What’s the beef between Voltaire and Rousseau? I follow this person who pretends they’re Rousseau and they shit on Voltaire every other day…I’m so curious what is the lore 👀👀
Hi, first of all thanks for the ask! There's a lot going on, but I think it's quite entertaining, so if you have some time to spare to learn about a beef between two colourful characters from centuries ago, strap in!
(Also just decided I'll make two posts because there's so much to get into. Sincerely sorry, brevity has never been my strong suit.)
The genius leads Voltaire and Rousseau to the Temple of Fame and Immortality (from French Revolution period)
PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES (aka let's get the basics out of the way first)
I know that a lot of people (myself certainly included!) are mostly there to discuss the juicier stuff, but I think an overview of their general outlook on life is still important, if only to better understand the drama that went down between them.
This will of course be a gross oversimplification of quite complex philosophical problems. (I can almost sense my lecturers shaking their heads as I'm typing this.) Nonetheless -
The simplest way to describe their differences of opinion is that Voltaire championed reason and logic while Rousseau’s philosophy focused much more on feelings. (His personal life was like that as well. JJ prided himself in being in touch with his feelings, which I’m all here for, but sometimes it does really feel like he’s crying in the woods on literally every other page). Another key difference in their general worldview would be Rousseau’s optimism contrasted with Voltaire’s pessimism (probably best exemplified in Candide).
Voltaire essentially believed that human Reason, along with all the rapid advances in sciences and arts overseen by the 18th century would lead to a better life and a better society. Rousseau, on the other hand, in his famous essay First Discourse on Arts and Sciences that skyrocketed his career as a philosopher basically argues that people were originally good in their 'natural state' and it is the artifice of society that corrupted them and rendered them unhappy.
2. PERSONAL AND LIFESTYLE DIFFERENCES
This then very much ties into the differences between the two philosophers as people.
From Paris. Shout out to my friends who waited for me for five minutes before I got a decent angle.
Rousseau saw himself as a champion of the simple, humble life. In a personal letter to Voltaire, he claimed that the fact V spends his life surrounded by opulence, luxury, and insincere manners of the upper-classes is the precise cause of his misery. V in turn though that both Rousseau’s views and he as a person are a bit ridiculous. (Honestly? Fair. Lot of people did, especially among the upper-classes and 'men of letters' - a lot of which were former Rousseau's friends as well before he decided to go full cottagecore).
3. THE BEEF PART 1: THE (MOSTLY) GOOD
Voltaire contacted Rousseau after he read his famous essay The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men in 1755. The letter itself is far from just patting Rousseau on the back. Voltaire does defend the arts, the sciences, and the human progress in general against Rousseau's criticism. I'm including this quote from it since it illustrates the typical banter of V that nonetheless has teeth:
as well as this quote (mostly because I think it's a banger line):
Letters support, refine, and comfort the soul: they are serving you, sir, at the very moment you decry them: you are like Achilles declaiming against fame (...)
Nonetheless, the tone of the letter is overall quite amiable. To me, it reads as playful criticism - critical, sure, but no open hostility at this point. He even invites Rousseau to come visit him at the end:
M. Chappus tells me your health is very unsatisfactory: you must come and recover here in your native place, enjoy its freedom, drink (with me) the milk of its cows, and browse on its grass.
[1/2] to be continued...
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If you take over SSE, what would be your first changes that you make? Like immediate things you want to do?
And what’d be your long term goal, how would you achieve it?
- ro-sso
this is the best ask ever thank u but u might not be prepared for this essay........ sorry :3
first off id need to find out exactly who are the current ppl for game director, art director, etc direction positions, and who of them are making the crazy decisions. is it directors and managers, is it the CEO, etc. ofc there might be many parts in this chain from an uncaring CEO down to a confused director down to a struggling game designer down to a coder/writer/artist that doesnt get enough time and resources, like, i understand its a complex chain but that doesnt change the fact that someone (or several) have been fucking shit up for all of sse's history. so i would do a lot of talking to staff respectfully and finding out whats really been going on in the chain, and who is not working in the best interest of the game's quality and the company's stability. map out where in the company theres the most and least problems.
(this to me is easy, im analytical and resistant to lies and manipulation as a person. i see through shit very easily and i have a long history of self-studying and analysing stuff related to running companies and making games, since thats my life goal... so to some ppl it might sound like "thats harder than you think" bc theyre just not me. some ppl arent passionate about running good healthy ethical game companies - i am!)
sse clearly has basically never had good directors with good direction, or if they did, those werent given enough power and resources. they shouldnt have been changing artstyle several times, they shouldnt have been abandoning storylines and areas, they shouldnt have been ignoring bugs in general, they shouldnt have been ignoring bugs and cheats in racing and champs, etc. so, its very important to get a good game director, art director, and so on, in place, whether its an existing staff member who just needs more power and resources, or its someone new who is a good fit.
then ofc take a look at all staff hired and see what everyone is there for. after the layoffs im not sure if they have many passive workers left but id get an overview and do some interviews w staff to find out how the efficiency situation is and if more/less ppl are needed in diff areas to actually pay ppl to work on the game itself. (as an example mb u need one less social media person and one more programmer, one less team manager consultant or other middleclass word salad jobs... etc.)
then overview of salary differences. this is a huge point to me. was the CEO that im assumably taking the job from, earning a lot more than everyone else a month? then thats not happening anymore. all salaries within the company would become more balanced, setting in place a system where the minimum salary and max salary at the company are tied together in a ratio so that to raise the top u must also raise the bottom. this will instantly lower much of the top and assumably raise some at the bottom (how much, i dont know from the outside). this ratio system would be clearly outlined and from now on a pillar of the company's structure. also, check that skilled senior staff has appropriate pay for their experience, etc, make sure salaries seem fair.
along with this ofc a good overview of costs, loans, earnings, the current office and all of this to know the situation. i think thats obvious but ill say it anyway to be clear. have a complete grasp of the economic situation, talk to the economics staff.
with staff interviews and salary checkups it would also be relevant to see if theres any gold star workers who should shift up in positions, for example a very good animator could become lead animator, stuff like this. sse has already done things like this fairly often (sometimes maybe not with the right people) so im not too worried about it but i would do another check. also just general talk w staff to find out who has hidden potential that might not be getting used. (i want to know my workers and be able to help them shine, this is good both for the workers, the work environment, and the company results.)
at this point, we should have balanced out some of the leaking money at the top (and hopefully made a few leeches jump ship while at it), boosted the happiness within the company (balanced salaries etc), and have a great overview of whats going on from the more economic and hierarchy standpoint. we should have gotten rid of some potential leeching staff that didnt actually help create a good product and run a healthy, ethical company, and we might have gotten new people in positions where we needed more skills (direction, programming, whatnot). compared to sse's 10+ years of being a chaotic mess, the company structure should look pretty good now, even if not perfect.
i would have a lot of talk with the directors and team leaders and senior staff to make sure everyone is on the same page from now on: we are making a good quality game, we are being consistent, we are not adding new random shit just bc ooh shiny or cashgrabs, we are going to impress the players and make them feel "oh god, finally sso is consistent and living up to its potential". everyone at the company needs to understand this goal and why the loyal players are disappointed with the game. there will still be new horses and item recolors etc ofc, we do need a certain degree of "ooh shiny" from the player side of things (hopefully good gameplay and good stories would also be ooh shiny though), but there needs to be a new focus on the Actual core and Actual pillars of the game, which sse failed to do bc they have bad direction.
most likely, we would change the weekly update into bi-weekly or monthly, maybe starting with bi-weekly to test the waters. in order to deliver a good quality main storyline and also good quality stories and updates to tie up loose ends, there needs to be enough time to do that. there would be very solid goals on the cadence at which major updates are released and no long stretches of time without main story, and no long stretches without other significant updates.
an important part of that is also the seasonal events - i think the 4 seasons of events is a good thing, but they need to be properly bug fixed and have some design and writing improvements, one new fun (more challenging) race for each of them, etc. so hopefully we can afford enough staff that we have a few ppl working on updating and finalising the 4 seasonal events to their more or less final form.
each seasonal event needs to have a cool and challenging race (similar to cloud kingdom rainbow race or some other recent races) that HAS A HIGHSCORE BOARD. this is a key thing to me. all event races should have highscore boards (and some crappy event races may be removed, or combined into a better version of all of them together). *everyone* playing would be able to just better their own score for a generic gold/silver/bronze score, which gives specific rewards for reaching the medal score on the event race(s), and those who are at the top of the leaderboard among everyone, would get a non-exclusive prize, like 1000js. its not a huge win - not to encourage cheating to get to the top - and mostly based in the existing "daily best" system. it would still encourage players to actually try their best at the event races and feel like there's some stakes in it. (active human moderation of suspicious race results is also necessary - we should be able to afford that now.) i also think, if someone has won the daily best, they should then not be able to get the daily best for at least another week, leaving place for other people... but this becomes a problem with alt accounts, so it needs more consideration, i dont have the full answer to that yet.
also, all the tack and clothes need a stats overhaul. the random top stats we currently have are stupid and they seem like they just didnt think about this at all. this is partially a dress up game, so you need to be able to dress up cute and still have top stats and be able to win champs. if possible, i would set staff to work on letting you upgrade any piece of equipment to max stats (which would be something like 5-10 in each stat i guess). this system might require starcoins to upgrade - a way for the company to earn money from cosmetic changes, that seems fair enough to me. (maybe there would be a way to pay with shillings and collectables, but just an easier way to pay with sc, it would be considered.)
we'd also need to sit down and take a good look at what all horses stats are, which horses seem to be boosted or nerfed in races for no reason, and make sure all horses at least function fairly and as intended. after that, to consider whether you should be able to train all horses to have the same max stats, or if we want to keep breeds unique and different, then those differences should also be well thought out and actually matter. right now, and for a long time, some horses are just better at races than others (pintabian, etc), and some (ardennes) seem to be shit for no real reason (other draft horses dont necessarily have the same problem). so it needs to be properly looked at and fixed so all horses at least have good reasons to be different, if they are different at all, and no bugs or unintended boosts and nerfs. horse stats should make sense for gameplay.
all the champs need to get their updated forms, so i also hope we could afford enough staff to have a few ppl working on updating the champs consistently until thats done. i do think a lot of sso's races also should be overhauled, because racing is the main gameplay we actually have (collecting light in hollow woods is not challenging and not really gameplay) and it should be satisfying, fun, and challenging, like playing a mariokart race (that doesnt mean it should play *like* a mariokart race, just that it needs to be fun). the highscore boards and the gold/silver/bronze medal systems are really, really neglected assets of sso's player motivation. if getting a gold medal score on a race was consistently actually difficult and required practice, and getting that gold medal also gave you a good reward (shillings, items) that motivated you to aim for it, then players might actually have fun challenging themselves for higher scores! the same goes for daily best / etc scores that should be looked into, what rewards they give, etc.
also, there should be a ban on adding any new npcs to the game if theyre not extremely necessary. sse has been adding new npcs left and right all the time, and it just clogs the game with random irrelevant characters that dont add anything to the game, it takes time and resources to make their model, give them a name, write their dialogue, and so on. instead, focus all that energy on actual relevant npcs and ones that players want to talk to and find out more about, hear their storylines, etc, and let races be handled with either existing npcs or with new and improved highscore board objects (make it obvious you click them to start the race).
of course, the art style of sso should never again change. art direction from now on is consistent and solid with an art director who understands their job, lead artists and lead animators who 100% understand what the goals are. directors who make sure that the quality of art, design, animation are up to the standards of the style we are using, that things fit together in the game. new models should not actually be "better" than the old ones - you end up in a destructive cycle where the art keeps changing. the style should be consistent with only relatively minor refinements over time. so, the art directors and leads need to make sure the style continues to be consistent, and update things that need to be. (im not sure how many areas of sso should really get the complete overhauls like silverglade village anymore - at some point you're also wasting resources on something less important than the gameplay and story, but some areas also look really outdated, so careful consideration needs to go into which areas to update and *how* to update them. maybe jarlaheim doesnt need a complete overhaul but a partial one. etc.)
the gen 4 horse needs to have very solid planning before release, which seems to have been the case so far from the little ive heard about it. if players can finally get a more custom horse with custom markings, mane and tail styles (preferrably available across breeds), and ability to pick coat, mane and tail colours separately, i think this would be great. it also relates to the whole thing with horse stats and just making sure that horses function properly and have reasons to actually have different stats and such, if theyre going to have that.
there also needs to be a decision made about sso's future - specifically, should we keep developing this game on this crappy messy engine for another decade, or should we eventually say, "this is sso 1, and we're finished with it (the story is finished, game isnt buggy, etc)" - and then go on to create a new game (while still keeping sso 1 running!) on a new, modern engine, where there is good direction and good planning from the very beginning? i dont know how far they got with project curie before cancelling it, whether theres much work to salvage, but i think that creating a new horse mmo set in jorvik (curie was supposedly not a horse game) as a more or less "sso 2" is a fair idea. the potential of customisable gen 4 horses might not really be that relevant for sso 1, or customisable player character faces and bodies like the sims. maybe this is stuff that should be in sso 2 from the very beginning, rather than patches trying to fix the mess that is the current sso? i think a lot of players wouldve been happier to see the old avatars and stuff remain in sso 1 and see the new, current artstyle we have be a separate game as sso 2 instead. (runescape classic etc.)
so, i would want to very carefully consider what really should be in sso 1 versus if we should be making sso 2. its possible to decide, actually we do want to just keep updating sso 1 and make it the best it can be, to basically keep adding expansions to it. but even if we decide that, the thing is, its hard to save the original story at this point due to the careless updates that have already been made for years. my question is, is it possible to give the loyal, old players a satisfying ending to this story and these characters' stories and this world's lore, within the current state of sso? or is it just too far gone off the track? so this needs to be carefully considered. maybe sso 2 could be a sort of remake of the story, starting with elements based on SSL, rather than the haphazard "uh these girls saved the world a while ago and now youre here i guess" that sso did start with. maybe its not too late to give the loyal long term players a satisfying end to the story. but its a complex issue that needs a lot of thought. (which should never have happened! the story shouldnt have changed the way it did, things shouldnt have been abandoned randomly, added randomly, changed randomly, all of this is just bad shitty direction and management without respect to the players, which is especially frustrating bc it goes right into "girl gamers dont matter, girl games dont matter,".)
there are more things, like a weather system, that i would have loved to see in sso but ultimately might be better to save for sso 2. or maybe sso keeps going with major updates and major expansions and then it would be relevant to consider for sso. the same thing for customising our home stable, getting a player home to customise, there are lots of fun ideas like this that i could talk about but that ultimately im not sure how much time and resources should be sunk into when sse have chosen to fuck themselves over for this long and caused this many problems with the game that need immediate attention to make it playable and enjoyable. so in this... essay... i focused mostly on solving problems and making the game a solid and fun experience, and what to prioritise to keep it that way, while these bonus new content like weather or customisable horses or customisable player faces/bodies and all that, would be great updates (or sso 2) but have to come as a bonus when everything else is under control.
so yeah thats covering both a lot of immediate stuff and long term considerations. this is like, a fraction of the stuff i've thought about. i have a lot more to say about a lot of things to fix in sso and other things that have to do with running companies too. and ofc theres a lot of things i just cant know from the outside, and so on, im not a perfect person who knows everything and never pretend to be (i have to say this bc ppl like projecting things on me just for being confident in my skills). getting to take over sse would still be a learning curve with finding out exactly where the problems are and how to solve them. i view this realistically. there are always unknown variables and things i'll have to figure out when i get to it, but you can do that if you have a strong core and strong direction that wont be swayed by capitalism or ooh shiny. i just know a lot about prioritising and directing and about ways to run healthier, better companies, and ways to be ethical and create good products instead of cash grabs - and i also value the skills and knowledge of others, which matters in finding the right people to work in the right positions. these are specific interests i have and spend a lot of time thinking about, analysing, studying, practising, etc.
if you or anyone else actually read all of this (im shocked) and want to discuss more about it or have questions about it, im all ears :D
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I mean, I do see where you’re coming from with the blurb thing, especially with how that poll was worded, but the majority of people I see actually complaining about the phenomenon are talking specifically about the ways books are recommended. Again I agree with you that I prefer it’s mentioned somewhere because I like to know (though sometimes being surprised by it in a book where I didn’t expect it is a delight), but if someone lists a bunch of books only by what kind of rep it has I won’t go personally googling every single book on the list simply because it’s gay, because my time is limited and there are some genres I won’t be interested in no matter what, so I prefer rec lists that as a minimum includes the genre, preferably also tone and basic plot (is it a mystery? a romance?). Not sending this to try and argue with you, just hoping to clarify where a lot of people are coming from!
I get that, but it's still a big ol overexaggeration imo! Most of the time when people are doing brief bullet point rec lists it is in the context of an age range/genre, or some other more specific element anyway? and if it includes the cover (which most do) you also will have a genre/age/tone indication (aside from the occasional book with a cover that badly communicates content).
like every time I see anything remotely like this it is always either a) "lesbian mystery books:" [showing just the cover of 10+ books] intending a broad selection to just pique someone's interest, and communicate the fact that these books have lesbian MCs to people who may not have been aware of that (and btw adding a sentence or two on every single one is a LOT of effort, especially in video format - and the op probably ALSO does longform reviews of individual books) or b) "check out this aroace YA fantasy!" <- minimial wordcount which includes genre/tone as briefly as it does any 'rep'
and then you have c) which is like a teenager who discovered a book that reflects their experience for the first time and they're excitedly talking about it just in the context of that element, which if you're mad about.......okay. (or sometimes you'll see a list of 'queer books' and it is the most random broad combination of genres, tones, age ranges - which is very clearly just someone new to reading queer books the only things they've read and enjoyed so far. those make me giggle a little.)
I often see books like 10 times on social media of just the cover and basic info that's used in all promo & am vaguely interested but don't see anything about it that might stand out. And then will see ONE post of '"books with the 'older grumpy person accidentally adopting an orphan' trope" and am like OKAY i'm intrigued - that is the purpose of these sorts of posts! telling you MORE than what the basic age/genre/plot/tone is! (and yes in the context of identity too, I can know about a book for months before finding out it has aspec characters and I run a database dedicated to that)
There are people that talk about books badly and clumsily everywhere, in every form of communication (tweets, GR reviews, tiktoks, whatever). I absolutely see reviews and stuff ppl say about books all the time where I am like OOF why are you only mentioning x without the context that it's only a tiny part of the book, or without mentioning some other significant thing.
But the idea that people are only ever saying 'heres x book, it's gay!' and never talking about anything else or doing any reviews is just not as common as people claim and shows no understanding of the wider context of the book community or the function of different ways of discussing or promoting books!!
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do you think buck even considered the option that he maybe could be wanting eddies attention
Hi, nonny!
I actually don't think that was something that ever crossed his mind. And, to be completely honest based on the fact that I've watched the episode and dissected every scene to my roommate a million times, I really don't think he actually wanted Eddie's attention as much as the fandom claims he did. His comment to Tommy about wanting his attention was genuine, and there's so much evidence to that if you watch the episode without Buddie goggles on (I say as a Buddie shipper).
The thing is, there was no issue between the three of them in 7x03. Buck and Eddie have been on good terms all season, they both know the same amount about Tommy at that point, Buck even goes out of his way to find a way to spend time with Tommy - that's why he was at the hangar at the beginning of 7x04 to begin with! He wanted to spend time with Tommy and wanted to know him and wanted to be his friend. This is a canon fact can't be brushed off by "actually, it was because Eddie-" no. He wanted a friend. That's allowed.
Buck is literally there and asking Tommy to spend more time together! He's asking him out for a beer, and he looks so excited that Tommy wants to say yes, and then Eddie rolls up, literally, and takes his new friend away from him and off to Vegas.
All of Buck's anxiety and insecurity in the episode stems from that moment.
He knows that Eddie is cool and fun, he says it a million times before Tommy kisses him. I think the problem is that Buck feels like he's being passed over for someone cooler than him - someone who Tommy relates to more, because Eddie was in the army, and likes basketball, and fighting, and trivia nights. Eddie and Tommy click in a way that Buck doesn't have with most of his friends, and he felt like he was being pushed out before he even had the chance to try to be a part of that friendship.
Also, I feel like it's definitely not about wanting Eddie's attention, because he complained that Tommy was spending time with Christopher, too. This family that he knows he's a part of - because he's in Eddie's will, and he watches Christopher regularly, and he's not really a guest in Eddie's home, etc. - is getting more attention from this new friend he wanted to make than he is, and it's only been two weeks. Even the basketball being delivered to the firehouse feels like he just wants to prove he's as cool as they are, and he goes out of his way to show up to the pick up game (with a compression sock on his bad leg!) to try to hang out with them. More than anything, Buck just wants to be included.
He wants a chance to prove himself before he's ruled out of being Tommy's friend completely. He doesn't want to be the default babysitter because two people he wants to spend time with don't invite him along. It's making him feel dumped to the side.
If it was about wanting Eddie's attention, he wouldn't have been complaining about Christopher and Tommy connecting. His first moment of frustration wouldn't have been when his time with Tommy was interrupted if not completely derailed by his plans with Eddie. He wouldn't have tried to prove he was good at basketball by knocking over Eddie and potentially messing up that relationship just for more of his attention than he already gets.
Eddie is cool. Tommy is cool. Buck wants to be friends with the cool kids - he's already an irreplaceable figure in Eddie's life, and he knows that, but he has no connection to Tommy, who keeps getting pulled away from him by his best friend and a teenager. He wanted one-on-one time with Tommy. He wanted flying lessons from Tommy. He wanted to go out for a drink with Tommy. And that's all before he starts getting jealous of anyone at all.
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