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A Band of Natives
Topic Started: Apr 8 2013, 08:39 AM (725 Views)
Cormac
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A Band of Natives

It's been a difficult few weeks for The United Defenders League. Missteps have occurred, mistakes have been made, and many of us have been left reeling a bit. With the announcement of Unibot's retirement, many of us are probably wondering: Where do we go from here? But that's not the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking ourselves is much more fundamental: Who are we?

Before we can answer that question, it's useful to remember who we are not. We are not the Alliance Defense Network with their brilliant adventures into Feeder politics to pursue the greater good of regional defense. We are not the Red Liberty Alliance with their emphasis on leftist ideology and the protection of leftist regions as their primary aim. We are not the Ten Thousand Islands Treaty Organization with their old school defending steeped in the history of one, respectable region that long ago dared to defy the invaders who sought to destroy it. We are not the Founderless Regions Alliance, an interregional defender organization that stepped up when needed to fill a vacuum that direly needed to be filled and that by necessity must focus on interregional politics. We respect these organizations, some our predecessors and some our peers, and we respect and benefit from their legacies, but they are not who we are.

Who we are, who Unibot envisioned us to be, is nothing more and nothing less than a band of natives. We are a band of individuals from many regions, with many different views, who have come together to defend regions from those who would invade and destroy them. We are a rowdy and raucous group who have big ideas, some great and some not so great, and who sometimes disagree over how we should pursue the greater good. We're a brotherhood -- and sisterhood -- of people who work together at updates to defend regions but who also bond together during movie nights, Christmas caroling, and trick-or-treating, and it's this bond that makes us more than just a defender organization but a real community. We are a band of natives who have come together to defend regions not because we belong to a region that defends, or a region that belongs to an organization that defends, but because we -- as natives -- stand in solidarity with our fellow natives, demanding and protecting their right to self-determination. This is the vision that Unibot had for The United Defenders League and it's this vision that makes us unique, a new chapter in the history of NationStates. We are, each one of us, writing that chapter now.

A few months ago, when our Band of Natives was going through another difficult period, Earth and Sovreignry wrote a beautiful statement called The Servants of Good in which they quoted me as saying:

Quote:
 
Liberations are difficult, far more difficult than the little song and dance [raiders] do. UDL takes the lead on the vast majority of liberations, successful or otherwise, sometimes with the help of other regions and organizations and sometimes not. Are we perfect? Nope. Could we improve? Yep. Will we? Definitely. But at least we're out there trying. At least we're making the effort to get people online at update to make an attempt to overcome the piles of non-updaters [raiders] bring to each and every long-term raid these days. So, sorry, but if [Jakker’s] intention was to make me feel discouraged you've failed. I'm proud to be part of an organization that keeps trying and refuses to give up.

I stand by what I said then, but with a few additions. Defending may not be easy, but it's far more satisfying and far more fun to boot a raider you've just bested from a founderless region than it is to boot a defenseless native. Liberations are difficult, but bringing together a ragtag group of Gameplayers, Roleplayers, WAers, Generalites, and others who want to help their fellow natives and seeing a region liberated after an hour of loosely controlled chaos is far more rewarding than piling a few dozen imperialist non-updaters into a region for weeks. There may not be much glory in detagging and you might get derided as a glorified janitor, but better to be a janitor helping out your fellow natives than the guy who wasted his time scrawling that graffiti in the first place. I'm still proud to be part of an organization that keeps trying and refuses to give up; I'm still proud to be doing this difficult but more rewarding work in NationStates; I'm still proud to be a servant of good; and yeah, when duty calls I'm still proud to be a janitor.

Where do we go from here? The answer to that question is easy with an understanding of who we are. We go back to basics. We clean up our mess, we detach ourselves from political battles we won't and don't need to win or even fight, and we get back to a singular focus on defending, liberating, and restoring regions. We do it every update, we do the best we can and we do it cheerfully, we don't get distracted by petty interregional squabbles, and we remind ourselves and the rest of NationStates that we are at our core a band of natives protecting other natives. We earn back our respect by being who we are and who Unibot originally intended for us to be. And when they ask who we are to tell them they can't raid that region, who we are to take "their" Delegacy and give it back to the natives to whom it belongs, who we are to insist there's more to this game than game mechanics -- tell them we're a Band of Natives just doing what we do.
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Tim
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I thought this might look much nicer in The Town Crier Forum :P


Cormac, this post is lovely. Seriously, this is amazing. Well written, and a great motivational piece :)
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Fotar
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This is an amazing post, Cormac. Words don't justify it. As the newest Merryman, I can really say that I am honored to be here and am looking forward to my time with such a great organization.

I'm more excited now than I have been for a few years in Nationstates.
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Wopruthien
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Cormac
Apr 8 2013, 08:39 AM
A Band of Natives

It's been a difficult few weeks for The United Defenders League. Missteps have occurred, mistakes have been made, and many of us have been left reeling a bit. With the announcement of Unibot's retirement, many of us are probably wondering: Where do we go from here? But that's not the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking ourselves is much more fundamental: Who are we?

Before we can answer that question, it's useful to remember who we are not. We are not the Alliance Defense Network with their brilliant adventures into Feeder politics to pursue the greater good of regional defense. We are not the Red Liberty Alliance with their emphasis on leftist ideology and the protection of leftist regions as their primary aim. We are not the Ten Thousand Islands Treaty Organization with their old school defending steeped in the history of one, respectable region that long ago dared to defy the invaders who sought to destroy it. We are not the Founderless Regions Alliance, an interregional defender organization that stepped up when needed to fill a vacuum that direly needed to be filled and that by necessity must focus on interregional politics. We respect these organizations, some our predecessors and some our peers, and we respect and benefit from their legacies, but they are not who we are.

Who we are, who Unibot envisioned us to be, is nothing more and nothing less than a band of natives. We are a band of individuals from many regions, with many different views, who have come together to defend regions from those who would invade and destroy them. We are a rowdy and raucous group who have big ideas, some great and some not so great, and who sometimes disagree over how we should pursue the greater good. We're a brotherhood -- and sisterhood -- of people who work together at updates to defend regions but who also bond together during movie nights, Christmas caroling, and trick-or-treating, and it's this bond that makes us more than just a defender organization but a real community. We are a band of natives who have come together to defend regions not because we belong to a region that defends, or a region that belongs to an organization that defends, but because we -- as natives -- stand in solidarity with our fellow natives, demanding and protecting their right to self-determination. This is the vision that Unibot had for The United Defenders League and it's this vision that makes us unique, a new chapter in the history of NationStates. We are, each one of us, writing that chapter now.

A few months ago, when our Band of Natives was going through another difficult period, Earth and Sovreignry wrote a beautiful statement called The Servants of Good in which they quoted me as saying:

Quote:
 
Liberations are difficult, far more difficult than the little song and dance [raiders] do. UDL takes the lead on the vast majority of liberations, successful or otherwise, sometimes with the help of other regions and organizations and sometimes not. Are we perfect? Nope. Could we improve? Yep. Will we? Definitely. But at least we're out there trying. At least we're making the effort to get people online at update to make an attempt to overcome the piles of non-updaters [raiders] bring to each and every long-term raid these days. So, sorry, but if [Jakker’s] intention was to make me feel discouraged you've failed. I'm proud to be part of an organization that keeps trying and refuses to give up.

I stand by what I said then, but with a few additions. Defending may not be easy, but it's far more satisfying and far more fun to boot a raider you've just bested from a founderless region than it is to boot a defenseless native. Liberations are difficult, but bringing together a ragtag group of Gameplayers, Roleplayers, WAers, Generalites, and others who want to help their fellow natives and seeing a region liberated after an hour of loosely controlled chaos is far more rewarding than piling a few dozen imperialist non-updaters into a region for weeks. There may not be much glory in detagging and you might get derided as a glorified janitor, but better to be a janitor helping out your fellow natives than the guy who wasted his time scrawling that graffiti in the first place. I'm still proud to be part of an organization that keeps trying and refuses to give up; I'm still proud to be doing this difficult but more rewarding work in NationStates; I'm still proud to be a servant of good; and yeah, when duty calls I'm still proud to be a janitor.

Where do we go from here? The answer to that question is easy with an understanding of who we are. We go back to basics. We clean up our mess, we detach ourselves from political battles we won't and don't need to win or even fight, and we get back to a singular focus on defending, liberating, and restoring regions. We do it every update, we do the best we can and we do it cheerfully, we don't get distracted by petty interregional squabbles, and we remind ourselves and the rest of NationStates that we are at our core a band of natives protecting other natives. We earn back our respect by being who we are and who Unibot originally intended for us to be. And when they ask who we are to tell them they can't raid that region, who we are to take "their" Delegacy and give it back to the natives to whom it belongs, who we are to insist there's more to this game than game mechanics -- tell them we're a Band of Natives just doing what we do.
Quoting for truth.
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Tim
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Tim applauds Mitt Romne *cough* Cormac Holland's former writing.
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Milograd
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Heh.
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Sovreignry
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Fascinating.
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The Saturnian Republic
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This literally made me lol.
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