Osiris Fraternal Order

The Court of the Pschent
Osiris Fraternal Order

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Presiding Elder: Joshua Ravenclaw, Pharaoh-Emeritus of Osiris[/center]

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21st February 2015
Palace of the Pschent; Memphis

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Defendant: Cormac Stark, Pharaoh-Emeritus of the Osiris Fraternal Order
His Majesty's Prosecutor: Seker, Scribe of Seshat for the Osiris Fraternal Order

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Charges are as thus: Treason
Charges filed (by Scribe of Seshat): 20/02/2015
Charges accepted by Elder Joshua Ravenclaw: 20/02/2015

Applicable Laws: The Criminal Codex; Section 2, subsection (a) "Treason" is defined as any attempt to overthrow or rebel against or incite others to overthrow or rebel against the Osiris Fraternal Order.

Appropriate Definitions: Cambridge English Dictionary; Treason, noun. "The crime of doing something that harms your country, especially by helping its enemies."

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TIMELINE 20-21 February 2015: The Court will allow a submission of evidence to the Presiding Elder, Joshua Ravenclaw
If both sides indicate that they are ready to proceed and no further evidence shall be submitted this period may be waived.
22-23 February 2015: The Court will allow a period of reflection over submitted evidence.
Note: If no evidence is submitted beyond what was filed with the charges, the court shall move to take opening statements from each side during this period.
24-25 February 2015: The Court will hear Pleas and witness testimony from affected Parties. The Court will hear a Victim's Statement, if appropriate.
26-27 February 2015: The Court will hear final statements, render judgment on the Defendant and any sentencing if necessary.

The Court of the Pschent is now in Session. Scribe of Seshat, and Pharaoh-Emeritus Cormac Stark, please indicate your presence within this Court.

I am present.

Present.

Your honor, if it please the Pschent and if the prosecution has no objection, I would like to proceed directly to the plea phase.

The prosecution has no objection.

Very well.

Pharaoh-Emeritus Stark, you have been charged with the High Crime of Treason against the Osiris Fraternal Order. How do you plead?

Your Honor, I co-founded the Osiris Fraternal Order on 10 December 2013 with Venico BrightAxe and Ambroscus Koth. While they will always remain my friends, as those friendships go beyond this ridiculous game, I profoundly regret my involvement in establishing the Osiris Fraternal Order.

The Osiris Fraternal Order is a failed state because it is built upon lies, most of which were not recognized as lies by the people telling them because we were lying to ourselves or because others were lying to us.

The first lie that we told was that a healthy community could be built on a foundation of division, a foundation of purging one faction from the community for the supposed health of the community. The only kind of community that builds is a community destined to be perpetually divided. A community built on purges is a community that will, as its first instinct, seek the power to purge others who do not conform to the community's standards. And what are the community's standards? That's the problem. In a free and democratic region, there will always be individuals and groups who have differing views in regard to community standards and what is best for the community. You can either have a community built on compromise and reconciliation, or a community built on division and purges, but you can't have both.

The Osiris Fraternal Order can get rid of Empire, it can get rid of defenders, it can get rid of NES and I, but it cannot get rid of division with more division. It can only get rid of division through compromise, through reconciliation, through fraternity. And so the first lie we told you was that we could build a fraternal order by ruthlessly purging the opposition. Though I think we believed it ourselves.

The second lie we told was that purging one faction would heal this community, that it would usher in a golden age in which everyone here would magically be dedicated to Osiris and not here to pursue their own individual interests or the interests of other regions at the expense of the interests of this community. That was a doomed notion from the start. It was doomed by the importation of raiders and imperialists from other regions who had no vested interest in Osiris except keeping it within their sphere after we had delivered it into their sphere. There will be no golden age for this region, no fraternal order, until it has a community of dedicated natives and that community is empowered to make the decisions for the region. Though I think we honestly believed we could make such a community by importing people from elsewhere in NationStates.

Finally, the third lie we told was that instant democracy would lead to peace, order, and prosperity for the community. I think we did believe this to a degree, but more importantly we were under tremendous pressure from the pilers supporting the fledgling government to immediately democratize. We should have rebuffed that pressure. We should have realized that we did not need them, that we could have held the region without them albeit with a fight, and that it was more important to do what was right for Osiris than to do what was expedient for the political expectations of the pilers supporting us. What was right for Osiris, to be blunt, was a benevolent dictatorship, at least in the short term.

As former Senator Unlimited of the New Pacific Order has observed, adapting the wisdom of Thomas Hobbes to NationStates regional government, the first and most paramount duty of a government is to provide its people with the first and most paramount freedom -- freedom from chaos, from strife, from the war of all against all. This requires, in the short term at the very least, a strong sovereign institution to guarantee peace and order, to quickly and efficiently resolve conflicts. To be a fraternal order, the Osiris Fraternal Order needed to guarantee this most fundamental freedom before it could be concerned with any other freedoms. Osiris needed the freedom to breathe and to unite and to develop real community before it could handle the greater freedom of democracy. It was not given that freedom and as a result Osiris is not free, not really. The oppression of factional warfare is alive and well, and I'm sorry to say that it will not end when NES and I are gone.

I noticed some of these flaws before the Osiris Fraternal Order was even established. Others took me more time to notice. I have tried to persuade myself since establishment of the Osiris Fraternal Order that a community built on these fatal flaws could somehow overcome them, but I now see how foolish and arrogant that belief was. These flaws must be uprooted and a new foundation established if the Osiris Fraternal Order is ever to be the fraternal order that it was intended to be.

And so I am prefacing this plea with a desperate call to revolution, whether that revolution is to be peaceful or otherwise. This community must do what is necessary to create the fraternal order in Osiris that we all so badly wanted to see. It must, at least for a time, cast aside democracy in order to provide freedom from chaos and strife, the freedom of guaranteed peace and order. It must allow room for a dedicated native community to be established and to take the reins of decision making in this region. It must pursue reconciliation with the natives who were cast out of this community, because this community will continue casting people out until it accepts that war and exile are not valid ways to deal with political differences. If this community fails to do this, this community will fail Osiris, and like its predecessor the Osiris Fraternal Order will collapse under the weight of its own tremendous flaws.

Your Honor, I plead guilty as charged. I have committed treason against the Osiris Fraternal Order. I have committed treason against the Osiris Fraternal Order because I believe that the Osiris Fraternal Order, as it currently exists, is failing Osiris and will continue to fail Osiris until it finally and ultimately fails entirely. The only way to avoid that inevitability is to do what is necessary. I hope the community will have the will to do it. But looking at what I see now of the Osiris Fraternal Order, without any remorse and instead with great pride, I plead guilty to treason. Revolution against this flawed system is the only thing that will save this community.

I thank the Pschent for its time and I will accept whatever sentence is given to me. I will ask for no mercy because I do not believe I am wrong for opposing this system and I do not want any mercy from it.

Thank you Pharaoh-Emeritus for entertaining us with your dramatic flair. In future a simple Guilty, Not-Guilty, or "I decline" would suffice. Scribe, does the Government have anything to say in reply to this statement by the Pharaoh-Emeritus?

I would like to move to sentencing.

I believe an indefinite ban is in order, per the recommendations described in the criminal code.

I propose an additional - and somewhat exceptional - measure, however, that I think should be considered and, if implemented, implemented without any flexibility. I am aware that the defendant has a history of reversing actions shortly after the fact, but it is clear to me that it is not within the best interests of this community to put up with any further flip-flops. Osiris hurts went Cormac flips. Since the defendant is a former leader in this community and thus an exceptional circumstance, I propose that the defendant be able to have his ban lifted ONLY after apologizing, waiting at least 120 days after expressing a desire to rejoin, and writing 10,000 words worth of content that the Pharaoh at the time asks of him. Guides, media posts, WA proposals on behalf of Osiris, et cetera would qualify. He would not be permitted forum access and would have to send this content via in-game tools. After fulfilling these preresiquites, it would still be within the rights of the Osiris Fraternal Order to deny his citizenship application like anyone else.

That is all.

As stated, Your Honor, I will accept whatever sentence is given to me. If the Pschent believes that the sentence recommended by the prosecution is the sentence that should be imposed, so be it; I will ask for neither a more lenient nor a more severe sentence.