Cortath

Firstly, your understanding of Stalin is pretty poor. Stalin never proclaimed the glories of Emperors. Nor did he necessarily condone large state bureaucracies for their own sake. Secondly, I would strongly recommend reading some of the theoretical works on Francoism before you pass judgment. No. Francoism is the liberation of the unaligned from the chains of the chaos of nature and the barbarism of man.

First let me begin by saying I agree with what Vladimir has said: Francoism has its antecedents in many different ideologies. Perhaps Francoism on "that other world" could be said to be more Marxist influenced, but I do not believe the same can be said of modern Francoism. Modern Francoism's relationship to Marxism is more in sharing the methodology and processes of Marxism as a scientific philosophy. That is, Karl Marx was noted in calling his philosophy "scientific socialism" to distinguish himself from the less organized Utopian school of the likes of Owens, Saint-Simon, Fourier, etc., etc., whose ideas were not explicitly based in the material realities of society. In that sense, Francoism is like Marxism in that it is scientific. Where Marxism and Francoism depart is on content. Marx's/the Marxist analysis of society is one where there exist two classes, two classes that are distinguished from one another because they have different relationships to the means of production. There are no "classes" as such on Planet Bob. I could discuss why there were classes in that "other place," but this is not the appropriate forum for such a discussion.

Blacky seems terribly confused as to what "loyalty" and "homogeneity" are. All alliances demand loyalty, and all alliance demand homogeneity to the extent that you cannot be wishing the destruction of your alliance. If homogeneity means that everyone has to have as their ultimate goal the betterment of the New Pacific Order, then yes, we are homogenous. What it does not mean is that everyone has to think that we get to that more perfect Order the same way. I have disagreements with my colleagues all the time on how to better the Order, but none of us are less loyal because of it. We disagree on the means to an end we all believe in: the Order.

I would add to Comrade Vladimir's post this one addition about "democracy." One of the problems of democracy is that some people seem to have a certain, shall we say, emotional attachment to the idea, whatever it may be or whatever form it may make itself manifest. Such an emotional and irrational attachment to a form of government hurts an alliance, because it forces members to cling to a form of government when that government may no longer serve them. Francoism demands that the old be discarded if it does not keep the chaos of nature and barbarism of man from encroaching on the isle of Order that is the successful alliance.

This has been covered again and again. The unaligned have freedom to do nothing. The purpose of the NPO is to remove a nation from the slavery of the unaligned.

And I baked cookies this evening, though I didn't eat them. Is that permitted?

I think you have it mixed up... Babies a la cru and kittens six feet under.

Hail GATO! It is good to see this thread by the AC.

But it's so much fun!

I speak for the Technology Corps of the New Pacific Order when we say that we are disappointed that Vox wasn't interested in our sundry dealings this week. I suppose one of our several hundreds transactions this week wasn't enough to warrant news this week.

Why? We protect the Red Sphere. We protect the Red Sphere from 1 nation, from 10 nations, from 100 nations, from a thousand nations. It doesn't help red nations who are being attacked if we have to "wait" for some marauding force to gain some nebulous critical mass. Devildogs hurt red nations. We protect red nations. These people are Devildogs, and they want to come back. May admin have mercy on their souls, for we shall have none.

If you want to make an inquiry of the NPO, my response still stands: diplomacy has never been carried out on these forums. Private channels ftw.

That your democratically elected officials did not inform you is not my problem. It's never been my business to interfere with the internal governance or politics of GATO. If any member of GATO wants to ask me what my goals are, they can ask and I will answer.

While you were in GATO, I made my thoughts known to the democratically elected GATO government of what I, in my capacity as being responsible for economics in GATO, expected of them.

What I think some people who are calling for change are failing to recognize is that whatever change you make, people will conform to the change and equilibrium will establish again. The problem with online games such as this is that they are unchanging. You can change the world, but the powers in the world will adapt to meet those changes. There will be a period of change and adaptation and then an equilibrium will be established again. So with any change proposed in this thread.

This whole thread amazes me. I like it though. This really just shows the ludicrous nature of the Vox argument. I have never been on a forum that didn't have a "trash" forum or some sort of forum where you can delete stuff to. And let me tell you, the ones of the forums I admin are chock full of threads: threads from bots that usually advertise products to increase various parts of my body, duplicate threads, double posts, and things of that nature. If Vox wants to keep on making the argument, go for it. I've known the NPO from its founding on a distant planet so long ago to the present. I've known it from the inside and from the outside and I don't believe any of its forum processes or practices are any different from any other forum I've been on.

No. Requests by foreign powers on a public forum for the workings of our foreign policy will met by evasive answers. GATO knows what we expect of them, and that's all that matters. Pardon my frankness, but the rest of the world doesn't, in this regard.

These aren't the appropriate forums for such a discussion on what GATO still needs to develop.

Certain types of development require qualitative rather than quantitative assessments. Much of GATO's remaining development remains political, which requires a qualitative assessment.

I apologize. Let me be more clear: much of GATO's culture was positive, survived and remains, but a great deal of GATO's culture was not productive towards reconstruction. I don't mean that as a euphemism, but rather that many GATOans did not want to participate in the reconstruction of GATO. Many left, and GATO was made stronger because of it.

Unfortunately, like in GATO too, there are still those who hold the old grudges. Persons like Comrade Corinan, whom I respect, are nevertheless in the minority, I can happily say. I would like to think that all of my comrades at the NPO who have come over to GATO hold nothing but mutual respect and admiration for those GATO members who have taken upon themselves the great task of rebuilding a mighty alliance. No one said that the task of GATO and the NPO would be easy, nor did anyone say it would be swift. The condition that GATO was in at the beginning of the surrender left it militarily, economically, politically and culturally destroyed. GATO was not built in a day; it was not destroyed in a day, and no one thought it could be rebuilt in a day.

Something that people seem to frequently neglect over this OOC/IC divide issue is that you have to be responsible for your actions. If I say OOC that I want you to die, people aren't going to like me, OOC, or IC. Tough. People can say whatever the heck they want, but you have to deal with the consequences if some people don't like what you said, IC or OOC.

As someone who's spent their entire career in Pacifica being told that the vagaries of selling and buying technology is super boring, I'm glad to find that Vox agrees with me that it's terribly interesting for the second week in a row.

That is false. You are and have always been permitted to petition the Emperor. No one "begged" to get it back. I petitioned the Emperor to reinstate it and it was. As I said above, you are always permitted to petition things. I have made petitions privately and publicly in the past and they have been accepted and rejected, but never without politeness either way.

That is simply and utterly false. The Tech Corps was never outsourced to MCXA.