Word meanings and "nice guys"

I talked a bit about changes in word meanings in a previous post. I'll give an example.

I assert most planetside Matari would consider "a nice guy" to be somebody who is nice to other people. An Angel Cartel loyalist would not be "a nice guy" because they seek to extort, enslave and kill other Matari.

Many Matari capsuleers, on the other hand, seem to use "a nice guy" to mean "somebody who is talking pleasantly to me". They seem to attach to the words no requirement to actually be nice to other people. Sometimes not even the requirement to be very nice to the speaker himself, the words may just mean said person is entertaining company.

Measuring morals

I believe a capsuleer's morals are measured by their deeds. Things they do, and things they choose not to do.

I believe one cannot be separated from their deeds - a man who does evil deeds is an evil man, not a good man who does evil deeds. Otherwise, the world would only have good men and the whole distinction would become rather useless.

Yes, there is a theory of moral relativity. One man's good is another man's evil and so forth. However, should one happen consider all viewpoints to be equally "right", choosing between using one's own moral standards and enemy moral standards should hopefully not be particularly difficult choice.

Coping with capsuleer life

After some thought, I've decided to slightly rephrase and blog something I posted in a corporate internal discussion.

I will share two other things that have helped me much over the years, when I have struggled with what I have become. Maybe they will help you too.

The first, from Theron Gyrow, is that morality is a choice, not a destiny. I have free will. Even if I have thoughts and feelings I would rather not have does not mean I have to let them dictate how I act.

The second, from Elsebeth Rhiannon, is that while we have been made into weapons, we can choose how we will be used. I have great power. Many might wish to make my choices for me, but I am the one who chooses which causes I serve.

I find myself returning to these truths over and over again.

It can sometimes be tempting to abdicate responsibility, to pretend to be driftwood pushed along by evil fate.

Sense of time

There is a new Matari channel, Circle of Tribes. I was there yesterday.

Listening to the discussion made me realize how different sense of time capsuleers have from regular people - people of the clans, of the tribes.

For many capsuleers a year is a long time, five years almost like an eternity. For a non-capsuleer, five years is short. For a clan, a tribe, five years is like nothing, hardly significant in the succession of generations.

Yet, capsuleers make so much noise about their supposed "immortality". Immortality, when the technology itself has been in use for only seven years? Immortality, when one cannot even remember events that happened five years back?

Such infinite arrogance.

Changed faces

Yesterday, I was looking at the people on comms in our corp channel.

Familiar faces. Some of them I have known since I first joined. Others are newer, joined after me. I remember people who are gone. We are not the same group of people as we were three and half years ago.

I've never worked for a non-clan corporation for a longer period of time before Gradient. It feels like people change so quickly. Is that just an illusion?

Psychologists and capsuleers

This came up on a comm channel. I decided to post because a rookie pilot seemed self-concious about it.

Yes, I am seeing a shrink. I have regular appointments.

Consider the line of work capsuleers are engaged in. Consider the responsibility we have. Seeing a therapist to help you keep perspective is a perfectly normal, healthy and responsible thing to do. Staying sane is part of the job.

Capsuleers and corpses

Many capsuleers seem to have a fascination with corpses.

They collect corpses. Friendly, hostile or unknown; it does not seem to matter.

They keep their prizes in the freezer and compare their collections of deceased human flesh like one might compare collections of paperbooks or holoreels.

I find it creepy. Extremely creepy.

What kind of person gets satisfaction out of owning the remains of dead people? Dead friends?

Remaking choices?

At one point of time, we made the choice to become capsuleers. I suspect few of us knew what we were getting into, at the time. I certainly did not.

If you could remake the choice of whether you want to become a capsuleer, knowing what you know now, would you still choose the same way?

Veto PR department

The Veto PR department is good. Very good.

Living in a glass box

Some days ago I got the advice that it is good to assume everything I say will eventually become public.

What a truly frightening way to live a life.

I'd feel constricted to death without friends. Without emotional intimacy and the freedom of saying what I think without worrying if it is proper. Never letting out any steam. Having to try to be perfect all the time.

I suppose the above means my career choice skills are not terribly convincing. At least I'm not a diplomat or a PR person.

Podding? Cruelty?

I can't fathom why some capsuleers view podding as somehow more cruel than just shooting the ship down. As something "nice" people do not do.

If I'm willing to to shoot the capsuleer's ship and kill his crew just because they happened to sign an employment contract with him, why would I think killing the capsuleer himself would be too harsh?

Non-capsuleer implants

For many people, capsuleer implants are the first ones they get.

I got my first child-model implants in my teens, after proper clan rites. Memory augmentation, math routines, file storage and such basic school-help stuff.

The Respectable Club

Yesterday I briefly considered founding The Respectable Club.

A peer support group for people who think being evil is not cool, and that trying to mimic the appearances and mannerisms of evil people in order to appear evil is not cool either.

IGS, about soul

Post to IGS:

My clan believes spirit or soul is our personal part of the spirit of our kin, stored in the unity of flesh and mind.

This unity is forever lost when one is emergency cloned or clone jumps. After that what remains is a copy with the belief it is the original.

The spiritual part of kinship cannot survive serialization to data. The physical part of the kinship is lost when one moves to borrowed flesh. And even if both persisted, separating one from another breaks the whole.

Does soullessness make somebody a monster? Not necessarily. Ethics and morals are also a concious choice. Being able to do evil does not make such deeds a necessity, just like being able to do good does not force one to goodness.

I have not been in the habit of posting to IGS before. I wonder if participating in such conversation was particularly smart.

Wanting enemies instead of friends

Many capsuleers and capsuleer organizations have a curious relationship with hate as an emotion. They seem to be looking for excuses to dislike people, corporations, organizations. To declare their antagonism, and act on it.

From the outside I am tempted to conclude they enjoy having enemies more than having friends and allies.

Inspiring loyalty

Elsebeth Rhiannon talks about the preciousness of trust and loyalty in her blog.

As cliche as it sounds, I believe in the power of shared values, goals and vision to inspire such loyalty in capsuleers, to make people want to contribute and belong, to foster a sense of togetherness.

There are people who think companionship, friendship and community is enough by themselves.

I believe the people who commit to goals for friendship and community only are the ones whose motivation falters when they meet new, more tolerant, prestigious or charismatic friends.

Dead and dead-er

A pilot dies when they are podded. A pilot dies when they expire stationside.

Most ordinary people think being alive or dead is a binary thing. A person is either one or the other.

For capsuleers, permanence makes a dead person dead-er.

The Lonely Pilot Syndrome

Sometimes, in bars and other places I run into pilots who like to talk to me. They talk, and suddenly I find myself the recipient of their life story and personal secrets.

I have wondered why they do that.

I have asked a few pilots who have convoed me out of the blue, and they claimed they picked me because I just have a kind face.

I personally find it hard to believe I'm somehow uniquely easy to talk to, so I've started to jokingly call the phenomenon "The Lonely Pilot Syndrome".

Some of them have been good and entertaining company, so inability to make any friends does not really sound like a plausible explanation. Maybe they are so desperate for the company and understanding of other pilots?

The unsettling question is, will I ever become that lonely?

Industry and innocents in space

Sometimes, I hear opinions to the effect of not attacking innocent industrialists.

I suppose innocence as a concept is a relative thing. Where I come from, arms manufacturers and dealers are hardly considered innocent.

Pashanai and U'K

Pashanai Ministry of War station got bombed.

On IGS, among the other discussion, U'K pilots are already flashing the possibility of offering 1 isk for Shakor's head because he denounced the attack.

The same bounty as they had for Midular.

I guess supporting somebody does not agree with that bunch much.