Unity - A dead dream?

I hear alot of voices calling for unity of the clans. This is fascinating to me, since the whole essence of the clan mentality is to try and life free. No bonds, no Shakkles(!) , and no giant corporation dictating you daily efforts. Here's the catch, people will always think and act differently. My freedom is another man's bonds.

For instance, I want peace, he wants war. What to do? There is no grey zone in this particular matter. It's war or peace. Black or white. What would then unity be like? Let's say the war sentiment wins, I am then supposed to gather under a flag of war (CoA?). Now the thing is I wanted peace, so I have to join the battle unwillingly. I will then fight for a cause that isn't mine completely. What to do then? I will take the first opportunity I can to change things.

Let's say that the peace sentiment wins. Then the warmonger can't do what he feels is best to do. Now he would take any opportunity to disrupt the peace to get what he wants. Which in turn makes me unable to trust that he will do as he is supposed.

In both cases one of us has been bound, and possibly gagged. That's not true freedom is it?

Isn't this where the clan is at this very moment? How can unity be obtained like this? And for sure, Fiqh is right; 'divided we fall'.

The problem with the clan is that it is and always will be too prone to in-fighting.

There is a third path. For want of a better word, I call this path Respectfulness.

Within the Clans, if those who disagreed maintained a respect for each others' freedom and independence and a willingness to cooperate on such ground where cooperation is possible, the divisive issues would not loom so large. But when people begin to develop personal animosity for each other and allow disagreements on a few issues - no matter how large or seemingly 'black and white' they are - to prevent them from pursuing common interests, then that is how we will fail and fall.

The disparate Clans have many interests in common. If leaders were more willing to maintain a respect for the sovereignty and independence of other Clans and cease attempts to coerce followership or cooperation on issues, replacing that instead with offers of opportunities, the Clan community would be less violently divided, and compromise solutions could be reached.

Unfortunately, too many people are too eager to throw out the baby along with the bathwater, and consider any disagreement, or even hesitation, to be opposition not only against their plans, but against them as people. Too many people want to be the top-dog, the charismatic leader of the Clans, the one who is Right.

We all need to start taking dissent less personally, start listening and compromising with each other, and start taking concrete steps to build towards our common goals.

The Clans were formed essentially because Omni-Tek refused to respect the rights of their workers, the people, on Rubi-Ka. Now, we the Clans have started to lose sight of our respect for each other. Let us not become what we have fought.

That is another of the clans great paradoxes.

Within Omni-Tek there are numerous persons willing to be anonymous. The clan have fewer people willing to take that road.

And as long as there is an unwillingness to become an anonymous face there will be bickering, and personal issues pulling the clanners from each other.

I think all have one purpose. To kill the dragon and get his loot. I don't think clans or omni want anything else.

Omni-Tek has no need to slay the proverbial dragon. Nor do most of us even see a dragon, no matter how hard we may look. It is this very impression (or, more importantly, the embodiment of this impression in the CoA) that continuously undermines efforts at an enduring, mutually profitable peace.

And peace is mutually profitable, not only as the saviour of lives but also because the "loot" is divisable. If we could all guarantee an unqualified safety to the supply and transport of notum, this world would flourish. There are far too many people who refuse to accept the other factions' existence as "given" and to move past that and hence, to progress as a society.

The Clans do have a right to be left alone, even if they view Omni-Tek with su****ion and foreboding; freedom of thought is perhaps one of the foremost fundamental human rights, and if it is incorporated into our society that, on the basis of this dislike, the Clans should be obliterated, we will all eventually perish at our own hands.

But the same must be applied to the militant Clans (not all of them - I mean to make no generalization). This level of understanding and tolerance will certainly fail if it is asymmetrical. The CoA and others like it must recognize Omni-Tek's legal right to be here, in accordance with the Lease. Omni-Tek has made mistakes in the past, but if those are to be held against us in contempt of the present, the Clans will find no sympathy from any of the corporation's employees.