Felise Selunix
Pator Tech School
Minmatar Republic
9
   |
Posted - 2016.07.14 19:27:00 -
[1] - Quote
Karmilla Strife wrote:I've always been convinced that the Jovians gave away the capsule just because they wanted to see what would happen.
I've thought this too, especially since it's probably something I would do with that much free time and power. Also, I agree that the Drifters are probably just the tip of a more frightening iceberg that may have 'slipped the Jovians' minds' so to speak.
From what I've seen--this is purely anecdotal--capsuleers do have a certain shall we say...affinity for the dangerous unknown that I've always believed is somehow tied to the psycho-genetic rubric for choosing capsuleers. I don't know if it's ever been explicitly connected in such a way, but it does make me wonder. |
Felise Selunix
Pator Tech School
Minmatar Republic
10
|
Posted - 2016.07.15 16:55:58 -
[2] - Quote
Aria Jenneth wrote:
I'm asking what our class, our manufactured, legally and historically very strange, class is for. Why would anyone intentionally create beings like us-- a society of independent mercenaries and arms traders? Usually such things might appear as side effects of great wars, where black market arms traders and guns-for-hire grow strong enough to defend their interests and legitimize themselves after the fact.
I like the question as it's stated here. It really gets to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? Instead of focusing on why capsuleers exist specifically, the really interesting question is about the existence of the legal, economic, and political structure in which capsuleers are the a visible output. What's behind, say Scope's latest support for capsuleers pirate hunting, or the current collaboration between CONCORD and Upwell? Or more generally about the rules regarding highsec/lowsec/nullsec, etc? What type of environment does this create and what types of ideas/initiatives benefit as a result?
Y'know, I keep coming back around to the ideas of expansion and enterprise being the primary beneficiaries. Galactic colonization and resource acquisition sound great in the abstract, but in practice it's prohibitively dangerous for most people. Even a cursory reading of pre-capsuleer history will show that the political support and fervor for expansion tends to become harder to maintain as more people start pushing up daisies as a result of pirate attacks, settlement dangers. Once enough resources have been acquired in the near term, most people just up and quit--until the price gets high enough that is. That's hardly sustainable from an administration standpoint.
Capsuleers are convenient for preserving the political will because we are able to take the brunt of the most politically sticky consequences. I mean, if capsuleers are the ones doing most of the ratting, the first into the unknown, the primary group fighting new threats like the Drifters (and I'm using 'threat' from the perspective of political and economic interests), then doesn't that make continued space exploration (and mostly expansion) more palatable? I think it does. And continued expansion tends to favor existing powerful economic and political interest. So despite the occasional headaches that capsuleers may cause individual states or corps, I think on balance we further those interests. |