Lord, I've Been Changed"I wish I could be brand new again."
This is one of the more plaintive longings that befalls men and women of middle agedness.
So maybe this is my mid-eLife-crisis. Call it what you want.
But I wish I could be brand new again.
And so I am.
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Ah, the glory of the browser game. I am not the first Citizen of the New World to seek new birth in the cleansing waters of a new Political Party. And I do mean “new birth”. I’m not talking about slapping a new tread onto an old tire… This isn’t a new coat of paint over a pockmarked and rotting drywall… This is not a rebuilt fuel pump replacement in a rusted ‘99 Ford Explorer.
I’ve been BORN AGAIN.
I went down to the river, and when my eBody emerged from its bath I was a neophyte member of the Socialist Freedom Party - that group I have had a secret love affair since literally my first days as a Federalist in 2009. I’m not making this up.
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Here’s the thing about being born again. The old is gone, the new has come.
You may look at me… at my avater and my stats and my friends list and my medals and my TP history and my inventory (oh! if you could only see my inventory!) and I look the same to you except for the more colorful and interesting SFP logo in the place where the benign R/W/B USWP thingy had been. I don’t really
look much different.
But true rebirth takes place in the heart… in the soul of a Citizen.
And so I do not want you to imagine this announcement of my candidacy for Country President as any kind of repeat of my former glories. I am not ashamed of my three terms as CP (and one as CP/D). I believe they are in the top tier in eUSA history. Wiping Canada. Wiping Spain. Enduring and loved social programs. Etc.
Instead, I would prefer that you view this announcement of my candidacy for Country President from the perspective that I am a brother of the Revolution. A true Socialist Freedom Party member.
And so this announcement of my candidacy for Country President is
just that. I want you to elect me - as if for the first time - as Country President. And because I am a Revolutionary Brother of the SFP, I am NOT asking you to elect me as Dictator.
I will serve as your President, but not as your Dictator.
Yes. GnilRaps 4 No Dictatorship.
Go ahead and shout it. GR4ND.
And it is.
To this end, if elected, I will personally fund a Revolution to overthrow our current Defensive Dictatorship (which I, in my former skin, played a key role - perhaps THE key role - in building). December will be a Dictatorship-Free month. What else would you expect from the Socialist Freedom Party than to return power to the proletariat?
What does a Dictatorship-Free eUSA look like in the current eRepublik milieu?1: Constant Vigiliance.Under the Revolutionary Presidency there will be a far more robust National Security Council. We will need to keep constant watch ingame as the threat of hostile Dictatorship will of course be always in the air. In order to respond to this unspoken threat, we must have around-the-clock watchers who are empowered to respond immediately if a threat is detected.
Yes, the Defensive Dictatorship provides the front lines of security that makes such vigilance unecessary. And that is the point entirely. In a GAME that improves for all of us when more of the people playing it are actually PLAYING IT, creating non-human systems to do the same job that can be done by gamers is precisely counter-productive. We are safer with a Defensive Dictatorship, I know this. But we are impoverished by the same thing that has made us safe.
And so under the
Constant Vigilance Doctrine, we believe that our nation becomes wealthier and more robust in activity and community and partnership and communication and social structure and mentorship and involvement… exactly what a healthy gaming environment needs.
2: Failsafe Fund.It is notable that Congress has achieved a fantastic accomplishment by designing, supporting, and building policies that create a safety net of cash called “the Reserve”. Other eRepublik Nations fear our Reserve (perhaps not all of them, and perhaps those that do not are alien to wisdom…)
It is also notable that Congress has crafted an emergency system called the “National Security Council” to enable a Country President to respond to threats quickly with an approved cash supply.
In an era where a Revolution can arise in a matter of hours, and if it does it will most certainly arise during the “weak” hours of rest in eUSA, a further level of financial security is needed. There must be an instant supply of cash that is not dependent upon 3 of 8 people being awake… that is not dependant on 1 of 3 people (who have access to the Reserve) be paying attention enough to transfer the funds - even in the dead of night.
What is needed is the
Failsafe Fund.
And so I have established this fund myself. It is an undisclosed number of millions of CC that belongs personally to me. The Failsafe Fund will be available instantaneously to the NSC and those participating in the Constant Vigilance. eUSA will be on guard in Round 1 of any hostile action. And we will have enough funds to win.
3: International Awareness.Under my previous term as President/Dictator, I spent a great deal of effort and resources investing in friendly, open cooperation and communication with key members of the International eRepublik Community. I believe that in so doing, we actually minimize our exposure to potential hostile actions. We also maximize the pipeline of information or “intelligence” that comes in.
We simply must continue to develop ourselves as a worthwhile ally, a participating force in the International scene.
We cannot do this by strongarm policies, inflexible indepenence, and intolerance of systems that are beyond our ken.
And so the
International Awareness Policy will be the guiding light of our Foreign Affairs. It is not so much a long-term approach (and let’s be honest what does “long term” mean in this game anyway???) as it is a Foreign-Policy-for-the-moment.
Utilizing what Intellegence we can gather into a collective conversation of participating FA deputies who are sworn in to uphold the International Awareness
4H Priorites: Humility, Helpfulness, Honor, and Hellfire, we will again leave our nation in a better position on January 5th than however we find it on December 5th. (And this is NOT to say we are in a terrible spot at the moment, so don’t read it that way).
Does the International Awareness Policy take the place of long-term FA? No. It uses a set of well-defined immediate prinicples to make the short-term serve the long-term.
This is the core of my GR4ND campaign.
There will be more to speak about and do. But I will not be focused primarily on social programs and entertainment. I am fond of those things, but I have observed that they only create activity on a miniscule level.
Instead I plan to use the biggest tools we have to do the biggest job we have.
Go to your Party Primary and support GR4ND today.
And let’s end the Dictatorship for a month. Let's make December GR4ND.
