Athens & the Instability of Freedom

[Agmen of Eladesor]

In my experience it has more to do with giving a cynic the scenario he expects will happen.

Which only reinforces cynicism and bitterness.

Hell, half the complaining around here isn't because of the rules. The rules are big and bulky and clumsy, but they work. It's more or less about people having their roleplay crushed by the system because somebody, somewhere up top, didn't like them having a spine.

Actually, Tycho, it's not always and or completely about that. The problem with spiny creatures is that they use those spines for a defense mechanism against attacks, whether they are justified (or had RP in advance) or not. The problem is that some people persist in acting like certain organs that become engorged with blood during a state of excitement - and I'm not talking about the pupil of the eye in this instance.

So while both something with a spine and something else can be hard and erect, one is to have a purpose while the other is simply out there to spew things around and hope that some of it sticks somewhere.

Also, past history does have quite a bit to do with the individuals involved. Someone who started out on the wrong foot may be given another chance - but often they make not one or two or three issues, they make several. So if a player who has received numerous sanctions for violating the rules happens to come up with a great role playing idea, his past history is taken into account.

Thus, to simplify things, if you act like a dick, then don't be surprised when you're treated as one later on.

Now, the whole article that Xoria linked to - I did read it. However, the subject matter was all Greek to me...

Okay, slight humor aside, one problem with the article is that in almost the first paragraph, he mentions the words freedom and Marx in the same sentence. Marx was not a freedom seeking revolutionary.

Another is that he defines freedom in the modern world with a comment about the shoe thrower in Iraq, and finds that to be a positive measure of the increase of freedom today. Yet thousands of examples abound of examples where freedom is being even more repressed and crushed since the time of Nike, the shoe with wings. A perfect example is from, quite literally, last week - where in Indonesia the constitution states, "no one has the right to prohibit any religious community from practicing its faith", yet sharia law prevents construction of churches so Christians had to celebrate Christmas in a tent set up in a parking lot.

I think the author would do better to discern where freedom is being repressed more, in the name of religion, since that religion subsumes and takes over the control of the state. He's so proud of the shoe being thrown at President Bush - any thoughts on 51 Catholics being slaughtered just miles away from where that shoe was thrown?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/how...f_peace_do.html

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.