Post by Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN on Feb 6, 2019 15:45:19 GMT -6
The Kingdom of Talossa is a community of persons having fun by doing things which are reasonably similar to what other ("real") countries do, whether for reasons of tourist nostalgia, out of a lust for power, in pursuit of parody, or -- yes -- as nationbuilding.
OrgLaw II:1, emphasis added by yours truly. Well, are you having fun yet?
Let's put it this way. If Talossa were fun, we'd be eagerly logging onto Wittenberg or other Talossan forums, saying things like "Aaaah, what are my friends saying? How are my projects going?" If Talossa isn't fun, we'll be logging on as a chore, grumbling about "must do this, must do that... what are my opponents doing that I have to fight against?"
At the risk of sounding metaphysical for a moment, doing anything worthwhile in this fallen world is struggling against gravity. Call it the Second Law of Thermodynamics: it is always much easier to tear down than to build up. It is always much easier to stop things happening than to make things happen.
The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan used the word jouissance to mean something like... an itch you have to scratch, even if it hurts. Something that's not actually fun but you feel compelled to do. That, I believe, is a way to understand the "buzz" or "kick" that some people (all of us, sometimes) get from ruining someone else's fun. To become a force of entropy, tearing down rather than building up. Perhaps we could call this "negative fun".
My theory of the decline of Talossan 1997-2005, leading to the Abdication, is that King Robert I found out (in the political struggle against myself and my friend Evan G, in which he for the first time actually succeeded in keeping someone out of Talossa) that fighting traitors gave him a buzz, or "got him off" to use vulgar terms, better than anything else he could get out of his beloved Talossa. Which is why - after he'd cast out Evan and myself - he kept creating new traitors to fight against (the Liberal Party, Sir Tamorán dàl Navâ, etc etc). He'd gotten addicted to "negative fun".
So what does this mean for us today? Is Talossa fun? To be brutally honest, not for me, at the moment. There's not a lot that's positive that I can enjoy. I got into Talossa 22 years ago for two reasons, the language and the electoral politics. The language is stymied because we've reached an impasse with creating an agreed spelling, reversing a few of what I would call the over-sweeping reforms of 2007. And politics... ay-ay-ay, fellow citizens, you can see what that's like. Reforming anything around here is like swimming upwards through treacle.
What frustrates me more than anything about Talossa is how hard it is to make anything new. And if the current situation were actually dynamic - if people were having fun - maybe that would be okay.
Language enthusiasts can back me up. We have reached a point where the following cycle has gone around a couple of times:
1. Language enthusiasts get frustrated with the absolute stasis of our lead language authority, the CÚG.
2. They suggest setting up a new authority.
3. The only CÚG leader who's still semi-awake jumps in to plead with us not to wreck the whole thing.
4. Language enthusiasts agree a compromise where the CÚG will actually do something.
5. CÚG leader disappears into the netherworld.
6. Repeat from step 1.
What I'm saying is that certain Talossans - no matter their sterling achievements for this nation in the past - have gotten into a cycle where their only Talossan activity seems to be preventing other people from doing things. Hell, these days the King himself does nothing but use his veto to stop things changing. Or to grumble about people. Despite his fascistic political bullying, KR1 was a dynamo of cultural activity. You can see the parallel I'm making.
Political and cultural conservatism in Talossa would be a respectable position if the status quo were good... if the status quo were anything but "stasis quo". I honestly believe we have reached a point in Talossa where there is a segment of the nation - including our Head of State - whose main interest in Talossa is stopping other people doing anything.
So what is to be done about this? We can't just exclude people because they're not doing Talossa the way we want. The other options are (a) gearing up for a long, drawn-out fight, which isn't fun; (b) give up altogether. What strikes me as hilarious is that you then get the spectacle of the people who have become professional roadblocks accusing the people who are trying to do things of "alienating" others, "causing fights", making Talossa less fun.
I do not believe it is an acceptable way of being Talossan to just try to chase other kids off the playground, when you're not playing on it yourself.
I only have so much time for Talossa. I have a day job and other things I want to do beside Talossa. But Talossa is important to me. That's why I keep fighting. My slogan for the upcoming Ziu elections will be: GET THINGS DONE, HAVE MORE FUN.
