Wall of text alert: Nobody except Arrendis needs to bother reading all of this, unless you want to.
The very first response I got on my quip was Miz starting with, “CVA I actually hesitate to mock. I have quite genuinely never seen such tenacity out there in null before.” with you following suit with " This is very true, and nothing I say should be taken as mocking CVA or Provibloc as a whole."
I interpreted that as fear, and no, I don’t mean naked fear, but if you’re hesitant about poking a sleeping giant, most would consider said hesitance to imply a fear of reprisal. If that was a wrong interpretation, then I apologize. Maybe I should have said “worry” then, because from my point of view, both of you were clearly worried about CVA’s potential involvement, because none of us even with our powers combined could stop them.
As to why I considered and termed both your continued assesments of CVA’s prowess fearmongering is, to me at least, simple and based on a very basic human instinct - if something is fully capable and also is willing to kick your ass, that induces a fear reaction in most people. Your assesments especially reinforce the capable part, but also lend power to the willing part, as in, “they’ve done similar shows of force before.”
Speaking of point-of-views, large part of the argument between me and Mizhara stems from what I can only guess is complete values dissonance and generally opposing worldviews. I’ve noticed that my attitude towards capsuleer life is on a crash course with many other people as well, maybe I should try and explain a bit what I mean, as it apparently it is not as clear cut to others as I thought it would be. I’ll start with this:
Here’s the thing. To me, there is no pretending involved. Even if they brought their entire alliance to permacamp Thebeka, they are not a force to be reckoned with to anyone but other capsuleers. And even then, to just certain groups of capsuleers. Capsuleers in general have this inflated sense of self-importance, that the universe revolves around us. Us, some hundreds of thousands of us (or if I’m being generous, maybe a million or two?), if each and every retired and permadead capsuleer suddenly returned to life and active duty. Against empires with trillions in the employment of their militaries. It is a grand lie that many have swallowed, that we’re kind of a big deal.
Well, that is not entirely wrong - empires, pirate entities, even probably sleepers, drifters and recently, you could say that it is all but confirmed that Triglavians too, use us as product testers.
That is our grand role in this universe.
Why do I say this? Because the empires are known to analyze capsuleer wars and skirmishes, to train their own capsuleers to be more efficient and to compare and improve their own combat doctrines, and to use all that data to predict outcomes of battles and wars not yet fought. To develop new ships and learn from our triumphs or failures with them.
It is no coincidence that various combat boosters, experimental modules etc. just happen to be left behind by various pirate incursions. They learn how we utilize their hulls and specialized technology just the same. That in itself is invaluable.
That the Sleepers, Drifters and Triglavians leave us largely to our own devices despite our “interference” with them is that we’re clearly offering to them also something of value, so much so that Triglavians practically invited us over once they were discovered. We are certainly valuable to many entities, but not in the way many of us probably think. We’re a goldmine of data.
And clearly, most entities consider us but a surface nuisance, and that whatever losses they take are an acceptable trade for the data they can collect from our ingenious or utterly stupid ways of utilizing their technologies, something that is incredibly hard to program in to predictive models.
So. The only people we matter to, in the big picture, is each other.
But even so, why do you think I refuse to acknowledge various null entities, why do I say that they’re not important? Because for us capsuleers, military power is an illusion of our power. Our real power is money - even though that too, is mostly isolated from the actual powerplayers in this universe. And yet - any notable null alliance has leaps and bounds more of the real power - money, than I ever will. That is true. But they spend nearly all of it to the illusionary part of our existence. Because they believe that having the most stations, capital ships or advanced battleships or cruisers or destroyers are worth a damn. Personally? I reckon those capsuleers that have focused on being industry magnates have the right idea, if they seek to make themselves actually relevant in the universe.
I believe I’ve said this many times - the truly vexing part of our existence is that no matter how much money, no matter how many times you destroy someone’s capsule - we always come back. Between us, martial struggle is an exercise in futility and it benefits everyone but us. Well, okay, that is perhaps a bit hyperbolic - we do benefit from experience, of course. It’s just that so many other parties reap the same rewards, our reward is meager in comparison.
Ok, ok, you might be wondering how does this relate to CVA and Thebeka. I’ll try to bullet point this all:
- CVA is a large capsuleer force potentially trying to exercise its power against a slave revolt on a planet.
- There are various other players on the field trying to help the rebels on said planet.
- CVA could theoretically remove all the other actors from the field just because they are bigger and meaner.
- Even if they did so, I still could single handedly fund various entities - baseliners or just neutral capsuleers - to attempt to deliver mountainloads of weapons, medicine, food and other supplies - that I can purchase in literal mountainous piles - to the rebels.
- End result is, CVA doesn’t matter, even if they are the biggest, meanest kid on the block that drove everyone off from the sandpit. All they could do is end my or anyone elses direct involvement by doing so.
Lastly some observations about myself (both to your and my benefit) on what leads me to most verbal conflict with other capsuleers:
-I generally don’t consider capsuleers important in a grand scheme of things. This is a source of many interpersonal conflicts, as many capsuleers do seem to take this as a personal insult, and often also think I’m trying to elevate myself above them, morally or otherwise. I acknowledge that I should endeavour to express myself more clearly with less of a dismissive tone, perhaps.
-In relation to the above, though, a capsuleer can be a precision tool, worth their weight in gold - a single right person at the right place, at the right time, could change even the world irrevocably, for better or for worse. A capsuleer could be that person just as anyone else. It’s just not very likely, as most capsuleers don’t deal with issues with the gravity of potentially touching trillions of lives. And I don’t feel that thinking like this is contradictory - a person can hold various viewpoints on a same issue, even opposing ones.
-This is definetly not as rare of a viewpoint, but I consider capsuleers as a ginormous amorphous entity to also do considerably more harm than good. This is most painfully evident in that the average capsuleers average reaction to anything new and unexpected is open hostility. Even those few people I do consider more enlightened than your average capsuleer were quick to draw their weapons against Circadian Seekers and later the Drifters, outright refusing to listen to any kind of appeal to reason. Triglavians I intentionally excluded from that, since there is some indication that they do want to be shot at, for whatever reason.
