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how would that work? Being the most communist, or being the most successful while claiming to be communist?
It's been a month since Terra Novam's last post. I hope nothing has happened to her...
Terra novam and Rationalist Science
Good evening. We are The Empire of the Leviathan Federation of the Sea, a conservative nation that sits in the ocean. Our empire, if you could call it that, is made of boats, submarines, floating islands, and underwater bases. Our technological specialty is robotics, yet we have a very human touch to all of our work.
We look forward to interacting with you all
She sounds like a busy person. I am more certain that she is well than that she is not, but your guess, that I assume is based on an equal amount of information (no information at all), is as good as mine.
Instead of concerning yourself about her absence, I implore you to find enjoyment in those scarce moments that the two of you share. Be happy that things are instead of sad that things aren't.
Speaking of things that are, have you grown any more fond of what it is I have to say?
Region hopper.
She said she'd be back in a couple of weeks. Last we heard from her was a month ago. Ergo something has happened which either prevents or dissuades her from returning. I'm no psyker, but I do have the ability to determine possible scenarios and their likelihood based off of previous information provided on life events. The most likely scenario is getting tied up with making sure her schooling moves forward as planned. After that is emotional trauma from family over her personal decisions.
The answer to your question is no. I have not grown any more fond of the things you have to say. You're trying to feed your "enlightened" theories onto someone with a practical mind sharing a likeness to a soldier. Analyze, plan, execute. No problem is insurmountable so long as you don't give in to the negative emotions. You keep fighting until you're dead because life is a war. Your world is a warzone.
i have no idea how to do anything
There isn't really much to do. NationStates is what you make of it. The last page on this message board (here, where you are right now, is the message board), page 392, has a big post from me about some of what NS has to offer.
I appreciate the response. I'm sad to read that, though. If that's really what you think, then your experience in life has not been good by my standards at least. Of all animals, I think humans are the least bound by nature; that is to say that most human capability is in skill mastery (learning, generally) and not instinct. So not only is it unlikely your perspective comes from the levers of DNA that built you, but it's also likely that you created that narrative to explain a crapsack life. (see: <https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrapsackWorld>)
As always, I hope you're dead wrong and that a literal world (planet) of problems can be solved with good, small, central government and a complete philosophy that doesn't leave room for perpetual infighting.
Calling my ideas "theories" would be flattering, but I understand you contrast practicality with my beliefs. Alas, I have only hypotheses, and they are practical to me. Had we lived the same life, I believe we would disagree on very little, and that's entirely the problem. Seven billion different individual experiences cannot all be correct. The historically unrivaled, global conversation that is happening shows us how much we have in common, and I believe one prevailing philosophy is fit to guide all the individual lives of our collective species.
Do you think you'd make a good Secretary of Defense? In my infinite wisdom, I found it necessary for everyone around me to be repelled by my whatever-this-is (personality?) and I've not but a single friend (who doesn't really count, because she's my partner and woefully biased in my favor). So filling staffing positions is going to be really difficult. We're going to have to talk about that WMD policy, though.
I entertain myself with these thoughts and I wonder if I could ever actually fix even a single problem for another person.
I'd be interested in hearing New Hyperion's take on <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jj8vne0ca0> about the current(?) conflict between Israel and Palestine.
On a side note, I'm now only 4 Political Freedom points away from having the highest classification of all three "Trend" freedoms.
The decisions that led to this have entirely destroyed my goals in other areas, but Mr. Barry and I don't have the same understanding of a few things.
I think my previous categorization as a Left-Leaning College State is the most accurate.
I wouldn't quite describe my views as "crapsack", but I certainly haven't had an easy time. Add on top of my misfortune the fact that the loudest political group in the US currently claims people like me to be the ultimate bad guy, and I'm not optimistic about my future or even the future of anyone else in this not so God fearing country. We've mostly lost our morals and decency. Some people stand up for morals and rights, and their homes and families suddenly come under attack. We still have homeless people on the streets, some of which are military veterans (which I think is the saddest part of it), and all the popular voices in the media want to bring in masses more with open borders. We have a few sexual deviants, and suddenly gender exists on a spectrum. A few plastic bottles get left behind at the beach, and suddenly we have petitions to stop using plastics. Some shootings take place, and suddenly people are crying for guns to be taken away from everyone. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the gist of it. We can't have nice things anymore because these younger generations just don't understand nor will they listen.
That dream of yours requires two things: a constitution limiting how much power this central government can have and the world population to hold the same morals and values. The former isn't much of a problem to solve. Just pay close attention to the wording and language of the document to ensure it says everything it needs to exactly as it needs to. The latter is where your dream crumbles to dust. Each area of the world has developed their own unique culture with their own set of morals and values. And while all of these cultures may be equal in value, they're not all compatible. Take, for example, Western Civilization and Conservative Islam. Western Civilization sees all persons to have equal and insurmountable worth unless a particular person has committed a heinous crime like rape or cold-blooded murder. Conservative Islam doesn't share this notion. With these people, you get things like grooming gangs. If you want the full list of problems, just look at the state of Europe with its refugees. If you think you can have one central government making decisions for everyone across the globe, holding everyone to the same decisions, without this second part, your world order isn't going to last very long before it completely disbands from all of the infighting that will occur.
Your ideas may be practical under a certain set of circumstances, but under current circumstances, they don't hold up. And I called your ideas theories because they're not proven to work. The problem with having the one centralized philosophy is that you'll have to convince everyone that your ideas are the best out there either by winning debates or applying military force. Applying military force is just going to drop your approval rating forcing the use of more force. And I don't think you want that. Which leaves us with option number one: the debate. How do you convince seven and a half billion individuals, each with their own thoughts and experiences, that your philosophy is the way to go? Because we're not a collective. We don't hold a group mindset. We work together, sure, but each person is their own. Every person, through their experiences, each has their own opinion on what is good and bad, right and wrong. Getting everyone to agree to your ideas is getting people to go against their experiences. All I can say is good luck with that.
Planning on running for President some day? I hope you know it's a giant spending spree for "how can I be more popular than the other guy". Starting off with no friends doesn't help but instead hurts. But back to the question now. I can't say if I'd make for a good Secretary of Defense or not since I've never been in the military nor any other force. I can, however, say with certainty that I'd do a much better job than most people in this region. Although in my opinion, that's not really saying much...
Government needs more humility like this. Sick burn.
This is probably the most sincere response you've ever given me, and I want you to know it means a lot to me—if only by contrast with some rather heavy-handedness in the past. Ha.
The whole reason I think it's possible to persuade people is because I don't think I have some special ability. I think every safe, healthy, secure person would want what I want if they had the time to think about it.
There is the natural problem of not having anything to think about when things are good and well, though. Keeping the idea of evil (in context) alive (to stimulate conversation and philosophical inquiry) is just as good as fear-mongering, and suddenly I sound like everyone else. Once things become the way I want them to be (or close enough) I want to conserve that way of being, especially as to avoid a reversal. On the flip side, instead of scaring people with how bad things could be if they change, I could instead pick a day on the weekend to indoctrinate children into my philosophy. By saying how good things already are, I can encourage the next generations to keep things that way. The early experience of being surrounded by rules, and people obeying those rules, will follow those people into an adult life full of others that might try to convince them to do or think something else.
Damn. I don't like the way that sounds.
If the strongest steel is forged in the hottest flames, what do you do with an Easy-Bake Oven? At some point in the progression toward any idea of perfect good (zero dissonance) the only not-good is going to be youth rebellion.
So we take away the rights of young people until a certain age.
I'm going to go figure out whether I'm writing this because it's how things are set up around me, or because it stands on its own merit. And then how to fix that, or at least a better way to do it. Also, work.
I assume that she's just busy due to schooling. Though she has completely forgotten about the rp in the past, so that could be what happened this time.
I'm always completely honest. Unless I'm being sarcastic. But I don't like making light of serious conversation and debate, so I'm just being completely honest. I am a bit gruff with the way I handle things, but that just ties into the personality that is me.
I'm sure everyone wants the basics: safety, food, water, shelter, and comfort. It's how we aquire these things, the method by which the outcomes are produced, which people fail to agree upon.
You shouldn't like the way that sounds. You're talking about a completely authoritarian government controlling people's thoughts and scaring them into thinking things will be so much worse if they try doing anything other than what your government says to do. That's wrong on so many levels. Stealing the free spirit from people and turning them into State puppets is horrid. You should be ashamed of uttering these notions.
That's the thing. You don't turn things into an Easy Bake oven. You need people competing to be the best, and you need parents (Yes, parents. Not parent. You need both for healthy minds.) to ensure that their children are hardened and forged correctly to enter into that competition. This, as we've come to find out, is not the hottest flames but instead a specific method of temperament. Some heat with some chill. This method should be used with children to form the sharpest minds and toughest bodies.
Remember, we're trying to make progress. Progress isn't made if there is nothing to drive people to make it. The ultimate goal of having all of our needs taken care of, essentially living in a Utopia, is unobtainable. However, we can strive for further progress through our evolution as a people.
Wow, this debate is getting pretty intense. I think Aragon has some of the better points, but that’s just my opinion. On the subject of government, I am opposed to a dictatorship, and I don’t think it was Invertere Utopia’s intent to describe one, but you did. And of course you need motivation in life! If your work won’t get you anywhere, what’s the point of working! This is why socialism failed! However, regardless of progress, a utopia can never exist due to the aforementioned divides in society. A world where everyone agrees is not possible without forcing people to, which would be a bad idea.
what happend in the discord
What do you mean?
never mind
I don't have any idea what kind of life the planet could support for everyone living on it, but I don't think having everyone's absolute needs is unobtainable. The lifestyle creep of the planet is an issue, though. Everyone wants more, all the time, and already there is dire inequality between the world's nations. I've met plenty of people that have mistaken want for need. Not-needs are the kinds of things that inspire campaigns against aid efforts, for example, but also the rage against the perceived wealthy-er. I say wealthy-er because Sanders' rhetoric against the have-mores is dehumanizing and shameful; the success of the many is built on the ingenuity of the few (and the communities that support them), and a free market of bastards is just as likely to inspire bastard-ism to great detriment as it is to benefit the masses through competition. We've seen it all, if you believe the news and history.
I mean to say that most monetary transactions are under-informed. A customer puts a scary and painful amount of trust in a business. I advocate great(er) (complete? near-complete?) transparency in (just about?) everything. Some of that could be additional legislation. I wonder how many producers and manufacturers would still put nutrition facts labels on their product if they weren't required to do so. I wonder also if we all would be willing to pay as much for things if we knew what the costs actually were. According to Apple's continued success, price isn't that important. Sick Apple burn.
I'm big on high-trust high-reward situations. A few sentences ago, I said customers trust their businesses too much. I said that because I don't believe the reward is equally high.
I think multifamily dwellings are the way of the future, but everyone has to be on board with that idea for it to work. Hypothetically, new building costs should be less if they require less land and public utilities installations are shared. But what's all over the news and TV? Having your own separate, inefficient spot on Earth is part of the American Dream. The part of our culture that pushes us away from collaboration and cooperation is just wasteful. Rural areas are poor and expensive to maintain. 'Local' grocery stores suck. Aldi saves lives. 'Small business' is not necessarily good business.
Culture, or the idea that any small number of things could ever describe an entire population, is itself an unsubstantiated assumption. We are the population individually, and I don't interact with 'most people'. I try to keep vague sweeping generalizations out of my head, but I do think we want enough in common to continue the conversation toward eliminating dissonance for good.
I'm sure too.
I want to know what you think of my editing here. I think you know what I'm saying. Tell me if I'm wrong, please. I didn't rearrange any words; I only omitted some things in between.
What is progress? What are the goals of our evolution as a people?
This is the essence of capitalism, and the reason why I endorse it. Of course, under close examination, the idea of progress exists in every system. The difference is merely vocabulary.
Which implementation, and how do you judge it to have failed? What do you believe the goals of economic and political systems are (or should be)? Socialism is merely inefficient. The same is true of democracy—but democracy is a good word, and socialism is a bad word, because those words are used with different agendas.
I think this contradicts itself. Progress could bridge the divides.
Premise 1: Your ideas are the result of experience.
Premise 2: Experience can be shared.
Premise 3: Two people with the same ideas agree.
Conclusion: Everyone can agree.
This already happens in a lot of ways. We probably have the same ideas about what numbers are and how to use them, what a cat looks like, and whether or not water is good for your health. Why not everything else? Our individual experiences are seldom challenged if they're even shared in the first place. Enough people keep to themselves and find a righteousness in their isolation. After you learn a language, you stop learning. Suddenly, because you no longer need others to explain and/or do everything for you, you know everything. This is true especially when you have even a small amount of personal experience to reinforce your lone opinion. When you do listen to someone else, it's only because you accepted their understanding. Remember when you knew nothing and believed everyone? I do. I still do, a little.
Maybe it's a lie orchestrated to get me to part with my money. Maybe it's a scared person doing what they think they have to for survival. Any truth exists in what we all agree on, because when we all agree on something, it's true.
Now, about the forcing people to part. What constitutes force? What's the difference between teaching and indoctrination? Like good and bad, the case is normally 'for whom'? Life is arbitrary, and an infinite number of different rule sets could all be internally consistent and therefore valid.
"The world does not agree." True. That's not what you wrote, but that's all I can read.
For 
Aragonn's sake, I made this separate response for you. I tend to leave a lot of text sitting here until I'm done, and it was one big post before.
I'm glad other people are willing and interested in reading our conversations.
I prefer to think of it as a collective pursuit of understanding.
I judged socialism (TRUE socialism) to have failed with the fall of the USSR and the continued decline of socialist states that have not liberalized and continue down the Marxist path. What constitutes forcing people? Your statements about possibility make sense, but remember, the things that have always united and divided people in the past are their culture and race. And we live in an incredibly diverse world, finding common ground among all these peoples would be an impressive feat. So while I admit it is perhaps not impossible, it would be pretty difficult.
And forcing people implies BELIEVE OR DIE system of government, like North Korea. And by “bad idea” I mean that the great majority of people would live in fear, so this hypothetical utopia would appear real on the surface, but with people living in fear, agreeing with everyone only because the have to, would in reality not be a utopia.
Final point, you say sharing experiences can unite people and I agree, but typically people have more dividing them than uniting them. Take India and the US for example. Both are currently classified as “conservative” but their forms of conservatism are very different. An American conservative believes in progress through personal endurance and a small government to ensure that they have a clear shot at prosperity. India on the other hand is conservative in the sense that it refuses to abounding its Hindu caste system that actually prohibits progress. The only thing that these two groups have in common would be their belief that government shouldn’t change. Sorry if this is a little rambling, I’m typing on a phone :P
Textbook conservatism. The status quo appeals to everyone who thinks they're at least okay. If enough people are okay, they have something to lose from change. The fear of change leads to apathy and the reins of power are kept out of the hands of the complacent/contented majority. Though, about caste systems, I wonder how bloody revolution hasn't extinguished them (caste systems) from history. Technology makes it too easy for people to organize themselves into powerful movements nowadays. A quick search reveals that the formal caste system has been weakened/undone by legislation, but rules do not equal reality.
Are you kidding me? I like having stuff to read. Someone is taking time to read and respond to something I wrote? That's a small honor. Everyone has their lives and NationStates is such a small part of them, so to have that extra time given freely (since I can't force anyone to do so) is something I am always grateful for. Even if I don't like what I read—no one likes feeling wrong, bad, incorrect, misunderstood, etc.—conversation is always a good thing. I don't make a habit of thanking other people; I just express that gratitude as I feel it, and I do often.
The more I read, the more I think communism is a mistake. It's the mistake a population makes in response to severe inequality and mistreatment by the wealthy and powerful minority. Who would've thought of communism the way Marx did in any other place but Russia? Things have to be a certain kind of bad to advocate class warfare.
It might be that the only thing I have to do is convince people that they have more uniting them than dividing them.
I assume it will be. Regardless of difficulty, I think that's my goal in life. I would be fulfilled if I could see the world working together for a common gain, instead of common gain being a side effect of individual interest.
The real wacky part is how easy it is to say/write like that, and how easy it is to imagine, but how very not-happening it is. I'm a nobody, casually talking about changing the world. I sound like a crazy person, even to me.
I agree its pretty easy to believe in something like that but hard in reality. To my knowledge, there has never been an attempt to unite the whole world diplomatically as one nation. How exactly would you go about doing this?
True, discussion leads to compromise, and compromise is supposed to benefit all.
You should think it was a mistake. Installing communism cost millions of lives, and more millions perished under Stalin's rule. Hundreds were wrongfully imprisoned in the US out of fear they were communists. And actually, Marx was German, he wrote his book while staying in London, and thought the revolution would never come to Russia due to the illiteracy of the general populous and their isolation from the rest of Europe. However it's pretty obvious he was wrong.
On a lighter note, happy thanksgiving everyone!
Why does making everyone hypersmart decrease health and lifespan?
Hello, is anyone here? I'm finally back!
Did I ever forget completely? I can't actually remember. But in this case I haven't. It's been a combination of school, exhaustion, and family drama - pretty much par for the course. As much as I want to keep the RP going, I find that a lot of the time I can't bring myself to do much with it, despite it serving as a great distraction given how much thought I put into the storylines. I've finally begun writing the next post! But what basically happened is my niece is almost 16, and she wants to come live with my uncle, but her parents don't want that and are willing to fight dirty. How does this relate to me? Aside from the fact that I'm going to have to choose a side and thus become an enemy of half the family I have left, there's now also the risk of police involvement and my uncle being kicked out of his house, leaving me with nowhere to go... It's a big effing mess, and this time it's worse than usual. It;s the culmination of years of tension, and all the while I feel as useless as ever.
So nothing new under the sun, really.
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