I am back from travelling. Apart from the weather being way too warm it was great, and I am very much enjoying the regained use of my body. I still have quite a way to go before I am back where I was, but at least I don't feel like an infirm person anymore - I can actually walk for extended periods of time.
Anyway, since I am back from being mostly offline, I have picked story writing back up. In this chapter I bring back the abrasive Deteis bounty hunter Kassina Vikkonen. You may still remember - if you read the story - that she had been assigned to pick up the trail of that young corporate CEO who was hell-bent on punishing Keram for his past deeds.
After catching her quarry and her own personal Odyssey she happened to find the home system of Awakened Industries just when the big battle started.
That was where she was last featured in the story.
In this chapter I use her as a vehicle to transport some Caldari ideology.
I have often thought about the Caldari and how their society actually works.
With all the others it seems pretty intuitive: An Empire held together by faith, tradition and ancient culture. A democracy built on pluralism, idealism and diversity. A tribal republic that was forged in a rebellion against a powerful enemy.
How do the Caldari hold their society together though. What motivates them to remain citizens of the Caldari state? Of course, corporations can be very powerful foundations to build a personal identity on, but many of them holding together a society while they are engaged in competition.
Would that work?
Why would a Caldari citizen keep playing along with this Darwinian hypercapitalism even if they lost their material wealth or their job?
What I came up with in my mind is an ideology that borrows as much from Ayn Rand as it does from the most radical modern neo-liberal thinkers.
Mind you, I have never read anything by Ayn Rand or any modern neoliberals, but I have a man who is a social scientist, and while he is much more social-democratic in his own worldview, he has studied those philosophies extensively.
We had a lot of time to talk while I was occupying his convenient ground-floor workspace during the time when I couldn't climb the steps to my own second floor home ;)
So what makes the Caldari stick together, what made them secede and fight against the Gallente must be something like that: No other society offers the individual a greater possibility to manifest their own destiny. Freedom of choice is the highest ideal there is, but it can not be created by the benevolent guidance of a state authority like the Gallente might tell you. The only way to make sure that every individual can develop to their highest potential is to establish a framework where they can do everything within their abilities to succeed.
In a way, EVE Online itself - as a game - is very much how the Caldari state would work. You either make it or you don't. You make it by taking risks, by being smart, by using every trick in the book and every advantage you can get. If you are not able to make it as a leader, you find the best place you can fulfil as a follower.
The Caldari are also a very militaristic people. That ties in quite well with this uncompromising way of thinking, and there are historical examples like Sparta, early Imperial Rome, the Vikings and feudal Japan and the way it developed in modern times.
For a Caldari, it is very clear that each and every one of them can and will find their ideal place in society if only they try hard enough, and to achieve something must be exhilarating. It will also result in a society which can be very effective at self-regulating. Bureaucracy and law enforcement could be reduced to a minimum, and that is how it should be in their view. After all, anything else would restrict their freedom of choice, and the only thing that should really restrict that freedom is personal failure.
A Caldari who fails at manifesting their own destiny, would accept that they have lost their way. They would resort to the ultimate admittance: That their choices were wrong and someone else should better be in charge until they can get back on their feet.
Would they want social programs? Of course not, because that would stunt their ability to choose for themselves even further.
Would they accept the idea of slavery? No way! After all - in the end - the individual needs to get back on their feet and make their own choices again eventually.
I could write more on all of that, but the above is the essence of my reflections on Caldari society.
I have no idea whether a society like that would actually work, but even today - in our world - there are people who believe it would.
Well, I hope enjoy the story chapter. In the next one I will get back to Sandrielle and her predicament.
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