Woohoo! It's been six years since the Flying Islands of Jasonia (the best micronation in existence) was created, formin a legacy that shall live forever in some sort or another.
Of course, the problem is that I don't know what to do for the day. We could go with just one of those traditiopnal speeches, but that's boring and unoriginal. We need something good.
...ooh, I know! We can all convert to Soloralism!
Senechal Bill Trihus of Greater Audentior Citizen of Shireroth Zor nukrô šempi zor fredrô
Apologies. I have been ill for the past few days with a cold and splitting headache and I haven´t had the mental capacity to stare at a computer screen for more than a few minutes without getting all dizzy. It would seem that this year´s Jasonia Day was poor to me.
I had a little speech written up for this event. It was light and fluffy and talked about the past and Jasonia as part of us today. But after the Tgaoth attack on Antica I don´t feel like talking about that. So, instead, I want to share a personal story from the era of the Jasonia and the Apolo Sector that may be more relevant.
In this modern age of off-EzBoard forums and site backups and more mature leaders, micronational war is mostly a thing of the past. Yes we have our occasional and completely mind-blowingly devastating terrorist attacks today like the one Tgaoth launched several days ago. But, for the most part, this is an age of peace. Even the Shireroth / Grand Commonwealth feud where diplomats take pot-shots at eachother is unlikely to ever develop into a hot war. Most of us are older, more mature, too attached to our nations, and have an actual fear of real legal consequences to engage in a full out micronational war anymore.
This was not the case in the Apollo era of 2000 and 2001. People today debate if micronational war is merely a game in the minds of fools. I can honestly say that in that era, there was no debate. Micronational war was a real and tangible threat. The combination of powerful weapons that EzBoard security was powerless to stop with psychological barriers between hostile nations made it very cutthroat. There were brilliant and great ad in that era, yes, and some of my best micronational memories. But there was also a lot more scheming, a lot more plotting, and a lot more destruction. Can you comprehend a micronational world where you wake up and Shireroth has taken over the Grand Commonwealth´s forums and deleted their website and the GC was absolutely powerless to fight back?
There were smiley bombs (so many images on one page that older computers would crash totally, unable to load the data) and null bombs (exploited an old flaw in windows to force an immediate restart) but the main weapon of the Apollo Sector age was the Spam Cannon. EzBoard originally did not allow the multiple deletion of posts, so a Spam Cannon that tossed out 100 new topics could take hours of manual labor to clean up. Later it was discovered that EzBoard forums could only hold 20 pages of topics: anything more and the older would be deleted. The Spam Cannon posted a new topic with three logins every minute. Even at 3 topics/minute it could take hours to reach 20 pages, but if done in the middle of the night there would be more than enough time.
Countries hit by the Spam Cannon were usually unable to recover. It was a shadow that loomed over everything that we created in the hobby. Originally built by Blackrock, who despite their warlike tendencies were rather honorable and would never wantonly attack a nation for no reason, it was copied and multiplied after a time. Who had Spam Cannons? Were they really insane enough to use them? Major worries for a micronational leader in uneasy times.
One day, after the fall of the UAS, the last grand attempt at an Apollo merger the failed spectacularly, John Sager, Patrick Foley, and Thomas Hubert used the Spam Cannon on the forums of the UAS, annihilating a lot of history. The next day they used it on the main archive of Jasonia. I was just checking the forums before my computer class one morning when I saw it. 18 pages of posts in the main archive, at least 12 pages of them junk from a Spam Cannon.
18 pagesNot 20. John Sager had begun to fire at the FIoJ archives but, being overwhelmed by unwillingness to actually destroy the main archive of the nation, called off the attack before history was pushed off the 20th page. Both the rampant destruction and the equally staggering mercy overwhelmed me. War and destruction was one of those things that happened to other people, people that had it coming usually. But the terror had finally been brought to my backyard. Even though we got off lucky, it enforced one major point: there were people out there that would destroy the things I held dear if I did not find a way to protect them.
To some of you, a week ago or so, this may have sounded ridiculous. The mind games of the young and stupid in a long dead and dusty past. I call you blessed for being in the hobby when such things can appear absurd. I like to think that I and the others that have been around since the turn of the century worked hard and changed the micronational world from a constant battleground to an era of self-fulfillment. Don´t feel guilty writing your micronational fiction stories, having your poetry contests, and debating intermicronational politics. It´s the type of world we envisioned way back then. Tgaoth´s destruction of Antica unfortunately brings back some of this fury and confusion.
I will say this: Jasonia did not die because of the attacks it received. Blaming people for the fall of the FIoJ was a popular pastime in years gone by, but this event was not one of the causes. It is my sincerest hope that Antica, too, will be able to recover stronger than before from this evil and spiteful act. Micronations live and die in the minds of the citizens that love them. Forums can be destroyed, sites deleted, but as long as people love the nation it will endure.
Feburary 19th is Jasonia Day. As long as at least one person loves the memory of Jasonia, we will have this holiday every year in whatever micronation still exists. For those that remember the country, it is a day to look back member all the wacky stuff we did. For those who never experienced it, it is a day where you are encouraged to follow your dreams, to let not even the sky stand in your way.
Woohoo! It's been six years since the Flying Islands of Jasonia (the best micronation in existence) was created, formin a legacy that shall live forever in some sort or another.
We could go with just one of those traditiopnal speeches, but that's boring and unoriginal. We need something good.
