TTT #030: No More Juice - plus Senate Endorsements!

[Klatonia]

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The Think Tank #030: No More Juice - plus Senate Endorsements!
Published by Klatonia, editor-in-chief, The Think Tank Media Group LLC

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Out of Juice

I concluded the 29th edition of The Think Tank with an announcement:

By the way, the technocratic fetish with flowcharts, figures, and everything? Yeah, that’s next.

That was on November 24th, 2021. 245 days ago. Not that it capped a remarkable second half of 2021. My last serious series of publications ended in late March of that year, when I was nominated to the Cabinet. Since early May 2021, I’ve been trying to recapture the magic and, 245 days after my last attempt, it’s time for me to face a really harsh truth: it’s impossible to gather inspiration to write about a microsociety when I don’t know or understand what is happening in that microsociety. Even if I could whip myself hard enough to write something, it would be irrelevant to the context, and I would probably end up musing about myself in order to take up as much space as possible. Possibly with some clickbait title promising something relevant.

Goddammit!

Motivation, like inspiration, comes from familiarity with a subject, and I have no juice left in my writing arm. When that happened in the past, I would be so ashamed or demotivated that I would simply leave Europeia. Not this time. This time I’ll have the courage to tell everyone that I don’t have the time to be active enough in Euro in order to spark either inspiration or motivation. So… this is the last column of The Think Tank for the foreseeable future - I’m talking at least a year. I’m sure I can contribute in some other way; only time will tell.

Senate Endorsements

Now… I know. It’s not like TTT has any weight in this election. Though I did read all the platforms and most of this Senate’s threads, I realise that I couldn’t assess with any sort of expertise the issues faced by the candidates or the outgoing Senate’s performance. I won’t even pretend to do such things. Instead, this is the opinion of a low-activity citizen who happens to have a media platform.

First, it’s interesting to notice that the field of 9 candidates is split into three very distinct categories: the old fucks, the very young fucks with some legislative experience in Euro and the very young fucks with absolutely no Euro experience.

• The Old Fucks: Lime, McEntire, Peeps and Prim
• The very young fucks with some legislative experience: Gorundu and Cove
• The very young fucks with very little to no experience in Europeian politics: Spagtop, Prov and DrShadow

In-text note: Seva accurately pointed out that Shadow has legislative priors in Thaecia. I have edited the list in order to emphasise that I am referring to Euro experience. So... EDIT.

Candidates can also be categorized as to whether or not they are sitting Senators (in the sense of already being Senators… nevermind, it makes sense in my head).

• Current Senators: Gorundu, Cove, McEntire and Peeps
• Not currently on the Senate: Lime, Prim, Spagtop, Prov and DrShadow

Why is that important? Well, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not. I mean, there’s the JWST, and then there’s the current political status of any candidate slate in any election. I jest.

It IS important if, as a voter, you intend to use your votes both to elect a new Senate and to pass judgement upon the previous one. The current Senate might not have been as active as some would have liked, something at least one candidate conceded, and should you want to make clear that Senate activity is an important issue for you, well, you should avoid casting any vote in favour of outgoing Senators.

You’d be dumb as a brick to do so, but there’s nothing preventing you from expressing yourself this way.

One last thing before I roll out the endorsements: there’s a major difference between Old Fucks and Very Young Fucks. The latter’s platforms are more proactive than the former’s. While platforms listing the candidates’ positions on current bills are all fine and well, I want to be excited about candidacies, I want to read ideas that will shake the entire world of NS, or maybe just a corner of the Euro Board, I want to be inspired by the wide-eyed ambition that those who seek my support have for Europeia. Not that I don’t like technocratic legislators - I’d be a fucking hypocrite. But y’know… let’s say that 20-25% of a Senate with wild, or even mild, ideas is not a bad target. I also understand that the middle of summer is not the best time for an in-house revolution. Plus, that expectation of shit-stirring is in direct opposition with my more prudent (some would say “conservative”) approach to politics, and in the end, it is this prudent instinct that won out.

The Think Tank is proud to announce its endorsements for the July 2022 Senate Election:

Strong endorsement: McEntire, Peeps, Prim and Lime (who should definitely be Speaker)

Lean for: Cove, Prov and DrShadow

Lean against: Gorundu (quite frankly, because of the emphasis on regulating oversight some more), Spagtop.

In addition, The Think Tank strongly recommends that the next Senate have 7 seats.

Best of luck to all the candidates!

Hail Europeia!

EDITS: typos and the in-text note.

 

[Lime]

Very happy to have received your endorsement Klatonia!!

I'm also hoping we can convince you to write another publication before next year!

 

[Sopo]

I'd gladly read something you write even if it's totally irrelevant nonsense, as you're a very enjoyable writer.

 

[Peeps]

Thanks for the endorsement! Glad to see TTT returning.

 

[Seva]

Just a slight correction that Shadow does have legislative experience, it's just not in Europeia but in Thaecia.

But otherwise, glad that this is back!

 

[Sanjurika]

Don’t try and pressure yourself to write something! To be honest, even if it’s not related to Europeia, I’d still enjoy it. I really like your writing style

 

[Kuramia]

Your "clickbait" was actually very relevant, and despite what you might think, I read and have commented on this article because you wrote it, and even if you feel a bit behind the Euro times, you've still got the experience and wisdom to call Senate shots. And have a response that's reasoned to why you wouldn't call those shots.

Enjoy the break, but don't be too hard on yourself! You're a great writer!

 

[Klatonia]

Just a slight correction that Shadow does have legislative experience, it's just not in Europeia but in Thaecia.

But otherwise, glad that this is back!

Thank you Seva, I have included an edit and a comment!

 

[Gorundu]

Well, I guess I can't ask for everything to go my way after that poll result.

It IS important if, as a voter, you intend to use your votes both to elect a new Senate and to pass judgement upon the previous one. The current Senate might not have been as active as some would have liked, something at least one candidate conceded, and should you want to make clear that Senate activity is an important issue for you, well, you should avoid casting any vote in favour of outgoing Senators.

Also, this didn't make much sense to me. A blanket vote against outgoing Senators punishes those who made an effort to encourage activity, and that just goes against the point of protesting Senate inactivity.

By the way, the technocratic fetish with flowcharts, figures, and everything? Yeah, that’s next.

Anyway, shame on this going down the drain. Would have really loved to see it.

 

[Klatonia]

Well, I guess I can't ask for everything to go my way after that poll result.

Indeed. Congratulations, by the way

It IS important if, as a voter, you intend to use your votes both to elect a new Senate and to pass judgement upon the previous one. The current Senate might not have been as active as some would have liked, something at least one candidate conceded, and should you want to make clear that Senate activity is an important issue for you, well, you should avoid casting any vote in favour of outgoing Senators.

Also, this didn't make much sense to me. A blanket vote against outgoing Senators punishes those who made an effort to encourage activity, and that just goes against the point of protesting Senate inactivity.

Indeed, again. I should have specified "that you feel have not been sufficiently active" at the end. It seemed obvious when I first wrote it, but with hindsight, it kinda says the opposite. Thank you for that!

By the way, the technocratic fetish with flowcharts, figures, and everything? Yeah, that’s next.

Anyway, shame on this going down the drain. Would have really loved to see it.

You and me both. Hey, who knows, if it's still an issue in a year or eighteen months, it'll be the first column of my umpteenth comeback!

 

[Klatonia]

The Think Tank closes this activity cycle with an average prediction performance, though one should take into account the fact that TTT's editor-in-chief has no clue what's happening in the Region. We advocated for a 7-seat Senate for which we strongly endorsed four candidates and leaned in favour of three others. TTT leaned against two other candidates.

Homeruns
- Strongly endorsed candidates Prim, Peeps and McEntire were elected and finished 1st, 2nd and 4th, respectively.
- Leaned-in-favour-of Cove finished 5th, earning themselves the last seat.

Foul balls
- We leaned against the candidacy of Spagtop, who finished 7th. Should the Senate have had the 7 seats we recommended, Spagtop would have been elected. Moreover, even though the "very young fucks with very little Euro political experience" collectively ended up constituting the bottom third of the electoral slate by a wide margin, Spagtop finished highest amongst the three.
- We also leaned in favour of Prov and DrShadow, and neither would have been elected, regardless of the size of the Senate.

Strikeouts
- Lime, whom I had picked as a lock as well as the frontrunner for the Speakership, finished 6th, 1 vote short of Cove's 37 (36 votes, 56.9%) and was cut out of this Senate's roster. I did not see that one coming. If anyone feels like explaining this to me, I'm all eyes. Or maybe I should just go read some forum posts - I mean, someone has dissected this, right? EDIT: Thank you Europeia, for you never disappoint me : @Pland Adanna has already asked the question.
- Gorundu, whom I leaned against, finished 3rd, one vote shy of two-thirds of the voters. I bow to the collective wisdom of the Region and wish them all the best this term. I shall eat the requisite number of crows
- Finally, voters preferred a 5-seat Senate to one of 7 seats. With such a field of candidates, a 7-seat legislature was the only way any of the "very young fucks with very little Euro political experience" were going to have a shot at being elected. At least voters did not choose a 6-seat Senate, a choice that would have been almost indistinguishable from overt exclusion based on experience. In a sense, Lime's loss is a testament to Euro's... ?

Oh, I don't know. Congratulations to the new Senate!

Hail Euro

 

[Kuramia]

For Lime specifically, people may have withheld their vote given past political experience with Lime.

 

[Comfed]

For Lime specifically, people may have withheld their vote given past political experience with Lime.

I didn't vote for Lime but I will say that this wasn't my motivation at all - I just didn't agree with his platform. Other may feel differently, though.