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The Revolution Will Not Be Revolutionized COMMENTARY | CORMAC STARK "You say you want a revolution... wellllll, I guess..." Earlier this week, the West Pacific Post, maintained by Pestarzt the Traveller, announced the formation of the Revolutionary Party of The West Pacific. Pestarzt is a nation maintained by the player behind Milograd, largely responsible for the successful launch of the People's Republic of Lazarus in 2013 that brought an activity boom to a region that had long looked like a Sinker retirement home for inactive, veteran imperialists. Pestarzt promised that the revolution in The West Pacific wouldn't be an anti-government revolution, "but rather a revolution against the cultural complacency and deference of proactivity towards the current leadership." "The leadership is not at fault for our activity," the announcement went on to say. "[W]e are, because we haven't been the change we want to see." Unfortunately, hopes that this revolutionary rhetoric might translate into actual, concrete change in The West Pacific were quickly dashed the following day, when Pestarzt announced that Cascadia had been invaded by The West Pacific Armed Forces and The Association of Imperialism. This invasion marked a continuation of the imperialist policy pursued by Delegate All Good People and continued by his successor, Darkesia. It was a random invasion to project The West Pacific's power, straight out of the playbook of the United Imperial Armed Forces, except that the invasion was so poorly conducted that it was liberated by a coalition of defender forces just one update later. So much for the projection of power; the invasion, like most other initiatives undertaken by the elite oligarchy of The West Pacific in recent years, was a failure that attracted little enthusiasm and participation from natives of The West Pacific. Expressions of disappointment by Delegate Unibot of The Rejected Realms and former Lazarene Chairman Funkadelia following announcement of the invasion were, if anything, understated. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the player behind Milograd was recognizing that the same tired policy of so-called independence, and a foreign policy beholden to imperialists, would not rejuvenate the failed state that preceded the People's Republic of Lazarus. He recognized that a bolder approach was needed. Now, as Pestarzt, he is trying to launch a revolution with more of the same. He is trying to fight cultural complacency with cultural complacency. He is trying to break a pattern of deference to leadership by deferring to the failed policies of that same leadership. It is no doubt disappointing for his former defender colleagues to see the player who was once the former Chairman of the People's Republic of Lazarus, a former Chief Lieutenant of the United Defenders League and former Arch Chancellor of the Founderless Regions Alliance, involved in invasions. But it should be far more disappointing for anyone interested in seeing an active and functional West Pacifican society and government. This revolution is not a revolution at all; if anything, it is counter-revolutionary in nature, reinforcing the reactionary imperialist policies of The West Pacific elite by dressing it up in the rhetoric of revolution. The policies of oligarchy and imperialism have utterly failed to capture the imagination and inspire the participation of the natives of The West Pacific. While other Feeders thrive, it continues to wither. It is a shame for the people of The West Pacific that they do not have Milograd to challenge their tired status quo. Instead, they are stuck with Pestarzt the Traveller, a counter-revolutionary masquerading as the vanguard of change. It appears that if the natives of The West Pacific want to see actual change in their region, they will, as Pestarzt so aptly said, have to be the change they want to see.