The Recurring Nightmare
Eight months ago, during the balmy spring month of April, a war took place to rid the world of a brutal and oppressive world superpower – the Hegemony. Although the war was started by the forces of Hegemony, the great support for Karma was at least in part down to a wish for a fairer, more moral world, free from an overbearing all-powerful cabal of sanctioned alliances. Amid the nuclear fire and destruction of people, property and entire nations, the political sky was cleared and the international sphere awoke from its nightmare to a bright new dawn. Not for over two years had the choking fog of unipolarity been truly absent.
And yet, in the five months of freedom, the world has not changed as much as we might have imagined on that exciting April day. Small alliances are still finding their actions limited by fear, either tying themselves to a sanctioned protector or risking unprovoked attack – in place of the hegemonic Valhalla and GGA, we have the unrestricted NEW and Athens. Both of those raids resulted in some recompense to the raided alliance, but in the case of the ZDP the reparations were nominal only, and in the case of Ni, the reparations seemed to be mostly due to the forgotten treaty with M*A*S*H and the PR backlash, not any real recognition of wrong. Tech raiding continues at high levels.
And now, we see the beginning of a war which may spread to our own snow-white shores, which has echoes of the Hegemony through its very soul. A months-old exhibit of enemy action is produced, long after the action itself was aborted; the actual perpetrators of the action, being on the 'right side of the web', are pardoned and remain snugly embraced by the treaty web; war is brought to the door of an alliance without diplomacy, warning or an opportunity to explain their position; several alliances are brought to the table, creating a war as uneven as the most oft-cited examples of Hegemony abuse of power; and recently we are seeing baiting of TPF's allies by blood-hungry attackers, in a move reminiscent of One Vision baiting GATO's allies during that poorly justified war.
We are not yet seeing a Hegemony 2.0, the treaty web is still split into several distinct factions. But the actions of some of the powerful alliances in this multipolar world betray a bloodlust and an aggressive instinct that is as bad as the alliances of the Hegemony. Once again we may find ourselves drawn into a war started by a 'shoot first, ask questions later' class of alliance – this time, on what is likely to be our own side. The recurring nightmare of 2007 and 2008 – alliances living in fear of a large and abusive superpower, liable to be destroyed in war by overwhelming power – has returned, at least to the unconnected and to the ex-Hegemony. Only by resisting this trend can the cause of Karma truly be won.
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