Pulling the plug

[nc1701]

I've spent over 2 years now in CN, and about 9 times that in RL. In this time I have experienced many things, from building my first nuke, to learning to driving a car, to seeing the election of Barack Obama, to learning how to differentiate trig functions. In this time, I steadily learn more about human beings, and one thing I have found is that the more self righteous a person is, the more they talk about honor, ethics, power, or justice the less they know about each of those things.

I watched an election unfold last year, where honor was the buzzword used to cover the candidate in a campaign which used slander as a campaign strategy. Is slandering your opponent and appealing to racial prejudice the honorable way to win? Listen to a speech of Hitler's or Osama Bin Laden's one day, and you will recognize the self righteous pride and confidence flowing through them, because they are so sure there path is the honorable one, and so they wrap themselves in honor and ethics, then pervert them freely for their own agenda. CN is no different.

In my time on CN I have made ethical claim, I have said EZI is wrong, I have said tech raiding is wrong... Yet as I matured I came to see the errors of my actions, I may find EZI to be distasteful but who am I to say it is wrong? I have learned that I am no moral God who can preach to the world the ethics they should follow, but I can make myself the best example I can be of whatever type of ethic I prescribe too, and I can choose my friends based on how they behave, and that finally brings me to the reason for making this thread. I have long based my actions on many things, certainly including greed, ambition, and anger, but one thing I have tried to do is to always keep my IC and OOC seperated and never allow my OOC feelings for a person cause me to support them IC when I should not. I look at people objectively, and have in the past turned on friends who chose to be unloyal or who tried to harm me. Those are always sad times, but a friend who cannot be trusted is an enemy, and all the more dangerous for being close to you. However for the last few months I have allowed my feelings to cloud my judgement and I have tacitly and directly supported Francesca of Renazia in a variety actions, which range from annoying, to treason and personal betrayal. I have not done any of this for my personal gain, I have not done it because I felt it was right, I have it because my judgement was clouded by personal feelings and my objectivity was nonexistant.

Sadly I am short on facts, but I am not proving a court case, I am spinning a story, of betrayal and hypocrisy. Should you choose not to belive it, then do not, but I have no motive to lie in this situation.

It all started in January, I was engaging in a political fight for my life inside the MCXA, I had resigned from the government in protest of various actions and talked with a number of supporters as I carefully prepared a smear campaign against an enemy of mine. Francesca saw my thread and took it upon herself to PM me, explaining how much she respected me and wanted to help me due to my mistreatment, and going on to offer that she had also suffered mistreatment at the hands of those I was now battling. I immediately saw a potential ally and took her under my wing and allowed her to join my group preparing for the next MCXA elections.

The birthing of TSO etc. is an entirely different issue and one I feel no need to delve into at this time, I shall merely state that for this time until early April Francesca was nothing, but a loyal friend and ally to me.

During our time in the MCXA post TSO Francesca steadily grew more and more radical, and became friends with the player Maxfiles. I did not care for him at first but at Francesca's urging I gradually accepted him and supported him to run in the government. Now they created a political party (against MCXA rules) which I chose to support though I was privy to little of their discussions. I did agree to support them in elections and they did work campaigning for me, but they sometimes concerned me with their radical support of VE, and willingness to ignore the workings of our government should it suit them. The most alarming case was when they came to me suggesting that after I was elected Chancellor we should wait until the eve of the Karma war, and then I should put up the other two Chancellors and non-cooperative high Council members up for impeachment (removing their powers until the end of the several day impeachment process) I quickly stomped that idea out as I felt it was just too excessive. I share it only as an example of what Francesca's ethics and honor were like, she was eager to corrupt the Democratic government of the MCXA so that she could violate treaties and bring us into war against the New Pacific Order. No doubt she wanted the same outcome I did, but I wanted it to be a Democratic decision and on many occasions I worked to create the type of support it would need to be arrived at Democratically (obviously I failed). But to put it simply I'm a !@#$%^& and I claim to be one, power hungry, greedy, and ambitious. Yet little miss ethics and honor was eager to go to extremes that made even me uncomfortable.

Now move a little further ahead on the eve of MCXA's elections Maxfiles betrayed Francesca and accused her of being a spy for Vox Populi. At Francesca's urging and request I jumped to her defense and made a massive public propaganda attack on Maxfiles. The end result of this was him conspiring with political opponents in MCXA get me removed from the alliance.

Now jump ahead about a month... Francesca publicly announces and celebrates her career as a Vox spy. I was furious, but I remembered our friendship and swallowed my anger and even publicly defended her. She never once apologized to me for so blatantly using me, or asked for my forgiveness, but for some reason I gave it to her.

Continue on in time... Francesca was constantly making incredibly stupid public displays and then when she was rightly attacked for them, she would ask me to defend her, which I would dutifully do each time. I'm sure all of you are aware of them, but if you care to search for threads started by Francesca you can easily find them. In this time she does nothing but wax on about honor and morals and ethics, even as she betrays VE, ads her (supposedly) sworn enemy NPO, and then suddenly does an about face and joins NPO to begin spouting their propaganda.

Well whatever her future may hold it won't be me. The spell has been broken, and I will never again allow myself to follow someone who so brazenly wraps themselves in intangible things like honor or ethics especially while ruthlessly going after anyone who annoys them and changes loyalties like new sets of clothes violating their own supposed principles on a daily basis without so much as a second thought. Shame I never got to say goodbye to my friend from last February and March, but whoever Francesca is today, she is no friend of mine.

Those most vocal about ethics, honor, or morals are those who have the fewest, remember this every time someone speaks, and when Francesca or Sarah Palin come and tell you about behaving ethically, laugh in their face.

tl;dr

If your attention span is so short you can't even read my OP you should quit CN and go play HALO.

[Iosif]

But Halo is such a bad game ):

[Lord Panda]

Hindsight is 20/20, huh?

Congratulations on making it to the clearing at the end of the path, and I hope all goes well for you.

[Nick1a]

Could this be nc1701's new law?

[mythicknight]

So who's up for some Team Slayer?

[Machiabelly]

Nice post NC1701, I don't know many of the principals involved, bvut I do know it hurts when someone you trust in this game turns out to be not at all as they appeared.

Don't let this make you unwilling to accept new friends, just let it make you careful.

[Lord Panda]

So who's up for some Team Slayer?

Can we play Rainbow Six Vegas 2 instead?

[Tromp]

Wow nc, you've gained my respect with this well thought out post! (Though that doesn't mean that much.)

Right spot on here too:

Continue on in time... Francesca was constantly making incredibly stupid public displays and then when she was rightly attacked for them, she would ask me to defend her, which I would dutifully do each time. I'm sure all of you are aware of them, but if you care to search for threads started by Francesca you can easily find them. In this time she does nothing but wax on about honor and morals and ethics, even as she betrays VE, ads her (supposedly) sworn enemy NPO, and then suddenly does an about face and joins NPO to begin spouting their propaganda.

Good luck to you.

(Please, treat CN as a game. Then it's always funny to see e-lawyers and moralists whining about something !@#$ty.)

[xoindotnler]

Feels good to hate your self?

Well good luck to you, I know some one is going to miss you o7.

Edited September 1, 2009 by xoindotnler

[Logan]

I am also disappointed in Francesca's lack of judgment as of late. So blinded by so called morals and ethics that she joined what she once sought to bring down.

[Big Z]

This is definitely an interesting post. It's really a sad state of the world when people will use ooc friendships to further IC goals but that's CN for you...

Also, HoI2>Halo

[Gopherbashi]

I am also disappointed in Francesca's lack of judgment as of late. So blinded by so called morals and ethics that she joined what she once sought to bring down.

I was quite surprised as well - I was hearing that joining the "evil imperialists" would be "such a betrayal of ideology" less than 24 hours before her rather remarkable about-face. Perhaps the new strategy is to destroy NPO from the inside, or at least make a few attention-seeking threads while trying.

[LJ Scott]

brb off to play halo.

[Francesca]

nc1701, this announcement hurts more than I can say. I would prefer to keep my comments to you about it private.

[Ivan III]

nc1701, this announcement hurts more than I can say. I would prefer to keep my comments to you about it private.

I would actually like to hear the other side of the story, there is one... right?

[Francesca]

I would actually like to hear the other side of the story, there is one... right?

Yes, there is. It's also no business of the CNF.

[Ivan III]

Yes, there is. It's also no business of the CNF.

And yet from what I see, you are in NPO now.... *Suspicious....*

[Marcus Guildenstern]

I respect you both in different ways. Still, like pretty much every other person in this world (and including myself of course), there are things to commend and maybe amend in both of you; the main thing I'd put in the latter column is that you both take this game a bit too seriously for my taste. I wouldn't let a little politicking ruin a pleasant enough relationship.

[Francesca]

I respect you both in different ways. Still, like pretty much every other person in this world (and including myself of course), there are things to commend and maybe amend in both of you; the main thing I'd put in the latter column is that you both take this game a bit too seriously for my taste. I wouldn't let a little politicking ruin a pleasant enough relationship.

I'm currently in the New Pacific Order, and nc1701 is in MK. I'd never have let that come between us, I don't take the game that far. People are nice enough OOC. I hope to resolve this with NC privately.

[Litha Riddle]

And yet from what I see, you are in NPO now.... *Suspicious....*

We can't help being irresistable

People either love us or love to hate us.

[Lord Panda]

We can't help being irresistable

People either love us or love to hate us.

Or find you guys mildly amusing, and then go off to our lives.

[Jerry Kellerman]

We can't help being irresistable

People either love us or love to hate us.

My gosh, is your avatar Paddington Bear? That makes me NPO

[Litha Riddle]

My gosh, is your avatar Paddington Bear? That makes me NPO

Why yes, it is Paddington Bear

Would you care for some marmalade sammiches?

[Bird of Passage]

The Bird turned his head to the ground.

In all honesty, I had wondered when this would occur. I could tell months ago that you were discontent with Francesca's direction. And she told me that you were gradually drawing away. Quite the saddening story.

Though I have been told stories regarding this by Francesca, I was not personally privy to any of the discussions or occurrences that you describe, and therefore I cannot make any judgment regarding your conclusions on her motives. I will admit that it is within her character to have manipulated the situation, and frankly, I oft encouraged her to do so, even if it meant breaking the MCXA's supposed "Democracy" (though, in all honesty, prohibiting political parties does not sound at all Democratic...but that is a discussion for another time). One must remember that this was the Time of the Hegemony. It was imperative for us all to rally or draw away as many entities from said Hegemony as possible, so that it could be more easily overthrown. However, I do not believe that she was as conniving, callous, or malicious in her practices as you describe...she has always valued her close friends above all else, this being a fact that I, myself, can attest to.

I agree in general with your views on morals and ethics. It is better to be much quieter in regard to such things, and such is why I act with few words spoken. Until the Moldavi Doctrine sees a more widespread following, or unless one is part of a movement such as Vox Populi, attempting to garner the support of the public is not a wise course of action.

I can only dispute a couple of points, one being your anger at Francesca revealing herself as a former Voxian. I was under the impression that she had informed you of this fact earlier...how much earlier, I do not know. I do remember that you were bothered by such a public display...but I cannot see you being particularly surprised at it. As to her choice to join Pacifica, that is something that she has considered since before forming the Crimson Guard, perhaps even while the conflagration of the Karma War was still raging across Digiterra. This mindset, I believe, stemmed both from her positive interactions with various Pacificans, and her increasing dislike for the Karma Coalition (something that was shared between many of us, I think). I am sure that there are other factors as well. But do not be so quick to assume that it was some sudden decision made for the purpose of destroying Pacifica from the inside-out, or some other belligerent notion. If it had been, I would have literally feasted upon her ear to the point that she would not want to hear words, in any language, for a month. I am glad that that never became a necessity. She may place too much emphasis on morals, honor, ethics, and what have you, but she is not devoid of these things.

I mean not to spark an argument, and I wish only to provide some clarification. I can only hope that Francesca and nc resolve this dispute.

The Bird bowed low, and sat down on the grass, his left elbow rested on his knee, his knuckle supporting his chin. His eyes watched the discussion unfold with what could only be an intense interest.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Bird of Passage

[Doitzel]

In my time on CN I have made ethical claim, I have said EZI is wrong, I have said tech raiding is wrong... Yet as I matured I came to see the errors of my actions, I may find EZI to be distasteful but who am I to say it is wrong? I have learned that I am no moral God who can preach to the world the ethics they should follow, but I can make myself the best example I can be of whatever type of ethic I prescribe too, and I can choose my friends based on how they behave, and that finally brings me to the reason for making this thread. I have long based my actions on many things, certainly including greed, ambition, and anger, but one thing I have tried to do is to always keep my IC and OOC seperated and never allow my OOC feelings for a person cause me to support them IC when I should not. I look at people objectively, and have in the past turned on friends who chose to be unloyal or who tried to harm me. Those are always sad times, but a friend who cannot be trusted is an enemy, and all the more dangerous for being close to you. However for the last few months I have allowed my feelings to cloud my judgement and I have tacitly and directly supported Francesca of Renazia in a variety actions, which range from annoying, to treason and personal betrayal. I have not done any of this for my personal gain, I have not done it because I felt it was right, I have it because my judgement was clouded by personal feelings and my objectivity was nonexistant.

You realise that you are, right now, spilling IC over into OOC areas and blurring the distinction between the two constructs even further? You're attacking Francesca's character over IC politics in an OOC forum where it's going to remain because you mentioned that you are always careful to separate IC and OOC. That's painfully ironic, and very annoying to those of us who do try to walk the line.

I wish you had gone about this differently, and incidentally this very issue is why I'm abstaining from participating in discussion of Francesca's weekly seminars (though I confess I occasionally give in to the temptation to post, it's usually brief).