… again.
Elsebeth inspires people to their deaths, Teinyhr, and feels so good about it that she teaches others how to do the same. She represents the opposite of what I try to be. Reminding her of the destruction she leaves behind her, not only of her enemies, but of her allies, is the least I can do.
I call her by names she’s earned-- not looking down at her, but across. I call her these because others should know what she has done, the destructive role she plays in this world. And so should she.
If it hurts, good. If it gets your attention, good. If it feels like I’m besmirching her accomplishments and goals alike, good. We are enemies, and I by no means concede that my side is morally inferior to someone who makes it her life’s work to try and set the world on fire by helping her kin get themselves killed along with whoever’s standing next to them.
I use names, sure. I calculate them to wound-- to speak to truth, or at least an angle on it-- and if they work I take grim satisfaction in a blow struck. And Elsebeth definitely seems to know what I’m at: she, too, approaches public discussion as warfare-- and probably she’s better at it than me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t confront her.
If you feel that way about me, your attacks are weak. “Good dog?” “Animalistic?” “Sad?” or earlier, all your variations on “brainwashed Amarrian puppet?”
Pfft. Try harder. I’m not without weaknesses, points you could strike; you might even know about some of them. But I don’t see myself in that warped mirror you’re holding up-- no truth, just a botched caricature.
If you want to hurt me, try to understand me. If you want to just treat me with contempt, you should expect that I will stop listening to you at all.
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I’m pretty sure she knows. There’s nothing for you to ‘remind’ about.
Oh, but as long as she has a notion of herself as possibly a decent person there’s no possible way she’s at peace with them, Samira. Ask me how I know. A weak point that cannot be patched is not exploitable only once.
I remind her for the same reason I remind you: as a weapon, to cause stress and injury, to damage morale. And also because perhaps I feel those who do such harm in service to their causes should not be allowed to forget it.
Call it one nod I’ll give to the concept of justice: “Yes, I know what you have done and why. And even knowing why, I do not forgive you.”
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