An Octagonal Point of View

Competition is Good!
2 May 2007
by Vitz Açafat
Editor

Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, once wrote, "Monopoly...is a great enemy to good management." When s:reu Smith wrote these words it was probably a controversial statement, or at least far from the truism it appears to us moderns to be. An Octagonal Point of View - Octagon&Crown

But, despite the apparent comfort with which homo modernus embraces competition in most endeavors, there has been scant little of it in Talossa's history. This is not because we are all totalitarians or socialists (although historically our population has had a liberal sprinkling of both). It is just a sad fact of Talossan life that all institutions are always under threat of collapsing from apathy, and there is rarely enough collective will to maintain competing institutions. Even in the realm of politics, parities come and go with disturbing regularity and governments are more likely to collapse than get pushed out by a rival.

And yet, for almost three years now, Talossa has managed to support two governments. That they are both well established, perhaps even thriving, and both doggedly Talossan, is no mean achievement. The Kingdom has shaken off a tyrant and moved towards true, stable democracy. The Republic, despite a quiet few weeks, remains a community of vigorous debate and has nationalised its webspace. Both communities are proud of their achievements, and rightfully so. Would these achievements be as substantial without the 'other Talossa' looming over our shoulders? I say not.

Our respective Talossas are much like adolescent boys both chasing the same girl. We know that if we do not behave, keep up appearances, and shower regularly we will lose out to the other suitor. It is the elephant in the middle of the room that no one talks about, but nobody in the Republic wants to look bad in front of the Kingdom, and no one in the Kingdom wants to look bad in front of the Republic. We never can quite relax, at least not for very long, and we certainly can't be careless. Take a look around the rest of the micronational community, and then thank your lucky stars!

'Unity' is the battle-cry, though, of almost all Talossan political parties, whether Republican or Royalist. Is this a mistake? Should we be clamouring for more of the status quo? I say not. The fact that Talossa is a divided nation is perhaps the most interesting thing about Talossa, maybe the most interesting situation among all micronations. Most 'bathtub' states try their hand at diplomacy as soon as they've designed their flag and downloaded a national anthem. This often means designing the logo of a new intermicronational organisation, writing a new constitution for the same, and then facing the same apathetic boredom that they thought diplomacy would save them from. They just don't have anything to be diplomatic about. Talossa, for good or for bad, faces a huge diplomatic challenge. Maybe we will someday unite, maybe not, but either way we have to rub along without upsetting each other too much. That is a real diplomatic challenge. It is such a good one, in fact, it would be a shame if it ever ended.

So, three cheers for competition! As a Republican citizen I hope the Republic comes out with some amazing new innovation that makes the Kingdom leadership green with envy (and we had better do it soon before the Kingdom does the same to us!). I expect every loyal subject of King John to want to do the same to us. At the same time, I hope the two Talossas will continue to grow closer together. Hopefully, our respective leaderships will continue the difficult task of rebuilding a unified nation. Let's just hope they don't ever succeed!

Talossa Can't Afford a 'Silent Cal'
15 April 2007
by Vitz Açafat
Editor

Our Seneshal, like this reporter, is a fan of twentieth-century, American journalist, H.L. Mencken. In fact, S:eru Börnatfiglheu even has a quote by the great man in his Wittenberg signature. That being the case, I will quote an excerpt from Mencken's obituary of the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge:

An Octagonal Point of View - Octagon&Crown

"[He] responded to bad times precisely as he responded to good ones--that is, by pulling down the blinds, stretching his legs upon his desk, and snoozing away the lazy afternoons...The kind of government that he offered the country was government striped to the buff. It was government that governed hardly at all...There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance."

Mencken's verdict on the Coolidge presidency is generally favourable, in the same way that no news is usually considered good news. Talossa, in many ways, though, is not like the United States. Perhaps the most significant way, in my opinion, is that American citizens have no choice in the matter. Talossans make a choice to participate every time we boot up our computers. For us no news is no activity, which is definitely bad news.

Perhaps we are being unfair to our new Seneshcal. He has indicated that offline events are preventing him from participating as much as he would like. I am sure all of us wish him well, and can sympathise with similar events in our own lives. A Seneshal does not a government make, however, and the general silence among the entire MRP makes all of us private citizens worry that perhaps the 'movement' has stopped moving. There do appear to be several intiatives the government is working on in private before revealing the finished goods to us, the people. This is fine, but more regular updates are necessary so that we can distinguish between cautiousness and somnolence.

After the recent election it appeared that a real multi-party system had developed in our Republic. The optimistic analysis is that, like many other states, the dividing line between the parties on most issues is over the role of the state: the ZRT favoured a more active, evangelical state, the MRP wanted a more relaxed leviathan that let the culture bubble up from the masses. The pessimistic view (espoused by Defencist partisans) was that the ZRT is a party of action, and the MRP is a party of afternoon naps. Although the ZRT leadership may be feeling the warm sensation brought on by an 'I told you so!' waiting to escape their lips, it is important for the nation that the Peculiarists prove them wrong. In the short run, we cannot afford to let six months slip away (of which one already has, and one will be overshadowed by the next round of elections), and in the long run we need to have at least two dynamic and functioning parties to maintain a high quality of leadership for the nation.

Just because the MRP wants to apply a gentler touch with the heavy hand of the state does not justify inactivity. Peculiarists can still develop our culture with our without the sanction of legislation, as the MRP has often pointed out. The government can still lead, even if that leadership is expressed by acting as private citizens to improve Talossa.

If this editorial is released just before a huge blitz of government initiatives, or the unveiling of great accomplishments by the Peculiarist faithful, then I humbly apologise. I will not only apologise, in fact. I will open a bottle of my favourite tipple and toast the MRP. So, do I need my corkscrew?

Talossa Needs More Women
5 April 2007
by Vitz Acafat
Editor

Talossa claims to be a nation, or at least a nationette, yet few other nations in the world today manage to have so few female citizens in their populations. Even the Vatican City, no hotbed of progressive feminism, must have several key sisters it cannot dispense with among its handful of passport holders. Yet Greater Talossa, as far as this reporter can see, only sports two active women - both in the Republic, and only one is a regular contributor to the Witt on that side of the Vuode Wall. We all know about this, of course. It is pretty obvious to anyone who surfs the western shore of the Talossan sea that the fairer sex is thin on the ground. We all wish it were not so, but then, with a shrug of our virtual shoulders, we wait and hope that things will sort themselves out.
This is an easy stance to take, especially since the solutions to the problem are far from obvious, however, we take this stance at our own peril. Our divided nation's demographics resemble those of a Tolkien fan club, or a Juggling convention. Are we a quirky sub-culture spread over a few internet chat rooms? All of us are here, hopefully, to build a nation. Maybe someday it will be a united nation, but if it is a united nation that is 98% male, what sort of nation is that? We are all proud that Talossans come from all corners of the globe, come from varying cultural backgrounds and are spread across many generations. If these are things to take pride in, then we must accept the shame of our lack of gender diversity. And if we can accept some shame, then we can collectively decide to do something about it.
Increasing female membership is not a straightforward proposition. Proactively recruiting women would not be easy, and the means of doing so are far from obvious. However, if 'what to do' is not easy to spot, 'what not to do' is the sore thumb sticking out of our otherwise uninjured hand. Pictures of morbidly obese women in bikinis hanging off the end of pick-up trucks are just the sort of image guaranteed to made any normal woman go 'eeeewww.' This sort of picture, being on a public, official board in either Talossa, is the equivalent of going to a high-school dance with a big wet patch on the front of your trousers - no girl is going to come near you.
Like most men, this reporter is not in a position to cast stones when it comes to the occasional crude remark about the opposite sex in my younger days. I say that now with a sense of embarrassment brought on by what I like to think of as maturity. Perhaps it is just boorishness. Whatever the reason, though, the entire thread this picture recently appeared in on the Royalist Witt should be removed. The future spouse of the heir-apparent to the Kingdom is a legitimate subject for discussion among those of the Royalist persuasion who care to talk about such things, however, to an outsider it will appear to be plain weird. Shopping for a wife, however fancifully, among the few royal houses left in the world is not exactly the sort of thing that should be done publicly.
It is the bikini picture, referred to above, though, that is most likely to offend those who we can least afford to offend. The fact that such a picture could be posted at all shows that Talossan culture has already started to resemble other all-male bastions like locker rooms and gentleman's clubs. So few women post that it is easy to forget a women will actually see what we write. Many posts, though, get ten to twenty views for every response they get. We forget, but we are all being watched, hopefully by some female watchers who might decided to cast their lot in with us. Let's not frighten them off! Talossa may have started as a 'bedroom nation.' Let's not let it become a 'locker room' nation.