Looking back

[Orion]

http://www.geocities.com/apollantis/ain ... /main.html

I dug this up out of my archives and put it back together again (just the Bugle). I thought some people here might find it amusing. Or for the newbies, maybe even educational.

[Erik Mortis]

Amusement indeed.

[Jacobus Loki]

Wow.

Do wer have permission to copy pieces of this to a wiki?

[Erik Mortis]

I'd think so.

[Orion]

Yeah, I don't see why not. I think most of that was written by either me, Scott, or EvC.

[Jonas]

Great!
But most of the links are dead...

[Harald of Froyalan]

That is, unfortunatly, almost inevitable after such a long time.

[hypatias mom]

I found that very enlightening. No wonder things were tense between certain parties. The tensions, and friendships, have been building for almost a decade, since these micronationalists were in their early and mid teens. I'm just amazed at the foundations that these "old-timers" laid for us today. Thank you, all of you, for this wonderful microworld, and for the relationships we are able to build on that foundation.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Interesting - most of that stuff occurred even before I was active in this mad pestulant sub-culture of the perverted imagination of the collective unconciousness...

Worryingly for me micronationalism has been the misadventure of the decade...

[Erik Mortis]

Yeah, I'm feeling you on that one.

[Orion]

I find it scarier that we've been at this for nearly ten years.

Are we stubborn or just dense?

Of course, I am enlightened by the experience. I know now that I NEVER want to be a real politician....


I have the rest of the site. It's just been muddled up after years of being transferred around a dozen computers. So it'll take some time to fix all the broken stuff.

[Jacobus Loki]

I know now that I NEVER want to be a real politician

A very good friend became involved in a RL political campaign as a candidate. Twice. I got involved in his campaign. County, state conventions, the whole nine yards. His own, major, RL party stabbed him in the back. More than Twice.

I've never felt so betrayed.

Later, there was a major national figure, brazenly peddling influence. Nausea. Disgust.

I'd rather be a 3rd string Babkhan camel-cleaner-upper. No offense.

[hypatias mom]

When I was a starry-eyed teenager, I, too, was involved with a major RL gubernatorial campaign. Our candidate won, served 8 years, later became a successful president. Our party was wonderful, I thought. Today, I hardly recognize it. We eat our own, betray the worthy for scum, and call ourselves patriots and party loyalists. I agree. Stay out if you value your soul.

[Erik Mortis]

Not me. Some day I plan to get into local politics. City and County. Maybe state. I don't like parties, and don't have any interest in dealing with them.

[Kaiser Hasan I]

Micronations taught me a lot about networking. But it taught me more about methods of convincing others to agree with your opinion. In a medium where as it was once said "Everybody has no body" all we are judged on are our words. To be able to influence others with just words is a skill, and I think we've all learned a bit from that.

[Jacobus Loki]

Carol, we are both discussing the party that carries the same name today. I've had experiences with the other party, whereas not so bleak were less personal and so less destructive individually.

Erik, before my idealism was crushed, I had plans like those you speak of. I'd be thrilled to hear more of yours.

Milord Kaiser, with me its backwards. I learned a lot early on, and micronationally most of my career was spent in situations wherein I really wasn't trying to persuade, merely speaking my mind (or the mind of a character), ans seeing what happened. As several of my characters it was a reasonable preparation for guerrilla war.

[Erik Mortis]

I have no plans at the moment. I'm just trying to graduate at this point. I got the paperword finished for my Minor the other day, soon I'll get my major in order...then my GE's and the WEPT.. and I'll be free.

And can't we just say the name? Talking about rl politics isn't banned from Shireroth.

[Kaiser Hasan I]

One day I'll get a degree, until then I get to be an all-dancing, all-singing anomaly of the working class. Hussah!

[Orion]

So what are you getting your degree in, Erik?


And I don't wish to discourage anyone from pursuing their own goals. Simply for me personally, I've discovered that politics is not my cup of tea. When I do get involved with politics, it's usually very localized grassroots efforts. Most of it dealing with conservation work.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Are we stubborn or just dense?

The two attributes are not mutually exclusive.

Anyway as with Hesam micronationalism has taught me much about the inherent cynicism that lies at the heart of human relationships wherever power and control are at stake, even when the perceived power and control at stake is vanishingly small or even non-existant. In fact as I see it the smaller the stakes the more vicious the in-fighting.

There are however RL causes I believe in which I do work towards the advancement of even though I am fully aware that the moment that the project, the campaign for an English Parliament in this instance, moves towards realisation is the moment that the careerist parasites who are the bane of British politics will stop mocking and start swarming in and taking over the institutions and mechanisms so as to ensure that their snouts will remain firmly pressed into the trough.

[Erik Mortis]

Psychology with a minor in Computer Science. More or less public knowledge.
And I'm kinda the black sheep of both departments, not truly fitting into either. Though I kinda fit in better in CS then Psych. But I love Psych more...odd that.

[hypatias mom]

I hope things work smoothly for your graduation. Those are good, challenging subjects for your major and minor. Is this June your scheduled graduation date?

[Kaiser Hasan I]

Politics? Why not just be a PR guy for a big firm? It's basically the same thing.

[Orion]

Erik, aye, as Carol said, those are good choices. And perhaps the two can be mutually utilized considering the impact of computer technology on people these days. Likewise I hope all goes well for you.

And Hasan (which means 'horse' btw ) I'd rather work as the guy uncovering the wrongdoings of the big corporations - as an OSHA, EPA, DRC, etc, auditor - than as the guy who's trying to cover it up.

[Kaiser Hasan I]

Which agency is it you guys have... Its a group which answers direct to the Congress? Anyways, that group basically has carte blanche on anything.

[Jonas]

Democracy = dictature of the parties.

[Orion]

All the local conservation groups, as well as the town-level conservation commissions, have to answer to the federal government. For example, this summer I'll be acting as an editor on a large grant request for a town-level project that has to be itemized and then reviewed by the EPA before any moneycan be guaranteed to our group. So the EPA is essentially the group with the power.

What makes things difficult is that titles change from state to state. In Connecticut we had the Department of Environmental Protection. But in Massachusetts they call it the Department of Conservation and Recreation. What's more confusing is that usually the regulations are as different as the titles.

We could learn a lot from Canadian regulations...

[Kaiser Hasan I]

We're a confederation, you're a federation, thats the way it goes. It sort of helps that our entire government was drafted at a single series of meetings leading to 1867. And unlike SOME countries I know, we took the lessons of Britains greatest tradition, bureaucracy.

[Jacobus Loki]

Psychology with a minor in Computer Science.

Perfect for making Cyborgs!

Nuclear cyborgs!

Now I sound like Prodigy

[Prodigy Almighty]

Hehe, yeah you kinda do...