weilandsmith wrote:I don't have anything against you or your defending the seeming solidity of your super alliance. It may, as you say, hold up in the face of adversity or break apart into factions depending on circumstances.
TLE is one alliance with four branches and I was apart of, not in control of the command structure so it is not mine and nor have I been apart of the game for a good two months and so am posting as an individual, not a General. But I can say in all confidence that we know TLE's strengths through continued personal experience on the field and that we find it amusing that a portion of the forum believes they know more about us and our decisions or abilites then we do ourselves.
Hell, you'll find that anyone is willing to 'defend' their portrayal when there are smear campaigns or just ill-informed people thinking they are so much more aware of things and believe they know the insides and outs of an entire community and go about proclaiming woefully inaccurate statements as truths.
weilandsmith wrote:as for shooting down the bases of my arguments, i believe that you love to argue and your many educated and coherent posts are a testament to the excellence of your arguments.
It is true that I enjoy the challenge of a debate but I do not argue solely for argument's sake. People tend to make claims which can be woefully inaccurate. If I did not provide a detailed and educated responce, people are more inclined to accept false claims and ill-informed statements if they are not presented with possible alternatives. So I made it my buisness to provide the flip side of the coin. That way a forum browser can read multiple views and statements and come to make an informed decision on what he believes to be the case.
Also, you'll find the majority of my posts are not imposing my vision but rather are constructed to evoke ideas and contexts not yet explored and provoke readers to question what they read, comming to their own independant decisions by investigating beyond the context of which they are given.
weilandsmith wrote:but, when a war occurs, who is put in charge? a man of experience. a man with thorough knowledge in the HISTORIES of war. So, until the generals hear and learn about your argument, they will all base their actions from lessons learned in the past. even operation Iraqi freedom is based on the experiences of the US from the first Gulf war and many other wars that preceded it. this, Severian, is why I use history as an example. it is because we use history to learn from. Unless we break away from established history, wars will always be planned and based on what has happened before. and yes, i used those wars that I could use as an example because they fit my point of view. So will generals use the examples which they see will best fit their strategies. and so did you. you used examples that fit your point of view.
When a war occurs, who leads? Men of leadership? Men of Experience? Men of political power? Men who want to appear as something? Men bound and restricted by several factors? History has examples of brilliant commanders and inadequate or abymsal commanders, commanders inhibited by their situation or situations which are inhibited by their commanders.
You say you used history as an example. However you came into this thread spending the vast portion of your post describing a single historical event and then saying because it happened there, it must be in SGW. Your example was your argument and not a side reference to support a throughly investigated perspective which displayed an educated take on the actual facts behind the current political situation facing the super powers.
That is where the issue came in and where I had a problem with it. History does provide secondary experience but if we take it for the be all and end all and focus on history and then applying it to the real world, we are severly restricting ourselves as well as our context and actual situation. The SGW event should be the focus and then we draw from our knowledge and experience from histories to supplement our own already developed understanding of the current situation and potential actions to take.
This is so we do not restrict or blind ourselves to the outcomes of the past and instead keep the primary focus on the present and only allow history to provide secondary advice. We see History only as what has happened and do not take it for granted that it is what will happen. All you do by making History the focus, is a setting up a Self-fulfilling prophecy which is something we aren't silly enough to bind ourselves to.
How many people actually know whats going on behind the scenes? How many of you know the situation and circumstances behind Janus and FUALL as well as the hidden contexts in which we have to base and make our decisions?
The actions and motives of Janus are known to Janus, the actions and motives of FUALL are known to FUALL and we try our best to understand the other while certain members of the community attempt to assume and post as if they know both better then those behind the wheel.
The Leadership of those NAP'd have made informed decisions. They are not split second decisions and have been well thought out, debated and weighed against a vast number of potential outcomes in regards to stargatewars and not a given historical event. The decision is then made in the context of all the information available which the public does not have nor know anything about and so they attempt to make sense by drawing upon what they see.
This creates false or inaccurate assumptions and so officials from either alliance will tend to post to clear things up. Instead of taking that in, select people still continue to believe their perspective and then turn to history to back up and supplement their arguments in the absense of true information. They continue to propergate lies and believe they know more then those actually involved and as they are too stubborn to listen to reason, I post for people to think outside the square. I encourage people to question posts, even my own so that they can make informed decisions instead of jumping on assumptions and hate trains.
Again I'll bring up that a lot of people not in the two super alliances are the ones actively trying to create self fulfilling prophecies by continually stating false information which others pick up and take upon themselves and try to spread it until (they hope) it actually comes about.
For Rome!
