Hey, I'm a computer geek. We don't do parties

Quote from: RPGPunditAn empire in steep decline always does desperate things.

RPGPundit

Are we, and as an Australian I include myself in the USA Empire*, in decline or is this the way we keep hold? Apart from reseurgent Russia and economically powerful China, the Imperial focus has never had it so easy. We're expanding into the Middle East and eastern Europe has fallen already. Only South America is where the second-line nations are bucking our hegemony.
It's the level of hypocrisy in the lies that we clamour for that bothers me. We don't want to be told that we've killed more people than Saddam, that we maintain ruthless regimes that oppress whole peoples. We continue, as WereKoala states, beliving that we're the goodest guys. Bullshit.
It's not a war. There is no sides.

*By the way, as a historian I can tell you that 'empire' should be a neutral word. If you have client states and occupy lands, you have an empire. It comes from granting your leaders Imperium, the right to exercise armies, which is what we have done. I know all states do this, but few take the advantage to get an empire.

Quote from: SosthenesHey, I'm a computer geek. We don't do parties

It's true, we don't.

Quote from: UmaSamaIt's true, we don't.

LAN parties?  No?

Meh, computer gaming geeks don't count...

Hmm, that reminds me :"The Bleak" would be a groovy name for a computer game. Survival horror or shooter...

Quote from: SosthenesHmm, that reminds me :"The Bleak" would be a groovy name for a computer game. Survival horror or shooter...

I thought this was going to be about an edgy new adaptation of Bleak House, full of corrupt cops and rappers and shit.

Quote from: UmaSamaIt's true, we don't.

BAH!

What is a computer convention but an excuse to get piss drunk and poke at cool toys?

Chalky,
 Chil out and relax dude.

 Get drunk, Get laid, Masturbate, read a good book (A HAPPY One!!) or watch a comedy movie - whatever it trakes to give yourself a smile man

 Its never as bad as you think.

 It could be a lot more fun actually...

- Ed C.

Personally I always found the fundamental realization presented in the OP rather liberating.

Sure it's pathetic, and stupid, and even evil at times, but that's humans for you.  They have the capacity to do incredibly great things, and incredibly awful things, and a who cavalcade of things in between, and a remarkable gift for compartmentalization that often lets those all those things be done by the same people.

So relax, realize that you aren't going to change that, that no one else has in the thousands of years of human civilization, and learn to accept that the best that you can really do is try to do what good you can when the situation arises.

The glorious thing about a world with such a lack of black and white morality is that those few bright moments of greatness shine all the brighter.  And if you're going to survive as a human being you have to learn to revel in those moments.

And it's also those moments that can make a game session truly great.  

"Everyone lives.  Just this once, everyone lives!"

Quote from: SosthenesMeh, computer gaming geeks don't count...

Hmm, that reminds me :"The Bleak" would be a groovy name for a computer game. Survival horror or shooter...

You haven't been to any good ones then?

Also, you're right about "The Bleak". That would be a great title...

Quote from: Thanatos02You haven't been to any good ones then?

LAN Parties?

Well, I'm a computer geek and a gamer, but not a computer gaming geek, especially if it's multiplayer.

Quote from: ChalkLineWhere did the idealism go? Even the arch-pragmatists seem to honour the idealists who brought about their particular world view. Why has their time gone?

I can handle the world being shallow, self interested and greedy. I just can't handle the lie that it isn't like that.

When were there ever good-guys, and by what standard?

I think that -- in many ways -- we're better than we've ever been in the face of worse provocation.

I mean the *last* time we got attacked we rounded up 100,000 American citizens and put them in concentration camps.

This time? Far, far fewer -- an more protest and more hand wringing (which is a good thing, I think).

In the past, when America went to war, we slaughtered civilians on an unprecedented scale, laying waste to cities by filling the sky with incendiary bombs.

Today, we don't do that.

America is more tolerant of diversity across several scales than it ever was in the past.

We could certainly do better -- but I think a reasonable assessment of the situation gives a lot to be hopeful about.

America and our allies (I include Australia) invite harsh criticism by *having* ideas that we don't -- and probably no one could -- live up to. We've also got some pretty horrid enemies and that tends to bring out the worst in us (but again -- this time around, it's nothing like the past).

I think it's important to make a distinction between "disappointed because we don't live up to our ideas" and "horribly depressed because we're the bad guys now."

We're not the badguys -- and I don't think we're an empire, much less one in decline.

Cheers,
-E.