Apollo is catching hell for some comments he made in this thread in the Grand Hall. I certainly understand why Apollo’s remarks have upset people, but some context is needed.
Apollo was a spectacular Grand Admiral last term, building the Navy's strength to levels not seen recently, if ever. He worked his ass off – even in my all-star Cabinet, Apollo’s work ethic was surpassed by no one, and equaled only by Vinage and Lethen. A lot of Apollo’s work was scouting, back-channel discussions with his counterparts in other regions, and other low-profile stuff that wasn’t widely recognized by the region at the time. Worse, Apollo had to deal with intense private (and sometimes public) criticism of his actions, to a degree I have never seen before with a senior executive branch official who was as successful as Apollo was.
When Apollo ran for President, the public criticism increased by several orders of magnitude. I was surprised by the ferocity of some of it, and some of the critics later admitted that their initial criticisms were unfair or overstated. Apollo’s initial defensive reaction to those criticisms, however, damaged him politically. I suggested at the time that it might cost Apollo the election. In the end, it was a close race where three switched votes would have changed the outcome, so it’s quite possible I was right.
After his defeat, Apollo swallowed his pride and accepted the post of Interior Minister. There, he sustained our phenomenal early recruiting results in the wake of the script ban, even as the star-studded team Rachel had assembled to do that task began to fade away due to non-interest. Unfortunately, Apollo’s heart evidently wasn’t in the job like it was when he was Grand Admiral. To his credit, Apollo stepped down swiftly, rather than lapsing into inactivity as so many disillusioned Cabinet ministers do.
Successful recruitment efforts are always led by a small core of hard workers; in the absence of such a core, it’s no surprise that our nation count plummeted following Apollo’s departure. As usual, there was a surfeit of finger-pointers willing to fix blame for the problem, and a shortage of hard workers willing to roll up their sleeves and fix it. When Apollo saw a lot of fingers pointing at him, he finally snapped – or, at least, that’s what seems to have happened.
Apollo is the latest in a long line of successful but thin-skinned Europeian leaders. NES and I are perhaps the most obvious examples, although I like to think both of us have managed to put aside our respective egos for the region’s sake when we have assumed the mantle of leadership. Rachel and Sopo are similar, but have had more mixed success in taming their harsher sides – not least because they, like Apollo. have faced nastier and more personal attacks than either NES or I did. Both Rachel and Sopo would benefit from a greater reservoir of forbearance. So, too, would Apollo.
Indeed, whether Apollo becomes a great leader in this game (either here or elsewhere) will turn in large part on whether he develops the ability to let attacks -- including unfair ones -- roll off his back. Even without that ability, however, he has been a tremendous contributor to Europeia in his time here. I hope his contributions here resume once his bitterness subsides.
Obviously, I expect people who have been the target of Apollo’s wrath to hit back, but everyone else needs to take a deep breath. If you feel a need to make a public record of your disagreement with him, go ahead, but keep in mind that you’re talking about someone who has done a boatload of good for this region. That’s more than most of us can claim.
Apollo was a spectacular Grand Admiral last term, building the Navy's strength to levels not seen recently, if ever. He worked his ass off – even in my all-star Cabinet, Apollo’s work ethic was surpassed by no one, and equaled only by Vinage and Lethen. A lot of Apollo’s work was scouting, back-channel discussions with his counterparts in other regions, and other low-profile stuff that wasn’t widely recognized by the region at the time. Worse, Apollo had to deal with intense private (and sometimes public) criticism of his actions, to a degree I have never seen before with a senior executive branch official who was as successful as Apollo was.
When Apollo ran for President, the public criticism increased by several orders of magnitude. I was surprised by the ferocity of some of it, and some of the critics later admitted that their initial criticisms were unfair or overstated. Apollo’s initial defensive reaction to those criticisms, however, damaged him politically. I suggested at the time that it might cost Apollo the election. In the end, it was a close race where three switched votes would have changed the outcome, so it’s quite possible I was right.
After his defeat, Apollo swallowed his pride and accepted the post of Interior Minister. There, he sustained our phenomenal early recruiting results in the wake of the script ban, even as the star-studded team Rachel had assembled to do that task began to fade away due to non-interest. Unfortunately, Apollo’s heart evidently wasn’t in the job like it was when he was Grand Admiral. To his credit, Apollo stepped down swiftly, rather than lapsing into inactivity as so many disillusioned Cabinet ministers do.
Successful recruitment efforts are always led by a small core of hard workers; in the absence of such a core, it’s no surprise that our nation count plummeted following Apollo’s departure. As usual, there was a surfeit of finger-pointers willing to fix blame for the problem, and a shortage of hard workers willing to roll up their sleeves and fix it. When Apollo saw a lot of fingers pointing at him, he finally snapped – or, at least, that’s what seems to have happened.
Apollo is the latest in a long line of successful but thin-skinned Europeian leaders. NES and I are perhaps the most obvious examples, although I like to think both of us have managed to put aside our respective egos for the region’s sake when we have assumed the mantle of leadership. Rachel and Sopo are similar, but have had more mixed success in taming their harsher sides – not least because they, like Apollo. have faced nastier and more personal attacks than either NES or I did. Both Rachel and Sopo would benefit from a greater reservoir of forbearance. So, too, would Apollo.
Indeed, whether Apollo becomes a great leader in this game (either here or elsewhere) will turn in large part on whether he develops the ability to let attacks -- including unfair ones -- roll off his back. Even without that ability, however, he has been a tremendous contributor to Europeia in his time here. I hope his contributions here resume once his bitterness subsides.
Obviously, I expect people who have been the target of Apollo’s wrath to hit back, but everyone else needs to take a deep breath. If you feel a need to make a public record of your disagreement with him, go ahead, but keep in mind that you’re talking about someone who has done a boatload of good for this region. That’s more than most of us can claim.
