A Second Speech to the Ziu from a Citizen

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Talossa:

We have a problem.  Well, we have many problems, but only one is actually important: disinterest and inactivity.  It's not just our biggest problem, it's an existential problem.  If we don't solve it, then none of the other problems will really matter.  You might want the monarchy's powers restored or eliminated; you might want the Cosa shrunk to twenty seats or eliminated entirely; you might want to restore your vision of a Talossan past or abandon it for a new future.  But none of those things really matter that much if Talossa simply ceases to exist.  And that's the threat.

I'm not trying to play up the drama.  I'm not going to claim that the country will die next week or next month.  But our Secretary of State is right to call this a decline -- and we're deep into it.  When our Ministreu del Interiör points out that "the number of new, active citizens in Talossa is worryingly low," he's just noting the obvious.  We've been on this decline for years.  It needs to be the top priority, before it becomes too late.

And it will, eventually, be too late.  There will come a point of no return.  There will be a moment where our active citizenry has shrunk to the point where we can no longer credibly attract interested new citizens.  Citizens are active in Talossa because they feel like they can really make their mark on something that's old enough and big enough that it matters.  Laws matter because there are citizens to help.  Leadership matters because there's a nation to guard.  Culture and media matter because there are readers to reach.  If there's no one to govern or lead or listen, then what's the point?  To reign in the ashes?

In other words, Talossa works because it's not a vast ocean like so many countries, but neither is it a solitary puddle.  It works because you can be a big fish in our small pond, and your ripples might matter.

I made a speech raising the alarm four months ago.  Things have gotten worse since then.

   
• We're very nearly a one-party state.
• The flow of active immigrants has slowed to nearly a dead stop -- the last post on the Immigration board was a month ago.
• In the last Clark, 3 MCs (21% of the total) lost their seats because they hadn't voted in the last two months.
• Some promising programs and ideas seem to have stopped entirely: TalossAssistant, L'Chronica, Cafe Talossa, ID cards.

I have a bunch of ideas how to help.  I've offered them before, and I will be happy to do so again.  Start actually tracking immigration.  Revive the Zuavs.  Centralize discussion/socialization on Wittenberg.  Redirect state dollars away from things that aren't priorities and towards an advertising campaign.  Maybe you don't like those ideas and you have better ones.  Great, let's do those!  There isn't really any politics right now, so who cares about credit or blame?  Let's all work together to focus on the real problem!  We're all on the same team.

If we don't act, someday we'll lose our chance.  I'm not ready to give up on Talossa.  Are you?

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

I'm not ready to give up on Talossa.  Are you?

Honestly, after having witnessed the absolute state of the Ziu, supposedly the main attraction of this country, yes.

Talossa is too complex to be saved by individual motivated people. There is only so much a single person can do to revitalise a given subsection of the country until they get frustrated by the apathetic supermajority's unwillingness to do anything except go through the motions and thus either burn themselves out in very unhealthy ways or become part of that supermajority themselves (or both, of course). That's why the promising programs and ideas you mentioned died.

The only people you will reach with speeches like this are the motivated individuals who are ultimately powerless to stop (let alone reverse) this development. And unless you want to do something about the supermajority's stranglehold on this country (which would potentially involve extreme measures like rescinding inactive people's citizenships en masse), maybe it's better to simply let Talossa run its course and die?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Yes, it is true that individual motivated people can't bear the burden alone.  But I think it's pretty hard to make the case that eliminating swathes of our citizenry would help at all.  For one thing, that group represents people with a significant interest in Talossa, either consistently over a while or recently, and so they're fertile ground for possible recruitment to active life.  For another, it's hard to really say how their sheer existence somehow interferes with vigorous debate in the Ziu or the success of a program like TalossAssistants.

But your pessimism is flat-out wrong.  Because even though just one single person can't do it, a group of them could.  If we focus on the problem, we can change things.  I obviously favor a vehicle like the Zuavs that already exists to service this problem, but there are other possible solutions.

For that to work, we need to take the first step.  We need to say, "Inactivity is the most important problem and it needs to be our focus above everything else."  If we can be honest and commit to that, then we have a good chance.

Then we just move hard to judging everything in that light.  Reforming the University, for example?  First ask: how will it help The Problem?  Keeping TalossaWiki updated?  First ask: how will it help The Problem?

Talossa can be amazingly fun.  You get a chance to do things and learn things you never thought you'd do.  You can join a community dedicated to ideas that are both silly and serious.  You can make a historic impact on something that's older than you, and then still be around to watch it react and evolve.  It's a great thing, and it's worth saving.

If you and I both agree on that, then that's two people right there.  And that's a great start.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

There is only so much a single person can do to revitalise a given subsection of the country until they get frustrated by the apathetic supermajority's unwillingness to do anything except go through the motions and thus either burn themselves out in very unhealthy ways or become part of that supermajority themselves (or both, of course).

The problem, as you've noted is of course with the institutions, which are set up to making actually accomplishing anything stupidly hard. Some people even think "democracy" means "making sure majorities can't do anything if a minority is ornery enough" (what a very American way of seeing things - gridlock as the final triumph of self-rule!).

I've even heard that argument that making change impossible is good because it enables people to take a few years off and then Talossa will be just like it was when they left it. Like a daytime soap opera. Except... people take a few years off, then they take a few more years
off.

Anyway, I think someone once said that if you stop people doing what they want with Talossa, they won't do what *you* want, they'll do nothing. But it was said by someone who couldn't see the irony.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Anyway, I think someone once said that if you stop people doing what they want with Talossa, they won't do what *you* want, they'll do nothing.

Yes, it should certainly be plain by now that you can't force people to be interested in something.  I've said it many times, and I'm glad you've taken it to heart. If I was suggesting passing a law to require enthusiasm for tackling our most important problem, then I would be foolish.

Instead, I'm calling for leadership. We can unite in common cause to save our country, without anybody forcing us to do so.

We clearly are in dire straits, and we need to make a change. Business-as-usual isn't working. And there will come a point of no return.

We should try a new approach. We might fail, but Talossa is worth the effort.

[esbornatfiglheu]

For all of the Westminster trappings, the Talossan legislature is really set up along American lines.  This is not a condemnation, but instead an acknowledgement of the way things are.

One of my first degrees in college was "Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy," which specialized in the study of the US Consititution.  It is a document that tried to reconcile "all men are created equal" with the institution of chattel slavery, resulting in the 3/5's compromise.  The upshot of the US Constitution... as well as the Talossan Organic Law as currently realized... is a document that makes systemic change as difficult as possible.

Take, for example. the Equal Rights Amendment... which guaranteed rights to employment regardless of sex. It passed the legislatures... but the states did not approve it at the required rate.  Essentially, this is a feature and not a bug of American constitutional jurisprudence.  It was a system put in place by slaveholders in order to preserve the "peculiar institution."  Anyone who says otherwise is either a fool or a goddamn liar.

But despite the Westminster trappings, Talossan legislature is very much American in structure.  Any focus on the ability of an individual to sustain an objection or oppositions is... largely meaningless.

For whatever it is worth, I've got to back Miestra here.  Reflexive rejection of change is, ultimately, siding with the powers that be.  Given that the powers that be have proven themselves unequal to ruling Talossa... time for change has come.

[King Txec]

Anyway, I think someone once said that if you stop people doing what they want with Talossa, they won't do what *you* want, they'll do nothing.

Yes, it should certainly be plain by now that you can't force people to be interested in something.  I've said it many times, and I'm glad you've taken it to heart. If I was suggesting passing a law to require enthusiasm for tackling our most important problem, then I would be foolish.

Instead, I'm calling for leadership. We can unite in common cause to save our country, without anybody forcing us to do so.

We clearly are in dire straits, and we need to make a change. Business-as-usual isn't working. And there will come a point of no return.

We should try a new approach. We might fail, but Talossa is worth the effort.

I agree changes need to be made. What raises my ire here in at least some small part is when people who shout from the rooftops that something needs to be done come in every now and then, shout their pronouncements, then disappear for a month or longer.

The good baron gives us food for thought without having to actually DO anything. I challenge him to put his actions where his fine words are and actually do something. I know as soon as I'm done the baron will point out times he was stifled and prevented from doing something. That's not good enough. Practice what you preach. Form a party of your own, take over an existing one, become a permanent secretary of something, etc.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

For all of the Westminster trappings, the Talossan legislature is really set up along American lines.  This is not a condemnation, but instead an acknowledgement of the way things are.

One of my first degrees in college was "Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy," which specialized in the study of the US Consititution.  It is a document that tried to reconcile "all men are created equal" with the institution of chattel slavery, resulting in the 3/5's compromise.  The upshot of the US Constitution... as well as the Talossan Organic Law as currently realized... is a document that makes systemic change as difficult as possible.

The past few terms have featured sweeping transformations of the entire criminal justice system, the legislative process, and the process for choosing our Seneschal, plus unopposed efforts to trim and reform the laws relevant to most of the Cabinet offices, plus a constitution that was broadly revised as a whole and passed with almost no opposition.

I agree changes need to be made.

Good.  So we've already established that a bunch of us recognize the problem.  And hopefully we can further agree that we need a change from business-as-usual?

I see that both you and Miestra are suggesting that I should respond to the crisis by jumping back into politics.  But that would just make me a target again, and it's really unpleasant to be told you're acting like a rapist, you're the symbol of systemic oppression, and so on.  I'm happy to contribute, and I will continue to do so whenever I can: volunteering as TalossAssistant, entering contests and programs, and so on.  And I'll jump on any other opportunities as they come up, as an enthusiastic booster.  I offered to vigorously work in support of an LCC or coalition government, and I stick by that.  Heck, if someday things change and Miestra isn't going to be my boss, I'd even be happy to join an FDT Government as a minister or secretary.  But I'm not a masochist, and so I don't really like the idea of trying to lead a party right now.

For that matter, it seems obvious to me that it wouldn't actually help for me to return to being a politician; I don't think Talossa really needs more nasty arguing, after all.  No one's staying away from our country because they miss vicious flame wars.  There's better ways I can be involved, and hopefully starting this dialogue is one of them.

I guess I should say that I am open to the idea, if it really does seem like it will help the country.  But it really doesn't seem like it would.

But forget my rambling and let's just stick to the main thing, without casting any blame: we agree there's a problem, and we agree that we need changes in Talossa, right?  No one seems to dispute the diagnosis.  That's a great basis for moving forward.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

For whatever it is worth, I've got to back Miestra here.  Reflexive rejection of change is, ultimately, siding with the powers that be.  Given that the powers that be have proven themselves unequal to ruling Talossa... time for change has come.

To be more precise, there are two sets of "powers that be". The Government and the Ziu majority have positive power, i.e. we are entitled to do things. The Ziu minority, the Uppermost Cort, the King and - crucially - those people who have the inactive King's ears and can wield his powers for him have veto power, i.e. they can stop things happening. There is currently an impasse between the two.

Those with veto power have successfully stopped those with positive power enacting their programme. Now nothing is happening. And some of those with veto power are trying to make those with positive power enact their programme. Which is not the way anything works, but try telling that to some people.

[Tric’hard Lenxheir]

When i joined Talossa i was assigned to a province, this was weeks before the last election. After the election provincial citizens were encouraged to "claim a seat" in the provincial government, which i did thinking that it would be a good way to learn how things work. I read both the Talossan constitution, organic law and the provincial constitution and didn't really understand a lot of it but hoped to gain a working knowledge by participating in the provincial government. A total of three citizens claimed seats in the provincial government and suddenly i found myself elected as Premier! I truly didn't understand what this meant but i was informed that i basically was in charge of enacting laws or repealing certain types of laws all of which can of course be overturned by a vote. The other officer referred to as the Presiding Officer has the responsibility of convening and conducting legislative business. As far as i know nothing has ever been convened. In short i must say that it is very difficult to get involved when you don't really understand how things work, even if you are thrust into a position of some authority, if you don't understand how to use that authority it is pretty much useless. Hell i suggested a bill to name a provincial bird just to try to get something going and i was told to put together an act and present it in the next grand session but as i said i don't believe a grand session has ever been convened so i couldn't bring anything forward. Any way, i just wanted to explain why i haven't been very active, i love the idea of Talossa but don't really understand how i can be involved other than voting in the music contest that just got done LOL

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Any way, i just wanted to explain why i haven't been very active, i love the idea of Talossa but don't really understand how i can be involved other than voting in the music contest that just got done LOL

It's certainly not your fault to the smallest degree, and I know everyone is very glad that you're here and interested. :)  If you ever have any questions about how anything works, how you're supposed to do something, or anything at all in Talossa, please don't hesitate to private message me.  I'm very responsive and I have been here a while, and most of the time I'll be able to either advise you myself or tell you who can help.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

other than voting in the music contest that just got done LOL

;D

[Tric’hard Lenxheir]

I had a lot of fun with that Ian, next year i plan to nominate some local artists from my area just to introduce them to a wider audience. Who knows maybe someone will find a new favorite!

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

The upshot of the US Constitution... as well as the Talossan Organic Law as currently realized... is a document that makes systemic change as difficult as possible.

I'm afraid I have to agree with AD on this. While I think that passing the Compromise on the Compromise would probably at least make the King more active, I am at a loss for what other legal "systemic change" could possibly address the problem we are discussing.

Essentially, this is a feature and not a bug of American constitutional jurisprudence.  It was a system put in place by slaveholders in order to preserve the "peculiar institution."  Anyone who says otherwise is either a fool or a goddamn liar.

I don't want to start a macronational political argument here, but suffice it to say that this is a serious strawmanning of the merits of Federalism. Obviously this point is more applicable to the US than Talossa given the unfortunate state of the provinces.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A thread from Old Witt from four years ago talking about the same issue, for your reading pleasure:
https://talossa.proboards.com/thread/12322/ailing-talossa

(You may have to log in to see it because it's in the Chat Room)

This is probably my best contribution from that thread:

A catch-22: the only way to attract new manpower to run cultural activities is to already have cultural activities.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I hate to say it but I'd have to agree that the Monarchy in particular is not one of our most pressing problems right now. Except, as mentioned, that the constitutional impasse has sucked a lot of "giving a damn about Talossa" out of the Free Democrats. But conversely, stopping reform hasn't made the monarchist-conservatives more interested? Almost as if their interest in Talossa, as we kept saying, was entirely negative?

I think we should listen to the Túischac'h - who is as close to properly agnostic on the constitutional question as anyone - when he says he's just been ground down by the ability of a passive supermajority to stop anything fun happening. The only reason that we managed to complete the project of unifying the spelling of the Talossan language is that the "passive supermajority" just collapsed the institutions themselves and we started new institutions. Can't do that with the Organic Law, or at least we shouldn't.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

I think we should listen to the Túischac'h - who is as close to properly agnostic on the constitutional question as anyone - when he says he's just been ground down by the ability of a passive supermajority to stop anything fun happening. The only reason that we managed to complete the project of unifying the spelling of the Talossan language is that the "passive supermajority" just collapsed the institutions themselves and we started new institutions. Can't do that with the Organic Law, or at least we shouldn't.

Not to keep tooting my own horn here, but this article I wrote for La S'chinteia in 2019 might offer some ideas on this front.

Talossa needs to take a long, hard look at the rules governing many of our institutions.

There has been much complaining recently about the ability of some people to effectively "veto" new initiatives simply by not engaging with them. Of course, such lack of engagement need not be intentional (there are plenty of reasons why a Talossan may need to take a leave of absence), but the fact remains that there are several areas of Talossan life that are subject to the oversight of a person or body that either is no longer interested or capable of providing that oversight or never served anything but an overly bureaucratic role in the first place.

From this description, it may appear that anarchy is the best way to operate our civil institutions. After all, if any citizen could act unilaterally, no one would ever need someone else's approval and we would all be free to use the avenues of Talossan culture how we saw fit. However, besides turning Talossa into a "bathtubbia" subject to radical reformulations on a weekly basis, this policy would have another subtle but no less important drawback. Any time a group of citizens might seek consensus to ensure a proposed change became widely accepted, there would be no indication of when, or if, that consensus was obtained. This would cause either progressively worse fracturing of our organizations, and a loss of unity and consistency in our nation, as change-makers went ahead without a way to make their new policies official, or a permanent stasis if no one was willing to move forward on anything without the express consent of all imaginable stakeholders, some of whom may not even be contactable. Unfortunately, examples of this kind of governance are not rare in Talossa.

Therefore, both too many and too few organizational procedures can be quite detrimental. To illustrate these concepts, I present a few case studies.

Provincial Governments
For almost two years between 2017 – 2019, Florencia floundered in a catch-22 that prevented it from seating either a Governor or the Nimlet (provincial assembly). In early 2017, the existing Governor failed to apportion the seats in the upcoming Nimlet, which, according to the Florencian Constitution, necessitated the appointment of a new Governor. However, no new Governor could be appointed since the Governor is Constitutionally required to be a member of the Nimlet, which could not assemble because only the new Governor could apportion the seats. It took months of complaining and multiple legal consultations for the province to finally decide that the situation was dumb and that following the strict letter of the law was not tenable.

Too few regulations can also spell doom for a provincial government. When the Maricopan Cabana assembled for the 51st Cosa, it made no progress on the election of the Premier between January 6th and April 4th, 2018, as there was no designated time frame for the election nor was it clear who had the authority to conduct it. On April 4th, one of the candidates, who had not heard anything from the other candidate during this time, declared himself the winner, at which point the other candidate suddenly reappeared and objected that no one had yet proposed a deadline for submitting nominations to the post. The two agreed to hold an election; alas, they were the only two voters and at the end of the agreed-upon voting period there was a 1-1 tie. The result was the same after an extension, and the sitting Premier (who was one of the candidates) then declared he intended to stay in office indefinitely, and only agreed to further deadline extensions after a citizen from a different province criticized his decision. The deadlock continued for the rest of the term.

The Arvitieir Prima of Benito, supposed to function as a provincial Secretary of State, serves in practice only to officially open and close votes on bills before the Assembly. The delay between a request by an Assemblyperson for the Arvitieir Prima to put a bill up for a vote and the Arvitieir Prima acting on that request is typically fairly short but has recently been up to a month. Assuming the proper regulations were put in place outlining how a bill may be put up for a vote, there is nothing the Arvitieir Prima does that could not be done by an individual Assemblyperson. Therefore, there is no reason for this extra link in the chain that does not add any value and can only introduce delays.   

Talossan Language
The CUG is the traditional governing body of the Talossan language. However, almost none of its members are involved anymore, and if there ever were regulations regarding a quorum, they certainly have not been met in a long time. Unfortunately for the language, there are many questions of orthography that must be dealt with, and every time a group of speakers try to hammer things out, they ultimately can never get anywhere because they have no authority to make decisions. Of course, they could just decide to adopt their proposals themselves, but they have been understandably reluctant to do so given the schism it would cause.

Faced with the dormancy of the CUG, some citizens created a new language organization called SIGN with the encouragement of the Minister of Culture. However, a member of the CUG warned that its creation might divide the language community. The two groups held talks on how to integrate or cooperate, but with no mechanism to decide how to ultimately proceed, SIGN withered and the CUG returned to the hibernation from which it had arisen.

Uppermost Cort
El Lexhatx puts the Clerk of Corts in charge of administering the Cort. This might work well if the Clerk were consistently active, but Clerks have generally not been active for most of the position's history. If the law were followed, this would make it very difficult to conduct any legal business. However, for the past several years, parties to cases and Justices alike have essentially agreed to pretend the position of Clerk does not exist and handle all administration themselves. This has allowed the Cort to function, although it does so in a make-it-up-as-we-go manner that no one quite understands and is ripe for future controversy.

College of Arms
Both the Squirrel Viceroy of Arms and the Dean of the College of Arms must approve a prospective armiger before a fellow of the College can start designing the arms. The process has gotten significantly faster now that the Viceroy, Dean, and most active fellow are all the same person, but there is still little reason for all these hoops when the King already has the authority to halt a request for arms any time he desires.
***
We have to learn from these observations how to build lasting organizational structures that both describe exactly how business may be conducted and that do not rely too much on a single person or group. Additionally, we must eliminate as many purely bureaucratic roles as possible and devolve the corresponding responsibilities and privileges to everyone involved.
Luckily, these strategies have been implemented in some places, and they can serve as guides for future reform:
•   In the Assembly of Maritiimi-Maxhestic, any member can call and end a vote on a matter so long as they do so in accordance with the relevant law detailing the appropriate voting period and venue.
•   Current efforts to streamline the Judiciary by introducing Justices of the Peace to handle small disputes will eliminate much of the judicial bureaucracy and codify what remains.
•   Until its repeal earlier this term, the section of el Lexhatx describing Naval regulations was one of the least-used and most unnecessary portions of Talossan law. It elicited a mild chuckle out of its readers, but in effect gave the Ziu control over every minute detail of the Navy. Therefore, the citizens who were interested in the Navy felt as though they could not take initiatives without the approval of the Ziu, but most the of the Ziu could not have cared less about the Navy. By repealing almost all of that section and replacing it with a code of regulations promulgated by those most involved with the Navy, we devolved power to those who are most capable and most motivated to use it to advance Talossan interests and culture.

Implementing these suggestions may not seem like a very important step in combatting the Kingdom's activity problem, given that there is nothing so common in Talossa as restructuring proposals that do nothing to increase participation in whatever is being restructured. Still, we depend on the robust operation of our institutions to engage in everything else that attracts people to Talossa. A failure here will, and has already started to, decrease confidence and enthusiasm in the rest of our society, so it's time to give the gears the attention they deserve.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Of course, I guess all those things are things the "passive supermajority" might block, but have they even been tried? All of them are more logistical in nature and have little to do with ideology, meaning no "systemic change" would be needed.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I wonder if you would be interested in suggesting amendments to the "Cutting Red and Green Tape" section of the FreeDems programme in line with the musing above.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

I wonder if you would be interested in suggesting amendments to the "Cutting Red and Green Tape" section of the FreeDems programme in line with the musing above.

I think it's good as-is. Adding specific proposals would probably just bloat it.

Unfortunately I am not as passionate a Lex-editor as I was in my prime. If I can get around to it I certainly will propose some bills along the lines above.

Honestly, perhaps the tape can be cut without actually repealing anything. If everyone active just agrees to ignore it...