For years now there have been constant complaints about what have colloquially become known as 'curbstomp' wars -- that is, wars where a dozen alliances take on just one or two alliances and destroy them without breaking a sweat. Hitherto I had never given this much thought, being as it is the sort of faux moral outcry we're used to on Planet Bob from political opponents -- despicable when it's the enemy, glorious comeuppance when it's a friend. But with the current political ground unsteady a
Recent events surrounding GATO have been met with celebration from both involved parties, as well as from numerous uninvolved parties, and rightly so. But it has been equally interesting to see the identities of those opposed to unfolding events: those who have spent the most time calling for them. The reason for this is, on the surface, inexplicable. Why would one call for X to happen, see X happen, and then denounce X happening? Such a contradiction baffles the mind. But going under the s
The recent discussion on Francoism and communism sent my mind back to early 2007, when one EuroSoviets wrote an analysis of Planet Bob from a Marxist perspective. Of course, this was aimed squarely at the then would-be communist alliances, which based themselves on a (often a downright reactionary) utopian idealism that grated on the nerves of a number of leftward-inclined Pacificans. But in going back over his essay today it is striking how similar it is to modern Francoism, despite being wri
Of Polls and Politics
How often do we see polls, threads and radio shows asking that ultimate of Bobian questions: who is the most powerful [wo]man on the planet? What follows is a rush of gut-instinctual and political nominations, with little thought going into what the question actually means. Thus in order to provide an answer we must first investigate the question: what is power and where does it derive from?
Our focus will necessarily be on the latter half of that question, but we canno
A quip of mine has come up a lot recently: that what is in one's objective national interest cannot be determined by a national polling. Or, to put it another, more direct way: just because you want to do X does not mean that X is in your objective self-interest. There are various examples I use to demonstrate this, such as a lemming wanting to run off a cliff or a mental patient wanting to bang their head against the wall. Clearly neither of these is in the individual's self-interest from an
How often it is that things are reduced to a matter of 'common sense'. It is usually used as a synonym for 'obvious', but its use goes much deeper than that, attempting to stigmatise the one supposedly lacking this sense and brush aside anything more nuanced as intellectual claptrap that flies in the face of what the common man knows to be true. But how does he know it?
Almost by definition common sense is unanalysed, unconsidered assumption, learned by assertion from past generations and pee
A Crisis of Memory
After nearly 30 months it seems that this one war remains the most intriguing of them all. For the old League mob and their younger patriots it is the glimmer of hope that the Order isn't invincible, while for the Orders it is the moment when they faced down the entire world and came out triumphant.
The accepted result of this war seems to move in circles. Immediately after the Great Patriotic War, with the Orders on radio silence, it became common sense among the opposing
History is a strange thing. Through time it takes on new meanings to new people as facts get clouded or lost and the atmospheric context dissipates with the passing on of eye-witnesses. The more time that passes, the more distant and abstract the history becomes. The result? In most cases the moment is passed and lost forever; but the big moments remain in the memories of those that they comes into contact with. Unfortunately, as I outlined, it never survives intact, and through the process
"When you look for a long time into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
There was recently a short debate on the place of morality in the international sphere where I argued that morality was unique to each individual alliance, a result of their particular socio-political system and place in the world. In other words, ones morality is derived from their perspective, with the salient cause being their choice of alliance. Of course, you could nitpick at various detai
