Lazarene Regional Guard Amendment (2020)

[Roavin]

I’m on mobile, so I’m not going to bother quoting all that and wrestling with BBCode :p

Use the computer, luke!

To your first point - the proposal to go to war passed with 18 votes in favour and 3 against (the three I listed). While Ryccia may have opposed, he did not outright vote against it (I should check if NR voted for, but I believe he did?).

Ryccia and NR both abstained, as did several others. Not sure why Ryccia abstained, to be honest.

To your second point - your attempt to paint Lazarus joining the war as a result of “foreign propaganda” (implying someone misled us) is off. While I don’t believe the conspiracy theory of you being an NPO propagandist or alogned with them, it does sometimes sound... off.

I wouldn't say that it was an intentional misleading, but rather that the huge exploding hype, in combination with wrong conclusions that weren't fact checked (such as the Adytus thing I mentioned) resulted in a heightened willingness and eagerness to go to war in a manner contrary to previously agreed upon principles (particularly wrt a regional military).

In regards to your third point, I was merely quoting you replying to Belschaft - Belschaft, of course, making the exact same argument as you are now. To be clear, I’m not arguing an alignment (that’d be unwise) but the argument of being careful because of trouble in the past translates all the same. Your argument (here, not in TSP) comes down to an apparent lack of trust in our security system, yet I don’t see you pointing out and fixing those flaws, which I would encourage you to do.

Bel wasn't making the argument I was making, though. He was arguing specifically against a formal alignment but for an R/D-active military for TSP, while I'm arguing against both of those for Lazarus.

Regarding the lack of trust in the security system: I do think that this system is quite solid. A Delegate that is chosen based on meritocratic principles oversees an assembly and a Cabinet chosen on democratic principles. That's a great combination, particularly for a sinker. All criticism against Balder aside (and there is a lot of criticism to be had), they have had a similar system for a long time and it works. The issue is that even the most robust structures will inherently have points where the structures could be broken with enough pressure. For example, Delegate recall mechanisms are necessary, but can also be misused if a group puts in the concerted effort to spin the rhetoric appropriately. My whole argument here is that we shouldn't try to create an incentive for those groups to try to come in, particularly when what we're doing contradicts prior deliberate principles.

With regards to your 4th and final point, I consider it unwise to turn away recruits to foreign affiliations. Part of the instability caused has been those exact same foreign affiliations, and essentially telling natives who come in to join a foreign region is kind of asking for trouble sooner or later.

I wouldn't say it was the cosmos that were the problem, it was those that sought to change/influence Lazarus for ulterior motives. Those were in many cases cosmos, but not exclusively - Lamb wasn't even in LWU (at least officially, and de facto too for all we know) for a good chunk of the time he spent in Lazarus. This isn't a new idea, btw. I remember this being suggested at least back during HRL/CU times too (by Wintermoot, iirc?).