#and that's assuming the best case scenario for a leader in such a position. usually they just want to minimize Their side's losses. usually

[skrunksthatwunk]

kinda drives me up a wall when people go "hey i think x action in a war/combat scenario is inhumane and cruel and shitty" and someone responds with "oh but within the laws of war it's allowed or there's procedure for it etc etc". it doesn't have to be a war crime to be unforgivable man it's a shitty rulebook anyway

[lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby]

Paranoia over reason

Now we move onto the source of Ironwood's problems his new dominent trait of  Fear. Now there could be an argument for pride or strength of will but in all honesty fear has been the core value of his entire personality. For It is human nature to fear death above all else.

Before I delve into why fear may be his most dominant emotion at present, let's take a look at several definitions and meanings of the word.

Fear;

an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

a feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something or the safety and well-being of someone.

the likelihood of something unwelcome happening.

a mixed feeling of dread and reverence.

Now that we have the clear definition and example of what fear is let's proceed.

I think we can all agree that the first signs of Ironwood's fear were first seen in volume 3. Due to the events of the Fall of Beacon where he was completely and utterly out maneuvered by Salem and Cinder despite his best efforts to stop them, Ironwood now appears to suffer from a degree of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an increased sense of paranoia, and an increased desperation to stop Salem by any means.

This, now coupled with his typical bullheadedness, arrogance and bluntness has made him make several decisions that have led to many of his own people from Atlas and the world in general to outright despise him due to the countermeasures he had implemented and the severe secrecy he has exhibited to the people, even his fellow Councilmen.

Even those in high positions or highly influential within the Kingdom have begun seeing him in a bad light, as seen with Jacques, Robyn Hill, Pietro Polendina and Councilmen Sleet and Camilla have begun doubting his state of mind and the honesty of his intentions.

Fundamentally, fear of death is the governing principle of human action. Fear is also one of the main motivator for most if not all of Ironwood's decisions that have affected the main plot of the current RWBY storyline.(For more details about this proceed to the hero section) His paranoia assuming he was already a paranoid individual before his debut has grown from worst to the extreme. So much so that it has warranted the concern of most of his allies.

Below are a few selected quotes and dialogue from some characters that evidence this reasoning and observation.

“James was no different. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was he saw there, but it changed him. He's…”

“He's scared.”

“Paranoid would be the more appropriate term.”

Pietro Polendina, & Qrow Branwen/ The Greatest Kingdom

“I'm not sure what happened to James in Vale, but it seems to have only worsened some of his more unfortunate tendencies. ”

Lionheart/ Welcome to Haven

“General Ironwood.... he looks.... tired.”

“James... what have you been doing?”

Yang, Ruby & Qrow/ The Greatest Kingdom

This more or less was a call for concern for the mental health and state of Ironwood’s mind. Fear is the main survival trait of all living things and it's okay to have it. But for Ironwood he had relied on fear too much to the point that it had consumed him and influenced every choice he had made. Not a very good trait to rely on.

Especially when you concern yourself more with uncertain and possible threats instead of the current and known threats that are in front of you. For Ironwood he ignored the current issues at hand in order to prepare for uncertain threats thus escalating the problem to the extreme.

Now we know how fear has motivated Ironwood and how it has led his situation from bad to worst. So we will now look at the possibility of how he might use his fear and the fear of others to his advantage.(Can’t be a General if you can’t motivate the people under your command to follow you without question)

“But ask yourself this: do you honestly believe your children can win a war?”

—Ironwood, before leaving Ozpin's office

“Discreet wasn't working. I'm here because this is what was necessary.”

—Ironwood, about the military presence in Vale

“The people of Vale needed someone to protect them, someone who would act. When they look to the sky and see my fleet, they feel safe, and our enemies will feel our strength.”

—Ironwood

Basically Ironwood is the class A example of Machiavelli in terms of philosophical ideals of security and control. Specifically relating to these 2 main ideas of Machiavelli’s philosophy;

Famously asserted that while it would be best to be both loved and feared, the two rarely coincide, and thus, greater security is found in the latter;

Viewed ambition, competition and war as inevitable parts of human nature, even seeming to embrace all of these tendencies.

But in the case of Ironwood he took these to the extreme. To the point that he became a fear monger; someone who spreads fear, or needlessly raises the alarm.  This is what he did in V2. Now why would I assume this. As stated before his actions have more or less influenced the current course of events that has shaped the current world of RWBY for the worst.

This might also explain why Winter the Ace-Opts and even the members of Ruby’s group(@ v7 beginning & specifically Ren & Qrow) were willing to follow Ironwood. Not because he has the plan or because they trust him but because Ironwood has prayed on their fear and insecurities. As such they surrendered control of themselves and consented to Ironwood's authority.

For Winter it can be assumed that Ironwood had used her fear and anger of her father to his advantage. Thus gaining a loyal obedient servant.  This might actually explain winter's line in the enemy of trust;

“What are you doing?! My life doesn’t matter!”

—Winter, to Penny after she saves her

Because she had consented to following Ironwood and accepted that her life has no value unless her assumed savior gives her a purpose. Basically Winter feared that she would end up like her father and so she rejected him in favor of Ironwood. To her Ironwood was the father she had always wanted. But her fear of Jaques had blinded her to the truth of Ironwood. Blinded her to the point that she had consented to a paranoid tyrant that will put his own agenda before everyone else.

Ironwood groomed and conditioned Winter from the start to be his right hand and be wholly loyal to him even against what’s right and against those Winter loves so she would carry out his orders even if they were morally dubious. He had brainwashed her to the point that she said, out loud, that her life doesn’t matter compared to Ironwood’s goals.

This same logic is also quite possible for the ace-opts as well as they all seem to have more fear dwelling within them more than the main heroes that they hide behind a false façade of confidence while relying and believing that Ironwood can ease their fear because he has made them believe that he can.

This is also shown in Ren where he seems to be the only one of the main heroes to actually join Ironwood’s side without hesitation in the worst case scenario.  Not because he thinks what Ironwood is doing is morally right or if it's the pragmatic choice. It's because he is afraid and has no idea what to do. Add in the fact that his usual leaders (Ruby/Jaune/Qrow/Oz) have no idea what to do as well. Hence this quote;

“We spent so much time worrying about how Ironwood will react to the truth about her, but have any of us considered how we're even going to beat her if we manage to work past that?”

—Ren, to Ruby and Nora

The fear of losing Ironwood’s trust is secondary to his main fear of Salem and how he and his allies have no idea or plan to combat her. But despite that he is consenting to Ironwood because of how hopeless he believes the situation to be and thinks Ironwood can relieve him of some of the despair. And chances are that this was shared with the rest of the main heroes but at varying levels.

This is also more evident with Qrow. Prior to this, Qrow has hated Atlas and what it stands for, and was never afraid to call it out. But Qrow was the character most devastated by the revelations in Volume 6, as it shatters his entire worldview and causes him to doubt his entire life’s work. A life’s work that has both fulfilled him and given him purpose, while also putting a strain on many of his relationships. So with his entire world thrown into chaos, he clings to the stability and security Ironwood offers and ignores the warning signs he would’ve caught at anyone other point in his life.

This is also true in real life: where groups that try to embed unthinking loyalty into their followers always try to recruit people at their most vulnerable. This even works on a macro-scale, where whole nations can fall under the sway of strongman leaders after massive social upheavals.

Okay we have covered how Fear has influenced his actions as well as how he may take advantage of the fears of others to achieve his desired goals. Now we will cover how Ironwood’s fears, and paranoia may be unfounded.

To start we will take a look at an overall summary of the final 3 episodes of Volume 7 that displayed the extreme limits of Ironwood’s fears and paranoia.

As of "Gravity", once he learns Cinder Fall is on Atlas, and taking into account the lies from Ruby's Group and that Salem was coming, Ironwood caves into his paranoia. Now more distrustful than ever before, he believes the entirety of Ruby's Group is betraying him, leading him to commit many unethical acts in order to prevent Salem from winning.

He was willing to abandon Mantle despite the people not being fully evacuated and use the Relic of Creation to raise Atlas into the sky instead of Amity Tower, deciding he'd abandon his original plan to solely save his city instead. He was even willing to have Fria killed in order to make Winter Schnee the next Winter Maiden.

His paranoia had reached a level where he now plans on using his immense influence as both General to the Atlas Military and Headmaster to the Academy to now put the entire kingdom of Atlas in a state of martial law without the kingdom's council's consent or approval due to now no longer knowing who to trust as seen where he ordered the arrest of Ruby's Group when they refused to go along with his extreme plan of self preservation. He was even willing to go so far as to shoot Oscar Pine without any hesitation or remorse afterwards so he could proceed with his plan.

This is pretty much a summary of the events that happened in the final episodes of the last season and where the controversy of his character begins in the rwby fandom. Basically arguing whether or not he's a hero or a villain.  Well as stated his actions were all motivated by fear and paranoia instead of actual reason or logic. Sure it can be argued that he made the rational choice but he wouldn’t have had he not been motivated by either his fear or ambition. Thus he had unnecessarily escalated the situation and did more harm than good.

And as stated by Ozpins speech at the end fear is just like alcohol the more you are consumed by it the more your real self is revealed.

The single quality that is common across every living creature on this planet... is fear. It’s funny then, that as common as fear is... we so easily underestimate its power.

But fear itself isn’t worthy of concern, it is who we become while in its clutches.

Will you be proud of that person? Will you forgive them? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did? Will you even recognize them? Or will the person staring back at you be the very thing you should have feared from the start?

I suppose we all find out... sooner or later.

And as stated by Ozpin's speech at the end, fear is just like alcohol the more you are consumed by it the more your real self is revealed. And his true self has been revealed to be nothing more than a scared barley competent man that should have never been put in power in the first place

For it was his insistence that his way is what’s best for everyone has been the source if not all of the main cause of all the  conflicts in the story. Because of this he has done more harm than good to Remnant and its people.

You had me with your words but you lost me with your action

[boxoftheskyking]

I should name this Untamed fic Part 2

Here is Part 1

I’m not editing anything and I’m posting as I go so the structure will probably get fucked up 

Part 2: In Which Wei Wuxian Gets a New Assignment

---

The way that Wei Wuxian looks at it, he’s lived ten lives. A few years that he likes to imagine were happy while his parents were alive. A few months as a beggar. Ten years as an adopted son. Three months as a student in Cloud Recesses. Fifteen glorious minutes as the focus of Lan Wangji’s irritated attention. A month that felt like a year as an orphan, again, hauling a comatose Jiang Cheng from one hideout to another. Two months recovering from a surgery no one can ever know about. A year and a half of wandering, too scared to face Jiang Cheng and the rest of the world, losing himself in the hills above Yiling, something in the mountain pulling him higher, deeper, calling to the void inside him and then spitting him back out. Two months in the prison at Qishan and then on trial for a couple things he did and a dozen things that had nothing to do with him—the ambush on the Lan hunting party chief among them. And now as a servant, mediocre and common and doing penance to a sect he’s never actually wronged. Unless you count breaking two hundred and seven of their rules in three months as a teenager. In his defense, three months is a long time, and Emperor’s Smile is really very good.

He’s early, which is truly unusual for him, but he’d been too nervous to sleep. He’s just approached the instruction pavilion when he hears raised voices from inside. Well, raised as much as they ever are in Cloud Recesses. 

“—I the Sect Leader, or am I not?” That sounds like Lan Xichen, though Wei Wuxian has never heard his voice be anything other than cool and placid as a mountain lake.

There is a long pause, or at least a moment where Wei Wuxian can’t hear what’s happening.

“—boy is a problem, Xichen, and I caution you against your own optimism—” Lan Qiren’s voice fades out into an irritated mumble.

“—less there is proof, and if you recall, Wen Ruohan produced no—”

They must be approaching the door, as Wei Wuxian can hear much more clearly now. Eavesdropping is forbidden in Cloud Recesses, but hey, they’re the ones that ordered him here at the ass crack of dawn.

No proof, he says there was no proof, he lets himself think for just a moment before shoving the hope back down. Doesn’t matter.

“With or without proof, it’s not a risk that should be taken. Certainly not with the children. Even if your faith is not misplaced, in the best case scenario, the boy is loud, he is flighty, he is unsuitable, and he is a problem.”

“Uncle,” Lan Xichen sounds calm as ever, but there is a surprising amount of steel in his tone. “I am the leader of this sect. I will always value your input and I am grateful for all of the education I’ve received at your hands, but you have to let me lead. And you have to let me disagree with you on some things. You turned down the role of sect leader for a reason, didn’t you?”

Wei Wuxian’s eyebrows shoot up. After the former sect leader and numerous high ranking members were killed in the ambush, it seemed only natural that the title should pass to his oldest son, the great Zewu-jun, despite his relatively young age. To hear that the first choice had been the Grand Master is certainly a surprise. 

There is a very long pause, and the door opens just a crack. Wei Wuxian tucks himself away around the corner of the building.

“Very well,” Lan Qiren says. “Just make sure he is supervised.”

“I trust Wangji,” the Sect Leader says, and his voice sounds like a book being closed, tied, and slotted back onto the shelf. Final.

It’s a lucky thing that the Grand Master isn’t coming back his way, or Wei Wuxian isn’t sure how he’d stay unnoticed. He waits a moment before yawning loudly and stamping his feet a few times, then coming around the corner hopefully looking like someone who just rolled out of bed five minutes ago.

“Zewu-jun,” he says respectfully, executing a neat bow. He’s always liked the Sect Leader, and the little ember of hope tries valiantly to rekindle itself at the kindness in his expression. How long has it been since someone looked at him with actual kindness?

“Young Master Wei.”

No one calls him that anymore, either.

“Please come inside.”

The room seems smaller than he remembers even without the crowd of white-clad students. Lan Xichen does not sit, so Wei Wuxian keeps a respectful distance and waits. 

“How are your quarters?”

Wei Wuxian can’t keep the surprise off his face at the question. “Um. Fine? Yes, they’re fine, thank you for inquiring.”

Lan Xichen nods thoughtfully. “Lin Biming has informed you that you are to be reassigned?”

“Yes, Zewu-jun.”

There’s an awkward pause. Am I supposed to ask? Wei Wuxian wonders.

“How much do you know about the ambush that claimed the life of the former Sect Leader?”

Wei Wuxian’s mouth goes completely dry. “It— I mean, I, uh—”

“I’m quite certain you were not involved.”

He feels himself list to the side, almost stumbling in shock. No sect leader, no one had ever said they believed him. Not even Jiang Cheng.

“Forgive me, I am not asking for information that you do not have. I am merely attempting to provide context for your new position. As you know, the former Sect Leader was killed in the ambush, but so were a good number of our senior disciples and experienced instructors. My brother, Lan Wangji, was meant to be on the night hunt as well, but as luck would have it he had stayed in Cloud Recesses to help tend to one of the children who had fallen ill.”

“I know who your brother is.” For some reason that’s the only thing that comes out of his mouth. 

Lan Xichen smiles just slightly. “Of course. In the aftermath of the attack, as you know, I assumed the role of Sect Leader. My brother has taken over the training of our younger disciples. Other instructors and caregivers have come to Gusu assist over the past few months, but none have stayed for very long.”

Wei Wuxian doesn’t feel like he can ask Why not, but he really, really wants to.

“I am assigning you to care for the young disciples. Lan Wangji will be in charge of their training and education, but other duties will fall to you. Making sure they are fed, clean, sleeping and waking at the appropriate time. Approved recreation activities, memorization of the rules. My brother is a very capable teacher,” a warmer smile flickers across Lan Xichen’s face, “but they are children. That is what we need help with. Not someone to train a generation of cultivators; someone to raise children.”

“But I—” Wei Wuxian can’t help himself. “I’ve never raised children. I mean I have no— I’m not a—”

“And you were never taught demonic cultivation techniques. But in less than a year you could raise and control an army of thirty-plus puppets, repress a soul-eater with a single talisman when it usually takes at least three, and transfer a curse from one victim to another without physical touch or spiritual power.”

“I—” He’s not sure if this list is meant to inspire confidence or to remind him why he’s earned this punishment. “It’s really not that hard if you think about the curse as its own entity. I mean, instead of a thing that takes energy to target and release, you see it as, I don’t know, not a being, but something with a want or a desire. And then it’s just making your intended target into something more attractive to the curse than whoever’s got it in the first place. It’s not, like, a genius thing.”

Lan Xichen blinks at him, and Wei Wuxian can’t quite read his expression. “You are not to teach that to the children.”

Wei Wuxian laughs. “I may be a fool and a demon, but I’m not interested in trying to control a bunch of twelve-year-olds with the ability to curse each other.” 

He waits, but Lan Xichen says nothing further.

“So I’m a quick study,” Wei Wuxian says carefully. “That doesn’t make me— That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I remember you,” the Sect Leader says simply. “From before.”

“I was a terror.”

Lan Xichen inclines his head just slightly. “So you’ll understand them, particularly the difficult ones.”

He can’t help a snort of laughter at that. He supposes it’s true. He remembers being a kid. He still feels like a kid, though he’s nineteen now. Sometimes he thinks he’s just been switching from one type of kid to another. So many lives, never a chance to grow up.

“Do you agree to the position?” Lan Xichen asks.

“Do I have a choice?”

“No, not really.”

Wei Wuxian gives him his most winning smile. “Great. When do I start?”

Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

[unitedcallcenters]

Customer support is see the real face of the company

Q&A with United Call Centers CEO Richard Kozma

What comes to our mind when we hear the phrase ’customer support’? An eternity spent listening to „entertaining” music while put on hold? Pushy or indifferent voices on the other end? A virtual labyrinth where we bounce from one rep to another like a ball?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the role of customer services and customer support reps have significantly increased in the life of businesses, since this is the first line where most people interact with a company. But how can you leave a positive impression? How can you make the customer experience pleasant for the target audience? What should you even communicate about yourself through customer service? Should you keep the process in-house or outsource it? Should chatbots or humans take on inbound conversations? Tibor Dancsevics (CEO of Adertis Kft.) and Richárd Kozma (CEO, United Call Centers Kft.) shared their thoughts about this topic. Tibor and his team have been developing customer service systems for 13 years. Richard and UCC has 20 years of experience in coming up with customer service solutions: as of today UCC can provide help in call center activities in more than 30 languages through native-speaking professionals.

„The key to a good customer experience is to put the right person into the right position. It doesn’t matter how professional the technology is what we use to support our call center, if the customer support colleagues do not consider the issues as their own objectives to solve, and do not consider themselves as part of the company and do not communicate appropriately. But what do we mean by the term ’appropriate colleague/communication’? A person, who not only knows our company’s values, but can also identify with them, thus genuinely being able to represent us. Someone who knows our procedures, products, and services. If we support their work with technology, we can achieve a great degree of effectiveness, since we simultaneously help them and the customer, achieving a better customer experience in the end.” – Tibor Dancsevics

The key to a good customer experience = motivated colleagues + professional technology

Customer support and home office – challenges and solutions

No matter what technology we are using and what environment we are working in, we can provide two types of solutions to our colleagues: we should use process-based operations, and as a leader we should oversee the complete system, and be able to effectively coordinate, and if necessary control the processes.

Process-based operation

What does this mean? If we take a closer look at this definition, we can already see the difficulties in home office customer service. Is the flow of information efficient between colleagues? Who does what and when within the given process?

Let’s take a look at an example! The customer calls you. Where does the unanswered call appear? In home office, many times there is no adequate technology for this purpose: from time-to-time in-house customer support agents resort to using mobile phones, where calls are easily lost and follow-ups are more difficult.

Questions regarding the flow of information

This is important where a minimum of 2-3 people are working together, because in this setup information flow can be a problem, including the monitoring of who does what. In this case colleagues usually forward calls: if the first colleague does not pick up the phone or is busy, then comes the next mobile phone, the next colleague. Three different people in different places. The call goes around all the three phone lines, accumulating unanswered calls each time, which raises the question: Who will call back the customer?

Problems related to the flow of information

Here we need to consider two extremes – says Tibor – the customer service colleague simply cancels the incoming call and no one calls back the inquiring person. The other extreme is that all three of our staff will return the call. Neither scenario displays professionalism, and we cannot build trust in this way, let alone assess the credibility of our company.

The division of tasks

What happens if the problem described in the incoming call does not reach the right colleague? Call forwarding, holding and offering to call back. At best, if we have promised a call back, our colleague who will then look for the customer, will listen to the conversation and prepare themselves. This is the most professional solution.

In reality however, a more difficult scenario happens which is responsible for the misjudgement of customer services: the first colleague talks to the customer for a long time, but cannot help, does not understand the problem, forwards the call... After further call routings and never-ending conversations the customer finally reaches the person who understands their issue and can help, but at this point the mood is so tense that it is difficult to end the customer experience on a positive note.

Receiving incoming calls using skill-based routing is a huge step forward in making the call center organized. It significantly improves customer experience, if the incoming call is answered by the same colleague with whom the customer or partner has spoken before. This continuity builds trust, and the procedure becomes faster and more effective. It can be useful to direct VIP customers to senior customer support agents after pre-screening. With such approaches we communicate to both our colleagues and our customers: we value their time.

Call recording

In Home Office, the importance of this is increased as well, since our colleagues are left on their own so to speak, and we can communicate with them only through electronic channels. The importance of call recording lies in that you can listen to problematic conversations, and develop colleagues in a more personalized way, and become more effective in giving feedback as well.

Customer support – The „frontline”

„It is an enormous burden for call center colleagues that they serve as the first real impression to the customers. By now everyone is aware of the fact that the nicely articulated words written by a PR team on a website do not necessarily mean what they portray. Customer support is the first touchpoint where we can see „the real face” of the company. We also know that most people resort to this platform when a problem arises, so the whole communication starts off pretty sensitively. If we cannot handle this well, then loss of trust is most certainly guaranteed.” – points out Tibor Dancsevics.

Now, more than ever, everything is based on trust. 

The most fundamental example is your voice. We don’t really have any other means, since in case of customer service we cannot use video – at least, not yet anyway.

Customer service is NOT only about handling complaints! It needs to provide support, even sales support (is the product available currently; how to use it, etc.). We should be able to communicate that customers can always turn to us and we will help them in each and every case. Customer support should be considered as a whole package, where part of it is complaint handling, another is support, and some customers use their call center for campaign results measurement.

Customer service 101: the customer seeks a professional.

Keep it in mind that practicality and effectiveness lies in customer reach rate as well. Telesales – especially during this pandemic – is more useful, and more time- and cost-effective, than door-to-door sales, which slowly fades into obscurity. However there are a few exceptions, such as the banking sector, where personal meetings cannot be replaced by contacting people through the phone for a long time.

To outsource, or not to outsource

„Providing customer support and to work as a contact center agent is a profession just like any other. It requires adequate knowledge and training, so it is best to leave it to professionals. – says Richárd Kozma – Let me tell you a funny example! I like to think of myself as a master chef, when I’m happily cooking our kitchen into oblivion during my creative sprees. Then when I’m in the restaurant, I’m muttering to myself that the duck that the chef has prepared must be better only because he has a sous vide machine – but we all know the difference is rather attributed to more than 20 years of experience and knowledge between us.”

It applies to call centers as well that it’s important to determine what makes someone a professional, whom we can trust with our customer support?

We can build outsourcing on four major pillars: knowledge, quality, cost effectiveness, and flexibility.

There is no point thinking about outsourcing if the calls are distributed evenly, so someone can always pick them up and is able to solve the problems quickly. (But this is the rare and ideal scenario.)

For a professional call center one of the most important duties is to reduce the time spent in the virtual waiting room as much as possible. We can solve this by giving the task to a colleague trained in the given area of expertise, someone who can effectively and quickly react to any questions that may occur.

Effectiveness can increase if the operator can diligently represent multiple professions and companies. We can allocate these colleagues wherever help is needed the most.

In-house call centers are rarely flexible, which you can see in the dip in quality, but you can improve your customer service by providing continual trainings to your colleagues.

If you trust an external partner with operating your customer service, make sure they represent your company appropriately, and they assume the mentality of your company’s culture.

„Just as we say between colleagues, we are fortunate for having a new job every day. Part of our work method is to try to completely put ourselves into our customer’s shoes, immerse ourselves in their problems, processes, and strive to offer the most flexible, most effective solutions for them. We expect our own agents as well to wholeheartedly represent our customers’ brand.” – says Richard from the perspective of a customer support outsourcing professional.

Frequently Asked Questions: „Why can’t I record the conversation too?”

Currently most customer support calls begin with a disclaimer that the call is being recorded. But how does this facilitate trust? And does it undermine trust if the contacted individual cannot do the same?

The company’s hands are tied as well: they need to follow strict legislations about where, how, and how long they can store a conversation, and these legislations are difficult to enforce in the case of civilians.

Recording calls facilitates fundamental trust, since if a conversation is recorded, it can be tracked, and it can be measured, whether the company does everything to be professional or not. It is important to know that both parties have the fundamental right to request the call recording from the company, anytime, without having to provide any reason.

Call recordings offers an opportunity for the company to improve and create personalized trainings for colleagues.

English translation with kind permission of the author. This article was originally published in Hungarian on Bizalmi Kör Blog (Circle of Trust Blog), on 7th of April, 2021.  

Circle of Trust is Hungary's number one business club for company leaders, established in 2011. CoT's mission and vision is to create value-based Hungarian business environment and organizational culture, with developing, sustainable companies, and open-minded company leaders, who wants to develop themselves, and who are not afraid to share their experiences and knowledge. For more information in Hungarian please visit: https://bizalmikor.hu/  

[dansiere]

✩⋆ . manner of articulation; first sign of rebellion.

mini-headcanons #1

Whenever her articulation is concerned, Pearl is well known for her rather precise but sometimes long-winded dialogue. She is prone to ramble whenever given the chance & hardly replies to a question or comment with a single sentence. Usually one to articulate herself almost flawlessly, Pearl can come off as haughty or patronizing from time to time -- this, however, has not always been the case. 

     Pearl’s change of speech is inevitably linked to her shift in status & occupation; beginning with her role as a servant on Homeworld, & altering drastically throughout growing more & more independent, with most of her alterations becoming evident during the GEM WAR. -- to Pearl, these changes made out of her own volition [alongside becoming a “knight”] hold immense importance. After all, they embody a break with the diamond authority & a step towards personal freedom.

DISCLAIMER: The following includes my own headcanons & ideas & should, by no means, to be perceived as canon. While my headcanons are usually rooted in canon lore & use analysis of aforesaid material, the very ideas are my own.

1) HOMEWORLD. as a default pearl in White Diamond’s service, Pearl possessed a high-pitched equally default voice, very clear but also extremely monotone & robotic, lacking any signs or traces of individuality. She usually articulated herself by using specific sentence components alongside ending or beginning aforesaid sentences with “MY DIAMOND”. As a default [lacking common configurations] her vocabulary as such was fairly limited. She rarely used pronouns to refer to herself. Instead, she spoke in allegories by using her superiors as a means to convey whatever she was supposed to convey [”My Diamond would like to see you now” instead of “I am here to pick you up” or “My Diamond enjoys dance performances” instead of “I like to dance”]. Needless to say, Pearl never truly expressed her own wishes or thoughts but indirectly stated her concerns through, again, using “her diamond” as a reference. While other pearls sometimes spoke more freely in private, Pearl never felt the wish to do so. In addition to her linguistic limitations, she also yielded to behavioural rules & regulations. -- pearls were only allowed to talk whenever spoken to, were supposed to listen to verbal & gestural commands [an example for a keyphrase being “that will be all” followed by clapping twice]. -- this usually led to Pearl developing the habit to silently stand in the background, waiting for a command or anything similar. 

    The first alteration to her common manner of articulation was made after being handed to Pink Diamond, approximately 1500 years after her emergence. Pink often asked Pearl questions & encouraged her to speak up whenever she felt the need. It took Pearl several years to actually do so. -- eventually, in an attempt to “make Pink happy” she unsolicitedly, on her own volition, suggested interstellar travel; Pink Diamond rejoiced & believed she had finally gotten through to her silent & dull “companion”. Things did not progress much further from there, however, even if Pearl started adapting by learning how to use the pronouns “I” & “me” instead of constantly expressing herself through referring to Pink as “her diamond”. 

2) LIFE ON EARTH / THE GEM WAR. partially in an attempt to further adjust to her NEW lifestyle, Pearl started speaking more freely, allowing emotions to influence her pronunciation, developing her own, personal sentence structure & melody. Whenever Rose & her travelled to Earth together, Pearl grew more confident; instead of reverting to her head-voice, Pearl focused on speaking in a lower pitch, in addition to shortening words [i.e. negations]. Still, she hardly initiated conversations, waited for commands or questions, sometimes fell back into old habits or apologized for “speaking out of turn”. However, shortly after the outbreak of the rebellion, Pearl started to ramble more frequently, laughed & learned eagerly. -- it was difficult at first & required a lot of concentration & new-found strenuousness but she managed, at least in a certain scope, eventually.

     Upon meeting other Gems, things grew more complicated & complex. At first, Pearl was usually assumed to be Rose Quartz’ personal servant & thus addressed as such. This proved to be an issue that triggered Pearl’s programming & basically erased what progress she had made so far. While she could speak more freely with Rose, the stress that other gems evoked caused her to go back into servant mode, forcing her to silence herself to prohibit any personal “slip-ups” that could have led to her revealing Rose’s & her status. -- she had never learned how to talk to any Gem aside from other pearls or diamonds, leaving her with no other choice than to relearn how to properly react & respond to people in specific social scenarios. To overcome her conditioning’s interference & personal inability to muster up the nerves to actually converse, Pearl spoke in a strictly monosyllabic manner at first. “Yes”, “No”, “Okay”, “So?” “What?”, “Go there”, “Negative”, “Positive”, etc were commonly the only words others would come to hear. -- either that or she did not say anything at all. 

     -- --. Needless to say, part of Pearl’s status as “Terrifying Renegade” came from her being perceived as mute, usually glaring at whoever happened to be in her proximity, rather letting her deeds “do the talking”. While people never truly expected a pearl to speak, it was the way she carried herself, the way she poofed / shattered enemies seemingly out of nowhere before disappearing again that struck fellow rebels & Homeworld soldiers with fear. -- instead of a soft-spoken, demure “yes, my quartz” other gems would hear gruff retorts or receive nought but a long, direct stare. -- needless to say, many perceived that as quite unnerving. 

     In truth, however, Pearl had troubles rearranging her sentences, ever afraid of "messing up”. Speaking had suddenly become a fight of its own; on the one hand, she fought her programming by not only speaking out of turn but also by using words & phrases she was not supposed to use, addressing Rose not as DIAMOND but by her NAME or as LEADER OF THE REBELLION while on the other concentrating on using the right pronunciation, taking the pitch of her voice, sentence melody & social etiquette into consideration. Most of her attempts came out languidly spoken & overcautiously phrased; Pearl had to completely remodel EVERYTHING she knew whilst constantly biting her tongue whenever the urge to be “just a pearl” arose. -- most of her learning process consisted out of observing other Gems & listening to their conversations, through reading, or having Rose teach her specific vocabulary during sword-fighting practice. Due to this, it took her quite a while overcome her emotional limitations, her fear of failure, & the ongoing inner conflict which the very situation had inevitably set free. 

3) POST WAR / SHOW-CANON. at this point in time, after approximately 1000 years, Pearl had come a long way. Her affinity to pay close attention to every spoken word led to her developing quite the pristine grammar & a low-pitched voice alongside quite a lively tone. Nowadays, she usually speaks rather formally, using little to no abbreviations unless she interacts with people she knows [such as Steven, Garnet, Rose & Amethyst]. Additionally, she has a hard time keeping her sentences brief; she rambles, & joyously so. 

     Yet despite all of her improvements & pride, most of her “lofty” & eloquent talk is deeply rooted in a certain hyper-awareness & a terrible fear of “messing up” or falling back into old patterns. Even if she has long moved past the servant phase of her life she still feels like she has to prove that she is as smart as anyone, that she is not “just a pearl” but in fact as good as any other gem. Her urge to earn validation makes itself known in various situations, often subconsciously coercing her to “show off”. -- her desire to constantly share what she knows, her patronizing manner of addressing / calling out mistakes or correcting “grammatical flaws”, her seemingly neverending ramblings; it all ties back to her past & having been confronted with her status throughout her entire life. 

     While she is quite GOOD at covering up her insecurities through partially “faked” bravado, her inferiority complex often shows whenever she is agitated or emotions get the best of her. In the worst cases, her nervousness & emotional instability makes her speak faster than she thinks, lets her stumble over her own words, has her trail off, swallow vocals & consonants or have her at a loss of words. It makes it harder for her to express what she means, pushing her into this unbearable situation of not knowing how to continue or what to say; she loses her red thread & tries to save face by fleeing the premise.  -- it is something she hates but cannot really control.

[justanotherwannabeclassic]

prompt 2: quarantine

For those of you who still pay attention to this nonsense blog, I’ve been working with @distant-rose on creating this wildly expansive second-generation Marvel AU. It’s pretty wild, has 20+ AUs of itself, well over 100 characters, and a timeline spanning 40+ years. These are their stories. 

Characters: Francis Barton, Kassandra Page, Matthew Natchios, Ian Rogers, Gerry Drew, Bekka LeBeau, Megan Frost

Prompt 2: Quarantine

Dates: November 10-24, 2019

Day 1

“Since we’re stuck together for the foreseeable, I think we need to establish some ground rules.” Francis Barton laid down a pad of white paper and pulled out a pen. “It should, hopefully, make this a seamless experience while the Richards figure out if we’re going to die horrible, painful alien-virus related deaths.”

There were worse things than being quarantined in a SHIELD facility after being exposed to some sort of alien virus. They could all be dead, for one. They could also be undergoing some weird mutations -- NOT THAT THERE WAS ANYTHING WRONG WITH MUTANTS -- and grow six or seven different limbs. That would be worse. Really, considering those two options, Francis Barton was certain that quarantine was the best case scenario. But he also knew however long stuck in one place with little-to-no outside interaction was bound to be hell. As such, rules needed to be established.

“That sounds like a very El thing to say,” Kassandra Page, absolute badass and love of his potentially shorter life, noted from her spot on the table. She didn’t even bother to look up from her book. 

“Well, she’s the one who gave me the idea.” So what if he wasn’t the one to come up with the rules thing? El was a smart cookie. El was also safe and moderately happy thousands of miles away in New Orleans. That didn’t stop her from blowing up his phone with several texts. He was sure she was doing it to the three other members of their quarantine cohort.

“Should I contact the Xavier School and have them send over their roommate contracts?” Ian Rogers asked drly. 

“That sounds like a great idea!”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“See? That’s not helpful in establishing positive roommate relationships.” Francis argued. “Where’s Matt?”

“In the bedroom trying to convince his pregnant girlfriend from murdering him before the virus does, by the sound of it,” Gerry Drew commented. “For what it’s worth, the ground rules sound like a good idea. I was going to suggest it myself, but grew distracted finishing the mission report. Work never ends, even in quarantine.”

“Has my brother-in-law punched you in the face?” Ian twisted in his chair to look over at Gerry. 

“No.”

“Wonders never cease.”

Kass glanced between the two men and back to Francis. “El might be right. Maybe we should establish ground rules.”

Day 4

Gerry Drew wondered if he had died and gone to hell. Perhaps the virus had actually gotten to him, eaten him away from the inside out until he perished, and this was his punishment. He could hear the unmistakable sound of a bed creaking from one of the bedrooms as well as Natchios talking to his mutant girlfriend from a different room.

“You would think they would have left us headphones,” Gerry groaned aloud, hoping the one other person in the room would agree; instead, Ian ignored him and continued to tap away at his laptop. Gerry turned on the television. He settled on ESPN, and looked over his shoulder to Ian. “D’you like sports?” Again, no answer. Gerry sighed deeply. “What the hell are you working on?”

“Lesson plans.”

“Lesson plans?” That was not the answer he expected. Gerry knew the other man was contracted by the Xavier Institute to assist in some training, but requiring lesson plans didn’t seem necessary. “They require you to do that shit?”

“Since I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future, I don’t want the kids to fall behind. I’m creating reports for the various cohorts. UV is capable, but she’s short staffed, meaning she’s doing to bring in someone like Jet to help,” Ian explained. He didn’t bother to look up from his laptop. 

“I don’t think a few weeks will make or break them.” 

“They’re mutants. Considering the targets on their back, it might.”

“I know it’s our job to be spooks and have contingency plans upon contingency plans, but the school hasn’t been attacked in years. They’re prepared. I’ve been working with them longer than you. The targets aren’t that big. Not on the kids.”

“The X-Men are now down several members, including their former leader. While they’ve been left in capable hands, enemies could view the perceived void as a vulnerability,” Ian explained gruffly. “Beyond that, society as a whole is still anti-mutant. Three states have banned human and mutant marriage. Congress still has very vocal members rallying for mutant registration. There are reports of several hate crimes against mutants this year alone. These kids have targets on their backs, Agent Drew. I am right to be concerned.” 

“You sound like your sister.” How many times had he heard Ellie Rogers expound upon the injustices mutants have faced over the years?

“I will take that as a compliment; however, coming from you, I assume you meant it as an insult.”

“I actually didn’t. I meant it as a neutral statement. Ellie is a pretty large advocate for mutant rights.” He wasn’t a fan of Ellie. He thought she was both entirely overrated and unprofessional, but he didn’t hold the mutant advocacy against her. “It makes sense, considering the mutant husband and kids.”

“Or she could be a good person. I know you think she’s blinded by her relationship with LeBeau, but there’s more to it than that. You don’t need to have a direct loved one be a mutant to care.” 

“But it helps. It is an influence. She wouldn’t have done half the shit she pulled for the X-Men if she wasn’t involved with their leader.”

“Former leader.” 

“Are you getting pedantic with me? He was leader up until three months ago.” Then he and Ellie fucked off to retire to New Orleans and raise their mutant kids. Whatever. Arguing wasn’t going to make his living situation any more tenable, but Gerry never met an argument he didn’t fight. “You mean to tell me your mutant niece and nephew don’t have any influence for why you’re working at the school?”

“They are influences, as are my friends, but they aren’t why I care about mutant rights. Not originally. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t always a psychopath.” Ian shut his laptop. “I liked history and politics as a kid. No surprise, considering my parents. Some people are obsessed with studying the Second World War. Others are obsessed with different countries. England. Japan. China. Me? I was fascinated with Genosha. I grew up on my father’s stories of liberating concentration camps, and how we swore never again. Over ten million innocent lives, more than the population of New York City, were lost, slaughtered my Sentinels and the world hardly cared. The world turned their back on an atrocity and wants to put in place structures for it to happen again on a larger scale. I say ‘never again’. Where do you stand?”

He didn’t wait for a response, quickly standing and taking his laptop with him as he disappeared into another room, leaving Gerry alone to his devices. 

Day 9

She missed her dogs. 

They were currently staying with Barnes and Romanov, so Kass knew they were well taken care of, but still, she missed them. She missed a lot of things. She missed her apartment and her bed. She missed the cafe that was two blocks from her apartment. She usually stopped by for coffee most mornings. They knew her order there and called her ‘Kelly’ because that was the name she gave them. She always paid in cash, so nobody needed to know the fib. It was comfort built on a lie, but a familiar comfort nonetheless.

Nothing about the past nine days was comfortable. Kass chafed at sharing living quarters with four other people. Francis, she could handle. She had more or less been living with him for months. The others, not so much. Matt was like a brother to her, and few others understood her the way Ian did, but neither of those qualities made her want to share a living space with either of them. She didn’t trust Agent Drew as far as she could throw him, which was an added element to misery. 

It was only Day 9. Kass wasn’t accustomed to this much stimulus, not without any outlet. She couldn’t go to the shooting range. She was cautioned against excessive training. She couldn’t go to the park for a run. She was trapped in a quarantine pod with several other people on the off chance she was carrying an alien virus. Valeria Richards proposed isolation of two weeks. She had another week of this. Someone was going to die. 

Francis was trying to lighten the mood with ice-breakers and other games. It was mostly annoying. They played poker over celery sticks and passive-aggressive barbs. They argued over movie nights Matt and Ian spent most of the time engrossed texting whoever on their phones, which was fine, except for the excessive buzzing each time either one of them received a message. Matt, himself, had several loud phone calls with Bekka, his annoying, pregnant girlfriend. Kass wanted to shake him and scream that Bekka would be fine, her goddamn mother had flown up from New Orleans to spend time with her while Matt was trapped. Gerry had stupidly tried to institute a ‘No Sex’ rule, targeted solely at her and Francis. Kass, in turn, had threatened to break his face. 

May the alien virus take us all. 

Kass had decided to stay holed up in her room for the rest of the day. It was the only way she could keep from killing everyone, and even then it was a close thing. She could hear Matt having another loud phone conversation in the main area; however, instead of Bekka’s Southern’s drawl, she could hear El’s half-melodic voice over the speaker. From what she could hear, Ian and Francis were also joining in on the chat. 

That twisted something else in her, another emotion she had no desire to dwell upon. She hadn’t spoken to El in months, not since that last argument before she’d uprooted her life and ran away to New Orleans. Kass had called the action out for what it was, a stupid mistake. El hadn’t appreciated that, and since El was a stubborn bitch, she dug in her heels and argued back. They’d both said some shitty things, and that was that. The end of almost a decade of friendship. 

It was fine. She was fine. El was off to live her life with her husband and babies, and Kass was...Kass was trapped in a quarantine pod with several people she wanted to be exceptionally far away from. Most of whom seemed happily to monopolize the living area chatting away with her about....Thanksgiving plans? Whatever. She was fine. She didn’t care about Thanksgiving. Kass didn’t even want to think about Thanksgiving, not while she was stuck in this space.

She wanted to be alone. She buried her head under the pillow in hopes of drowning out the voices and laughter.

Day 11

Ian was on a beach. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in his quarantine pod, but he was on a beach. He could almost smell the salt of the sea and feel the sand underneath his toes.

“Relax. You’re dreaming,” a familiar voice floated behind him. Ian turned at noise to see Megan Frost standing behind him. She walked slowly toward him, as if she were afraid of startling him. “I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d stop by for a visit.”

Megan was a telepath, a damn good one. She’d been the one who had psychically reprogrammed his mind after decades of tampering and torturing. For the past few months, she had also been his lover. Now, she was invading his dreams and doing so while she was wearing a rather daring bikini. 

“I don’t mind at all.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips against his. It was exhilarating even in dream form. “You’ve never done this before.”

“Kissed you? Darling, we both know that isn’t true.” She began to place open mouthed kisses down the column of his throat. He groaned lowly, and tightened his fingers on her hips. She knew perfectly well what he was talking about. She never invaded his dreams before. As if reading his mind, and she probably was, sighed, “I missed seeing you, and since I can’t do that in person, I thought I would try the next best thing. Is that so wrong?” 

“No, it isn’t.” Ian was sure some people would mind the intrusion. He wasn’t some people. He also knew better than to take anything Megan was willing to give. Telling him she missed him was a monumental step in the right direction when it came to emotional displays of her affections. She tended to keep her feelings close to her chest. He supposed it probably had something to do with her fiance. 

Part of him wanted to ask what the Tin Man was doing now. Was he lying asleep next to Megan, while she mentally fooled around with him? The thought thrilled him. If Megan was carrying out a telepathic affair with Ian while her fiance was right there, surely she was steps away from finally choosing him.

The scene shifted around them, and they were in his studio apartment. Megan pushed him onto the bed, and he fell with a laugh. “The beach no good?”

“I suddenly thought you might like something familiar. The beach is lovely, but nothing compared to home.” Ian didn’t know what home was anymore. He barely knew who he was anymore, but he enjoyed everything more when she was involved, but he couldn’t tell her that. Not yet.

Instead, he pulled her down on the bed, and delighted in her laughter and the feel of her body next to his. “You should do this more often,” he whispered against his lips. A telepathic interlude paled in comparison to the real thing, but it was exciting enough. It meant she was here with him.

“Maybe I--” A crash shook him from his dream and pulled Megan away from him. He could hear shouting and the sound of glass breaking. What the fuck?

Francis poked his head into the room. “Sorry to wake you, man, but Matt and Gerry are having a fistfight, and I might need your help breaking it up.”

Day 14

“Your face looks terrible.” Bekka grimaced over the phone. Video chats had many benefits, but this was not one of them. “Not that he doesn’t deserve it or anything, but what got you fighting Gerry Drew anyway?

“Gerry’s an ass. That’s all. He said some shit, got hit.” It hurt to talk. His face was several different kinds of bruised. Worth it. 

“What’d he say?”

“What didn’t he say? He’s been nothing but a pain in the ass for two weeks.” That much was true. He’d been petulant and whiny over everything. Was it annoying hearing Kass and Francis fuck? Sure. Did Ian take extremely long showers? Yes. Did Matt call Bekka often? Also yes. But they all had their reasons for it and even if they didn’t, Gerry was a waste enough of a human that he didn’t care how he felt. 

Gerry might top Matthew Natchios’ List of People He Hated. 

It was an extensive list.

“I’m sure he’s been a pain. That’s baseline Gerry Drew, but he had to say something specific to see you off. Ian, I’d get. If Olivier were there, I’d get the punching too, but this isn’t normal you.”

Matt considered lying through his teeth. There was no way Bekka would know why they fought unless someone told her. She wasn’t a telepath. Her mutation was explosions. She didn’t need to know, but he was going to tell her anyway. That’s what relationships were built upon. Trust. “He just said some shitty things about you and us. That’s all.”

“Oh,” was Bekka’s reply. Prior to dating Matt, Bekka had been dating Gerry’s best friend. It had gone as south as a relationship could go before they split. Gerry held a lot of resentment about that, especially since Matt had played a very big role in Bekka and Damon splitting. “How shitty?”

Matt took a deep breath. “He implied Baby Girl wasn’t mine.” Bekka remained quiet. “Becks?”

“Didja break his face?” Bekka asked finally. “I’m gonna be disappointed as hell if you didn’t at least break his nose.”

“I’m pretty sure I did that,” Matt answered with a laugh, relieved that Bekka was responding with anger instead of tears. Rarely did she cry, but Matt didn’t want one of those instances to be when he wasn’t there to hold her. 

“Good.” She was quiet for a few moments more before she added, “You know Baby Girl is yours, right? No way possible she belongs to anyone else.”

“I know, it’s why I hit him.” He’d been angry about other things. All the shit Gerry had said about Bekka and she and Damon had split, the way he undercut El out of her job as SHIELD liaison with the X-Men, and how he went out of his way to make her miserable. Matt didn’t know much about family, but he knew who his was, and he didn’t like when others messed with them.

“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Val swears that y’all aren’  infectious or whatever. She’s been running so many tests. I miss you something awful”.

“I miss you too.”

“Momma and I are baking you something special too. I won’t tell you what, because it’s supposed to be a surprise. I would trade anything to have you home, but it’s been nice having Momma here.” Bekka’s accent was thicker than usual, no doubt thanks to spending the past two weeks with her Mississippi-born mother. Matt didn’t mind at all -- he adored her accent. Truth be told he adored everything about Bekka. He couldn’t wait to be home and in her arms. “You sure you’re okay with her staying until after Thanksgiving?”

“It’s fine. I love you mother.” 

She’d been more of a mother to him than his own mother, not that it was a high bar. Elektra Natchios was a terrible mother, the complete opposite of Anna Marie LeBeau. Besides, it was clear how much Bekka enjoyed having her mother around. Much as she tried to pretend otherwise, Bekka was riddled with anxieties over pregnancy and becoming a mother. Having Anna around comforted her in a way no other person could manage. As far as Matt was concerned, she could stay around as long as she liked.

“Je t’aime. Tu es le meilleur.” She yawned deeply. “Your baby needs to go to bed, which means I am. But good news, I’m seein’ you tomorrow. That’s a win.”

Matt smiled against the phone. I can’t wait.”

He let her go, pleased to know that she was taking care of herself and getting some sleep. He needed it himself. One more sleep, and he would be free from quarantine. 

[patriotsrising1]

STARTING A MILITIA

All of the volunteer groups, and not just militia's, that I have seen form over the last four decade, usually fail completely or they never live up to their potential. Usually, this is because of what I classify as “The Three Great Mistakes” volunteer groups make when they form, especially militias. If a militia does not avoid these mistakes, then the best scenario is an underachieving group that has limited value. I am going to break down these mistakes and who the solution to the problems to the best of my ability. The purpose of this is to give a new militia the best chance of forming a powerful political and war-fighting capability.

THE FIRST MISTAKE MILITIAS MAKE

The first mistake militias make is emulating the US military. It is perfectly natural that we should do this because how else to form up a group of war-fighters other than to copy the war-fighters that make up our military? But the militia is not the US military. I am going to repeat that, the militia is not the US military and the US military has as a part of its culture something that is pure poison to a militia, or any other volunteer group really, but I am going to limit these posting to just militias.

What is that poison? The poison is the idea that "Rank Has Its Privileges".

Once again, the militia is not the military. In the military, rank does has its privileges, but have you ever thought why an army of a country that believes that all men are equal would allow certain members to have extra privileges?  It happened because when the Colonials were forming the Continental Army, they did what a lot of today’s militias are doing, they copy the military of the home country. For the Colonials, their home country was Britain. In the British Army, at least back then, rank had it privileges because only those with privileges could have rank. The British Army sold officer commissions and only the rich aristocrats could afford them, and they were already privileged when they join and they kept that privilege after they joined. The American Army copied them and so rank still has its privileges.

The U.S. Military can enforce the privileges because they have legal authority over its members. As a militia leader you only have conditional authority over the people that follow you. Think of it this way, there is a recruit going through basic training, let’s say he is in the Marine Corps at Parris Island and a drill instructor orders him to dig a hole and he says, and “Screw you. Dig your own hole, I’m going home.” I think we can agree that this recruit is going to have a really bad day. He can be punished because the Drill Instructor has the legal authority to do so, it comes from the Constitution through the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff all the way down to the Drill Instructor. 

Now, let’s say you are in charge of training militia recruits and I am a recruit and you tell me to dig a hole and I say, “Screw you. Dig your own hole, I’m going home.”

What happens next?

The answer is that I go home and you dig the hole. You have no legal recourse to stop me from leaving. Your authority is conditional, you only have it on the condition that I am willing to obey you. This changes the nature of the authority from the top down authority of the US Military to a bottom up authority. You must recognize the difference between these two concepts and how they are implemented. 

I have seen people get positions of rank or leadership roles time and again, and the position goes to their head and it poisons the group because they are more concerned about being important than in doing important work. In a volunteer group, when someone starts to think they are more important than the rest of the people, you are going to end up with a lot of people pissed off and people will break into factions, and some will just leave because the militia is now just a place where you have soap opera level drama.

WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?

The solution is to change RHIP to RHIR. RHIR is Rank Has Its Responsibilities.

The only proper way to keep the poison out is to understand that leadership in a militia is just another job that needs to be done. As volunteers, with no legal authority, all a militia can be is a group of people coming together for a common cause and no one is more important than anyone else. Yes, you do need officers and sergeants, because you need people who are looking at a bigger picture than someone who is on the front line that has a limited view of what is going on, but you are nothing special if you hold rank and you are NOT more important than anyone else. Besides not being more important than anyone else, a leader has to work harder than other people. A corporal will work harder than a private. A sergeant will work harder than a corporal and lieutenant will work harder than a sergeant, and so forth. Rank Has Its Responsibilities is the only concept that will work. If you introduce special privileges for certain people, you group will implode.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT RHIR

Because authority comes from the bottom up and every leadership positions will be settled by a vote, every person who joins a militia should ask this question when they elect their leaders of any rank. That question is, “Does this person work harder than everyone else?” If the answer is no, then don’t elect them to that position.

Think of it like this. Let us say that I am your commander and you are my second in command and I tell you we need a hole dug here, but you tell me that all the militia members are busy getting important training. There are two responses I could give.

First, I could say, “I don’t care what they are doing, get someone over here to dig this hole.”

Or

I could say, “I guess we need to find ourselves a couple of shovels to get this hole dug.”

Which type of response is the most likely to inspire people to follow me? Which type of leader would you most like to follow?

THE SECOND MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE IS IN NOT UNDERSTANDING THE TRUE NATURE OF THE MILITIA.

First, for a volunteer group, that has no legal authority to demand obedience, every leader will have to convince their people to do what they ask. This will require leaders to explain what they want and why the want it what happens if they win and what happens if they fail. This is not a weakness. In fact, it is a great strength. Of course, the people you send to do a mission must be competent, but assuming they are, knowing the who, what, when, where, and why of their mission combined with the freedom to find solutions that work at that time and place gives you flexibility that will allow you to exploit opportunities when they come along.

The second point to be made about not understanding what the true nature of a militia is that I need to mention is that the militia is by default, an ultra-light infantry. I've heard the militia called "light infantry" or "Light Foot", but Militia’s do not possess rockets, grenades, grenade launchers, machine guns, light mortars, etc., etc. that every light infantry unit in the world has, and therefore is an Ultra-light infantry. The US military primarily relies on firepower, mainly because no one can match it that arena, so that makes sense, but an ultra-light infantry will have to use different doctrines, strategies, and tactics than even a US military light infantry battalion, although there is always overlap. This lack of firepower necessitates the use of more stealth tactics and demands a high level of expertise from you members.

Third, we also have to recognize that the US military is a strategically offensive institution. It is designed to attack anywhere in the world, and has the equipment and logistics to take the fight to the enemy. The militia is a strategically defensive institution when it comes to war-fighting. War has to come into its sphere of influence. It stays in place to guard and to react to aggression. Don’t confuse being strategically defensive with being tactically defensive, as it may very well be the case that a militia unit may initiate a tactical fight if local circumstances dictate it. Now, this strategic defensiveness only applies to violence, we should be strategically offensive in every other area, such as politics.

The fourth point to note about the nature of the militia is in the realm of Politics, which are forbidden for the US military to be involved in, should be a natural and important part of the militia’s doctrine to fight the evil of the socialists. We should work to take control of the government and the courts, using legal means and only legal means, to stop the infection of socialism in the halls of power and in court rooms. If a large number of militia people can be gathered together and organized on a state level, let us say 5000 people (not all of them have to be under arms), that would make a very potent ground team to put behind a campaign for a militia approved candidate. It could go a long way into compensating for a socialist candidate that has the backing of globalist billionaires.

THE THIRD MISTAKE PEOPLE FORMING MILITIAS MAKE IS NOT WORKING FROM THE BIG PICTURE

You cannot build a house or a stadium or militia without a blueprint. You cannot plan a road trip without a map. You cannot sail the ocean without charts. You have to know where you are going before you leave home. You have to have the maps and charts to get you there. That is the point of this blog. It is a blueprint for a militia. Too many times I have seen a militia, or other volunteer group, try to form from the ground up with no overall plan or any idea of how to do it. You need to know who you are, who you want to become and have a plan for making that change. You need to know the who, the what, the when, the where, and  the how before you start. Of course, we already know why we are forming militias. Our culture has been infected with Socialists and globalists. They are violent, freedom hating, authoritarians. Socialism is a cult, and the high priests of that cult, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Castro have taught us at least one important lesson about their cult. It demands human sacrifice and the enslavement of people to their cause. These are being used by the globalists who wish to make themselves into a new aristocracy where they are the nobles and we are the serfs. But I don’t want to be a serf, and I suspect you do not wish to become one either. We the People, are banding together to defend ourselves, our republic, and our freedoms.

So, let’s define the characteristics of a successful militia.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL MILITA

A militia should be permanent. An effective militia will be a permanent social fixture and by being permanent, it can be more effective because it can act as a political influencer, operate during natural disasters, collect and manage resources (lands for training, shooting ranges, supply caches for war and natural disaster, etc.) and it can preserve war-fighting knowledge and skills.

An effective militia will have Four Missions.

External Threats. Should the US be invaded, the militia will act as resistance group in areas that have been overrun, and it will act as scouts and as a source of intelligence for the US military.

Internal Threats. This is our current crisis, our republic is under siege from within from the radical leftists of the Democratic Party. The militia stands as citizen safeguard against the infringement on our Natural Liberties.

Natural Disaster. Militias have the benefit of being of already being in place when natural disaster strikes and can deploy immediately.

Political Influencer. A well organized group, with lots of support, can effectively influence elections, keeping good politicians in power and preventing or removing bad actors.

The militia command must be decentralized and organized on a county or regional level. A centralized command system is vulnerable to take down. Cut off the head and the snake dies. The militia will operate like hornet’s nest. If you strike the nest, you will get stung and stung badly. This is exactly what happened when the Minute Men met the Red Coats in the battle of Lexington and Concord.

4.      A militia must operate, like the Constitution, with Christian Ideals. This does not mean that a militia promotes one Christian doctrine or church over another, nor does it mean that non-Christians are not welcomed. It simply means that the militia recognizes that Christian Charity (disaster relief, social efforts) is a necessary component for a strong social group. There is also the Christian recognition of the value of human life (as opposed to socialism where individuals are expendable cogs in a machine that only serves the masters of the party), and the inherent rights and dignities of the individual. (We also need to build up the Kingdom of God, for God will only bless the USA and our efforts if it serves his Kingdom.)

If we take all of the above points into account and also recognize that a militia is an Ultra-Light Infantry Unit, it stands to reason then an effective militia would operate much like the Roger’s Rangers did in the French and Indian War. Roger’s Rangers were savvy in wood-lore, fast, aggressive, and stealthy whether they were on the attack or serving as scouts for the main body. During an invasion, the militia would operate much like the British Auxiliary Forces were designed to do during the Second World War. They were “stay behind” groups whose job was to sabotage and disrupt the rear of a German invasion force. In the preservation of our liberties against an internal threat from an oppressive government, the militia would operate as our Founding Father’s intended it to operate, as a citizen army opposing tyranny. With the ability to respond immediately to natural disasters, the militia can intervene much more quickly than a government agency. A good analogy would the militia is like someone who knows first-aid and begins to help an injured person until an ambulance can arrive. In addition, a militia should be so powerful politically and socially, it can affect the outcomes of elections. For far too long, money, especially foreign money has been influencing our elections. Having an organized and socially powerful group can counteract the negative effects on elections by supporting candidates who would do well, but perhaps do not have the backing of socialist billionaires. One of the necessities of an ultra-light infantry, is they have to act as a guerilla army, at least at first, and for a guerilla army to be able to survive, it has to have the support of the people, which means that militia must operate within and gain the support of the locals. One of the best ways to do that is to be a force for good in the community, which also happens to be one of the criteria for being a Christian.

5.      A militia must have a strong and capable support system.

I’ve separated this point out because militias have poor logistical capabilities, and by poor I mean they don’t have one at all. However, having logistical support is an absolute necessity, but we should recognize that people who join the militia really want to fight and not count beans and bullets. This means the militia needs to recruit non-combatants who are willing to fill the support roles a war-fighting unit desperately needs.

Let us look at an example of what I mean.

Let’s say we want to field a company of militia, 100 men for 30 days. That’s not a lot of men, nor is it a long time to be in the field. Assuming each man eats 3 meals a day, this company will consume 300 meals a day, or 9000 meals for the entire 30 day deployment.

As I write this, a box of 12 MREs cost $132 on Amazon, or $11 per meal. That is enough for 4 men for one day. You would need 750 boxes of MREs to feed our militia company for its 30 day deployment at the cost of $99,000. Even if you could find MREs at 1/10 the cost, it would still cost almost $10,000 to feed the company. Obviously, that is not practical by any stretch of the imagination.

Reality dictates that cost of each meal would have to $.10 or less ($900 for 30 days, which is more reasonable). The only way to achieve that is if the militia grows, harvests, and processes its own food. Thus, Victory Gardens will have to be planted, tended, harvested, and then food brought in to be processed into homemade MREs by dehydrating the food or by freeze-drying it and then distributed to cache centers (Churches, for example). This will require an extensive network of gardeners and food processors but they do not have to be combatants. Almost certainly, this support network will be made up of wives and other women who want to participate but don’t want to be combatants. Once processed into food. This type of network would require people to work together as a group.

Do not discount how beneficial having people cooperate in our group. This type of activity would be fairly easy to organize in say 1920, but in 2020 we are a lot more isolated and we do not socialize as much. Building stronger communities will only benefit the US, and the more the militia is instrumental in building up communities, the more communities will support the militias. (Politicians and bureaucrats hate the thought of people being self-reliant, because it makes them redundant). The food thus collected can defray the cost of the food over time so it can be used during war or during natural disasters. As it ages and needs to be replaced, it can be given back to the militia members and whatever is left over can be given to less fortunate people in the community, thus building up goodwill toward the militia and at the same time building up the Kingdom of God though charity. It’s a win-win. This example only deals with one single thing a militia needs, but it does illustrate how a militia needs a strong support system to function effectively. 

Now that we know what the militia must do, we need to define the attributes, that is the personality of the group as a whole.

MILITIA ATTRIBUTES THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY

When we look at the differences in the amount of money a militia has at the current time versus any government sponsored agency, it is obvious that we are behind the eight ball. This fact needs to be recognized and it needs to be addressed. When you don’t have a super budget funded by grindingly heavy taxes, you have to compensate somehow. Some of the ways that you do this is by maximizing your intangible assets, developing your strategies to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses while neutralizing your enemy’s strengths and taking advantage of his weaknesses, and by creatively compensating for material deficiencies. In the Vietnam War, the communists always had a really huge material and technological disadvantage compared to the massive amount of US war material available, and yet Vietnam is now a communist country.

The four attributes a militia absolutely needs are as follows.

It must have Great Leadership

It must be Well Regulated

It must be Creative

It must have a Warrior Culture

Leadership

If the militia is going to have a prayer in succeeding in preserving our freedoms, it is going to have to have great leadership. (GREAT LEADERS WIN AND BAD LEADERS LOSE AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN CHANGE THAT, SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GREAT LEADERS.)

In the years of me trying to figure out how to get a militia (again any volunteer group, as well) to actually work, I looked at lot of “David vs. Goliath” scenarios, and one of them was the Vietnam War. When the war is studied, you find there were lots of reasons as to why the communists won, but the most glaringly obvious American deficiency was its leadership. Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, and General Westmoreland should have been prosecuted for criminal stupidity. General Giap, the North Vietnamese counterpart to Westmoreland, adopted three different strategies during the war to adjust to changing circumstances. Westmoreland, hampered by Johnson and McNamara, only employed one and they would not change their strategy even though their own people were telling them it wasn’t working. Luckily for us, our government bureaucrats haven’t gotten any brighter.

We can see the effect of good leadership versus bad leadership in the American Civil War as well. According to the U.S. Grant, and I assume he would know, the early victories of the Confederacy against a larger and more well-equipped US army was the quality of leadership. The army officers who left service to go home to serve the Confederacy were dispersed throughout the various units raised in the various states while the regular US army was kept separated from the units raised by the various Northern States and incompetent and untrained, but rich and politically well-connected, morons were given rank and put in charge of fighting field units. These political appointments of unqualified officers lost battles and got Yankee soldiers killed by the bushel. By the time Grant took over, a lot of the bad commanders had been replaced and Grant himself understood war better than anyone else at the time except maybe his protégé General Sherman.

Now a great leader is not a perfect leader because perfect leaders do not exist. Every leader has lost a battle at some point, even Grant and Giap, but a great leader wins the war. In fact, Giap lost most, if not all, of the major battles fought during the Vietnam War, and he still won the war.

But what is great leadership?

 Great leadership is being competent in war-fighting, it is flexible in thinking to account for rapid changes in battle, it is humble so the leader can continue to learn, it takes total responsibility for everything that happens, it is inspirational to the people who follow, it sets the example for all to follow, it welcomes input from the lowest of ranks, but it demands excellence and discipline in all things. It is not perfect.

So where do we get great leaders from?

Many militias will not have any combat veterans in them, but they still need great leadership. The answer is great leadership has to be taught to every single militiaman, because the necessary leadership will have to be fostered within the militia unit itself and militia will have to fight within a decentralized command structure that requires personal initiative.

How do you foster leadership in a militia?

Every group that has ever existed developed a culture particular to itself; it is as if each group has its own personality. In the Vietnam War, the communists were able to foster dedication and resolve in their frontline troops, whereas the US military suffered from poor morale as a whole. When you form the militia, you are going to have create your own culture, and in this case, you are going to have to create a culture where good leadership is constantly being developed.

How do know which traits to develop and how do you develop them?

You are going to have to read a book. In fact, you are going to have to read a lot of books. Sorry, I know John Wayne movies a great, but they really won’t teach you about great leadership. But there are some great books by great leaders that can show you the way. The concepts in those books, as I have said, have to be embraced by the entire militia.

So the first book you need to buy is a copy of Jocko Willink’s book “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win”

This book, written by a Silver Star awarded Navy Seal will set you on the right path to being a better leader. This book should be mandatory reading for the entire militia. Get rid of the movie garbage about how leaders act and get the good information from a decorated war veteran. Now, Jocko has a podcast where he discusses his ideas and has conversations with other great leaders. His podcast should be mandatory listening.

WELL REGULATED

In this sense “well regulated” means well organized.

Again, going back to the communists in Vietnam, one of the things they did really, really well was organization. It was an impressive effort that was unfortunately supporting the evil of communism. They had to be organized to the nth degree because they had to maximize the use of their barely adequate war materials. This is the same predicament the militia will find itself in and cannot be sloppy and inefficient like the bureaucracy of the US government because it doesn’t have virtually unlimited funds like the US government.

The organization has to go beyond just the combat element and it will be super important in the areas of support. In the example I used to show how much MREs would cost, the solution I gave of organized Victory Gardens would require a great deal of organization. This means the militia will have to create a bureaucracy to handle the manufacture, collection, storage, and distribution of war material and to organize training schedules, instruction in necessary skills, and keep records of funds, men, and supplies. The best way to do this is to recruit non-combatants to fill in these ranks.

CREATIVITY

Essential items like Night Vision Goggles are crazy expensive. A militia must use its resources wisely in order to have the necessary war supplies

Because the militia is relatively poor, it has to be able to come up with solutions to problems that are either free or cheap. Earlier I talked about how much it would cost to feed a company of one hundred militiamen MREs for a thirty day deployment, and I gave an example of how that cost could be reduced by organizing Victory Gardens to produce food. The Marine Raiders of WWII and the Green Berets in firebases in Vietnam often had to create their own weapons out material they had available, mostly these involved explosives. The Viet Cong were very adept at making booby traps out of natural materials and taking GI trash and turning it into useful items. They used Coke bottles as canteens, tin cans as cups, they found IV needles left by US combat medics and sterilized them and re-used them. Unexploded US bombs were cannibalized for explosives and turned into homemade claymore mines and land minds. The famous Ho Chi Minh sandals were made from rubber from inner tubes and old tires.

I saw some military surplus sandbags for sale in a catalog, and the cost was about a dollar a bag (Who knows how much the government paid for them, but it was probably too much). If you wanted some sandbags either to protect a particular location or, more likely, use them during a flood to try and stop water from overflowing, it may well cost your militia several hundred to many thousands of dollars to have enough to be effective, depending on the job you need them for. However, my wife and I feed the neighborhood cats. We buy a large bag of cat food about once a week. I don’t like just throwing things into landfills if they can be reused for something else, so I use the empty bags for trash can liners. Some people use pet food bags and repurpose them into hand bags. I’ve always thought they would make great sandbags since they are large enough and are made of a tough material. These are the types of things that could be collected and stored in a central location and then used whenever there is a need and it would cost the militia nothing. I am just using the idea of repurposing pet food bags to make the point that with its limited budget, the militia is going to have to maximize the use every available resource so it has money for war fighting essentials. It has no choice in this matter.

WARRIOR CULTURE

In order for the militia to win, its members must be competent war-fighters.

If you go to war, you want to go to war with people who won’t get you killed by incompetence, ignorance, lack of discipline or a lack of ability. Nobody will want to go to war with you if you are incompetent, ignorant, and have a lack of discipline and/or ability.

What type of person dedicates themselves to self-discipline, pushes themselves physically, and diligently studies all aspects of war while learning the necessary skills to be a competent war-fighter?

The answer is a warrior.

A warrior and a soldier are not necessarily the same thing. Many soldiers are warriors, but many warriors are not soldiers and not all soldiers are warriors.

What’s the difference?

The warrior follows the philosophy of stoicism, which means they don’t whine and fuss when things are tough and they face victory and defeat with the same calm resolve. They pursue logic over emotion. They pursue excellence, not just in war fighting, but in all things. Warriors can be trusted because they believe honor is sacred. Warriors constantly seek out challenges to test themselves and they seek ever greater endurance and strength and they seek perfection in their skills as a war fighter.

How do we create a warrior culture?

You read a book, specifically you read Living the Martial Way: A Manual for the Way a Modern Warrior Should Think, by Forrest E. Morgan.

This book was written primarily for students of the martial arts as a manual on how to develop the warrior spirit, but all you need to do is substitute “militiaman” for “martial artist” to use this book.

The Marines are a good example of soldiers who are competent war-fighters, and one of the reasons they are so good is because they consider the Marine Corps to be a warrior tradition. They have a way of looking at the world that is different than say a civilian because they take great pains to teach their recruits a warrior ethos, by that they see themselves as warriors. What is it that makes up a warrior’s ethos? How do you instill it in your people? That’s exactly the questions this book answers.

THE ONLY ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL THAT WILL WORK

I have been in many different volunteer groups besides being in a militia. Every one of those groups either failed, or never came anywhere near their potential, mainly because of RHIP and egos. If you want to win the battle for our freedoms, there is only one model for a volunteer organization that will actually work because it can be can be used by a group that has only conditional authority. Luckily, it one of the best ways to be organized.

What is the Organizational Model?

When I said that the militia is not the US Military, that statement is 95% true. Of course there is some overlap, and the only model that will work was in fact first employed in the military. It was America’s first special forces type unit and it was the 2nd Raider Battalion in World War II. This is a legendary group, but at the time it was so different that the Marine Corps hated it and it only came into being because President Roosevelt wanted it to happen. The Marine Corp disbanded them at the first opportunity. The unit was founded by Evans Carlson, a man who studied warfare in China under Mao Tse Tong, and he incorporated a lot of ideas in the structuring of his unit from the communists.

I can hear the squeals of outrage now about using communist methods to train a militia dedicated to preserving our freedoms which are inherently anti-communist. Calm down, I am not advocating for communism and neither did Evans Carlson, he adapted the modes of operation to American ideals and used them very successfully to fight the Japanese. The Communists won a lot of insurrections and wars (i.e. Vietnam) and it would be stupid not to learn how they did it. Obviously, communism is one of the greatest evils of all time, but it can be successful in the getting power, as history well proves, even if it must ultimately collapse from the sheer stupidity of its ideology. The value of using their methods, but adapting them our American (Christian) Ideals is that we know our system works in the long term. To reject something that works just because it was used by communists is like losing a battle because you refuse to pick an AK-47 and fight because it was made by communists.

What were the Characteristics of the 2nd Raider Battalion adopted that made it both different and so highly effective?

Intense focus on physical fitness

Tactics based on speed and stealth (Light Infantry tactics)

Increase in firepower of squad

No tasks was ever assigned to individuals, it was assigned to the entire platoon so that everyone in that platoon literally did everything together.

When dealing with civilians, the Raiders were to be fair in their dealings with them and to leave their villages better than when they found them.

The idea that each Raider was important and vital to the mission.

Everyone was encouraged to present ideas that improved their training. 

Every enlisted man was told the battle plans and why they were necessary. (This allowed them to act independently since they knew the commander’s intent)

Everyone was encouraged to contribute ideas to the battle plan

Developing an aggressive (warrior) spirit 

Decentralizing command (pushing decision making down to lower ranks)

Development of individual initiative and the ability to improvise

Training in rugged conditions to be able to operate in rugged conditions

No special privileges, food, or comfort for officers (Officers were social equals to the enlisted)

After battles, the unit was brought together to discuss what happened. People openly discussed mistakes that they had made (humility) and ideas were offered to help limit the same mistakes in the future.

Weekly “Gung Ho” sessions where training critiques and “Ethical Indoctrination” took place. These were always conducted by Carlson himself so every Marine knew what he meant and could talk to him directly.

The term “Ethical Indoctrination” sounds very foreign and very suspicious to our ears. What it actually means, is that Carlson talked about the war, why it was being fought and what it meant to the future of the world and especially America. They talked about the responsibilities (ethics) of a good American citizen both as a soldier and as a civilian. If there were problems, the enlisted were allowed to air their grievances directly to Carlson. Enlisted personnel could openly disagree with an officer if they believed the officer was wrong. Above all, they talked about “Gung Ho”, that means to “Work together in Harmony” in Chinese. The idea is that each Marine (or in our case militia member) was taught that they were absolutely vital to the success of the unit and that they had (have) a responsibility to their fellow raiders (militia members) to pursue excellence so the unit would be excellent, and an excellent unit was the best guarantee that they would both win the battle and survive it.

Does Ethical Indoctrination actually work?

Hoo boy, does it. Marine psychological casualties were extremely high on Guadalcanal, but the Raiders on Guadalcanal, who endured the same hardships as other marines, and some might say the endured more, had exactly one psychological casualty. Many attribute this almost miraculous feat to Carlson’s Ethical Indoctrination.

How did the communists use these principles to obtain power in so many places when communism is so evil?

Simple, they pretended to be the good guys so people will help them. Mao Tse Tung taught his people to read. In the Vietnam War, the communists would help villages out with projects, like cleaning out muck from canals, to get the villagers on their side. But like all things communist, it was a smoke screen and later “free will” offerings were replaced with “mandatory taxes” from those same villages. The reason they pretended to be the good guys was because they needed the support of the local population and they had to play nice until they had the power to demand what they needed.

A guerilla unit does need the support of the people, this is an absolute truth, but unlike the communists, we are actual good guys. If we do something nice for our neighbors it is true we are building up the goodwill of the population so they will support us, but we are also doing it because charity for our fellow man is a Christian mandate. For communists, acts of charity were a means to an end, but for us Christian Charity is the end because it builds up the Kingdom of God.

Following Evans Carlson’s model for the 2nd Marine Raiders, you militia unit will be made up of men who work together to solve problems. Officers and enlisted ranks are partners in the unit. This will make everyone feel they are valuable part of the group, it will harness the collective creativity of the group, and that creativity will allow the group to be flexible to respond to whatever situation they find themselves in at the moment. Don’t dismiss this as unnecessary, it is a powerful weapon.

MILITIA AS A STRATEGIC FORCE

 One of the weaknesses of newly formed militias is that concentrate on the tactical and pay no attention to strategy, but tactics are supposed to support the operations plan, and the operational plan is supposed to support the grand strategy. Since our current crisis involves a socialist insurrection, I am going to concentrate primarily on strategies for that mission. (Remember, an effective militia has four missions.

1. External Threats

2. Internal Threats

3. Disaster Relief

4. Political Influence.

These missions will overlap, so don’t get too hung up about keeping them separate because each mission supports our ultimate goal.)

 One of the most common questions I see asked is “where do I get training” and most of the advice given seems to be on the tactical level, i.e. buy this rifle, you will need a canteen and two pairs of socks, etc. People want to know how to breach a door and clear a building, but they don’t think about asking the question as to why a building should be breached and cleared instead of being bypassed.

 We in the Western World are children of the Greeks. We love to separate and classify things into separate categories. It has served us well in the realm of science and technology. In the East, their philosophies see things as part of a whole. In the US, our military is politically neutral and is kept separate from politics and we consider war and politics to be separate things, in the East they are considered the same thing, means to power. We can see this strategic thinking being played out by China’s rise to prominence in the last few decades. China wants power, it wants power without bloodshed if possible, but it has shown it is willing to shed oceans of blood to get if that is the most expedient means to power. It seeks power by building up its military, by economics, by cultural (social) propaganda, by buying and peddling influence is various countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. It uses industrial espionage to steel manufacturing secrets and intellectual properties. Their army is not the national army, it the army of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP wants to control the world, and they are making a solid effort in that direction. This type of aggression, by that I mean one that uses every means possible, is typically called 4th Generation Warfare. We saw the successful communist effort at this type of warfare when the communists took over South Vietnam (although technically this was 3rd Generation warfare, 4th Generation Warfare is very much an evolution of 3rd Gen. Warfare.) 

 4th Generation Warfare is extremely useful to smaller and weaker groups, such as the North Vietnamese in the Indochina War with France and the Vietnam War with America. 4th Generation Warfare allows militarily weaker forces avenues of opportunity in which to be on the offensive. It should be obvious that a militia must use 4th Generation Warfare to succeed.

 The purpose of having a strategy is to have a plan that obtains some philosophical goal. For us, our philosophy is that human beings have Natural Rights that are not dependent on any government but are, in fact, endowed by nature and Nature’s Creator and they include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We feel the best articulation and protection of those rights are encapsulated in the Constitution of the United States of America.

 Our ultimate strategic goal is the continuation and/or the restoration of our Natural Rights as they were articulated by our Founding Fathers by securing our Republic and the Constitution which enumerates our rights and protects those rights. We do this by limiting government overreach, repelling foreign invasions, and suppressing socialist insurrections.

 How do we achieve our ultimate strategic goal that will continue our philosophy?

 We have sub-goals that support and lead to the attainment of the ultimate goal.

 The most important of the sub-goals is the attainment of political and social power. This may surprise, and perhaps dismay, people who want to learn war-fighting skills, but you can quickly discern that having political power is a great and necessary asset, especially when dealing with internal threats to our Rights. Social power is the ability to shape public opinion, and that is no small thing either. Having political power goes a long way in obtaining our philosophical goals without resorting to armed conflict, which is always a win. The North Vietnamese Communists did not win the Vietnam War by military means; it won the war with politics, propaganda, and by mobilizing its sympathizers in the US to turn public opinion against the war. A militia would gain political power in two main ways. First, they would act as volunteers, whether formally or informally, to campaign for people running for public office. In political circles, this is known as the “ground game”. The Tea Party in 1990s was successful in getting some people elected, notably Paul Ryan, who unfortunately turned out to be a snake. However, the point is that grass roots movements can make a politician’s career and they can end a politician’s career. A militia should seek enough power to “make or break” such politicians. The second way a militia can gain political influence is through money and lobbying. To truly be effective in this manner, the militia would need a large reserve of cash, which is only possible if it becomes a permanent institution that can collect revenue to engage in political lobbying. Fortunately, our ideals already line up with already existing institutions like the Tea Party and the Gun Owners of America. Expediency would seem to demand that we partner with them since they are the experts in these fields of endeavor. Social Power is obtained through interactions with society in that such interactions help build positive relationships with the local population. This is absolutely essential for a militia, since it must operate as a guerilla force and local population support is an absolute necessity for such a force to survive. But having Social Power also means being able to influence society to make it stronger, which is a necessity because our society has been under attack since the 1960s and a lot of our national ills come from having a weak society. As I write these words I cannot help but think of how the Socialists through, their feminist and welfare advocating elements, and using their mass media have done such tremendous damage to the traditional family. The results are obvious to see in urban areas where fatherless children end up in gangs and in prisons at a rate far higher than children from solid nuclear families. The destruction of the nuclear family makes it much easier for the Socialists to manipulate the lost children and their welfare dependent unwed mothers, giving them an unprecedented amount of political and social power. They have been successful in destroying once great institutions such as the Boy Scouts. If the militia could be formed on a permanent basis, replacing the Boy Scouts with a militia controlled group for the development of young people (ethical indoctrination) would be a worthwhile endeavor. Anything, really, that helps defeat the liberal indoctrination children receive in public schools would be a good thing. Depending on the source, it is considered an absolute that a government cannot survive is somewhere between 25 – 33% of its population is actively against it. Therefore, we should be working to get at least 1/3 of the population either actively or passively supporting the militia. Obviously, more would be better. 

 The idea of replacing the Boy Scouts with a militia controlled group is just one example of influencing society to create a culture that strong, vibrant, and which demands its Natural Rights be respected. Economically, the militia would promote the businesses of patriotic Americans while boycotting and, if legally possible, degrading the businesses of those who support socialism. Social media is a great avenue for promoting ideas in a social context. Disaster relief is an excellent way to ingratiate your militia into society as are acts of goodwill and charity. In fact, anything and everything that strengthens and promotes our militia and our ideals while weakening our enemies is on the table. Indeed, a militia should always be active, it should be engaged in at least one of its four missions AT ALL TIMES, chipping and hammering away at our enemies.

 Since I mention it in the previous paragraph, it is perhaps time to address a strategic idea that must be engaged in from the very beginning.

 YOU MUST NOT BREAK THE LAW.

 Acting as criminals will alienate you from the very society your militia needs to survive. Normal people do not like criminals. Breaking the law gives the enemy propaganda to use against you. Whatever benefits you might think a homemade explosive or a gun illegally converted to be fully automatic will give you; those benefits aren’t worth spending ten to fifteen years in a federal prison. In fact, getting locked into a cage is the worst thing that can happen to you, to your family, and to your group. Keep your noses clean. Keep them squeaky clean, and concentrate on learning war-fighting skills and building up your group so it can influence society. Remember, military action is only one of our theaters of operation. Use your time out of prison to attack our enemies legally!

An astute reader may, accurately, point out that the second strategy I mentioned of not acting as criminals is more of a doctrine than a strategy and they would be right, but it is such an important doctrine that I elevated it to a strategy. Of course, it is a peace time strategy.

 I would also like to discuss the uniqueness of the American Militia. There are two technical classifications for forces that engage in unconventional war against powerful foes. One is the partisan, a patriot who fights to restore a legitimate government, often against an invader, and the other is a guerrilla who is trying to overthrow the government to implement a new government under their control. The American Militia is a combination of both of these types of forces.

 One of the titles the fear-mongering liberals like the SPLC use to describe militias is “anti-government groups.” The stupidity, or more accurately the deliberate evil, of this statement is obvious. How can any person or group that supports the Constitution of the United States, the founding document of the nation that establishes the very government of the nation be anti-government? If we succeed what happens? We get a government of the people, by the people, and for the people made up of three different branches, which is what we supposed to have now.

 And yet, we may very well find ourselves in conflict with that government, or at least elements within it. The conflict arises, not because we are anti-government, but because we are anti-corruption. We are in conflict because we want the politicians and the bureaucrats to follow the Constitution, the very document they used to acquire power. Being anti-corruption and pro-constitution therefore can definitely make us the enemies of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats within the government who want to twist the government into something else to serve their own self-interest. Because they are trying to overthrow our Constitutional Government, that make us partisans, and yet if the corruption and communist infiltration of our Government becomes bad enough and they obtain power, we will have to fight to replace the government wholesale, which would make us guerrillas.

 This conflict of definitions occurs because we are unique. Americans fight for ideals. When the Minute Men went to war with the British crown, they were not fighting because they were hungry, poor, exploited peasants, they fought for the ideal that they were just as good as any other Englishman and they should have representation along with the taxation that was being imposed upon them, and when it was denied them, they fought and during that conflict decided that they would insure those rights by becoming independent. The Hessian mercenaries the Brits hired to help suppress our revolution, who came from a very poor country, were completely at a loss to understand why a well housed, well fed, and prosperous people would rise up in rebellion. Such a revolt was unheard of in the world, but that passion for the idea that men have rights is what is still driving us today.

  This dual nature of the American Militia is one of the reasons we should not get hung up on the idea of separating our strategies and doctrines into neat little categories, and we should realize that these will overlap and flow and ebb into each other.

 Partisans usually come about in an ad hoc manner, they form as a grass roots movement and engage in conflict with little or no real organization, at least in the beginning. Guerrillas, at least communist guerrillas organize first, and then engage in conflict.

 I am an advocate for organizing first. Why? Because by being organized, we can accomplish more. Right now, because militias are acting like ad hoc partisans, we are missing a golden opportunity to influence our society. Because of the George Floyd riots, millions of people have just bought their first gun. If we were organized and established, the militia could offer them free instruction in safety, marksmanship, and the proper use of a firearm in self-defense. That would go a long way to helping establish the militia as normal and rational part of society, it might even have been a time of recruitment for the militia, but the opportunity has been lost.

 This leads me to the Third Strategic sub-goal supporting our Grand Strategy.

 THE MILITIA SHOULD BE A COMPETENT WAR-FIGHTING FORCE

 One of the reasons Ethical Indoctrination is important, along with the concept of adhering to the idea that honor is sacred (warrior culture) is that these things make you a good person, and good people make for good groups. Here is advice I often given to people who complain about our society and I encourage them to fix it.

 That is the first thing you should be do is be a good man.

 The second thing every man should do is be a dangerous man.

 This advice is the same advice I would give to a militia group. Being competent war-fighters directly serves three of the four missions of a militia. Being competent war-fighters helps to deal with External Threats, Internal Threats, and even number four, Political Influence.

 You might think the war-fighting aspect should only affect missions 1 and 2, but remember we are engaged in 4th Generation Warfare and all things are interconnected. You could even make the case that being competent war-fighters applies to the disaster relief and social charity because we can provide security in time of duress. We need to be competent war-fighters politically because having the political power mentioned in the first sub-strategy is really about controlling individual politicians. As we can see with the continued reign of Nancy Pelosi, having direct political influence over politicians insulated in leftist hive-mind cult centers like California is problematic. But having a well-regulated and capable militia that stands against their hive-mind cult, curtails the activities and plans of the entire organization because they are afraid to implement their plans. Our strategic plan as war-fighters should be to become so dangerous, it intimidates the socialists without us ever having to come to blows.

 Obviously, being competent war-fighters means we can act effectively in case of an invasion by a foreign power or to counter violent leftist action to overthrow our government and install an oppressive socialist abomination.

SETI TEAMS

 I am not referring to teams that should be searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. SETI stand for Self-Educated Training and Instruction Teams.

 One of the questions that keeps coming up from people wanting to be in a militia is “Where do I get combat training.” The truth is, that there are lots of instructors, usually former military instructors who will train you, and many have specialized ranges to train you on, or they will travel to where you are at to instruct you. But these types of instructors are seriously expensive. Assuming your group doesn't have a load of cash lying around (or a former Green Beret as a member), a militia needs to be able to economically train its members. But many, if not most, of the militias being formed do not have large budgets, and there seems to be a dearth of former Green Berets willing to donate their time to help out, they need to come up with another plan.

 But one of the benefits of being well regulated (organized) is that many hands can make for light work. As I write this I am looking at my bookshelf where I have scores of three ring binders full of case studies, military manuals, and treatises on guerrilla warfare and revolutionary activity, along with books covering the same subject. One of these is the United States Marine Corps manual of MOUT, Military Operations in Urban Terrain. This is a fairly thick and comprehensive manual of fighting in cities. A militia that could take that manual and absorb its information and practice its recommended techniques would be a formidable force in urban environments.

 But without trained or experienced instructors, just how would a militia absorb and practice this information and develop the skills the book illustrates?

 The answer is the formation of SETI Teams.

  What exactly is a Self-Educated Training and Instruction Team?

 The title really explains it all. It is people who take instruction from whatever the sources they can find, and working as a team, become self-educated experts in the information the source provides and then teaches others. However, for complicated subjects, multiple teams work together.

 How are these teams organized?

 One of the qualities of great leadership I have not listed, but which is Jocko Willink's book, is the ability to break complicated problems down into component parts and then prioritize what needs to be done complicated problems by systematically dealing with the smaller components. For this example, let us say that a militia commander wants his group to become efficient and effective fighters in urban terrain, but there is no one to help them learn, but they do have a copy of the USMC MOUT manual to work from. (Now it is obvious that the people given the task of learning what this manual has to teach already have some competencies, such as safe gun handling, but this same techniques could be used at the very basic level as well).

 The commander appoints a leader to organize the teams, it may well be the commander himself, but that is not important. The leader then recruits the SETI Teams, for a complicated subject as urban warfare, four teams of three men each are selected. The leader will responsible for learning and then explaining to other militiamen what the doctrines guiding the urban warfare techniques are and why they are in place. The first people he will explain these doctrines to are the SETI teams. Once they know and understand the doctrines governing urban combat, the teams divide the techniques of the first section or chapter to be learned into small groups and these groups of techniques are assigned to each of the SETI Teams. Each team then studies the manual to understand what they are supposed to do and then begins practicing the techniques shown. The practice until they become proficient in the techniques, so proficient that they can then teach other militiamen. The first group the teams will teach will be the other SETI Teams they are working with. Team 1 teaches the other teams the first group of skills they have mastered and once that is done, Team 2 steps up to continue the instruction, and then Teams 3 and 4 in order. Once they are done, you now have 12 instructors (13 if you count the leader) who can teach the rest of the militia the skills in the first chapter of the MOUT manual. Obviously, after the first section or chapter has been mastered, these team, or maybe other teams, continues on until the whole manual is completed and the militia is trained in urban combat.

 Such training can and should be supplemented by formal training if possible. The schools that train people in tactics are expensive, but using this method would allow the militia to send a few people to these expensive training classes be conducted by experienced experts with the intent of bringing back knowledge that would then be incorporated into the group's training. The more knowledge a person has going into a training session, the higher the level of instruction becomes because the instructors don't have to cover the basics, your people will already know them, so your people will be able to get more advanced training and allow them to more easily modify training based on their own real-life experiences. It is easy to think that a group trained by SETI Teams could send someone to a school where they would get more advance instruction than others because they already have a knowledge base, and they bring back the advanced instruction that is absorbed into the SETI Teams, and then another person or small group is sent back for even more advanced training.

 I introduced the concept of SETI teams to answer the problem of getting people trained. It may be argues that this is not a strategy, but I wanted to explain them so that people would understand why being organized is so beneficial.

In my last post, I talked about the SETI Teams. I can accurately predict, based on experience, two particular objections to that idea.

 The first is a legitimate objection, in that the example I used of learning urban combat skills is not something a group would do in as it is being formed, it something an organized group would do and it doesn't help get a group organized.

 This is correct, I only included it as an example. I absolutely believe that a militia must have a master plan before they start, but one of the limitations of working from the top down is the nuts and bolts part comes at the end. I am writing this manifesto as fast as I can because I feel time is of the essence but that means sometimes my editing is not up to standard, and I apologize for the spelling errors and grammar mistakes, but I really am doing this as fast as I can.

 If the USMC MOUT manual is too advanced, the same exact method can be applied to the Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks and that is located here at this link

 https://www.milsci.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/resources/STP 21-1-SMCT, Warrior Skills, Level 1.pdf

 You won't need to print off the entire book, just the parts that would apply to an ultra-light militia.

 The second objection is not legitimate. In fact it is downright stupid. I've had people tell me in the past they didn't put any stock into “book learnin'”. I will tell you what I told them, the Marines don't write books just for the amusement of it all. They publish books to help spread knowledge. One of the sad facts of life is that a militia commander will have to throw people out of the militia, for a variety of reasons, but stupidity should definitely be one of those reasons. As they say, “You can't fix stupid.”

 As I was writing this, I realized someone might make a false claim against what I said, and that would be that I think the SETI Team concept would be as good as a military training school staffed by experienced combat veterans.

That is not the case.

 I work on the concept of The Learning Curve. When I was a young law enforcement officer, I noticed that the reality of a multi-victim car crash on a busy interstate was a lot more harrowing and overwhelming than working from the diagrams in my text book at the academy. However, I thank God I had those textbooks because they gave me a framework to work from, and any mistakes I made were minor and easily correctable. There is nothing in this world that would have really prepared me to be the one person in charge of a chaotic life and death situation like that, and there was definitely a reality based learning curve involved, but that learning curve was shortened by an academic learning curve. My entire philosophy is that we should work to minimize reality based learning curves as much as possible.

  SUB-SUB-STRATEGIES

  These sub-strategies I am describing must, obviously be built on other sub-sub-strategies. A strategy is a plan that identifies goals, but as that plan develops, obstacles will appear and they will be a need for plans to overcome those obstacles, and those are sub-strategies that will often need sub-sub-strategies and so forth.. Strategies tend to be general ideas with doctrines that address specific needs. Doctrines are the guidelines that allow for strategies to be implemented. Tactics are the nuts and bolts actions that allow for doctrines to be implemented. Again, don't get too hung up on classifications like this, but be aware of them.

 A sub-strategy to the sub-strategy of the militia being competent war-fighters is a strategy dealing with how the militia will become competent war-fighters.

  A MILITIA MUST BE AN UNCONVENTIONAL FORCE, AT LEAST AT FIRST.

 With its lack of firepower, a militia cannot directly confront another group that has military grade firepower. It will use “guerrilla” or perhaps, considering the dual nature of the American Militia it would be more accurate to say that they must engage in Unconventional Warfare (UW) strategies when it comes to military action.

 The basis of the this strategy can be generally described as “Since we are weaker in firepower, we will never directly confront our enemy unless we have both overwhelming local firepower and the element of surprise and we will eschew traditional military objectives like holding ground for more psychological/sociological objectives.

 As I have mentioned, one of the psychological/sociological objectives a militia should be looking for is to become so wide spread and numerous, it intimidates those who would try to systemically try and remove our freedoms. Now, like all strategies, it may not work, these evil people are both arrogant and power-hungry, so nothing may stop them from trying, but by trying to achieve this strategy there would still be a lot of militiamen to respond to the threat.

 DOCTRINES

 Supporting strategies are its doctrines. Doctrines are the guidelines and concepts we use to obtain the strategic goals. Simply put, doctrines tell you how you do something that will hopefully achieve some objective. Doctrines are fluid, they have to change to conform to the reality of the locality you are in. Someone operating from the Rocky Mountains will be operating under a different doctrines than someone operating on Manhattan Island, although there will always be overlap.

  It has been my experience that a volunteer group can only be stable to up to about 30 people because of internal pressure from personality conflicts. I do concede that most of these groups tried to implement the top-down authoritarian model of the US Military, and that a group operating under the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion's model my well be able to create a much larger group that is still stable. Larger groups, even in the military function best with a charismatic leader. For example, Evans Carlson who formed the Raiders was very charismatic. Whether or not a larger group can be formed, there is still the need for militias to be decentralized. A doctrine that takes into account both the idea of decentralization and the need to keep the groups small would be useful.

 THE HEADQUARTERS GROUP TRAINS RECRUITS, CONTROLS THE SUPPORT ELEMENTS, AND DIRECTS THE INDIVIDUAL COMBAT UNITS.

 My first doctrine to support the war-fighting capability would be to define the role of the headquarters group. A successful militia would have both State Headquarters and regional headquarters. How many of these, will depend on population density. When the militia is first starting, every individual belongs to the headquarters group. The headquarter groups sets the training standards organizes the support elements. As the individuals are trained, they will be moved into combat units. For the sake of this post, let’s say the basic combat unit is 30 men and lets call them that a platoon. Each of the platoons would have its own identity and be semi-autonomous. They are semi-autonomous because they need to be able to operate independently, and yet still come together to operate and cooperate on larger missions. Once in a platoon, the militia commander would no longer assign a trained man a task, he would assign it to the entire platoon. By working with platoon-sized elements, the commander would have options when the inevitable personal conflicts would arise. To be ability for the platoons to work together would mean that each platoon would have to be trained to the same standard and that is why you need a headquarters group as a central focus.

 Along with the combat units, there would be support personnel. They would come under the direct control of the Headquarters Unit to allow the combat units to focus on their training. The Headquarters Unit is responsible for training individuals before assigning them to a platoon, or more accurately, letting them chose which platoon they want to belong to after their training is complete. One of the realities of a volunteer organization is that you must allow the men to choose who they fight with, this is not a weakness and you will create more internal pressure inside your units and cause more problems than you would otherwise if you try to force square pegs into round holes. The Headquarters Unit is the element that will do the bulk of the militia's administrative work.

 Rank structure would work in two different ways. In the command group, your rank is determined by the job you are doing. If you have a job that is assigned a major's rank, then you would be a major. If you decided to switch jobs with someone that was doing a Lieutenant's job, you would then be the Lieutenant and the person you switched with would be a major. Obviously, the reason you would structure your rank system like this is to de-emphasize the importance of personal rank (and the ego that goes with it) and focus on doing the job.

 Within the combat elements, rank would be determined by how many people you are leading. Your leadership position will be determined by vote. For example, a leader of a 30 man unit would be a 2nd Lieutenant.

 Now, like all doctrines, this one is fluid and should not be taken as an absolute. It may very well be that you end up with a large number of people happily working together and you operate in bigger units. My selection of 30 people in a militia group is based on my personal experience. Your experience may be different.

LEADERS ARE READERS

 That quote is attributed to Harry Truman, and it is a well-known truism among the most successful of leaders. If you want an excellent militia, you will have to have excellent leaders. There is no give in this matter, you will only win with excellence.

 BOOKS ON LEADERSHIP

Extreme Ownership: How Navy Seals Fight and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. This is the first book you need to buy. It is the best leadership textbook on the market.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. A classic in personal development as a leader. We need effective people.

Turn the Ship Around : A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders  by L. David Marquet. This is a story of how Marquet was sent in as a last minute replacement for the worst submarine in the fleet, and how it ended up achieving the highest evaluation scores the Navy had ever seen since it started operating Nuclear Subs.

These three books are the foundation on which to build a militia. Should a militia emerge based on the leadership foundation provided by these three books, it would be a force to be reckoned with. You will find these books blend together to make a comprehensive philosophy of leadership.

 BOOKS ON STRUCTURING THE MILITIA

  American Commando: Evans Carlson, His WWII Marine Raiders and America's First Special Forces Mission by John Wukovits. This was the book that cracked the code for me when I was searching for how to organize a militia. This is a general history book of the Marine Raiders that will show how to organize your militia.

Gung Ho: The Marine Corps Most Progressive Tradition by H. John Poole. This book is detailed critique of Carlson’s actions on Guadalcanal written by a man who was both and officer and an enlisted man who is an expert on small unit tactics. 

GUNG HO, RAIDER! THE PHILOSOPHY AND METHODS OF BRIG GEN EVANS F. CARLSON, MARINE CORPS RAIDER by Kathleen M. Gomrick, Major, USAF. This is not a book, but it is an excellent report summarizing the effectiveness of Carlson’s method. It is available online at  https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a396537.pdf

 STRATEGIES AND TACTICS OF GUERRILLA WARFARE

  Mao Tse Tung on Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Tse Tung. This little book is published by USMC and is an excellent place to start to learn about how guerrilla forces fight in Asia. It is free online. https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/FMFRP%2012-18%20%20Mao%20Tse-tung%20on%20Guerrilla%20Warfare.pdf

Guerrilla Warfare: A Method by Ernesto Che Guevera. This very short book is available online from Marxists.com. I hate dealing with Marxists, but thoroughly enjoy turning their own weapons against them https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/china/che.pdf

 BOOKS ON DEVELOPING DOCTRINES FOR MILITIA COMBAT

 These books were all written by H. John Poole. Poole was an officer who resigned his commission and re-enlisted in the Marine Corps as an enlisted man and retired a Gunnery Sergeant. His is an expert in small unit tactics. His book The Last Hundred Yards is a classic among Marine Corps NCOs, so much that it cost $75 on Amazon. Poole’s writing tends to be repetitive as he tries to drive home his points. His main focus is to get the Army/Marines to invest more training in the basic infantry rifleman instead of high tech gadgets. He firmly and eloquently argues that American Infantry should be stealth based, as their Asiatic opponents since WW2 have been and less dependent on overwhelming firepower. His critics contend that the casualty rates for America’s enemies are always much higher than our military’s casualty rates. However, Poole does not say to give up the firepower, but that firepower combined with stealth would make our infantry even more deadly while reducing American casualties and even civilian casualties. I do not know if Poole is right or not, but I do know that a militia must use these tactics and Poole does a great job in laying out how doctrines that don’t rely on massive firepower can and should be used.

Phantom Soldier: The Enemy’s Answer to US Firepower Discusses the use of stealth techniques and how they are employed to minimize the effectiveness of US firepower.

  The Tiger’s Way: A US Private’s Best Chance for Survival. This continues the theme of using stealth instead of firepower and discusses the merits of “Recon Pull” versus “Recon Push”.

Developing the Militia War-Fighter Culture:

Living the Martial Way: A Manual for the Way a Modern Warrior Thinks by Forest Moran USAF (ret.) This book will help you develop the culture of excellence in your militia. Don't dismiss it because a warrior culture is necessary for a militia to be an effective war-fighting force. 

 These eleven books combined form the nexus of constructing your militia. These books are what I call “Officer Grade Books”, but they should be read by everyone. I call them officer grade books because they deal with the bigger picture that is Strategies, Doctrines, Attributes, and the Structure of a militia. They do not deal with tactics, which are what I call “Non-Commissioned Grade Books”. The military makes all of their tactical manuals available online, and simple search will reveal dozens if not hundreds of military manuals for you to use. It has been my experience the Marine Corps Manuals are more to the point and have easier to understand instruction. However, I am going to give you one bonus book on tactics written by Chris Larsen, the head of One Shepherd Leadership Training Institute. One Shepherd is a civilian school that teaches small unit tactics and their book is probably the best around.

  Light Infantry Tactics: For Small Teams by Chris Larsen. Buy this book.

 One Shepherd's website: 1Shepherd.com

GETTING STARTED

One of the reasons I wanted to start with the big picture is because knowing what you are trying to build is essential to building it correctly. However, implementing the larger picture will take time and people will be impatient to get started on their training. They will want to feel like they are moving forward. So let’s talk about things we can do immediately to get the militia started.

Get the people together in the same room who are willing to work to get the militia started. Hand out 3x5 index cards have them write their name and contact information on the card. Also have them list any special skills or qualifications they may have, even if these do no relate directly to military activity. For example, a high school football coach with a degree is exercise physiology would be a valuable Physical Training Officer. A NRA certified firearms instructor would make a great range officer.

Establish the temporary or permanent leader of the group. If the leader is temporary, then plan to hold a leadership election within the next three to six months to formalize the structure. 

Appoint the following officers. Executive Officer (2nd in Command). Physical Training Officer, Medical Officer, Range Training Officer, Tactical Training Officer, Land Navigation Officer, Defensive Measures Officer.

Hand out notebooks and pens to the selected officers and trainers so goals can be written down and checked off as they are met.

Have a detailed plan of what needs to be done and make definite decisions.

Work out of STP 21-1-SMCT SOLDIER’S MANUL OF COMMON TASKS WARRIOR SKILLS LEVEL 1 (This can be downloaded for free off the internet.)

APPOINT A PHYSICAL TRAINING OFFICER (PTO).

Now, if your militia is geared toward fast movement (and it is), then obviously its members must be in such physical shape as to allow them to move quickly and with great endurance any time it is necessary. This will require the militia to be in good physical condition.

SHORT TERM GOALS:

Have the new PT Officer immediately announce a time every day that the militia will gather for PT. This will most likely be in the evening during the week, and in the mornings on the weekends at militia gatherings. At this point, it may be necessary to let people train on their own, even if it’s a group activity due to a difference in abilities, although a mandatory 30 minute stretching session should be required from all. The actual structure of the PT program will depend on who is involved and the resources available. However, hiking is one of the best ways to exercise for an unconventional fighter. Emphasize the need to move slowly at first as to not cause an injury. Getting medical exams so people can exercise safely should be stressed.

LONG TERM GOALS:

Once your militia is moving, the PT Officer must research the best methods available to improve the physical conditioning of the militia. They will read books, research online, and basically come up with a plan that can deal with the variety of physical abilities and set the final level of fitness required. Set a two week time limit for the PT officer to have a rudimentary plan. 

The PT officer should harness the willingness and expertise of other militia members. As the militia grows, someone may want to take the lead in running an exercise group outside of the main effort. This should be encouraged because people may have conflicting schedules, different levels of fitness, and the more opportunities people have to train, the more likely they are to do so. Therefore, the PT officer should work these opportunities into their plan. 

The PT Officer should also come up with a list of locally available resources. For example, in the moderate-sized city I live in, there is a city park that has a one mile walking/running track and spaced along that track are pieces of outdoor exercise stations, like chin-up bars and all metal elliptical trainers.

Most militia gatherings will be on the weekends. Every such weekend, the PT Officer, or his/her assistant, should conduct physical training.  But in addition to mandatory weekly PT training, the PT Officer should set a date for testing people’s conditioning. Records should be kept of people’s progress, which will help with motivating new member. Due to the nature of the militia, that would probably be every six to eight weeks. The reason being people will be coming into the militia at various times so there will have to be some ongoing repetition to get them integrated into the plan.

The militia being an ultra-light infantry must use speed and stealth to fight effectively.

Speed and endurance are achieved through physical training.

Appoint a PT Officer to organize a PT program.

The PT Officer sets the standard for militia fitness. They may follow the US Army’s test, or make one that suits the need of the militia.

Make sure PT programs are realistic. A 45 year-old factory worker is not an 18 year-old football player just out of high school.

Immediately set a daily time for people to gather for PT even if this does not suit everyone. At the beginning, the PT program may only have stretching and hiking as its core activities, but that’s ok, just GET STARTED!

 APPOINT A MEDICAL OFFICER (MO).

If you start physical exercise and train for combat you will have injuries, and if it is hot you will probably have heat induced injuries. Obviously, someone with a medical background would be best for this role or at least someone with first aid training.

SHORT TERM GOALS:

Assuming you are starting from scratch, the medical officer will need to be assisted as learning everything by themselves is going to be difficult. Get volunteers to help the MO. The SMCT lists 17 different first aid procedures a soldier should know. The MO should assign one or two of these to each assistant as well as themselves to learn, master, and then teach. First, they teach the other trainers, and then when they have that experience, they will teach the rest of the militia. The first aid training need not be done all at once, but may be spaced out over time. This will require records to be kept as to who has completed what tasks. A Medical Officer would also be in charge of health and welfare of the militia.

LONG TERM GOALS:

The goal of the Medical Officer is to not only train the fighters in first aid, but to establish a medical service made up of people who won’t be frontline fighters, but who would are willing to help the militia. These support personnel can man medical tents at events and follow trainees on hikes in case there is an injury during those times. The MO will also be in charge of creating a medical supply dump so there will be enough medical supplies to treat the wounded. The MO will also be in charge of keeping the training records and monitoring the testing sessions. The MO, if they are not already a medical professional, should look into getting a certification from the Red Cross to teach first-aid. Having certified instruction would be very useful in case the militia is called upon to help with a natural disaster and could help with legal matters should some lawyers become involved. Also, the MO would try and increase the medical knowledge of the medical service by bringing in experts (assuming they are not already experts) who can expand on the basics.

Militia members need to be trained to a high standard of first aid.

The CMO is in charge of the first aid training

The CMO will organize and be in charge of the medical service

The CMO will establish medical supply dumps

The CMO will constantly seek to improve the medical training of the militia.

APPOINT A RANGE TRAINING OFFICER (RTO).

Obviously, the militia will need to be trained in firearms. The Range Training Officer will be in charge of safety and marksmanship training along with weapon maintenance and basic malfunction drills. The RTO will locate or set up a range for shooting. 

SHORT TERM GOALS:

The Range Training Officer (RTO) will set up a rifle and pistol safety class for the first official training day. Only those who complete the safety course will be allowed to proceed with actual shooting. The safety course will have to be an ongoing class as new people will arrive and need to be instructed. 

Once the safety course is completed, the RTO will conduct a competency course following the eight steps listed in Subject Area 8 of the SCMT for the M16A2 rifle, adapting the information to the AR-15 rifle where appropriate. Only after each potential shooter demonstrated they can correctly load, unload, and field strip their rifle and pistol will they be allowed to zero their rifle with live ammunition. This will be necessary for every type of weapon the shooter wishes to use. For example, if they want to use both an AR-15 style weapon, they must show competency with that type, but if they also want to use an SKS, then they would need to be checked off on that gun, as well.

The RTO will conduct a basic marksmanship lecture for shooters.

The RTO will supervise the shooters as they zero in their rifles and will give marksmanship advice to those who need help.

Remember, if you don’t have ready access to a range, dry firing is a great way to get the basics down.

LONG TERM GOALS:

Putting holes in paper at known ranges is a necessary start to marksmanship, but as essential as it is, it is not enough. The RTO is going to want to increase the ability of militia shooters to move and shoot, shoot moving targets, shoot around barricades and so forth. There are numerous training sites around the country with professionals who will help you train. 

Safety lecture first

Dry firing drills are useful

Basic loading and unloading should be taught

Basic malfunction clearing drills should be taught

Your ultimate goal is to be able to engage dynamic targets while moving and working with fellow patriots on a fire team.

This is about individual skills, when they are trained in this, they are sent to the Tactical Training Officer for basic instruction on team training.

 APPOINT A TACTICAL TRAINING OFFICER (TTO)

This person will be in charge of training the newly qualified shooter to work in a combat team. The will be working out of Subject Are 4: Survive (Combat Techniques).Unless you are already trained in these tactics, this is another case where several people will have to form a training group under the TTO guidance and they will need to work together to learn to perform the techniques, and once understood, they can teach the rest..

What they learn at this level is a necessary stepping stone to more complicated tactics. These tactics, although basic and simple should be drilled until they are second nature.

SHORT TERM GOALS:

Assign a team of people to learn these tactics and then teach them just like the first aid team.

Even before the students have qualified with their rifles, they can begin to learn tactics. Practice can be done with empty rifles (Triple-checked, of course). If you are in a public place, no rifles are necessary in the beginning. 

LONG TERM GOALS:

There are numerous military manuals dealing with fighting tactics available for free on the internet. Copy them and follow the pattern of having small groups practice and master and then teach these tactics. There are also numerous schools and traveling instructors who have special ops backgrounds that can hired to teach you people.

Train a small cadre, or have a small cadre train themselves so they can teach others.

There are numerous tactical books that can be downloaded for free.

Don’t neglect fighting in urban terrain, it has several advantages to the weaker forces.

You don’t need firearms to practice the basic techniques. You can also use analogs, like airsoft guns to practice these techniques.

You can practice in any open area, even inside a city if you don’t have guns with you.

Airsoft fields will be useful for simulating fights and practicing your techniques.

APPOINT A LAND NAVIGATION OFFICER (LNO):

Using a map and compass is essential for fighting outside of a city. If you do not have someone familiar with orienteering, then I would recommend that you watch some YouTube videos on the matter as being shown how to do it is generally easier than learning from a manual, although that can be done. The LNO will be working from Subject Area 5: Navigate in the SMCT. However, I think civilian orienteering is easier to learn than military orienteering. The book I used as a teenage to learn how to land navigate is “How to be an Expert with the Map and Compass” by Bjorn Kjellstrom. There may be other books out there that are as good, but this is a classic and easy to understand

SHORT TERM: 

This skill may well take longer than to develop than the others, which means it should be started as soon as possible. However, the LNO and his crew should be offering basic classes in no less than 4 weeks.  I recommend buying a United States Geological Survey map of your training area instead of military maps, and using an orienteering compass rather than a lensatic compass, although a military lensatic compass is very rugged. Orienteering compasses very in quality, but a mid-priced one should do well. Suunto compasses are considered to be top of the line, but are pricey. 

The classes presented in logical order.

First Class: Map reading

Second Class: How to use a magnetic compass

Third Class: How to use a map and compass together (triangulating your position)

Fourth Class: Outdoor exercises (i.e. determining pace count over flat and rugged terrain, celestial navigation)

Fifth Class on onward: Actual land navigation challenges.

LONG TERM GOALS:

The goal of teaching map and compass is get people to navigate from point A to point B with the minimum amount of effort spent and without getting lost. After instructions and some basic the training challenges should be conducted both night and day. Also, there are alternative methods to land navigation, although these are inferior in some respects because they are not as accurate, nor as quick, or require specialized skills and equipment like marine navigation’s use of the sextant.

The LNO will research and give recommendation for compasses and obtain maps from the USGS.

Follow the progression of classes, but remember, a “class” may take several nights or sessions to complete. 

YouTube has a lot of instructional videos for land navigation. Take advantage of them.

Civilian orienteering has advantages over the military system, and some militaries use more orienteering based methods.

Practice in different environments and carrying different loads to determine pace count and to familiarize people with those environments.

 APPOINT A DEFENSIVE MEASURES OFFICER (DMO):

Subject Area 17: Defensive Measures has a collection of basic skills that don’t really fit a theme. Follow the pattern of appointing a leader and some helpers in learning the various skills listed and defined in the SCMT manual

IT’S TIME TO BE A LEADER

 You don’t have any military experience? You aren’t a “natural” leader? You don’t like being the center of attention and you just can’t see yourself being the leader of men?

 I think you just need to grow a pair.

 Is that offensive?

 Don’t answer that, because I don’t actually care. Look, I get it, most of us are not Gen. Patton, but we can still be leaders. A leader is nothing more than a person who takes responsibility for the welfare of the group. That’s it. That’s the secret to it all. You see something that needs to be done and you do it, congratulations you are natural born leader.

 Ok, maybe you don’t have the charisma of a rock star, but so what? It is better to build up your leadership cred being a man, or woman, of conviction and integrity instead of relying on how much people like you. Besides, you don’t have to plan on becoming the Supreme Allied Commander, just the person who gets the d*mn thing going. Other people will come along suited for and willing to take on the responsibility at the higher end of the game.

 In this little manifesto I’ve laid out how a group can come together and build a militia that is actually worth something. It does not rely on a single person having an overabundance of charisma, instead it relies on a commitment of the people to the group. 

 Hey, maybe you have a better plan than mine. Great, do that one instead. But if you don’t have a plan, I’ve written one out for you. If you are reading this, you must have at least skimmed it, so you have no excuse but your insecurities. This is not a time for us to be insecure, it is a time to be bold.

 How do you start?  Simple, call for a meeting and set the time and place. If no one shows up, do it again. If that doesn’t work, do it again. Buy a bunch of cheap notebooks and follow the program I set out in this manifesto. This is not rocket science people.

[journeysintowebcomics]

Stand Still Stay Silent Liveblog #79

UPDATE 79: Failure of a Captain

Last time Lalli and Emil had decided to go towards the pickup point, as that’s their best bet. In the meantime, the other half of the crew think Lalli and Emil are dead. Let’s continue with this half of the crew.

Nobody seems to be in mood to talk or even feign there isn’t a heavy black cloud all over them – it’s what happens when you realize two of the people you spent a few weeks with as a team, relying on each other, were horribly killed. It’s the kind of thing that’d hit anyone hard. Some people hide it better than others. Reynir is depressed, as was to be expected, and Mikkel is as stone-faced as usual. The one who is taking this worse than I thought is Sigrun. She’s slumped, looks like she’s completely exhausted, and even is walking several steps behind from the rest of the crew. She’s taking everyone’s deaths and assumed deaths really personal, hm?

Oh. She collapsed. Things just keep getting worse and worse, eh? One person is dead, two are missing, and now one is fainting. What’s left is the jack-of-all-trades that is Mikkel, and the civilian. Truly, this missing is a mess. Frankly I’m amazed how things got to this point, in just two hundred or so pages everything went downhill. Everyone had done such a good job working well together before, I didn’t think things would be like this at some point!

The cat is the one who notices Sigrun has fallen, and alerts Mikkel about it, who hurries to check on Sigrun. Sigrun is fully on the ‘blame yourself’ mode, telling the others to continue ahead without her. She failed. She deserves to die after causing half of their crew to die. She wants to stay lying down on the snow and just let nature and the elements claim her, maybe a troll can come gnaw at her scalp. Well, she didn’t say that last part, but it’s assumed.

The point is that Sigrun is so disheartened she has lost all the drive to keep going, so Mikkel, being the understanding soul he is, shoves snow onto her back. Well that sure is going to get her to stand up! He shakes her and demands her to listen, he’s about to deliver an inspirational speech!

That’s the speech. He pretty much is declaring he’s going to help them all no matter what, that this isn’t the time to give up. She can continue lying down if she wants, he’s going to carry her on the wheelbarrow with the books, he’s strong enough for that. This was a short scene, but it showed pretty well that things are not okay among the remains of the crew. Dang, I’m sure they all thought about worse-case scenarios, but I doubt they ever imagined this all.

Later, when they have made their camp in what seems to be a shed, Mikkel checks on Sigrun, asking if she feels better. She says her infection is getting worse, so she’s about to die. That’d have been much easier to believe just two pages ago, but now, she sees a little livelier...physically. Emotionally she still seems pretty dead to me. To try to make her think more positively about her still-present-but-not-as-bad infection, Mikkel tells her the way she thinks influences her injury.

What? No, that’s not a true story! Why you lying, Mikkel? I see right through you! But the point still stands, he’s right. The thing is, Sigrun isn’t really in any state to try positive thinking, so saying any of this to her is moot. He also asks why she’s taking everything so badly, being the experienced captain she is surely she has seen loss and death before.

Sigrun explains what’s hitting her hard is that she failed her teammates so badly. It’s not that bad things happened to them, it’s that indeed she’s taking responsibility for it all, being the captain. The next page goes further, saying this situation was different because instead of a highly capable team she can command and all, well...it was a ragtag team composed of people who are kind of competent but lack experience. Rookies, in other words. Also a civilian shoved himself into the story by accident. She should have been able to protect everyone, direct everybody to success because she is the only person with boatloads of experience, the one they could rely on so they all would return home with a lot of books and lots of glory for everybody.

The only thing they’re returning with is with a lot of books, and she hates that. No teammates, no glory for everyone. Just...three dead people and the knowledge it may have been her fault, and a bunch of books she couldn’t care less about.

Of course that’d hurt.

Mikkel listens, and tells her she wasn’t a true leader before. Only now that she’s facing great turmoil and the chance to overcome it she’ll prove if she’s a true leader or not. Iiii am not sure if that’s a good response to her feelings? I’m not convinced this is what she needs to hear. It’s true she shouldn’t give up and try to penance for her (perceived) failures with her life, but...something about this response just feels inadequate.

But it’s a kick in the rear, and Sigrun seems to me like the type that’d respond well to a kick in the rear, so I’m just looking forward to her reaction. Will Sigrun decide Mikkel is right, that she has to continue trying? Or shall she throw herself onto the snow again to die?

She’s continuing ahead! Good, good Sigrun. Thank goodness.

Even though she says she’s woozy and will be a burden because she’ll have to continue being carried around, it doesn’t seem to me like she’s being self-deprecating, it’s more like she is kind of going back to saying things kind of in jest. It’s a step in the right direction! And Mikkel doesn’t mind carrying her with the books on the wheelbarrow, she weighs almost nothing, which is pretty surprising to me. I thought she’d be a mass of muscle, and muscle weights a ton. But hey, even if she weighs a lot, he’d be willing to indulge her, no?

In all this, Sigrun says she won’t be in condition to shoot trolls, so Mikkel will have to do that too. He says he really shouldn’t, because he has spatial awareness problems, and to that I have to say I agree, he shouldn’t! When he had his chance to fight, using a blunt weapon to smack things around, the only thing he smacked was Emil’s leg. I don’t trust Mikkel with anything that could be used as a weapon.

Hah! You either have to be prodigiously bad, or you did that on purpose. Either way I’m still not trusting him with a weapon.

Moods lifted, Mikkel and Sigrun return to the camp, where Reynir is waiting. When asked how he’s feeling, he pretty much reveals he has his own problems and is thinking about he’ll never return home to see his family, I suppose because everyone here will hella die in like three minutes, he figures. Or at least I suppose that’s his mindset. After seeing how Emil and Lalli most likely died, he’s not going to be feeling too optimistic.

But Reynir’s problems will be dealt with next time!

 Next time: next update

[with-a-martyr-complex]

Notes on The Effectiveness Trap

What happens when good, brilliant people enter government service at the highest levels? 

In an ideal world, they work hard on a suite of problems (defined by the position they hold) to try and make the world or their nation “better” along some important axis. That might mean greater access to resources for people denied them, it might mean reduced pollution, it might mean greater freedom and autonomy, it might mean the limiting of government power, it might mean toppling an unjust regime and instilling a better one--whatever it is you think a government should be doing. Maybe they’re Red-Queening it up and expending all their effort to keep things from getting worse. But the work is noble and worth doing. 

But...there’s an issue in our ideal world. If these are problems which could have been solved by government, why haven’t they yet? It may be that the bureaucracy has been slow to adopt new ideas (especially if mandates shift with political changes), it may be that the problems are new or hard to handle and it takes a lot of work under the best of circumstances, it may be that there is limited attention of superiors, it may be that political considerations limit how much can be done across a wide range of issues and prioritization is key. 

So, your ability to make change is going to be limited--what you do is going to have a cost. And you don’t have infinite resources to pay that cost, so you need to prioritize to ensure that you can accomplish something and that it’s something worth accomplishing.

What happens when someone else could have that job? Someone who doesn’t share your priorities, someone who isn’t as hard working, isn’t as moral, isn’t as willing to contradict their superiors or the conventional wisdom when necessary? 

Well, then you have everything you need to fall into The Effectiveness Trap.

The Effectiveness Trap is when someone limits their ability to act, to speak out, or to leave a situation because they believe that, by maintaining a hold on power, they can do more good, even as they allow things they believe wrong to continue when they could stop them. 

Under especially nasty circumstances (among the US center-left, usually associated with the Nixon and Trump administrations) this can result in important figures supporting (in public and private) policies they believe grotesque and immoral so that they can maintain access to (a temperamental and loyalty obsessed) POTUS and argue against even WORSE measures, or at least improve things where they think a difference can be made. It’s how you get people staying in power while writing anonymous Op-Eds about how they’re keeping things from getting worse. It’s also how you get a bunch of Senators carrying water for positions they detest so they can shield themselves from intraparty criticism 

But I want to emphasize, it’s not necessary for there to be a “bad” or “temperamental” figure in charge for someone to fall into The Effectiveness Trap. All that’s necessary is a set of incentives that demand (or appear to demand) moral compromise to remain in a position of authority or of access to those in positions of authority. 

The Effectiveness Trap can be particularly insidious because it is, in so many ways, a rational approach to a situation. If you’re any kind of position of power and want to do good, your hold on power directly impacts your ability to do good, and losing power can therefore mean good is left undone. That’s bad on consequentialist grounds (if the good isn’t done at all) and even deontologic grounds (if you consider your duty to do good as more important than a duty not to allow ill be done or compromise ones self). 

So, what’s the danger of The Effectiveness Trap if it’s a rational approach to this situation? 

Let’s assume for the moment that we don’t value the moral purity of people in power, which is obviously the first casualty. They decided they were going to play for real stakes and so we less powerful folk get to decry them for playing the game in the first place from a position of faux moral superiority. 

For those good people in government, the ones with outside reputations for being brilliant, caring, somber, what have you, their moral standing is used to lend credence to policy that they, outside of government, may never have favored. Their good standing is therefore used to support any number of positions which, without their reputational support, might never have gained traction or become policy. The widespread trustworthiness of Colin Powell being used to lend credence to the Bush Admin’s efforts to build support for the Invasion of Iraq is a pretty archetypal example of this kind of thing. So, if these people do not lend their credibility and moral authority to this, there exists the possibility that these things ultimately not happen or happen under better circumstances. After all, why would they need to use their credibility at all if (in at least some cases which might be hard to predict) their credibility wasn’t necessary?

(The eternal after-the-fact retort for someone in the position of lending their credibility in this way is that they were not in a position to stop it, so them acting against it would not have helped. While this is doubtlessly true at times, I don’t believe that it can always be true for the aforementioned reason that their credibility, or at least someone’s credibility is demanded.)

Further, there is a general collective action problem here. If one resignation or one official speaking out won’t cause a shift in policy, that doesn’t mean that a mass of high profile (non-anonymous!) officials speaking out or resigning wouldn’t. The costs of acting aren’t just felt at the level of high ranking officials, they’re systemic and if you make the costs of acting unacceptably high (through action or the threat thereof), you can change policy. Effective leaders want capable, intelligent, credible, and moral subordinates willing to challenge them (within certain limits), and aren’t going to toss them aside lightly. 

But The Effectiveness Trap limits one’s ability to recognize that it’s a collective action problem and instead approach the scenario at the level of one’s personal moral sacrifice.

Of course, that strategy becomes less effective the more you use it too. So you can fall into an Effectiveness Trap with respect to threatening to resign as well where you need to save it for the stuff that really counts. 

The most obvious issue with The Effectiveness Trap is that it is intensely limited in scope for what one’s actions can accomplish on one level and assumes that one is the fulcrum by which the world turns on the other. One is simultaneously too weak to act in any number of important situations so that one might be monumentally and uniquely important in others, when no one else would speak. Well, few are speaking now, what makes you think some later moment will have your voice as the deciding factor? You’re trading present happenings that you can see the shape of for future ones that you can’t and assuming you’ll take a stand then when you’re already giving yourself all manner of excuses and reasons not to take a stand NOW. What, you won’t have excuses then? The Effectiveness Trap will be gone and you’ll never have to worry about it once you’re over this hill? 

You’re never in a perfect position to understand the role you play in the world, even if you’re a brilliant and powerful person. And there’s much to be said for compromise in the face of preserving one’s power. But there’s nothing holding one to act then when one won’t act now, unless you keep Red Lines in your heart of hearts that demand action and response, you can compromise on anything until you’re no longer one of those “good people” in government.

[flavoracle]

RPGs & The Character Investment Dilemma

First-Person, Character-Centric Storytelling...

Imagine for a moment that instead of being a ridiculously successful movie franchise, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe was instead published as a series of adventures for a superhero role-playing game.

Except you don't play as Iron Man or Captain Marvel or Valkyrie or Groot. They're all NPCs that the main plot revolves around. You and your team play as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents... or maybe undercover low-level superheroes... or, I don't know, reporters or something?

Bottom line, you're there, you can have maybe SOME neglegible impact on the outcome of the plot, and you're one of thousands just like you.

And yet you're also ONE IN A MILLION! Because even with intense world-shaking events going on around you, this is YOUR story! YOU wrote the character background! YOU picked your character's abilities and specialities. YOU have been the one grinding through each level in each adventure to get your character to where they are now.

You took down a bunch of Hammerbots behind the scenes in the Iron Man 2 adventure. (Great XP and loot drops in that one!) You grumbled that your party insisted on saving civilians in Age of Ultron because fighting the robots would have been worth SO MUCH more experience. You nearly quit after the Ant-Man & the Wasp adventure when all you did was chase around false leads on Scott Lang.

But ultimately you've stuck through it all, the good and the bad, because you have invested in YOUR CHARACTER. You've put in too many hours to just give up on them now! They've grown so much! They're more powerful, more wealthy, more...

*SNAP*

Oh, Thanos.

"Roll a saving throw," you're told. You roll a 1. "Oooh, sorry buddy. Evens survive. Odds are dust."

You're shocked. You're angry. You're confused. All those hours. All that thought and attention and effort. All gone. All a huge waste. (Unless your friends find a way to rez you, of course.)

...When Characters Come Before Story

If the scenario above sounds like a tragic waste to you, I would totally agree. Just not for the reasons you're probably thinking of. The real tragedy of the hypothetical above isn't that the player's character dies. The tragedy is that the player had been taught to play the game in a way so focused on their individual character, that they failed to enjoy the amazing storytelling spectacle they were participating in.

The other tragedy is that because all the game progression was tied to the player's character (and not the player themself) all that progress really did disintegrate along with the character.

The Strange Expectations of Role-Playing Games

Consider for a moment, what other entertainment media are subject to this kind of failed investment? Books, movies, and shows may ask you to invest emotionally in the characters, but never more than you're invested in the story itself. Video games may have you focused on your own individual progress, but most of them include opportunities to save your progress. Plus, the games that focus the most on individual character progress are usually single-player games.

And yet role-playing games ask you to pour your heart and soul and time and energy into a single character at a time, play with other people who are ALSO focused on their individual character progression, AND you're expected to honor the final consequences if tragedy strikes or you take a risk that doesn't pay off.

Disproportionate Risk

As humans, our brains are generally hardwired to either minimize risk, or to take risks only when the benefits are worth that risk. The greater the risk, the greater the reward needs to be.

When playing most role-playing games, one of the greatest risks is losing a character that you've invested time and energy into. The longer you play that character, the greater the loss with that risk. So naturally, players try to minimize risk. And yet making a decision based on your character's internal motivations (rather than your own) feels inherently risky! After all, it's only natural to assume we know best. So what do you do if YOU want your character to avoid risk, but YOUR CHARACTER wants something else?

Some people will tell you the only correct choice is to do what your character would choose. "That's TRUE role-playing!" Maybe you're shamed for playing "out of character" or offered incentives for playing "in character." These tactics are used to cover up what I believe is the underlying problem...

A Primary Focus on Open-Ended Character-Centric Storytelling is BAD For RPG Gameplay

Now before people go grabbing your torches and pitchforks, let me say that I understand your reluctance to believe me on this. It might sound like downright heresy to you. It took me years of fantasy role-playing experience to realize this myself. And I'm not asking you to agree with me. Just hear me out.

A group of people, each asked to play a game focused on individual character development, in an open-ended environment where they set the objectives and tone and pace of the adventure is LUDICROUS. It would be like trying to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, except it's a multiplayer game with six players, and they all have to share a single screen. HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO WORK?! (Even in a best-case scenario you end up with a "leader" in the group who keeps everybody focused, but how often do others complain that the "leader" is hogging the game?)

Is There an Answer?

Yes, I believe there is. I propose that a more positive and satisfying play experience can be achieved through playing adventures that are driven primarily through compelling plot points, rather than individual character focus. Additionally, I believe this style of play would be enhanced by a system of progression and rewards that are tied to the PLAYER, rather than the characters they play.

Now does that mean there's no place for character development or role-playing? Of course not! Players should still be encouraged to develop fun characters and play out scenarios that fit the personalities of those characters. But they should also be encouraged to play a wide variety of characters, and switch up between adventures, rather than feeling tied to one or two. And the characters that people play all work together with a focus on progressing the plot in the stories provided.

"That Sounds Like Railroading to Me!"

This seems to be a common concern among long-time role-playing gamers. Sometimes I get the feeling that they look at their right to an open-ended play environment the same way Second Amendment advocates look at the right to own guns. But I think that's only because they don't realize just how harmful the thing they love is. (OK, that's a pretty exaggerated comparison, but it's the best analogy I can think of.)

The point is, just step back from what you THINK role-playing games should be, and consider what they COULD be: A narrative-driven cooperative storytelling experience, moved along by players, and focused within the boundaries of a strong plot and setting determined with a deliberate purpose already in mind.

And honestly, that sounds like a lot more fun to me. How about the rest of you?!

[harleyquilt]

The Sin Of Greed (11)

Summary: Touka is given a new client, a client she knows she can’t trust...

Words: 7907

Notes: Hope you enjoy.

A month passed by with a newfound tranquility. The autumn quickly faded in, the summer leaves turning into different kinds of oranges, purples and reds as the branches of the trees are left bare. Touka breathed into her hands, rubbing them together to warm them up from the biting frost of the late morning. She was sitting on a park bench, flipping through a magazine as her eyes glanced past the top of the page. There were a few people in the park today, despite the cold; a stray dog walker, someone taking a quick jog on the path, a mother taking their children to town and a couple enjoying their coffees together, their hands laced through each others. She sighed, leaning back.

There were so many vibrant stories to be had here, the lives of others always close to one another, but none involved or crossing with each other. They weren't her focus for today. With things gradually settling back into the old routine, she now had to spend her time overlooking the children. The older ones - Shio, Yusa and Rikai - had to be trained the same way Yomo used to train her and Ayato. They were interesting kids; Shio was so energetic, whilst Yusa remained quiet yet curious and Rikai being the perceptive introvert. Oddly enough, they seem skilled in their own ways. She knew Shio was an orphan, but Yusa ran away from home and found Rikai along the way, so perhaps they, like herself, trained themselves during the times when they were alone. Even so, they were incredibly sweet.

Shio, at this moment, was asking a middle-aged man if he could pet his dog. He denied it at first, but it wasn't long before he agreed after Shio looked up with teary eyes. Meanwhile, Rikai was chasing Yusa and after a carefully placed push, Yusa crashed into the man, apologising immediately. With him now pissed off, the kids head off, turning around the curve in the path so that they wouldn't be seen. The man didn't even notice his satchel being snatched away. Touka stood from her seat, discreetly walking to the same direction as the children. As she drew near, she saw them gathered around the bag they stole, a few of its items tossed onto the ground besides them. Yusa snatched  something from Shio’s hand.

“Shio, work on your acting. He would easily suspect you to be part of the thievery if you leave straight away.” Touka leaned down and took a phone from Yusa’s hand. “Help him out even. He may even reward you. A reward is way better than a report.”

“But then it’s no fun. Right, guys?” Yusa nodded with his friend whilst Rikai shook his head quickly. Touka sighed and Shio beamed, regardless of her disapproval. “C’mon. You take risks too!”

“I’ve been doing this for longer than all of you combined, greenhorn. Anyway, let’s go. Seems like there won’t be many people out right now. Summer would’ve been more preferable.”

They take a longer route around the park to avoid any confrontation and she took them to a nearby coffee shop, buying them all a muffin and hot chocolates. She sat away from the rest, watching them squabble over who placed the most effort into the theft whilst Touka sipped her coffee silently. Her eyes wandered around the room, taking in the shelves of differently coloured coffee bean bags, the soft lighting and the displays of delicious treats and snacks. It reminded her of how her old friend from school, Yoriko, baked and cooked all kinds of foods to feed her. She was probably the longest friend she was able to have before the death of her parents. After that, Touka only saw her once walking down the street and she couldn’t find the courage to approach her. She even had a big muscled boyfriend holding her small hand. All she could do now was wish the best for her and her future and if she was able to find a more stable future for herself, she may even try to contact her again.

Coffee shops in general sent her warm memories of happier times, or at least the most peaceful. It was the refuge her and Ayato needed when their parents had an argument, a place that reminded her of her best friend’s food and, though she now sees it with spite, a place where she saw the most tender part of Kaneki. Whether he was even sincere during those moments didn’t matter now, though she liked to have hoped that he was. It was silly, yet to see him so open was truly a gift. Over time, it became apparent that it was hard to hate someone fully after having at least one fond memory of them. At least through this, Touka hoped she was moving on positively. Perhaps bumping into him during that event wasn’t a punishment after all.

“Okay, would you rather be a super, mega, ninja thief or a super, mega, silent assassin?” Shio asked, the tip of his fingers pressed together with his elbows rested against the table, staring at the two boys in question. Yusa pouted, tapping his chin in thought and Rikai stared blankly, shaking his head slowly in disapproval. “I, myself, would be the king that must survive against your onslaughts.”

“I would be an assassin then if you had to be king.” Yusa contemplates, wiping off the mustache he got from drinking the hot chocolate. “But killing is so frightening...I’d wuss out.”

“I can’t really imagine any of us being killers.” Rikai added. “But neither of you are good enough to be thieves anyway. Guess I’ll just have to do most of the work again.” They immediately broke out into an argument, declaring they’d kill Rikai first before he could betray them. Touka chuckled at the scene, looking down to see a new message from Ayato. It looked like there was a new client.

For them, they didn’t take on clients too often unless they had something to offer. It’d usually involve stealing something from a rivalling business or a valuable that was safely locked away from their unskilled hands. The rewards for their efforts usually involve money, though there have been times they offered rare valuables and for Yomo, useful information. Even if the reward wasn’t great, Yomo insisted it’d be useful for them to build up a better reputation for more clients, as well as it offering some insurance in the scenario where they are caught. There are those risks of pissing off a powerful enemy, but Touka trusted Koma and Irimi to make sure to steer them away of those cases.

The kids finished their drinks and after paying, they all left to return home, Ayato giving her the details about this particular case. This client apparently wanted an item that was stolen from him - no detail about the item in question except for the fact that it was in a black briefcase with a golden rim. Apparently, this briefcase was in the hands of a drug lord and will be attending a very private party. Fortunately for them, he was able to supply them with a sufficient means of entrance; Touka, and specifically her alone, will play the part of a waitress for the event and seek her out amongst the crowd, which according to him, should be easy enough with the right knowledge. It sounded complex to say the least and she wasn’t sure how she felt about stealing from a drug lord. Crazy leaders weren’t so much her speciality. She’ll hear what Yomo had to say first, considering he was still her boss and still concerned for her wellbeing.

When she arrived home, Ayato was waiting for her and took her to Yomo’s new office that was just to the left of the main hallway past the entrance. They decided to make the upstairs the living quarters, separating their business to their rooms. His new office was just as well kept as his previous one, though she managed to convince him to sleep in a different room for once. Glancing at the exercise equipment in the corner of the room, it seemed he was back at training himself again. He didn’t see the necessity of it before the mafia’s involvement and as far as she was concerned, he hadn’t focused on his own capabilities in strength and such since she first arrived at his place. She always wondered what he was preparing himself for, though they do live in a life of crime, so perhaps there was no deeper meaning to it.

The desk was at the right side of the room this time, away from his other resources in a much cleaner space. Yomo was flicking through some files, frowning and a broad-shouldered man with grey hair sat with his back to the siblings. He turned to look over his shoulder at the sound of the door shutting and Touka had to blink twice before comprehending the sight before her. It was Kanou, the doctor both Rize and Kaneki were hunting for. She looked back at Ayato, but he didn’t seem to notice anything, simply watching Yomo flip through the different files he held in his hand. No, she was the only one who knew who this man was and yet, saying that, she only knew that he was a wanted man. And now he was their client?

He stood then and walked forward, Touka standing her ground, and he held his hand out, introducing himself to her. Standing there right before her in the light, she had a much better look of him. His face was aged, but not entirely withered or unpleasant, his eyes empty and his smile superficial. She knew he was a doctor and he made that especially clear with his white coat. There was even a dark stain on the collar…

“I hear you’re my new client.” Touka shook his hand, his hand as cold as his voice. He nodded and Touka walked to Yomo’s side, acting as if she was reading the files along with him. How complicated. She didn’t want to get involved with this suspicious man, not even knowing why people like Kaneki were targeting him, but she didn’t exactly have a reason to deny his request. She’d have to have a logical reason and she didn’t want this Kanou assuming she was involved with his enemies - that’d be too big a risk to the others. She was sure if she said no to Yomo, he wouldn’t deny her, yet she didn’t want him worrying about her safety again. He had enough to deal with.

“What do you think?” She asked Yomo, praying he’d have a reason to say no. Kanou took his seat and Ayato stood behind him, watching Touka fidget with their parent’s necklace again, something she was doing when she first came into the office. Leaning back and pushing the file back to Kanou, he nodded and she paled considerably. He looked up and asked if she would be okay with the mission. “S-Sure, what’s the reward?”

Kanou laughed, taking a cheque book out of his bag. Asking for the price, Yomo thought to himself for a moment before asking for a large sum. Kanou wrote half of the price and handed it Yomo.

“I’ll pay half now and the rest, along with any additional payments, afterwards. I appreciate you doing this favour for me. I like to keep my business as discreet as possible.”

“Sure, that can work.” Yomo stood then, along with Kanou, placing the cheque into a locked drawer. “Nice doing business with you, sir. Just send us your contact when you’re ready and Touka will get the job done.” He guided him out the room, taking him back to the entrance and as soon as he stepped out, Ayato shut the door, leaning against it.

“What’s wrong, Touka?” He asked, more straightforward than expected. She should’ve known he’d notice her change of attitude. She sat in Yomo’s chair, swivelling in it. “That man,” she began, “I saw him at that charity event and Kaneki was following him. I don’t think he’s good news.” Ayato sat on the desk next to her, crossing his arms.

“You think this could lead to trouble for us? I don’t think Kaneki will use this against you if you did the mission anyway.” She paused at that thought, hugging her knees. He really wouldn’t. “Unless you think he-”

“No, it’s not really that I’m worried about. It’s more that I don’t know who Kanou is. If Kaneki thought he was trouble then, I don’t know, I want to make sure I’m not aiding someone stupidly dangerous. It’s not as if he’s some CEO with a grudge.” Ayato kept quiet for a moment, deep in thought.

“So you want to see him again and check what this Kanou is about?” She tried to reject the question, but it was exactly what she had in mind. Would it be worth it? She could just go on as normal and not get involved, though she knew this would just infest her mind until she either caved in or continue on with these tormenting uncertainties. “I don’t know.” She confessed finally, sighing with some frustration. “Yes, but no. It would be nice if I didn’t have to depend on him for answers.”

More silence followed with her words until Ayato stood up with a sudden idea. “I, uh, have Hinami’s number in my phone.” Touka raised a brow, but he continued, ignoring her questioning look. “You can meet up with her instead, see what she can find. She’s an information broker after all.” Touka  pressed her lips together at the suggestion. It would be a lot easier to meet her than Kaneki, even if not ideal. “Sure, I suppose that can work.” Touka stood, checking the time. “Tell her to meet me at the fountain in town at three.”

. . .

It was starting to rain. She hoped Hinami wouldn’t be late. Touka thought of what exactly to say all throughout her train journey. In all honesty, a part of her hoped she’d ignore the message, but she responded almost immediately to their surprise, and was very willing to meet up. The girl didn’t seem stupid enough to tell Kaneki, no matter how crazy she was. Touka hadn’t really thought much of it before, but it did surprise her to have seen Hinami join in on her rescue mission. At least she wasn’t drenched in blood that time.

With that said, it also perplexed her to feel this way towards Hinami. She was so sweet and kind when they first met, eager to introduce Touka into a more comfortable life in the manor. To see that brightness fade so quickly into a hyperactive frenzy of violence was what probably overwhelmed her the most. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what motivated such a change to begin with, yet she wished she could’ve been friends with the Hinami she first met. Either way, her main focus was information right now, so she’ll just have to place her emotions aside.

Hinami eventually did arrive, holding a bright blue umbrella and dressed in the usual cute outfit of a long green cardigan, white blouse and a black skirt with tights. Her outfit was topped off with a radiant smile on her face, not that it made Touka any less uncomfortable at the sight. She stood, shoving her hands into her pockets and she stood awkwardly as Hinami neared, ready to make her proposal.

“I’ve actually wanted to talk to you, Touka.” Hinami began, surprising Touka. Her lips pursed, not sure if she was meant to reply. “About back in the mansion. I’m sorry.” Touka scoffed at first, stunned at her audacity, but Hinami continued. “I’m not here to exchange your forgiveness for information, I just wanted you to know I regret what I did. As you can tell, you have to be a little messed up to be in the mafia to begin with. Not that it’s an excuse, which is why I decided to leave-”

“Wait, you left Goat?” Touka’s brows now furrowed, not sure what to make of this. “What do you mean you left?”

“I moved out a few weeks ago. I’m going back to school too. I...I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore, Touka. I really don’t and whatever excuse I used before to do so isn’t enough for me now. I just want to be my own person.” Touka remained silent, watching Hinami stare at the ground, her voice desperate. So young and already riddled with such painful thoughts and actions. There was no forgiveness, but Touka did look at her with pity and some agitation. “But I still want to help you, Touka. To repent for what I’ve done.” She looked up then with a newfound courage.

Touka sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “Hinami, you don’t have to worry so much about it. I’m just trying to move on now and I can see you’re trying to do the same. If we can just accept that, I think everything will work out fine.” Hinami smiled then, clearly grateful for such words whilst still keeping a respectful distance. She was at least mature, unlike some people. “To be honest, I’m not sure if you can help since you left. I was just hoping you knew something about a Akihiro Kanou.”

“The doctor?” Hinami asked with some surprise. “Are you looking for him too? Kaneki was looking for him before I left.” Touka explained briefly her situation, as well as the fact that she was aware of Kaneki’s involvement and Hinami listened patiently. “I see. Well, there’s not much to say, if I’m honest. I was gathering information on him, but it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. His contacts are either dead, inaccessible or unknown. Those that are known are limited and know only small details. The man is good at keeping himself hidden, but there are a few things I found, along with what Kaneki told me. He trained in medicine for many years, yet despite his amazing intellect and skills, he went freelance and started doing his own...experiments.” Her eyes narrowed as she spoke, her words growing quieter. “He started taking part in many organisations for supplies and research and it’s said he’s making biochemical weapons. What kind of weapons are not known, but his expertise and the threat he carries makes him incredibly desired.”

Touka shuddered, the thought of that briefcase slipping into her mind. “Kaneki wants him to work for him?” Hinami shook her head quickly.

“No no! On the contrary, he hates Kanou. I don’t know if it’s anything personal or something. Besides that, Touka, I really don’t know what else I can tell you. I’m not even sure if my information is reliable, but I know Kaneki knows a lot more of what’s going on. Ah...Of course you don’t want to speak to him, right? If you want to leave it like this, I won’t tell him, so...”

Well, now things are even more complicated. Kanou is definitely not someone she wanted to aid. She aided corrupt people before, but not to this extent. What’s more, if Kaneki is trying to stop him for whatever reason he had against him, it’d make sense to try and gather more help. It wasn’t as if she wanted to help Kaneki, yet he was the only person she knew that could offer this kind of support. Was the universe testing her, taunting her to pick the wrong decision that could destroy her life again? He said sincerely enough he’d help her whenever the need arises and it seemed he was trying to keep his affairs more professional. Which path was the right one to take?

She shifted her weight to each foot, rubbing her head as she tossed her thoughts around. Help Kanou and not involve herself in whatever mess occurs from it. Work something out independently, not that she can actually think of an excuse or a way to hide whatever was in that case that’ll likely be locked anyway. She could call off the deal, even though there was still no reason for it that wouldn’t lead them to being suspected. Or she can confront Kaneki and ask for his aid, benefitting them both.

A sigh escaped her lips and she faced Hinami again, her brows raised with an eager interest. She knew what she wanted to do.

. . .

It had been a while since he visited :re. The cafe was as comforting as it was before, the heavy reminder of past memories still present, the lovely fragrance of the coffee and the setting still pleasant to the eye. Kaneki wondered why Hinami wanted to meet here, though he wanted to see her again of course. Since she moved out, he had been worried for her well being, even though he knew she was fully capable of handling herself. Still, her lack of presence back in his home was something he found difficult to adapt to. It’ll be nice seeing how she was dealing with her new life, thankful he was able to find her a scholarship for her school.

Kaneki slipped off his jacket, shaking the rain droplets off just before he took a seat at his favourite table. He stared silently at the seat opposite to him, remembering how Touka looked at him with those curious eyes that examined every part of him and his words. Now there was only a seat and he was alone. It seemed the rain was getting heavy.

The sound of the rain pattering against the window was relaxing, watching the long trails being left behind as each drop raced their way to the bottom. The puddles erupted with ripples, the light shimmering against the small waves as the soft clouds parted slightly, rays of sun slipping through. It was easier to focus on what was happening around you than what was in front of you, though that was just another way to ignore the present. He was trying his best to keep his focus, he really was. Lately, he worked closely with his partners, his work now his life again, even if there was no real purpose for any of it. As he sat there, he realised there was something mesmerising about the raindrops on the window; they always raced onwards, even if there was nothing at the end. They couldn’t stop moving, even if they wanted, though sometimes, if they’re lucky, they’ll join another on their way down.

But he wasn’t a raindrop. He was just a man sitting alone in his favourite cafe.

Alone.

The door opened and he hoped it’d be Hinami, looking up with a smile to greet her. His smile dropped quickly, however, as his eyes landed on Touka’s figure. She ruffled her short, damp hair, looking around the shop until she saw Kaneki, her movements still. This must be another terrible coincidence - meeting her again in this place - he has to leave before-

He stood with some urgency, his head bowed and his words caught on his tongue as he choked out an apology. She was probably glaring disgusted daggers at him right now, despising the fact that his mere presence was interfering with her life once more. He couldn’t stand the thought of seeing her pained eyes again, like in the casino as she cut his words off, rejecting him again and again. It was just better if he just left in fact - she didn’t need to hear his pathetic excuses of self-defense. It wasn’t needed at all.

Already heading out, he silently continued to scold himself with lectures of self-hatred. That was until Touka grabbed his arm before he escaped the cafe, his whole body tensing at her touch.

“Wait. I want- I need to ask you for something.” Right. Of course. He shouldn’t ignore her. He straightened and turned, Touka trying not to stare. He seemed completely composed for someone who looked so frightened a minute ago. Kaneki watched her expression as everything seemed to stop around them and all he could focus on was her eyes. Those eyes…

“W-We should sit.” Touka spoke finally, struggling to ignore her racing heart. Why was he looking at her like that?  She walked away first, sitting where Kaneki was a moment ago. He followed a few seconds after, a lot more hesitant than she expected. This was going to be difficult. “Well, uh…” Touka coughed, glancing between the table and Kaneki. He looked so natural, with his sweater shirt, somewhat messy hair and regular eyepatch. He’d fit right in if not for his white hair. It was hard seeing him dressed like this knowing all the scars and tattoos that lay beneath. “I’m going out for a job soon, but it’s for Kanou.”

Kaneki’s eyes widened at first, lips pursed. “I see. I hope he doesn’t know your past connection with me.” Touka shook her head and he seemed to relax, even if slightly. “I assume Hinami sent you to me then. I would’ve appreciated the warning, you know.” Despite his words, his voice was teasing. Yet sorrowful.

“Well, I didn’t really expect you to agree without having a meltdown beforehand.” She shrugged, now feeling a tinge of guilt. Perhaps he was better than that now. Perhaps. “I was actually hoping for your...help.”

She explained her situation once again and how he would fit into this as he ordered two coffees for themselves. He listened quietly, simply looking at her with no change in expression and such. It was uncanny how calm he was; she was so certain he’d constantly question every other thing with irrational fury or act petty with aloofness. Knowing him, he could easily switch his moods like that, even if he was seemingly more reserved now. Unless she didn’t know him like she did before. It was too difficult for her to believe he could really change. When she finished talking, he leaned back, drinking his coffee as he thought to himself for a moment.

“Kanou is indeed a dangerous man. I believe he’s currently working for the CCG and it’s the first time I’ve seen him after a few years when Eto was looking for him. I don’t think a man like that should be given anything that could help him with whatever he’s doing right now. I suspect this ‘drug lord’ is actually a woman called Kurona Yasuhisa. She’s one of his experiments seeking revenge, not that I’m any ally of hers.” Biting his lip, he glanced out the window. “You’ll be going to a private event as a waitress, right? If I get myself an invitation, I can meet you there with a replica of the suitcase, just send me the details of it given to you, and before you leave the building, we can swap cases so you don’t leave empty-handed.”

“Is there any need for you to come to the event?” Kaneki smiled then, a devious one she hadn’t seen in a long while. It sent chills down her spine. “I have my own business with the event that I was meaning to attend to after finding Kanou. This task of yours has just made it more convenient for me to fulfill my own goals. What’s the price for my cooperation?”

“Protection would be ideal.” Touka huffed, warming her hands with the coffee cup. His expression softened then, nodding. “I’d still rather not have to ask any favours from you. Not that you’d say no…” A silence followed her words, though she suddenly felt the urge to ask all the questions she had buried since their last meeting. He was right there, quietly waiting for her to continue with that stupid face. What a bastard. “Stop looking at me like that.” His eyes widened and he looked down, apologising. Was he always this soft? Before, he’d make some dumb remark and call her his ‘little bunny.’

“I also want an answer.” She was disgusted at her own words, but she leaned forward and Kaneki met her gaze again. “Why didn’t you kill me in your mansion? I want an honest answer now, no more romantic bullshit. You recognised me, didn’t you? You remembered me from when you killed my parents.”

Any softness from him was then replaced with a chilled seriousness, his lips pressed into a thin line and eye narrowed. Honesty was something she knew he wasn’t used to, but now he wasn’t able to hide in the shadows of his hidden past. She knew him well enough at this point, or rather, that was what she hoped. There was no reason to lie to her now after all - she doubted he had any intention of trying to seduce her again. Surely he couldn’t be that stupid, especially when he tried to run away at the sight of her.

“Yeah, I did recognise you.” His answer, simple as it was, left Touka tutting at his words. A smirk soon appeared on her lips and she shook her head, taking another sip of her drink. What else was she expecting? What did she want from a question she already knew the answer for? When will he stop fucking looking at her? “It was just a job, Touka.”

“That’s one way to sum up how you ruined my life. My family were my entire world!” She was almost yelling at this point. All he did was nod, expression empty. “You won’t forgive me and I don’t really want you to.” Kaneki added, not daring to look away. “What’s the question you really want to ask then?” She snorted at his attitude, at his audacity. He acted as if he actually knew her. Asshole. “I know you won’t say it. You want to know why I kept you around, right? I don’t really have an answer, I just didn’t want to let you go again without doing anything about my past mistakes. I guess I wanted redemption for what I did to you, though I don’t think those intentions lasted very long. There was just something I really admired from you and your strength and I wanted to know you better because of that, to make me understand the consequences of my actions-.”

“Don’t try to flatter me.”

“Do you want an answer or not?”

She stood, paying for her own drink as she pulled on her jacket. Kaneki stood, watching Touka become consumed by her hatred for him. “No, I don’t.” She snapped. He grabbed her shoulder, turning her to him and she stilled, his touch like a blistering fire. “Don’t touch me-”

“If I wanted your forgiveness or love, don’t you think I would’ve tried something by now? I’m not trying to hurt you again, Touka, I want to help. We don’t have to part hating one another.”

“Help with what? You’ve already done enough.” She stared up, both with yearning and pain. “When you say all that shit, it just makes me want to forget that I hate you. But I can’t. What’s done is done and...I can’t forgive that. A part of me wishes I could, but-” She stepped back, his hand slipping from her shoulder. When will he stop looking at her like that? “I...I’ll get Ayato to give Hinami the files and I’ll meet you at the party.”

She left without another word, her heart conflicted in ways she couldn’t understand.

. . .

It was almost a week before Kanou contacted them, which she was somewhat thankful for. It allowed her time to cool down after meeting Kaneki, regretting how she allowed herself to escalate the situation into something dramatic. The main focus right now was the task at hand and with Kaneki’s help, everyone should be left satisfied with how things should turn out. Or at least for Kanou, temporary satisfaction.

A car stopped in front of the house and she left after a quick debriefing from Yomo. The black case with the golden rim, the drug lord that’s a woman with a scar, her role as the waitress a way to encounter her. Kaneki will be easy enough to find and she wasn’t going to freak out like she did in the cafe. That was if he turned up in the first place.

She didn’t see the driver when she slid into the backseat of the black car Kanou sent, though that didn’t bother her too much. Rather, she was remembering how she was first invited into Kaneki’s limo with Miza, the way she introduced herself in her mundane clothes and white suited bodyguard. Back then, she was unnerved, being told to be a mafia lord’s date for a night of mischief. She almost envied how simple it was then, even if it wasn’t the most pleasant moment in her life at the time. The car eventually slowed and stopped in front of an unlit building. It looked like any other shop on the street, wedged between two others. She almost wouldn’t have been able to tell which door to go through if it wasn’t for the white masked figure standing in front of one. She had her hood up, probably to keep herself hidden, and she wore a eerie smile as she beckoned Touka forward.

Opening the door, she led Touka down what looked like a barber shop and through the back, they walked down several flights of stairs. She lost her footing every now and again in the near pitch blackness. It was a miracle when they finally reached the bottom, the woman holding back a red velvet curtain to a rounded room, a large archway leading to what looked like a crowded area and another door for employees on the right. The woman took her into that room, moving past a kitchen and several doors that led to other storage rooms until they finally reached a dressing room. There were women set up in...particular outfits with different, yet a distinctively recurring, themes. Corsets, fishnets and a whole lot of masks. Ah, shit, this was a Eyes Wide Shut-esque event, wasn’t it?

“Uta. I’ve got Dr. K’s special guest here.” She nudged Touka forward and she was greeted with an interesting looking man. Tattoos covered his arms and hands, a latin phrase on his neck, his hair half shaved with his bangs only partially covering his red eyes. She yelped a little at his sudden appearance, though he gave a friendly smile as he chewed on some gum.

“What a cute girl.” He offered what looked like candy in the shape of an eyeball. “Want one?” She shook her head slowly, asking what it was she was supposed to do. “Hm, well why don’t you tell me your favourite animal is first.”

“Uh...rabbits.” He gave a nod and turned to look through the wardrobe behind him, explaining he was the dresser for the event, designing the costumes for these people. “I had the feeling you would pick that judging by what I’ve heard about you.” Touka stared with a nauseous confusion. They knew who she was? “I’m a good friend of Yomo, so I’ve heard about you a lot.”

“I didn’t know he had a friend like you.” How could she not have known this. She knew he went out often on his own for private business, but to think this kind of guy would be his associate was...unexpected. Uta nodded cheerfully, handing her an outfit that made her shudder. “Do I really have to wear this?”

“Trust me, it’ll look great on you. It’s a masquerade party after all.” He then handed her a mask, promising her it’ll be worth the efforts.

This was it. The worst moment of her life. Yes, definitely this. She looked with horror at her bunny suit, a bowtie collar around her neck and shirt cuffs on her wrists and a damn fluffy tail right above her ass. Her mask covered her eyes with bunny ears on the top and to keep her completely hidden, Uta gave her a pink wig to top it off. She was definitely going to make Kaneki and Yomo cough up their money to her.

Uta of course praised her, turning her this way and that to see if everything fitted and he handed her a silver tray of snacks, shoving her through the door to the main room. It took her a moment to take in her surroundings. It seemed she was on a higher floor, the whole room rounded and a balcony looking down at the other floors, along with a big arena-styled floor a good few feet below. Everyone was dressed for the event, the men in their pristine suits and the women in their alluring dresses, all of them wearing a wide array of masks that all somehow hid their identities. By what she could hear, no one ever called each other by their given names, but rather through simplistically coded names. It was such a strange sight, a place you never would think of existing before.

Carefully, she made her way past different groups, observing the different floors for both Kurona and Kaneki. It seemed the lowest floor had a more exclusive set up. A privileged view of whatever it was they were expecting to see below. She started to walk down to the second floor, a few more people gathered in this particular section. As she wandered around, blending in by playing her role, she bumped into a man with a strange clown mask. She apologised, but he continued staring at her, watching her as she moved away. There was something...odd about him. Then again, she was in a odd setting to begin with. It was probably better just to ignore it.That was when she felt a hand on her arm and she turned to see a white haired man in a black mask. Kaneki.

“Miss, I could use your assistance. Could you follow me?” She nodded and followed behind Kaneki to a more secluded area, placing her tray onto a nearby table. “That’s a nice costume…”

“Keep your eyes up and mouth shut. Anyway, what are you supposed to be?” His mask was odd, a lipless mouth with bared teeth covering his lower part of his face, and with a matching eyepatch. Only his right eye was exposed.

“A ghoul, I think. Not sure if I really understand it myself.” He pulled down the mask and she noticed a blush was apparent on his cheeks. “I’m sorry, but is there a jacket you can use. That costume is really distracting me.”

“Give me the case before I stab that other eye.” He handed her an identical looking case, the weight not too light. Handing it back, she hoped it’d be enough to fool Kanou. “That’ll work. Now I just need to get that case from Kurona. Any advice?”

“She won’t let go of that case without a fight. You should take advantage of the main event when it starts.” As he finished speaking, the whole building dimmed and the guests started to grow excited, a buzz of anticipation building up. They gathered by the banisters and pushing through them, Touka stared down to the ground where three people stood, confused and terrified.

A large gate was lifted and the crowd cheered, clapping their hands in excitement whilst a huge, monstrous looking man stumbled out. His face was covered with a blood red scarf, his bloated torso exposed as he dragged a bonesaw behind him. The frightened people began to panic, one calling out for help, another standing paralysed and the third starting to scramble away, slamming their fists against the wall. Touka paled, quickly heading away as the cheering drowned out the tortured screams. Kaneki stood, watching Touka shake her head with disgust, wanting to comfort her.

“Where’s Kurona? I want to leave as soon as possible.” Adjusting her mask, she straightened and composed herself, Kaneki taking her down to the lowest floor. The screams from the arena were so much louder. They kept close to the shadows and pillars, edging their way around with a slight distance to one another until they caught their eyes onto one particular table. A woman sat alone, a case on the table in front of her and her fingers drumming on the table beside it. She wore a low cut robe that dipped down to just beneath her abdomen, her hood lifted over her pale head. A large, ragged scar moved from her eye to jaw, her long light hair barely covering it and there were more scars covering her stomach and exposed arms. She was a disturbing sight to say the least, though her face held some beauty with those sharp, cold eyes.

Kaneki stared, a smirk appearing on his lips as he lifted his mask again. Looking back, Touka examined Kurona’s surroundings. With everyone busy watching the ‘show’, she was alone, barely paying attention to the people around her.

“Why is she alone? She doesn’t seem to be enjoying the event.” Touka commented. “A business deal, I suppose. Probably why she’s carrying that case with her to begin with.” Kaneki shrugged, lightly tugging Touka back as Kurona’s gaze wandered to their direction. “Doesn’t seem her contact is here though. It’s likely Kanou has already dealt with that issue so that you could take the briefcase.”

“What does she gain from selling it? It’d make sense to simply destroy whatever Kanou could use if she had a grudge against him.”

“Information or perhaps trying to use Kanou’s own weapons against him. She’s still bloodthirsty for Kanou and is trying to find him as much as the rest of us. I would like to team up with her if it weren’t for our previous encounters.”

Touka noticed a tray of drinks on a buffet table near them and she picked it up, ready to make her move. “I’m going in. Watch my back.” She whispered as she walked past Kaneki. Nearing Kurona, she forced on her best smile and offered her a drink. Before she could answer, however, she tipped her tray and the drinks spilt all over her and her case, making her stumble onto her feet in fury. She cursed Touka, demanding for her to clean it up and thankfully for her, no one was paying attention to her agitated yelling. Grabbing some napkins, she offered some to Kurona and as she was busy wiping off all the alcohol, Touka tried to discreetly grab the case, insisting to wipe it off as her hands wrapped around the handle.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” She grabbed Touka’s wrist, her grip tight and firm, nails biting into her skin. Her cold glare quickly filled with a heated anger, her jaw clenched. Tugging her wrist back, Touka instinctively flung the case towards her head, but she ducked down, punching Touka’s stomach as she did. Touka stumbled back, but kept a tight hold of the case, Kurona straightening and grabbing a sword she kept behind her chair. “You must be working for Kanou. Shit, no wonder my contact didn’t come.” Touka held up the case as Kurona lifted her sword back, her teeth gritted. “He’ll know not to fuck with me once I’m done with you.”

Kaneki leaped forward, pushing Touka back and he lifted a chair as Kurona brought her sword down. The blade cut into the seat and pulling it back, she tripped into the table, the hilt slipping from her hand. Tutting, she grabbed the table and threw it against Kaneki, knocking him back and grabbing the blade wedged into the chair’s legs. She pressed her foot against the chair and pulled her sword free with ease. With a cold sweat forming on her brow, Touka stepped back nervously, Kurona advancing on her.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing for that old fucker? Do you have any idea what’s in that case? Just take a good look at these scars and maybe your dumbass can understand what exactly you’re doing.” Touka looked down at the case, glancing at Kaneki shoving off the table on top of him. Gripping the case, Kurona raised a brow, holding up her sword once again. “Well, when you put it like that…” Touka sighed and suddenly threw the case towards the surprised woman. She dropped her weapon and Touka dashed forward, grabbing the hilt as it fell.

Except, the sword turned out to be incredibly heavy. Kurona stared, watching Touka barely lift it an inch above the ground with her arms shaking at its weight. Looking down at the case, Kurona stepped forward and threw her fist right for Touka’s jaw. She flinched but the punch never came. Opening her squeezed shut eyes, she found Kaneki keeping hold on Kurona’s arm, his glare deadly.

“Kaneki…? What the hell. Is that-” He slammed his head against hers and a final punch knocked her out. He took her case as she fell and Touka decided to let go of the sword, clearly trying to act off her embarrassment. He took her arm gently and they moved away from the destruction of the scene whilst everyone was still distracted by their murderous show. Finding the replica case, they swapped the two and they both headed for the exit, Touka pulling off her mask and wig.

“You could’ve used your gun, idiot.” Touka muttered.

“It would’ve been too loud. Besides, I thought we managed it pretty well together.”

They were by the entrance by the time they finished talking and Touka shoved her regular clothes into her bag, Kaneki watching her prepare herself to leave whilst tugging his own mask off. To her surprise, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her, his gaze soft as he examined her.

“You’ll be cold dressed like that. Oh and don’t worry. I won’t be using what’s in this case for anything sinister.” He insisted, though she was somewhat baffled by his gesture and more so by her confidence in his promise. “Now, I have to finish my work here, but if there’s any complications, remember to let me know.”

She rolled her eyes at his casual offer, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by her annoyance. He was just looking at her, eyes moving down to her lips as he pressed his together. A hand moved up and she urged herself to leave, though her body stubbornly remained as his hand rested on her cheek. No, this was wrong. What was she doing, allowing him to be this close? Yet his hand was so warm against her. He leaned down, lips inches away from hers and he hesitated, his eyes half-lidded and Touka quivering.

“Sorry. You should leave.” He pulled back quickly and started walking down the hallway. He paused at the archway, Tsukiyama appearing at his side with his own mask and he barely offered a look at Touka as the doors shut and locked. She wavered, not exactly sure what she expected, but it wasn’t long before there was a loud sound of a gunshot being fired, followed by screams of terror. Business as usual, it seemed.

She got what she needed. No use waiting around.

[gamergate-news]

Women and games yes. Women and game facing conflict and adversity? DON’T YOU DARE!! Am I crazy or is this the Guybrush Paradox in action?

The Last of Us, a video game released to critical acclaim in 2013, follows a man’s journey, along with his adolescent female charge, through a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. The game, though popular with critics and gamers alike, is characterised as extraordinarily graphic and rife with edgy, gritty and often gruesome themes and images — it is, after all, the apocalypse. Both central and peripheral characters meet brutal — and in some cases, egregious — ends, all in the name of entertainment and painting a vivid and violent world.

In the past couple months, Naughty Dog studios, the company responsible for the first The Last of Us, has confirmed the sequel is in its final stages pre-release. Then, on October 30, the studio posted a sample cinematic from the upcoming The Last of Us Part II. There is no better word for this short sequence than graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.

The Cinematic

In it, a female cult leader — we have to assume — orchestrates the torture and near-hanging of two other female characters, including a particularly grotesque sequence in which one woman has her arm pulverised by a hammer. In the end, the timely entrance of a young man saves the two, and more vivid hammer action follows. The gaming community, for its part, reacted with mixed reviews and impressions.

Some lauded the The Last of Us Part II’s trailer as a gritty masterpiece, praising the lifelike graphics and realistic staging of the fight scenes, the palpable gore, and shiver-inducing destruction of human bodies, as really evoking the apocalypse for viewers. Others have lashed out at Naughty Dog for going too far in this direction, brushing up against the region of gore-porn in place of a substantive and sensitive storyline. Many viewers commented on the targeting of female characters in The Last of Us Part II’s in-game cinematic as a ploy for easy thrills.

Whatever your opinion of the first game and this recently released cinematic, the outrage at female suffering in video games is nothing new. For the past decade, the feminist movement has taken a keen interest in the overtly male-dominated area of gaming. While the presence of women has skyrocketed in gaming in recent years, the industry still caters to an overwhelmingly male population.

Casual Cruelty

Anita Sarkeesian is a known name in the gaming community. She first rose to the public spotlight during the height of the Gamergate attacks in 2014, in which a loosely organised group of gamers targeted prominent female players and commentators. During this period, Sarkeesian, along with other vocal figures, received threats of death, rape and other deeply troubling actions. The Gamergate posters claimed to be combating expanding progressiveness and feminism in the video game community.

Sarkeesian, for her part, has written extensively on the topics of female objectification in video games. In many ways, these personal attacks served to underline her commentary on the male domination of the industry and the dangerous implications and echo-chamber effects of such an isolated population. One of Sarkeesian’s most-debated areas of writing is the explicit and continued use of casual cruelty on incidental female characters.

“Enforcing the expendable image of these women carries a massive and terrifying implication of its own.”

It is one thing for the female body to be put on display in a playable — quite literally empowered — fashion. Games like Mortal Kombat and League of Legends, though featuring well-endowed female characters in uniformly revealing outfits, allow these characters to be played and utilised in the same capacity as any male characters. Though the distortion of the female body in these games carries its own set of problems, these characters appear on a fundamentally even field as any other characters.

For Evil Purposes

Given this, Sarkeesian’s focus has drifted to narrative-driven games. In them, female characters are often relegated to marginal and unplayable roles and are subject to aggression and violence on the part of male antagonists as a means to drive the storyline and elicit a natural emotional response from the player. Cinematics such as those found in The Last of Us II potentially fall into this category.

In Sarkeesian’s estimation, there is no more straightforward way of demonstrating who is righteous and who is evil than by causing violence to incidental female characters. Male gamers fall prey to the age-old tropes of chivalry and feeling a deep, guttural reaction when exposed to female harm. This type of response is warranted when characters gradually develop over the course of a storyline and are tragically ripped from us. However, Sarkeesian says this is rarely the case.

Instead, the inconsequential female characters appear as simple tools to advance the storyline and accentuate the depravity of certain — typically male — characters. Game developers seem to have this all down to a science and will usually target female sex workers or women in otherwise compromising positions — the social “throwaways.” Enforcing the expendable image of these women carries a massive and terrifying implication of its own.

Aesthetic

However, female objectification manifests in another, hugely popular video game trope. In this, the typical “sexiness” of women portrayed in video games since the genesis of story-driven titles is mixed with violence as a means to evoke an edgy and dangerous but aesthetically pleasing world.

Instead of using specific and active instances of violence against women to evoke an emotional response, certain games utilise casual violence as a sort of game aesthetic. These titles portray women’s suffering as set pieces for certain stages of the game and allow the player to indulge in certain fantasies vicariously. From the exotic dancers of Grand Theft Auto to the trailer for Hitman: Absolution, women appear framed in demeaning and deadly ways for the benefit of the player.

Some Concerns From Gamers

This phenomenon is a slippery one to pin down: What constitutes excessive violence or humiliation on the part of non-player female characters, and what is reasonably accepted as a game aesthetic? There are arguments to be made that eliminating female-directed violence from games contributes to an unrealistic worldview for players.

Violence against women does exist in the real world and can be found more graphically in certain locations than others. To keep the escapist roots of video games alive, perhaps disallowing specific scenarios or areas is not the best way forward.

Further, enforcing the notion that bad guys participate in violence against women has its benefits, for all the weak story writing such tropes contribute to. If nothing else, studios still rely on the moral indignation players feel when experiencing violence against women, normalising how unacceptable such action is.

Anonymity

The real problem, it seems, is the portrayal of the characters targeted. They are anonymous, inconsequential to the story and simply introduced for the brief, unconscious reaction they elicit from the player. Video games struggle horrifically — for the most part, at least — to meet the Bechdel Test, which is a measure of gender depiction in media. The test only includes three rules: there must be at least two named female characters, those women must talk to each other, and they must talk about something other than a man. The majority of movies and video games alike do not meet this simple criteria, and that is simply lazy. Female anonymity is lazy. This technique does not do justice to the women of our world — or of any world these games are meant to create.

MEANWHILE.....

Does anybody remember that scene in heavy rain when you had to cut off your own finger?

I guess all this is okay RIGHT?

Just saying we do a lot of WAY more horrible things to MALE PROTAGONIST in video games WAY more often.

We also allow them to be very despicable characters and do very despicable things. Spec Ops the Line “white phosphorus” scene and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 “no Russians” Mission come to mine.

But that’s just my opinion.

[dailybusinessfacts]

The Difference Between A Leader And A Manager

At first look, the terms “leader” and “manager” may appear to be interchangeable. Isn’t it true that managers are in charge? They must also be leader and a manager, if they are in charge. Managers should ideally have excellent leadership abilities, but this is not always the case. There are several distinctions between leadership and management, most notably in how the individuals in question interact with the members of their teams and how they approach their jobs.

We all want to assume we have inherent leadership traits, but leadership isn’t something you just ‘have,’ it’s something you have to work on over time. What is the primary distinction between a manager and a leader? The main difference between being a leader and a manager, is that people follow leaders, while managers have people who work for them.

To understand the differences, I would define who a leader and a manager;

Who is a Leader?

Rather of ensuring tasks are performed through management, leadership tends to focus more on boosting results through establishing and maintaining skilled teams.

Who is a Manager?

The process of regulating or dealing with circumstances, objects, or people is known as management. Managing entails coordinating, arranging, and planning in order to attain a certain result. Managing a scenario or team in the workplace frequently necessitates regular re-evaluation and tweaking of results in order to track productivity and increase production.

Here are some differences between A leader and a Manager;

1. Managers A More Self-oriented While Leaders Are More Team Oriented

They perceive themselves as members of a team, therefore when the team achieves anything, the leaders make certain that everyone else is aware of how much effort the entire team put in. When things go wrong, leaders are held accountable for not adequately teaching or directing their employees. Leaders keep hatred at bay by ensuring that their people understand that, for better or worse, the leader and a manager, will remain with them, and that connection is crucial.

2. Managers Direct, Leaders Take Action

People in positions of management or leadership must delegate tasks. However, how they go about doing it might have an impact on how their colleagues feel about them. Leaders understand that they must always lead by example. They don’t make their employees perform busywork; instead, people explain the importance of even the most mundane jobs so that they understand how vital their efforts are. If a leader makes a mistake, he or she will usually put forth the effort to remedy it.

This is the main difference between being a leader and a manager. Despite the fact that it is their duty to delegate responsibilities to their staff, they do so equitably and with the understanding that they may seek assistance from them at any moment.

3. Managers Keep Things The Same. Leaders Are Innovating While They Are In Charge

Every firm aspires to be the best in its field; no corporation believes that “good enough” is an option. “Good enough” might, however, suffice in the absence of a real leader at the helm. The distinction between simple management and leadership is how the organization’s leader evaluates success. This is the main difference between being a leader and a manager. Unfortunately, many managers merely do what is required of them in order to perform their responsibilities. They don’t see the point in putting in additional effort, and they don’t encourage their staff to do so.

To this type of management, the day is a success as long as nothing disastrous occurs. A leader, on the other hand, marches forward. Stagnation and complacency are detrimental to a company’s bottom line. Leaders see every opportunity as an opportunity to exceed, and they encourage their employees to achieve their full potential rather than just achieving the minimum. A corporation will achieve far more with a genuine leader at the head than it would with a basic manager in control.

4. Managers Place A Premium On Outcomes, Whereas Leaders Place A Premium On Accomplishments.

This mindset may succeed for a while, but it will eventually lead to the company’s demise. Leaders recognize the value of outcomes, but only as the consequence of hard effort, perseverance, and devotion. Long-term benefits are the goal of leaders, and they understand that consistency is the only way to achieve in the long run. On a daily basis, leaders work on developing their employees’ capabilities since the skills they obtain today will help the business tomorrow. This is the main difference between being a leader and a manager.

5. A Leader Motivates, While A Manger Controls

A leader’s goal is to motivate and inspire others. This is the most important difference between being a leader and a manager. A manager, on the other hand, is responsible for guiding and regulating staff.

6. A Leader Facilitates Change, While A Manger React To Change

A leader is a change agent, which is why he or she encourages change that benefits his or her subordinates and the organization as a whole. This is the most important difference between being a leader and a manager. A manager, on the other hand, responds to changes in the corporate environment.

7. Leader Employs Transformational Leadership Style While Managers Employs A Transactional Leadership Style

The manager employs a transactional leadership style, in which people are motivated by incentives and penalties. This is the most important difference between being a leader and a manager. A leader, on the other hand, employs a transformational leadership style, in which the leader motivates his subordinates to modify their behavior in order to reach the desired result.

8. Leader Is Synonymous To A Formal And Informal Setup In Contrast, A Manager Is Only Synonymous To A Formal Setup

A leader can be found in both official and informal settings, such as a business organization and a family, friend circle, batch, or other informal group. This is the most important difference between being a leader and a manager. A manager, on the other hand, can only be found in a formal setting, that is, in a commercial organization, regardless of its size, kind, or nature.

[17cafe]

Hiraeth

↠ Asked: ❝hihi! can i request a written scenario of woozi where he and i get in an argument over something he did? angsty but fluffy ending please! you’re the best and i love your works, thank you! ❤❞

↠ Members: Woozi x reader

↠ Genre: angst + fluff, fairy au

↠ Word count: 3000

★ this scenario is, in a way, inspired by the Studio Ghibli movie “When Marnie was There”

click here for part 2

Today it is your birthday. 

You finally grew old enough to be allowed outside. Beyond.

You’ve been outside before, yes, but not beyond the forest of which lies atop your home. Your home as well as the home of all the other fairies you knew. And the leaders of them. One just happened to be your father. Another man worked alongside him, and he was a father as well. To a younger fairy named Woozi, who happened to be your friend.

Woozi was going to replace the position of his father when he would become able to. You could fill the position of your father too, but there were constant comments floating around that you would not be suited for the task; people thought you were too disobedient, when in reality, you’ve never broken any true rules. They just believe you have due to rumors. But, that is another story.

Woozi was one year older than you, and already attempting to prove he could take charge. He received many jobs to do around the underground village. This evening, it was his job to finally take you out, to show you the unknown, to be your guide through it all. 

He was going to show you around the larger world full of mysteries that you have yet to observe for yourself. 

You two had been friends long enough to know that he was much quieter than you. In your case it was as if you had been ecstatic about life itself since you were born. As if you were ecstatic to just be a fairy, regardless of the fact that to your knowing it was the only thing that living beings could be, besides the beings that fairies were friends with. Beings like insects and rodents and bunnies and birds. You knew them from working in the forest above ground.

Now you were passing beyond that. To an opening you only saw from a far off distance before. Scintillating sunlight poked through branches and leaves before, and that was all you had ever known. Now you see it in literal broad daylight. Although, the light itself isn’t as magnificent as it could be; sunset was nearing already.

Everything else though, was magnificent as you had imagined. Everything was so much bigger, so much brighter, so much. This new town felt so full in some way despite it being so spacious and mellow. 

None of the humans Woozi warned you about seemed to be outside. He was thankful, but secretly, you were not. You wanted to meet them. They seemed nice.

He continues flying alongside you over the town as you have been. You slow down as you pass over more buildings, Woozi telling you what each one is called and what it is for. There are many houses that all look the same to you. You wonder how the humans tell the difference between theres, but then realize they would wonder the same about you.

“Do you see that house way over there?”

The huge body of water beneath had your attention, but your head still snapped up when he asked you that question. Thus far you have been the one to point things out first, and now out of the blue he’s doing it too. 

Before answering him though, you ask a question of your own.

“Is this the ocean?” He chuckles.

“No, it’s called a marsh.”

“Like… Marsh-room?” You joke. He chuckles again.

“Not quite. But there are mushrooms right by it, in the forest. You know where. But do you see that house?” He persists with his question and halts, pointing to the house. You try to fly ahead but he holds onto your wrist in order for you to halt as well. 

The sky was only getting darker, and so were the rest of the houses. But this one was just turning all their lights on as it got darker. It entranced you, and something clicked. It was as if a memory was triggered in your mind, but not the entirety of it. Just some small part.

“That over there is the Marsh House. The name makes sense. It’s a house on the marsh.”

He waits for you to chime in some comment, but you’re caught in your daze.

“Uh, it’s the Marsh House. And basically, we aren’t supposed to fly over there. For one, it’s too risky if we fall into the water on the way to it. You know why. But also, there’s too many odd stories about the people who live there. Just don’t get too close to it, okay?” 

He turns around, satisfied with having said all that he needs to say.

“Who lives there?” you ask.

“It doesn’t really matter. We need to get you back, it’s dark already.” 

He starts flying away, back towards the direction of your own home.

“But that house… It looks so familiar,” you whisper. He still manages to hear.

“We can come back tomorrow if you like, but we have to go-” He cuts himself off as he notices you aren’t beside him. He comes back to you, taking your hand in his and begins pulling you along, as you don’t seem to be willing to move yourself. 

“Did you hear what I said, y/n?”

“Yes,” you fib as you turn your head to gaze at the house for longer. You were becoming farther and farther away from it as you relied on Woozi’s guidance back to your town. And although it was a minuscule sight, you could have sworn you saw someone looking back at you too.

You arrived back to your home, and your father thanked Woozi for all that he did. Woozi voiced a plain “it was no problem, any time,” and headed off on his own. It was time for all the fairies to go to bed, so it was understandable.

That was how it worked; everybody went to bed and woke up at the same time each day. Except for the night workers. Woozi was one of them, along with his father. They had their own schedules. The bunnies, too.

You complied with the rules of the place and did all you normally do at night before going to bed. Although, tonight was different. Usually you would be looking forward to a night of rest after a day of work of any sort. But the previous day was spent resting, because it was your special day. 

The day of rest kept your mind awake. That, as well as the house. 

You stayed up late enough to hear the bunnies awake. They started walking around above ground, presumably just checking up on each other before moving on with their “morning.” They were sure moving around a lot. It got louder. 

You snuck outside of your bedroom to see what was going on; you assumed there was some kind of danger. You hurried over to the main tunnel that everybody used to get outside, and just as you did, dirt came pouring down it. The bunnies must have knocked it in. Accident or not, it was an issue.

Woozi was awake of course. It seems like he never sleeps. He came rushing to the tunnel shortly after alongside his dad. You were unsure what to do, so you turned to ask, but you didn’t find the chance before Woozi spoke up.

“I’ll go get the extra tools we have down here,” he said and scurried off to get them. His dad spoke next.

“I’d better go get the night workers to come back down here and fix this.”

“I’ll go with you,” you suggest with no second thoughts. You accompany him through a smaller tunnel that was, thankfully, unharmed. You travel up and out of the underground town and into the forest above, and start calling for the workers as Woozi’s dad does too.

You venture farther away, bit by bit, so it goes unnoticed. Then, when you see your chance, you escape.

You only came outside to get away, to go back to the Marsh House you are still so drawn to. Thankfully, you did what you wanted to, and seamlessly. 

Woozi’s father has gone back inside and now gives directions to the workers. Telling them where to go, what to get, what jobs to do. Woozi takes a break as the actual workers take over, and after handing off his tools to somebody else, leaves to quickly wash up. Then he comes back to help monitor.

He stands beside his dad and helps in answering any questions others have; the commotion woke up nearly everybody. When he found some time in between talking to people, he asked a question of his own, to his father.

“Y/n went outside with you, right?”

“Yes,” his dad replies, amid the many orders he’s giving.

“Then, did y/n come back inside with you?” Woozi asks, looking around, even flying up a little to get a better look at all the people around.

“Yes. Wait- No, no- I don’t know,” his dad mutters. Woozi takes the repeated “no” as his answer and huffs. How unexpected, he thinks to himself sarcastically. He knows where you must have gone, and he was going to come get you.

Before leaving though, he peered into your bedroom just in case you had stayed. But to no surprise, the room was empty. So he headed out. 

Meanwhile, you were flying to the Marsh House. You wanted to get closer and really take a good look around. You had to fly across the marsh first, though, so you did. At one point the water cleared up and the ground was apparent. You decided to fly down and walk across it.

There were still puddles here and there from where the ground seeped down. You gazed into one of them, seeing a baby crab. You had never seen one before. You step closer, but it hurries away from you, so you decide to leave it alone after all.

You wander along, through small patches of tall grass, and soon find yet another puddle of water in front of you. You fly up, over the obstacle, and finally towards the windows of the house. 

Once you’re close enough to touch the glass, you peer inside. None of the rooms are lit up. Everything is dark. Until a voice comes from behind you.

“Who are you?”

You turn around and see a young girl, a young human girl, but no part of you is frightened. You turn to her and fly down to be at her eye level, but are too shy to say much yet, so she continues.

“My name is Marnie, it’s nice to meet you. I think I saw you earlier. Can we be friends?” She smiles a close-mouthed smile so widely that her eyes squint shut. Light falls onto her face and you turn back towards the house, seeing light come through windows one by one.

“I promise to keep this as our little secret,” she adds on to grasp your attention again. 

“Yes, I would love to be friends.”

She reaches out a finger in an evident attempt to shake your hand, but hers are too much larger. You grab her fingertip with your whole hand, and right as your skin touches hers, your whole arm gets jerked back. It felt so rushed, but soon enough, your eyes meet Woozi’s face just inches from yours, and his eyes are directed towards Marnie’s, although he speaks to you.

“We have to get going, y/n. And you-” he begins a sentence directed to Marnie, but stops himself and simply flies away with you, holding onto you tightly as you try wiggling out of his grasp.

He carries you until you are both in the forest again, only a few feet away from the fairy town you hardly miss. His voice comes out cold enough to send shivers through your entire being.

“Showing you beyond the forest was simply meant for showing you, it wasn’t giving you permission to go off gallivanting in the middle of the night. It’s dangerous y/n. You know that.”

His tone even momentarily froze you. But you spoke back.

“I know, I know, but I couldn’t help it-” he cuts you off with a scoff. “Just please don’t tell anybody. Don’t make this bigger than it needs to be. And please don’t tell my father. You know how he is…”

He truly finds nothing to say back to you, but would never admit it. 

Without another words, he flies off, and he’s out of sight in seconds, back underground with everybody else. He sees your father darting around looking for you, and knowing Woozi had just gone out, he goes to him.

“Woozi, have you seen y/n? Have you seen-”

“Yeah.” 

You hear his response. No hesitance was even there.

Woozi responded without thought, but after even saying the lone word, he caught himself. He tried walking away, but your father persisted on a further answer.

“Where is y/n? Where? Woozi, you must answer to me. Don’t you know who I am?”

And he gave the further answer.

“Out at the Marsh House, talking to Marnie. But I brought them back.” 

A weight falls in your chest as you hear that. How could he-?

Your father tenses up, initially in surprise but then in anger and fear, dreading that you were talking to a human. 

You try sneaking back in despite being aware of the risk you are taking. Many people are still awake after the earlier incident, so you believe you could go in unnoticed. But you should have known it was a night full of the world going against you. He saw you. And he pulled you aside just as Woozi did. Far enough from others that they may only hear indistinct mumbles.

“Dad-”

“I can not stand this behaviour of yours. The people here call you loud and complain, and you do nothing to fix yourself. Even after years. Then, just when you reach the age to be allowed outside, you abuse that privilege. And don’t even bother trying to blame this on Woozi, this is your own doing. Before you blame this on him, saying he should have been watching you, look at yourself. No control.” 

Tears begin to well up in your eyes. You manage to retort to him for once though. For the first time.

“How dare you talk to me like this? I’m your child.”

“How dare you call yourself my child at a time like this?”

You ripped your arm out of his grasp and rushed away as fast as possible. The tears that had welled up were overflowing now, down your cheeks and falling to the floor. You were in the process of storming back outside, but you saw Woozi in your blurred vision. You went up to him.

“You told him, didn’t you? How could you tell my father what happened? Just like that, without a second thought? You know how he is, you know how strict he is. It hurts, you know. What he says when I disobey.” You pause.

“Oh who am i kidding, you must have no idea.”

You back up and give him one last look and storm away, even as your father shouts a demand that you stay. You made your way outside and of course, headed back to the same house as before. Your father gives a demand to Woozi this time.

“I’m putting it on you to make sure they don’t go back there. Got it? If they go inside, you know that place better than anyone. Just get y/n back here.” Woozi nods and leaves immediately, making his way to you.

He sees you in the distance, flying slowly. Rather than catching up to you, he decides to give you the space you need. He keeps his distance back from you and just watches you.

He follows until you sit on the windowsill of the girl’s bedroom. He hides around the corner as she opens up the window.

“Oh- Oh you’re back! Wait, are you crying?” She notices your tears almost immediately and offers you a tissue. Of course it is much too big for you, so she rips off a corner, and you take that instead. As you wipe your cheeks dry, you hear a thumping.

“What is that?”

“Oh no, that’s my grandmother coming up the stairs, I’ll be right back. Wait here okay?” She closes the window and heads off, and you can hear a new voice in moments. Not the words the voice forms, though.

Woozi takes this as his chance to come to you. He sits beside you. You tell him to leave.

“I’m not going back. Not tonight,” you inform him. He ignores your words for the time being.

“Why do you like this house so much?” 

His question catches you off guard. You expected him to be intolerant of you still. Rather, he was interested.

You sniffle and wipe your tears away a minute longer until you finally respond.

“I told you, it looks familiar.”

“And?” He knows there must be more to it.

“And Marnie, she looks- No, she feels familiar. I don’t know what it is, Woozi. I don’t know.” You pause. “I feel like I belong here more than anywhere else.”

“But you barely know this place,” he points out.

“But I feel it.”

He nods and speaks only in his head, to himself. “I get it. I’m surprised you feel it too.”

No more words are spoken as you both sit together on the windowsill, looking over the water and up at the stars. The moon is shining bright. You whisper a question after minutes of silence.

“My father sent you to bring me back, didn’t he?”

He nods.

“But you don’t have to worry. We can stay here as long as you want tonight. I can make up a story. Just keep looking at the stars.” He shuffles closer and puts his arm around you in an odd attempt to comfort you.

“As long as I want?”

You knew he was only saying the words in order to relax you, but you took them fully, thinking of staying here a whole year longer. You liked it outside.

[scripttorture]

How much do you know about torture apologia at a government level? Like people who are actually paid to torture terrorist? I feel like that is a government-approved thing unless I’m mistaken. How can they not see they’re getting no information or just plain wrong information? And these ‘professionals’ are hiding their mental health problems? Or is the FBI torturing terrorists for information not as real as we are lead to believe? I’ve got a story idea about a victim mistakenly accused.

Thisis a pretty broad question. And it also sounds like it’s trying tostart a debate over getting writing advice. I’m going to give itthe benefit of the doubt and take it at face value as a writingquestion.

Ithink the short answer is essentially: read Rejali. He covers this inconsiderable depth, it’s the last third of his book. I’ll do mybest to summarise his points but I can’t produce 300+ pages ofevidence plus sources on a blog like this.

O’Maraalso talks about it a fair bit and Cobain’s entire book is aboutthe links between torture and the British government. Granted Cobaindoesn’t know a thing about torture but the pattern of legalwrangling and political apathy he records is incredibly valuable.

Thereare a couple of points I think are important going forward.

Thefirst is that although information is often the justification givenfor torture it’s rarely the point.

Somethingcan be justified, ignored or tolerated in someparts of a government and stringently punished in other areas.

Inlarge enough organisations leaders can be genuinely unaware what somemembers are doing.

Sogiven those points let’s start with the second question becauseit’s easiest.

Inmodern democracies people are notpaid to torture. That is not their official role. They are hired asguards, soldiers, teachers, care takers, nurses, doctors, police anda handful of other professions.

Thatis they are being paid for.And it’s not what they’re doing.

Whetherwhat they’re actually doing (torture) is condoned by anyone furtherup the chain of command then their immediate superiors is reallydependant on the circumstances. And very difficult to prove.

Governmentapproval of torture in modern states rarelylooks like top officials saying ‘We torture people!’

Here’sthe kind of phrasing it looks like instead:

‘These particular set of abuses are not torture because-’

‘This isn’t really painful’

False equivalence such as ‘Well I diet voluntarily so starving someone can’t be harmful’

Outright denial ‘Our troops could never do that!’

Ouright denial Part 2 ‘Well no one told us that was happening!’

Shifting the blame ‘Those people are lying to get into the country/get money/get attention etc-’

Shifting the blame Part 2 ‘Those people deserve it because they’re mentally ill/an ethnic minority/poor/violent/look like trouble etc-’

‘Obviously we don’t torture people but we should because it would work!’

‘We need strong measures in these desperate times!’

The sort of political/cultural outlook that links efficiency to ‘toughness’ and sees kindness and compromise as weak

Tortureapologia on the government level thrives on plausible deniability andredefining terms until they’re unrecognisable.

Forthe purposes of your story I think you’d probably be better offstepping back from the FBI.

WhatI mean by that is- if you’ve been looking for sources specificto the FBI that’s why you’re so confused. Those sources arepoorly collated, poorly studied and (personal opinion) deliberatelyconfusing.

Awellstudiedwell recorded example of torture as unofficial-government-policywould be the Franco-Algerian war. And this is alsobeset by confusion because a lotof the sources from the French side were written by torturers tojustify their actions after the event.

Onceagain I’d recommend reading Rejali and for greater context on whathe says Alleg’s TheQuestionand Fanon’s appendices to TheWretched of the Earth.

Yestorture continues because of governmental positions. But that doesn’tnecessarily mean outright orders to torture.

Itcan mean a lack of political will to eradicate torture, ie no one islooking for it. It can mean officials being aware of torture andchoosing to ignore it.

Myimpression is that apathyrather than malice at the top levels is the key. In the worst cases,yes there was outright malice from some individuals within a largergovernment. But it’s the apathy of the majority that allowed forabuse.

Governmentapproval doesn’tlook like a high level official ordering troops to torture.

Itlooks like the state Governor seeing that most of the police in theirstate probably use torture and sitting down to do this calculation:‘Am I more electable next year if I try to tackle this or if Iignore it?’

Italso looks like a Commissioner seeing that a person arrested for anemotive crime like terrorism has been complaining of ill-treatmentand doing this calculation: ‘Do I look better in the public eye ifI seem like I’m standing up for a person from a hated minority whois accused of doing something awful?’

WhatI’m driving at here is that- the reality is a lot more nebulousthen what you seem to be thinking of. Tacit acceptance, differentpriorities, cowardice- are all much more likely then the kind ofscenario where the elites explicitly order abuse.

Ithink I should move on to the third question which is just as tricky,before I get bogged down in labouring the point.

Howdo organisations not realise the information they get from torture iswrong?

Theshort answer is that by using torture they destroy the systems thatallow them to double check information. Because they can’t doublecheck anything they don’t realise that they’re working withincorrect information.

Iwilltell you how that happens but let’s have an analogy first to giveyou an idea of how skewed this makes the base information.

Imagineyou’re looking for information on the internet about something youhaven’t seen but you can’t use wikipedia, any popular searchengines or any official sites. You are going entirelyby searching tumblr. And you can only access the first piece ofinformation that comes up with any tag you search.

Picka popular fandom and imagine the kind of screwed up view you’d getof a character if you tried to find information about them like this.I am picturing the Flash fandom and Captain Cold and imagining justhow easy it would be to walk away with the impression that thecharacter was a main character not a bit part.

Nowlet me show you how including torture in an investigation is theequivalent of blocking yourself from everything but a hellsite with abroken search algorithm.

Sothe first thing to appreciate is that torture breakstrustwith the public. If torture is common place then no matter how‘secret’ an organisation tries to keep it the groups who areeffected find out.

Wenotice when people around us go missing. We pay attention when thereare stories of people ‘like us’ being hurt.

Andwe lose trust in authority. We stop reporting crimes. We stopvolunteering information.

Whichcuts an organisation off from the mainsource of accurate information they can get: voluntary reporting bymembers of the public.

Wedon’t report strange things our family or friends have done if wethink it might get them tortured. We don’t mention that we saw atall ginger man leave a back pack on that street near where the bombwent off.

Frompersonal experience- sometimes you stop reporting things even whenyou’re completely outside the context that taught you organisationscan’t be trusted. I’ve been assaulted in the UK and genuinely didnot consider calling the police. Because I learnt young that policeexist to ‘make people disappear’ and the habit is hard to break.

Thesecond point is that torture produces a lotof lies and human beings generally are terrible at telling whensomeone is lying.

Sotorturers don’t have access to the biggest source of accurateinformation but they dohear a lot of lies.

Thethird point is that when torture becomes part of an organisation thenpeople spend lesstimeconducting genuine investigations and fact checking.

Torturerstend to be pretty arrogant and they usually report looking down onpeople in their organisation who don’ttorture. Basically they seeing doing the hard work of a genuineinvestigation as boring and beneath them.

Thisworks togetherwith the first two factors to make it almost impossible to fact checkthings.

Imaginea group of 50 people tasked with investigating a particular incident.Five of them are torturers, so they’re not actually investigatinganything. This takes our number down to 45.

Thenwe remember that the torturers are generating information, even ifit’s false. Which the other members are investigating.

Let’sgo with low estimates. Let’s suggest each torturer has one victim aday (this is unlikely, real numbers are probably much higher) and outof those they get an average of two ‘possible leads’ each day(this would vary a lot, some victims would say nothing, some mightthrow out as many as twenty names in a day). Let’s also pretendthat a potential lead can be investigated by one person (this isinaccurate, I’d generally expect at least 2-3 people for each new‘lead’.).

We’vejust got rid of ten more people on the first day.

Let’spretend that it takes three days to investigate a lead. This is alsoa very low estimate, properly following up a lead can take weeks.

Withour low-estimate fictional organisation we’ve reduced the amount ofpeople doing useful work to 15 in the first three days.

Fifteenpeople trying to do the work of 50, while the torturers keepgenerating lies that are wasting the time of everyone else.

Thiscripples the organisation’s ability to work as all the time andenergy is going into investigating lies.

Andwhilethis is going on the torturers are still torturing. And they’reassumingthat their information is correct.

Sothey’re generating morelies that supportthe previous lies.

Letme give an example of what I mean.

Saya torturer takes in a random person. This first victim knows nothingabout the terrorist group but if they don’t give a name thenthey’re going to keep being tortured.

Sothey tell the torturer Wednesday Adams is definitely the leader ofthe terrorists in this area.

Nowa genuine investigator is wasting time looking for Wednesday Adams.May be they come back in a week and say that no such person exists.

Bythat point the torturer has been asking a lot of people aboutWednesday Adams. And some of them will have sworn they saw WednesdayAdams, that Wednesday Adams was behind that attack and that she haslinks to this other organisation and also that thing I saw on thenews once and- So on.

Itspirals.

Maybe it gets to the point where the torturer finally accepts there’sno ‘Wednesday Adams’ on the census. But by that point they’vestacked a lot of their personal reputation on the existence of thisshadowy leader.

Sorather than admit they’re just wrong, they assume ‘WednesdayAdams’ is a pseudonym and now they’re asking everyone what herreal name is. Now they have six different possible ‘realidentities’ for Wednesday Adams.

Andthis is how organisations can fail to notice that torture doesn’twork.

Becausethe scale of misinformation is just so huge. Because the amount oftime it takes to provethe information is wrong gives the torturers more time to embellishthe lie.

Becausesuperiors who are genuinely unaware torture is going on in theirorganisations might well look at this torturer, who keeps coming upwith new information, and these ten genuine investigators who comeback with nothing but dead ends, and decide that the tortureris the only one ‘getting things done’.

Itdoesn’t matter that they’re wrong. Because it takes months,years, to prove that they areand everyone in these organisations is under huge pressure to haveanswers now.

OKlet’s move on to question four; mental health problems intorturers.

Firstoff, I have yet to meet a mentally ill person who hasn’ttried to hide their mental health problems at some point. The worldis not very accepting of mental health problems whatever the context.The pressure to hide them is immense. In some places people are atreal risk of violence and abuse if their mental health problems arenoticed as mental health problems.

Inthat context- it isn’t surprising that torturers do try to hidetheir symptoms.

Thetoxic sub-culture torturers tend to produce is- It’s incrediblymacho. It tends to rely on ideas about how the torturers are ‘toughand strong’. It equates violence and lack of mercy with strength.

Itviews mental illness as weak.

Andbecause the people within these groups are violent, because they havea tendency to turn on each other, there’s a huge pressure to hidemental health problems. That’s way before you bring the widerorganisation into the picture.

Manyof the organisations torturers are typically part of actively try toscreen out mentally ill people. Being obviously mentally ill can meanlosing the job.

SoI don’tthink it’s particularly unusual that torturers try to hide mentalhealth problems.

Howsuccessfulthey are at hiding them is a different question and it’s difficultto answer.

Becausea lot of people are moved or dismissed on mental health grounds andthis does notmean they were involved in anything abusive.

Tortureis difficult to prove. Most torturers are not charged. Their crimesare not recorded as part of their record. They are not hired astorturers.

Accordingto the WHO around 10% of the global population has a mental health problem.

Howdo you tell the difference between the people who are just mentallyill, the people who developed mental illnesses because of ‘ordinary’job stress and the people who developed mental illnesses because theyabused others?

Withoutaccurate, fair recording of torture accusations itis impossible to tell.

Personally?I think it’s highly likely that a lot of torturers can’t hidetheir mental health problems well. That they reach a point and have abreakdown on the job. Then they lose their job.

Butall of that can happen with no record of abuse.

Weneed more research on torturers. Desperately.

Andanswering these questions about the circumstances around how peoplestop is incredibly important. It can help us spot them, it can helpus spot people who might be targeted for recruitment by torturers. Itcan help us stop torture.

Andright now there are frustratingly few answers.

Whichleaves the final question- Are the FBI torturers?

Honestly-I have no idea. I am not particularly interested in America orAmerican history. I am not American. I do not go out of my way toread things about the FBI and could tell you very little about whatthey do.

WhatI can tell you is that organisations likethe FBI have usually tortured at some point in their history. Thatglobally the United States has developed a reputation for doublestandards.

ButI can not make a definitive statement on a group I know next tonothing about.

Inorganisations likethe FBI iftorture is going on it’s often not in the entire organisation. Itis often particular branches, particular units, particular areasrather than the whole country-wide organisation.

It’seasy to make broad statements like ‘the Chicago police torturedpeople in 70s’. And that’s not untrue.

Butif we’re being specificit would be more accurate to say ‘there was a cell of torturersoperating within the Chicago police force in the 70s and the widergroup failed to stop them.’

Wasthe entire Chicago police force responsible for the abuses? I wouldsay yesbecause it was literally their job to stop these abuses and they didnot. However they were notall torturers. They were not all actively engaged in torture and Ithink it’s extremely likely that many people at the time simplydidn’t realise what was going on.

Incompetence,not necessarily active abuse.

I’vewritten an awful lot. It should be a start at answering some of yourquestions. But all of these questions are complex and difficult.

Idon’t think, in this case, you can take my answer as a substitutefor wider reading.

Onceagain, Rejali.O’Maraas well.

Allegfor the survivor’s perspective on what both describe.

Cobain,to be taken with a pinch of salt and read afterRejali because Cobain is not a scientist and falls for apologia quitea lot.

You’vechosen to tackle a story that’s going to be a lot of work. Try notto be discouraged by that.

Theseare important stories. And they deserve to be told properly.

Ihope that helps. :)

Edited for typos

Edit 2: @dude1818 That is really not funny and I don’t appreciate you trying to turn discussion of a serious crime into a joke. 

I’m aware of the formatting problem and I’ve been trying to fix it for some time. I’m going to try another fix this week but I can’t actually test whether any of my attempts work because I don’t have a mobile phone. 

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Disclaimer

[dent-de-leon]

Hey there Leo, if it's okay with you, I wanted to ask about your thoughts on that bedroom scene. I don't know why it just doesn't sit well with me- it's just that to me keith seems too reserved and... sad... not relieved or open until the very end when the "as many times as it takes line happens". Maybe it's just me because I guess I expected a more im-so-relieved-youre-alive-hug scenario? something just felt off about that entire exchange and I can't point my finger at what.

I think a good way to read shiro’s bedroom scene is to compare it with Lance’s scene in Keith’s room. Because the fact that we get one almost right after the other is definitely intentional, and on some subconscious level, I think you’re meant to compare the two. It’s even a case of two former paladins talking with their lion’s successor. And while Lance’s talk with Keith is kinda touching and it’s really nice to see the two of them opening up more, I still think it has a distinctly different vibe from Kuron and Keith’s. 

For one thing, we start off outside in the hall. This is different from Lance’s scene, where we begin in Keith’s room and see the new red paladin just walk in. In the case of the latter, we feel like we belong there. However, with the former, we feel more like an outsider looking in. We hear just snippets of their talk at first, like we’re listening in on a private conversation, a fact that accentuates just how intimate and personal this scene is. It’s like the viewer is uninvited and these words are just meant for Keith and “Shiro.”

When we finally do see someone, it’s this extreme closeup of Kuron. This really highlights how downcast and drained he looks, how his hair is all long and matted and unkempt, how exhausted and defeated he is. There’s no closeup like this with Keith and Lance’s scene, a fact that really makes this shot stand out. It’s a sign that Keith and Kuron are more intimately familiar with one another. 

Another thing–in the later scene, when Lance walks in, he has to kind of give a reason why. Keith even points out it’s a surprise to see him stop by–“Must really be bothering you if you’re coming to talk to me.” This is not something that happens usually. And yet, Keith’s talk with Kuron bypasses this part completely. There’s no equivalent to Lance awkwardly knocking and trying to start up a conversation with Keith, because these two are already on a level where having quiet talks with one another is the norm. Because honestly, seeing Keith in “Shiro’s” room during his recovery is just something you’d expect. It’s not something surprisingly uncharacteristic or a shift in dynamic, so there really doesn’t need to be any explicit reason for it. 

Now, I’m certain that Keith’s place in the first scene is equal to Lance’s in the second. And likewise, Kuron’s role in the conversation is taken by Keith later on. So, let’s compare them. Keith removes his jacket before Lance stops by, and that doesn’t seem like much. But visually, we can see he’s kind of being more casual and open. He’s also wearing black instead of red, which equates to Lance seeing him as the leader–and by extension, the black paladin. But, that being said, everyone’s seen Keith without his jacket before. In contrast, Kuron is dressed down in an undershirt that makes him seem a lot more bare and vulnerable, because no one else has seen him when he wasn’t completely put together. 

Similarly, Kuron still looks disheveled and haggard. He doesn’t feel the need to cut his hair or shave in front of Keith, has no reason to keep up appearances the way he does with the other paladins. Around each other, they can just be themselves. This is emphasized by the fact that Kuron is still lying in bed, and remains painfully honest with Keith about his condition. He says, “I’ll try,” instead of some comforting lie like, “I’ll be fine.” He’s in a position of weakness, And Keith is noticeably standing above him. This makes Kuron look especially down and defeated, and added to that that Keith is put in the role of his caretaker, his protector–clearly, the lines between successor and mentor are very blurred. 

Typically, Keith’s position could be seen as having power over someone, as being some kind of aggressor. And yet, he’s taken on the role of Kuron’s guardian, his knight in shining armor. We can glean from Keith mentioning that the others would love to see him that so far they have not, that only Keith has been allowed in Shiro’s bedroom during this delicate time. That he’s the one who not only rescued him but is taking care of him, is staying at his bedside. There’s an intimacy here that’s quite rare. Kuron has really had it rough, but he still doesn’t hold himself back in front of Keith, doesn’t try to maintain a facade. He can allow himself to be exposed and fragile and he knows Keith would never take that trust and shatter it. 

Now, let’s compare that to Lance’s scene. Right away, a different dynamic is established. They’re both standing on equal ground, but still noticeably closed off and distant at first. There’s an uncomfortableness, an unfamiliarity to their interactions that you don’t get in the previous scene. Kuron lying down in bed with Keith standing over him undoubtably puts him in a more vulnerable position. But he’s okay with that because this is Keith, and Kuron trusts him to see this side of him. In comparison to that, Lance and Keith both seem very guarded around each other. Their walls aren’t down the way Kuron and Keith’s are. 

The tone is also very different. Keith and Lance, while discussing Lance’s insecurities, manage to still inject humor into the scene. For instance, the little thing Lance does where he adds his right index finger and then instead of taking away that finger he just fucking??? removes the pinky from his left hand?? And lmao it just like looks so out of place and silly and it’s really endearing and cute and I love it?? Like, little visual cues like that help to put the viewer more at ease. Lance’s expression is also gold. They’re covering a meaningful topic here, but they do it in a way where it doesn’t feel too heavy. 

Now, real quick let’s talk lighting. Kuron’s room is darkly lit, and everything is bathed in this abysmal, dark green hue. It doesn’t feel normal or comforting, it’s like…nervous anticipation. Like something here is very wrong and both Keith and Kuron are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. But again, this is a quiet, completely serious, bleeding open heart to heart in a dark lit bedroom. That feels way more revealing and intimate than two friends talking in a brightly lit, more casual atmosphere. There’s no sense of intensity, heartbreakingly overwhelming emotion, or overhanging danger with Keith and Lance. It’s two friends just having an honest talk and trying to help each other out. 

Also, the point of Lance’s talk is very different from Keith’s. Lance goes to Keith to talk about himself, to express his inferiority and do what he thinks is best for the team. So yes, he does this because he cares about the team. But this doesn’t manifest as “Hey, I know things have been rough lately, and we just got Shiro back and he seems really hurt–are you guys doing okay?” it’s “So, maybe the best thing I can do for the team is step aside.” Lance is a good kid and his heart’s in the right place, but at the same time, I think he kind of assumes everything is his fault somehow. So he’s being very understanding and trying to do something selfless, but really, this is more so about his own problem than Keith’s. 

Now, compare that to Keith, who’s asking Kuron how he’s doing, how he’s feeling, what the hell happened? Lance talks to Keith because he’s worried about the rest of the team, and is so wrapped up in his own insecurities he tries to take the blame for everything and reflects it all back on him. Keith in contrast, never makes the conversation about himself, and focuses completely on Shiro’s wants and needs, on trying to reassure him–something that Keith also does for Lance instead of the other way around. Now, this doesn’t make either Lance or Keith better or more caring than the other. It just means that the focuses of these two talks are very different with very diverging outcomes. Likewise, you can tell that Kuron and Keith are a lot closer by their conversation. It’s easy for the two to open up and reach out to one another. Keith’s heart also goes out to “Shiro” in a way that you just don’t really get from his interactions with Lance. 

Now, let’s talk about the end of both scenes. Because even then, there’s another parallel. Right when Keith is about to leave, we know Kuron calls him back. Similarly, Keith does the same with Lance. And then? Both Kuron and Keith make a kind of joke that’s meant to put the other person at ease. In the case of Keith, this is especially interesting, because Kuron’s just done this for him. So, when he sees things might end on a bad note, what does he do? Take a page out of Kuron’s book and try to cheer Lance up with a little joke. Now, that being said–while we know it makes Lance smile, there’s nothing that really grabs you about “Leave the math to Pidge,” in the way that “How many times are you gonna save me before this is over?” does. Again, Kuron’s talk with Keith is heavy. Even the humor is somewhat dark and foreboding. 

Of course, it’s also very deep and heartfelt. Kuron might not be Shiro, but he has a lot of Shiro’s memories. He remembers Keith always being there for him, remembers Keith rushing in to save him, remembers the overwhelming relief when Keith promises that he’ll be alright, that everything will be okay–that he’ll make it, that nothing’s going to happen to him. It’s incredibly sweet and heart-wrenching. And again, rather than feeling like something you’d hear about someone’s bro, this brings to mind a fairytale romance. Shiro teasing Keith about being his brave knight and always running in to save him. And Keith’s promise that he’ll rescue Shiro “as many times as it takes,” while looking back at Shiro with a smile so warm and fond and completely confident in their happy ending? Yeah, there’s just an aching tenderness to this scene that you don’t usually see. And it certainly feels more in line with something you’d expect from Shiro’s love interest. Regardless of intent, this scene really does read as romantic. 

There’s also the fact that, when Keith makes his promise to Kuron, he’s stepping out of the darkness and into the light. Kuron might be left behind there in the “dark,” but Keith is still shown as the person that can bring him back out into the “light.”