Pestarzt Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 The Revolution Will Not Be RevolutionizedCOMMENTARY | 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consular Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Huh. Apparently the Cascadia operation annoyed Cormac enough to warrant an attack on us. Pestarzt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestarzt Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 No one seems to notice that we chose not to eject anyone, either. Sans the misconceptions, which will be cleared as they continue to watch us, this is exactly what we were going for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ike Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I would usually be wary of this, but 1. TRT is incredibly biased these days and 2. This is coming from Cormac, of all people. Although Pes, as the Secretary of Communication, I think you should communicate to outsiders that the revolution is democratic. It will be democratic, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llamas Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I would usually be wary of this You should be a bit wary of it because TRT is a very widely read newspaper. This could set many defenders against us and make alliance building more difficult, should this view spread. It is, however, just one article. 1. TRT is incredibly biased these days Ah, yes, because we all remember when opinion articles in TRT were written from a neutral PoV. 2. This is coming from Cormac, of all people. ...he said, acting as if Cormac is a random newb who nobody cares about. He hasn't got the best credibility, (How many times has he flipflopped? 8-9? ) but he's well-known. Although Pes, as the Secretary of Communication, I think you should communicate to outsiders that the revolution is democratic. It will be democratic, right? Yes, it will be, but he's not Secretary of Communication. I've already been talking to multiple people about this, including Cormac himself, and clarifying that the Revolution is not imperialist, but rather about activity and rebirth (Not a bellicose and expansionist policy) and that it will be democratic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestarzt Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Cormac's "criticisms" aren't really about democracy, and I don't recommend in responding to propaganda or engaging Cormac. Lest it give it credibility it doesn't have. I will handle that sort of thing -- your job as Secretary of Communication is to communicate internal networking with TWP. The West Pacific isn't like most GCR's in that the residence largely believes in a separation of forum and in-game, so you'll have to clarify what implementation of democracy you envision. If you are being strictly literal, which I don't think you are - the phrase "democracy" isn't really used to describe what it means anymore (e.g. the United States IRL is not a democracy) - then no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ike Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 The United States is a democracy only to the people who can be assed to get up and vote. Democracy as in liked by the people. This doesn't mean elections, but a general sense that everyone likes us. If not, we see what they want. And fuck, Llamas, how do you manage to talk to all these people? I need to be on the IRC more if I want to keep my job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestarzt Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 The United States is a democracy only to the people who can be assed to get up and vote. Democracy as in liked by the people. This doesn't mean elections, but a general sense that everyone likes us. If not, we see what they want. And fuck, Llamas, how do you manage to talk to all these people? I need to be on the IRC more if I want to keep my job. That is a very dangerous definition of democracy, but if that's the one you use, yes, we'll be liked by the majority of TWP. Whether or not we will be interregionally liked by the majority is a different issue, since there is so much diversity in the NS world, but certainly our own internal policies should be primarily based upon the will of our own, rather than others. In terms of in-game popularity, you could argue that The West Pacific government is the most well-liked by its residency -- we have the strongest and largest RMB culture and in-game community of any GCR. By a landslide. Everyone knows each other here. Also, again, your job doesn't have to do with communicating externally. Being the most experienced Party member in regards to how people like to spin things, I'd prefer that I speak between the Party and foreigners, since you might wind up saying something on our behalf that is used against us and in a way you didn't intend. For instance, what if Cormac were to argue that we were liars because our system wasn't the definition of a democracy, and cited Llamas saying "We will be a democracy" as a proof? Caution is necessary. Especially when you define democracy simply as "being liked", obviously. Review the Communications portion of the announcement of the Revolutionary Party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ike Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Hah. Hey, I recommended myself for Media secretary, I can switch any time you want Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestarzt Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Media involves interregional communications as well as intraregional communications, and I intend to handle it personally during the early stages of the Revolution due to the former. We are still in a delicate phase. The most important thing you need to be doing right now is being a presence for the Revoluton on the RMB, and creating OOC topics and generally just keeping threads moving along here. Once you have that done, the rest is just events and activities, which are more elaborate, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pestarzt Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=23032426#p23032426 An interesting debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ike Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Clearly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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