| From: | ANGLISS BRIAN EDWARD <angliss@****.Colorado.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Government Reaction |
| Date: | Tue, 23 Jan 1996 21:14:31 -0700 (MST) |
> Here's a question for y'all: what are the various governments (specifically
> the UCAS, but others' reaction might be interesting) doing about this?
Very little, except in certain special cases, such as the various Tirs or
nations whose assets were affected directly. See below where I start
waxing rhapsodic.
> My personal opinion is that they're not so much concerned about another
> corporation getting nuclear weapons (the corporations don't usually
> openly fight governments: bad for business) as they would worry about
> the consequences of the fighting that might follow: especially since the
> Court has decided to strip Maxim of its nuclear capability.
I seriously doubt that they would have known about the Court having told
Maxim to consolidate the weapons. And I personally don't agree that the
Court would care a hell of a lot about Maxim having nukes any more than
a lot of the nations would. I see the raid on the facilities to be
independantly orchestrated of the Court. Ie, the Court is 100% out of
the loop. However, as the end result was ultimately the same, I elected
to drop the issue earlier.
> I can see the UCAS government offering Maxim a polite but firm ultimatum
> to remove all nuclear weapons from any Maxim facilities located within
> UCAS territories, on pain of... well, pain. Would that be appropriate?
If it hadn't happened already, I would say "NO!!!!!!" vehemently, but as
it has, it's time for what I feel qualifies as damage control. Again,
see below.
Ok, a few quick comments on a couple of other responses to this before I
go ballistic.
Mark mentioned talking to the other corps and wreaking havoc if the Corps
were doing nothing, as well as mentioning soveriegnity and unilateral
action against Maxim.
I don't think that the corps would let Maxim be desroyed by any nation,
because it set's a really bad precedent. Letting any nation totally
destroy a megacorp would say to the nations of the world that the Corps
are fair targets, that extraterritoriality is useless and can be
overridden at whim, etc. REALLY bad precedent. And while the corps may
hate Maxim with a passion, the precedent would be SO bad that they'd
fight to save it instead of letting it go up in flames. As for
soveriegnity, the nations of the world with only a few exceptions have
little to no control over the corporations, and the corporations fight to
keep it that way. The majority of the nations can do NOTHING that the
corps wouldn't like them too. All the weapons that the national armies
use are provided by the megacorps. Hell, if a nation tried to frag
with the corps, they'd just stop delivering food, purifying the water,
etc. and the same effects of Corp War would hit that nation without the
collateral damage from combat. It wouldn't happen, and letting Maxim go
down would set the precedent for this possibility. Think for a minute
like Ares: If Maxim, who I'm allowing to be destroyed because it's
currently expedient by a national government instead of by a corporate
action, gets destroyed, how long will it be before the UCAS gets enough
guts to attack my HQ in Detroit? Oh shit, maybe letting Maxim get
destroyed isn't such a good idea after all....
And unilateral action by nations has minimal effect. Germany
nationalized all Maxim assets after Berlin, and they just moved out of
the nation. Now, the UCAS would have tougher times doing that and would
also cause more problems for Maxim(who has a much larger presence in the
UCAS than they did in Germany). And hell, if the UCAS military is having
such a hard time with the bugs in Chicago, then how the hell can they
presume to threaten a megacorp who can bring more shit to bear than small
nations and as much as some good-sized ones? Not bloodly likely, IMO.
No, I think that the nations would be warned to stay the hell out of
corporate buisness and let the corps deal with thier own.
And Benjamin Schlitt said that the governments might hire shadowrunners
and mercenaries to do the damage, because they are disposable,
untracable, skilled, and don't endanger the national troops as much.
Personally, this is what I would expect except in the rare cases of the
Tirs and similar nations, who would do thier own dirty work. It may, in
fact, be a way to justify some of the force brought to bear when the
nukes are destroyed.
Now, I'll try to keep the venom and bile from melting a hole in the
computer monitor, but no guarantees. You have been warned.
I am _EXTREMELY_ pissed off. I told people that I was going out of town
and that the Maxim plot was on autopilot until I got back. I gave Erik a
newscast to post for me about the Warsaw destruction to hold everyone
over until I got back and had a chance to get stuff going(and I've not
even got started yet, dammit!) with details. And while I was gone, a
very important discussion regarding the plot was begun and acted on just
after I arrived here and before I had a chance to respond like I am now.
As far as I'm concerned, this qualifies as using another person's
character without permission, and according to the FAQ is considered a
big, HUGE no-no.
What I'm pissed off about the most isn't that the ultimatum was posted
but rather that it was posted without allowing me ample time to respond.
Normally I would have, but it's kinda hard to get to a fucking computer
when you're 1500 miles away from home attending to a family crisis for
three days. Hell, I would have brought up the very same points I already
have above as problems with the ideas, but if the consensus was that it
was still a good idea, I would have worked it in somehow. But now I have
no fucking choice, and that's really yanking my chain right now.
(Takes a couple of really deep breaths, grabs dinner, meditates to lower
his blood pressure, and returns later)
Just a final note. I'm not angry about the ultimatum as an idea. I'm
angry that I wasn't given the opportunity to comment before it went out.
As I mentioned above, I have serious problems with the world and power of
the federal government as presented in the ultimatum and what it would
mean for the SR world. It would alter the balance of power away from the
corps, which would diverge severly from accepted FASA standards quite a
bit, and for the above reasons. However, I'm not automatically abhorant
to that idea, rather the idea that it was done far too quickly and
without sufficient input from other parties, specifically me.
It's time for damage control, but I'll do that in a separate post. I'm
sorry if I pissed anyone else off, now that I've calmed down and mellowed
out a little.
Brian
