Thread:Zillafire101/@comment-4960835-20160524105213/@comment-25309944-20160703170636

@Gorzill : I apologize that I can't more fully answer you right this moment, but I hope to clarify that I wasn't necessarily arguing against you or against the Persan remaining militarized. I should have restated your point and acknowledged it to make that clearer, but I tend to take what you say about the Persan at face value and accept it. They are your fiction, after all, and you are the expert on what they are, how they will act, and what their tolerances and viewpoints are. In my second response about militarization, I actually tried to clarify and narrow what I was suggesting, down from complete demilitarization to the removal of forces from areas of potential contact. Stuff about economic policies and such was meant more as an explication of things you might not have considered, not a "you must consider this and do as I say because states work this way."

Arguments from culture and how individual peoples might form states and operate differently will always work with me, because that's what I actually believe IRL: that scientific rules about how states work should be taken with a grain of salt given that they were created and understood within a distinctly European frame of reference. They're still extraordinarily useful, but states aren't the same everywhere, nor is the state the most important apparatus everywhere.

TLDR: I apologize for coming across as controlling and I am thankful that you gave me the benefit of the doubt on that front. It was indeed not my intention, and I respect your rights as an author and the uniqueness of the Persan in my head and in my thinking. Most of what I say are meant suggestions, and I'll do my best to pay attention to that and make it clearer in the future.