Undead Calls From the People
Entry posted by Ghostlin
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The approach was by helicopter. I had wondered why exactly by helicopter, but looking over the landscape that was 'changed' since the War against the Continuum, there didn't seem enough to have two pylons on top of each other.
The helicopter landed, and I had wondered, if Vox Populi had enough time and money to broadcast their propaganda, couldn't they have rebuilt at the very least log cabins? Lean-tos? Something? I did notice one forboding tower, which had escaped bombardment and went over my notes again. Schattenmann was infamous, espically the stunt where he committed suicide and then came back from the dead.
"Hell," I mused as I got out, "sounds like this guy missed his chance. He shouldn't of helped start a revolution, but rather a religion." I was then escorted in. The place was drafty, but as we shook hands, my gracious host offered me brandy. I then got down to business.
1) Tell me about a little above where you’ve been in CN. A lot of my readers know your story, but reiterate it for those who don’t know.
I created my nation on the Fark.com greenlight, but I didn't read the accompanying thread so I didn't know there was a Fark alliance and didn't join. I "played" unaligned from then until August just before the Unjust War when I joined GOONS. Before I joined GOONS I was so ignorant I thought you could only buy 190 infra per day, I never bought tech because it was too expensive, and I never read the forums at all, and I had no inkling of the game's political complexities until GOONS got attacked. I was still in the Lemonparty academy where we didn't have squads, so Mayki and In_Spades, who were also in academy, organized some and we fought for a few weeks; the only enemies I remember are Shahenshah and Sunstar who've both made a lot of progress politically in IRON and ODN since then (Sunstar still has our battle reports--nerd tongue.gif ).
After Slayer ran out of money and GOONS wouldn't give him any things got ugly for GOONS on the CN forums over Error404's idiocy. Crapolia attacked Slayer with a reason like "Here's your 18 mil" and Alastor told everyone to get out while they could, so, CN veteran expert that I was, I went to the Alliances forum and applied at the first alliance at the top of the forum: ROFL. ROFL was this result of the GOLD disbandment (or whatever happened to them after NPO stomped them) and they made me Minister of War since I had this war guide. DarkMistress had sort of half-released me to ROFL but was still keeping me as a PoW and since the end of the war I had started posting on the forums a lot more. One day I read this idiotic thread about ~ so I started hailing this little Duncan King alliance ICON that bandwagoned me and saying that ICON was better than IRON since the ICON bandwagoner anarchied me before IRON. Thats the first time alliances started threatening to ZI me if I didn't shut up and as you might guess it's never worked since.
ROFL grew to about 15 before we merged with Purge 2.0 which was also pretty much a result of GOLD's disbandment. UberSpion and a bunch of malcontents left over the merger so I ended up Minister of War in Purge too. TPF was Purge's protector and they didn't like that Oreo had sent 3 mil to Starfox while he was fighting Rebel_Virginia, so he started trying to impose a viceroy on Purge. One triumvir, Comrade_Korey, went nuke rogue then and spammed Purge to disband, but Slayer promised to ZI anyone that left the Purge AA so myself and the MoFA, Kharn, made a new forum and spammed everyone not to leave. Then on the night that GPA got attacked I was drunk and when DarkMistress justified IRON's involvement in the war by saying "we're just following our treaty" I said "I heard that at Nuremburg" and that got turned into "Schattenmann called DarkMistress a NAZI." Well, TPF dropped our treaty likkety-split and our nukes started getting spied away so I disbanded Purge--after all the point was for the members not to get attacked. I haven't had a drop while on the forums or IRC since, and DarkMistress and I play nice now (I think she's hot don't tell her though)
After Purge, I joined Browncoats because I've got a manboner for ChairmanHal and he was Prime Minister there. I figured on just taking a vacation there and going back to login-taxes-infra-collect-logout, but one day I noticed that CIS had sanctioned banned member on Black, so I went to the Black Conclave forum and raised holy Hell about it and generally pissed all in CIS's Cheerios until they threatened Browncoats with war because I was right and they couldn't make me shut up; they were especially pissed when I posted this smarmy fake apology about it instead of a real one. It got really awesome when CIS's ally Obsidian announced they were going to run a second bloc senator while I was suspended from the Conclave forum. Obsidian's guy elborrador trolled me in the announcement so since I couldn't post I spammed the entire Obsidian alliance to vote for OBR's senator and the goofballs actually did it. A couple weeks later I was elected Browncoats Minister of Foreign Affairs (I was tired of Defense) a few weeks before the GATO war. GATO were royal morons about the UPS bloc and senate seats, and hadn't told any of their allies that they'd breached their surrender terms, so I cancelled our UPS signature a few days before we knew they were going to get attacked. However, we were still going to get dragged into the war due to our MDP with IAA, so along with Zzzptm, BDC's President, I devised the infamous Shadow Conspiracy which you can read all about on the CN wiki.
After a couple weeks on BDC's PZI list I joined TOP. I had never been in an alliance that was tied into the MDP web like TOP, and I didn't know jack about TOP itself. I just got off th PZI list then thought "what alliance have I never trolled and has a lot of GOONS in it?" Biggity-bam, TOP. I had fun in TOP, but they've got a very dichotomized government and membership, and in the end it was better for me to leave than continually butt heads with the conservatives.
At the time I left TOP, I was generally over CyberNations altogether. GOONS had disbanded a couple weeks earlier and I looked around and decided I really had nothing and no one left to play for, so I posted a goodbye thread on Manic Monday (which is also on the CN wiki); however, I had active aids so I had to wai 10 days to actually delete.
2 days after I deleted, some jokers attacked Hyperion and some other jokers who were too afraid to use their CBs for the past year suddenly grew the guts to attack NpO. I wanted to troll the war, so I made another nation, and then I got asked by Doitzel or Starfox (or both) to sign this Vox Populi thing they were doing--it was going to be this all-stars goodbye world tour of trolling so I said "Hell yeah."
Boom. Welcome to the present.
2) You made a memorable goodbye thread and now you’re in Vox. What made you decide to come back to CN after Black Monday?
Oh I guess I should have read all the questions before I started. See above. When I deleted my nation I was placed in the banned members mask, so I couldn't post, then the war happened and I wanted to screw around on the forums while they were fighting, so I created a new nation and commenced PMing mods I saw in the last active users list like a madman to unban me because I was so anxious to get in on the action; I think I PMed Justitia, Callahan, Atlas (newb mod couldn't unban me but I love him), and one or two others. PMing mods is hilarious I love them.
3) Some would say the side of the war Vox fought on was as equally guilty as the Pacifica side whom you fight against rhetorically and weapon wise. What would you say to them?
I guess by "rhetorically" you mean in terms of the past actions and affiliations of our more visible members like Doitzel, electron_sponge and others (some have named me but I was never in a position to affect or effect much); my mask on GOONS's ooc forum was even reduced after some goon in TOP posted that I was "helping electron_sponge" (you'll note e_s joined after we formed like everyone else so technically he was helping me). I say that's retarded on its face. e_s and Doitzel played very large roles in creating the atmosphere of CN--a year ago. Doitzel and e_s did a 180 and started trying to dismantle the current atmosphere--this year. Everyone that formed Vox Populi and everyone that joined after made an abot-face or vocalized how they had always felt. I always felt that the way things were done after UjW are bollocks and said so, e_s and Doitzel looked at what the fruits of their labour are and changed their mentality and actions.
As for our weaponry, we are availed of the same weapons that our enemies are. When we declared war on GGA and Valhalla, we used our nations and some rudimentary propaganda (<Bob_Sanders>did you Polar really too stupid to read). When kingzog noticed he was in Red senate range, we decided to run him and as soon as he accumulated votes he was sanctioned on every sphere but grey, brown, and yellow. Because we were sanctioned aggressively, kingzog posted that he only wanted a peaceful seat on Red if NPO would agree, but NPO sanctioned him immediately so he began sanctioning back. After sanctions were used as a weapon of war on us, kingzog began using sanctions only against NPO nations as the best weapon of war at his disposal. After VE and GGA discovered we were running a Green senator, they also flipped out; I don't know if Cylon ever sanctioned anyone on Green but from DJ's shrieks you'd think he sanctioned half the team.
I could continue being long-winded but I imagine I'm not as interesting to everyone as I am to myself so I'll wrap this question up: Vox Populi claims a more grounded, balanced philosophy to power on Planet Bob, and that has a moral edge, but Vox Populi doesn't claim moral superiority, just a better moral alternative. We're at war and we'r enot going to roll over like GPA to look like martyrs and saints. We're dishing out the same blood and vinegar that we've been served by the tyrants that we're fighting. Look how we've all adapted and suffered over the past year, building our own mental and physical strongholds in longsuffering, and look how our enemies scream and whine when they are given the same treatment we've been given. It's laughable.
4) Some would say Vox has no right to try to restrict morality. What would you say to them?
Morality is a means of control. Currently, it is wielded by the alliances and individuals within the power superstructure, but not as the burning double-edge sword that morality should be, only as a one-edged scimitar that never faces the wielders.
Vox Populi, then, has as much right as anyone to present our own morality to the world, and to act according to it. We have signed the ZI Peace Pact because PZI/EZI are asinine and immoral. We do not sanction nations that we're not at war with or that don't pose a threat to us because that is immoral (I was once sanctioned at 2k NS as a "political rogue" what the devil is that?). We do not allow banned rerolls into our ranks (we had to ban Soviet Sindorin from our forums) because that is immoral. We don't use players' nations after they quit because that is immoral.
If we are going to embody and fight based on an alternate morality, then we must educate our opposition and bystanders as to what that morality is, that is only just for them.
5) What would you say is the best and worst thing(s) about CN?
The thing I most enjoy about CN is posting on the forum and annoying people that can't do anything about it. The worst thing about CN are all the ignorant, dumb, lazy masses of alliance members who have no idea what their alliances are about and don't care to know.
6) If there was an alliance that was part of the hegemony you respect, who would it be and why?
I had a respect for OG until OG attacked Vox Populi because one of their nations was flying "GGA" and got attacked by us (imagine! someone wearing the wrong AA caught up in a war!) Reyne Mordigan has since repeatedly and loudly belied her own ignorance and complete lack of experience over and over and over again on the forums and in private. I still had a lot of respect for TOP even after I left on bad terms until they went to war against NpO in the same sort of no-CB (or year-old CB) war that the membership had been moaning about. Looking down the line of the rest, I'd have to say a pre-emptive "no". As part of the power superstructure, alliances are inherently doing things I can't respect every day.
If I had to pick one, it would be NoV. They were part of the superstructure doing the superstructure's little dance, and when their former allies came knocking they didn't back down.
7) If you could discuss with your enemies in a calm, rational forum, what would you say to them?
I'd say to them what I've been saying for a while now: Drop the idiotic treaties, act like men, do your own business and dirty work. All of my enemies are my enemies because they are co-dependent prisoners.
8) If you were to be let go off the ZI lists tomorrow, where would you go? Why?
If I were let off ZI lists tomorrow I would probably reroll and play chump in some alliance without registering on the CN forums again. Then EphriamGrey would run my IP and start hounding me and I'd re-roll to Schattenmann and start kicking in teeth.
9) What do you think will happen if/when Vox wins?
Vox has won. As I've detailed in other threads and posts, every goal that we've set has been met except one: Purple senator. I do not count "dissolution or reoganization of the power superstructure" as a goal because while it is something we are actively working toward, it is not something we can affect ourselves, that is up to the chumps on the inside.
If the dissolution we hope for occurs, I think that we will see the things we decry stop happening, to the effect of: much lower rate of ZI and above listings, a resurgence of real political discourse and freedom, war on even footing (or drastically less slanted at least), greater rates of playership (less people deleting).
We don't want to see Moo hanging by a piano wire in the middle of a Francograd mob. We want to see Moo having to actually play this game. We dont' want to see Slayer immolated on the NoV front, we want to see real players able to put power-fat bullies in their place.
10) Do you have any other comments for the readers of this blog? Anything you’d like us to know about you specifically?
I want everyone to know that no matter how much fun they think it is to roll/curbstomp stillborn kittens like GPA, or incompetents like GATO, or "undesirables" (irony) like NoV there is more fun to be had. There is more fun to be had in the uncertainty and boldness of a world that has assumed the Vox Populi mentality of true leadership, qualified leaders, sovereign alliances, and sovereign minds.
Also, while Vox has been largely silent in public for the past month, we've been busy little bees. Look for some fresh material and announcements in the future. We're pulling together a few things, and one project that I'm particularly excited about because we think non-Vox readers will also enjoy it greatly.
With this, I bid my host adieu. Everyone is welcome to comment.
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