And just as a side note, out of the five houses, who has been the most aggressive since the fall of the Star League (Davionistas I looking at you)?
Kurita.
Really, is there even the slightest question here?
Who started the Fourth war and the War of 3039?
No comment on the latter, but it seems to me that trying to assassinate the leader of a foreign nation and replace him with a puppet body double constitutes an act of war.
The purpose of the State is to serve, protect and provide for its Citizens.
I do not recall talking about the purpose of the state. I was talking about the idea of service to humanity.
I would say that you are actually right, to an extent. A state is supposed to serve its citizens. That's why we have them, and why states aren't ultimate causes.
The issue with the Capellan state here is that it's redefined 'citizen' into a state-granted privilege. That is: the purpose of the Capellan state is to serve the people that the Capellan state has arbitrarily selected as worthy of serving the Capellan state.
You, my friend, have provided no evidence of Capellan despotry. On the contrary, you have simply indicated that the Capellan Confederation does not share the Federated Suns arrogant belief that they know what's best for everyone and should force their ideals on them at gunpoint
Wait, who brought the Federated Suns into this?
At any rate. I am comfortable referring to the Confederation as despotic because the purpose of the Confederation, it seems to me, is to serve the ambition of the Liao family. (I am specifically not talking about any other successor state here.
Tu quoque arguments will be dismissed.)
So is every other Successor State.
We are not talking about the other successor states. We are talking about the Capellan Confederation.
Irrelevant to the discussion of evil. I could point out (in PMs, since otherwise I'd be breaking Rule #4) two real-world examples of EXACTLY what you're talking about, one often cast in a positive light, and one DEFINITELY cast in a negative light.
The point is that the apparatus of the Capellan state, I would argue, is designed to encourage the individuals within that state to make the state itself - i.e. the tools of government, and ultimately the Liao family - the ultimate object of devotion.
Capellan citizenship is a grand experiment in combining the structure and rationality of platonic community with the prestige and pride of powerful Asian empires. You'll never figure Capellans out unless you go beyond the fact that BattleTech just happened to be created in a year with the same title as 1984.
Oh, the Capellan state ideology is very interesting. I don't deny that.
I think it is also extraordinarily ethically questionable, and, to be frank, morally repugnant, but to my mind that's good in a fictional setting. That is what makes the Capellans much better villains than the Kuritas. They're both evil, but the Capellans are evil
with an ideology.Why should a servitor get that right? He hasn't proven that he should have a say yet.
This, I should point out, is the overall problem.
You suggest that the state exists in order to serve its citizens; yet at the same time you allow the state to set arbitrary criteria that a person must meet before he or she is a citizen.
(Apologies for the short remarks. I may go a bit more in-depth tomorrow.)