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The Distraction of the 10/10/10 Performance


Rebounder

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Ladies and Gentlemen of Bob:

Today, hundreds of Bob's citizens watched, their hearts heavy with hope, as Jim Bob the Glorious made the heavily anticipated "10/10/10" announcement. I was one among this crowd, but I had hardly camped out in the town square to be close to the stage. Rather, I was in the back of the crowd, looking on the scene skeptically. However, I, in mimicry of the rest of the throng of Bob's citizens in attendance, could not help but feel the faintest glimpse of hope. Maybe, I thought, maybe today would be special despite my doubts.

As I awaited the announcement, I could not help but reflect on the causes of the palpable anticipation that permeated the air at the event and feel some degree of revulsion. As you, dear reader, undoubtedly know, Planet Bob has slipped into an era of deep stagnation, caused by the fear which has left the most influential leaders of Bob mortified. This fear, shared by the most prominent alliances of our time, is simply the fear of loss of status that may result from any attempt to gain more power over other alliances. This fear of failure is comparable to the fear of a bashful schoolboy who does not approach an attractive girl because he fears the embarrassment of being rejected by her. It is because this lack of confidence exists on Bob that we have entered a period that hardly differs from the Pax Pacifica- a Pax Pluribus, if you will.

Under normal circumstances, I would, rather than feeling anger toward the frightened leaders of Bob for this period of stagnation, feel only a contempt for such leaders and simply chide them for not taking a more active role in the advancement of their alliances. However, these leaders took power by what they convinced the populous was an upheaval of the planet's power structure and, upon taking the reins, found collaborating and forming a dominant structure to be far too convenient. And that, dear friends, is why throngs of citizens waited with much anticipation for the "10/10/10" announcement; they felt as if, at last, "Karma's" promise of liberty in Planet Bob would finally be fulfilled.

Instead the 10/10/10 announcement turned out, to me, to be a frustrating disappointment. Boldly, these 10 alliances, in their joint announcement, lamented the perils caused by the current dominant political bloc of alliances, of which the "10" are members, and claimed to have a solution

We, the 10 alliances of 10.10.10, have gathered together to fight the single greatest threat to Bob. This growing menace, created by the tangled web, controlled by the treaty, and masters of us all must be destroyed.

However, the announcement merely turned out to be the commencement of a simple game. There was no societal change, no broad declarations, simply a childish game to be played only among the ten mentioned alliances.

Why is this so objectionable to me? Because the ten alliances, Athens, NpO, UPN, GATO, FAN, RnR, Fark, Sparta, WTF (who is, admittedly, an outlier of neutrality) and FoK, seem to think that the populous is so gullible that this simple game is enough to appease our desire for a freer Bob. They seem to honestly believe that with simply a display of willingness to play a fun little game, the populous' discontent with their cowardice will be simply swept under the rug. Admittedly, this deception may work; the announcement was certainly hailed strongly by the masses. Nevertheless, I like to believe that many others see what I see: a publicity stunt to distract the masses from the real problems that exist because of the cowardice of those in power.

This is simply my warning to those who use the current collaborative power structure to exist peacefully and prevent all alliances outside of the structure from thriving: We are not fools. Soon, all of Planet Bob will see that you are its ruin, and you will be swept away by the tidal wave that is the will of the masses.

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I think you may be reading to much into it. I think that these ten alliances truly are just bored. But you are right in that it was overhyped, and unless you're directly involved you're not going to care who wins.

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Reading far too much into it. It was never intended to be any more than a bit of bloodsport, a way to relieve some mild stress and have some fun with either the fighting or some betting. If you were hoping for salvation, I'm afraid you were ever looking in the wrong place.

In my opinion, we need to get out of the rut of needing a major world war to spark change. If every time we went to war, we have to gauge whether or not we have the greater half of the entire aligned world on our side, it puts a bit of a damper on making war to prove a smaller point. Alliances are the smallest units of relevant political power, rather than nations, and it's been trending towards people needing to be in blocs to be relevant. When your alliance's connections are more important than your message, that signals something fundamentally wrong, I think.

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I think you may be reading to much into it. I think that these ten alliances truly are just bored. But you are right in that it was overhyped, and unless you're directly involved you're not going to care who wins.

I think you misunderstood. I do not mean to imply that the 10/10/10 announcement was an open conspiracy by CnG/SF or any affiliated alliances; I simply think it is a reult of the pressures on the "New Hegemony" to fulfill its duties to provide less boring structure than existed in the Pacifican Hegemony. Thus, feeling the boredom facing CN, and realizing they have an obligation to end that boredom, the 10 alliances who participate in this sport felt a need to take some action. Since none of them would ever do anything to endanger themselves, they settled on this sport. Nonetheless, the 10 alliances are still part of the problem in CN, rather than the solution.

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