J____s' Plan

To: Comrade in charge of the Committee of Central Planning

From: Comrade U_____y

Comrade,

I apologize for my inability to provide a more "personal" address for this missive, but with the seemingly daily changes in the Committee of which you are the new head, I am at a loss to determine who, if anyone, is in charge. Again, my apologies and I hope you (whomever you are) have a long and successful career. But on to the reason for this report.

Four years ago (give or take) the Empire embarked upon a Five Year Plan masterful in its scope. At the time the Empire was drifting like a rudderless ship adrift at sea. The Plan (as it will henceforth be called) was the result of considerable thought by the, then head, of the Committee which you now chair, and was passed at the full plenary of the party by a vast majority. There was, and remains, some dissenters who believe(d) the plan was too ambitious for the Empire to undertake at the time, and that a scaled down version of it would have been a more realistic goal. I, along with the men of the majority voted overwhelmingly to put the Plan into place. Little did we know at the time, what that would mean for the Empire.

The first year of the Plan went relatively smoothly, or as smoothly as any newly implemented plan can be expected to go, and as smoothly as anything can be expected to go in this Empire. However, as you may or may not know (I have no idea who you are, therefore I can not presume upon your knowledge), shortly after year One, the Empire experienced a major upheaval in the form of the Elephant conspiracy. This caused a fair amount of upheaval in the Empire, and made it necessary for another Party congress to convene to decide how the Empire was to react. After a brief, but furious struggle the Elephant party won control of the Central Committee, and was able to implement a new plan to replace the Five Year Plan.

This new planned, dubbed the J____s plan after its leading proponent, was a sharp departure from the Five Year Plan. It was more open, more of a "leap of faith" than the previous plan, but it had (or so it seemed at the time) almost unlimited potential to make the Empire "the land where happiness is King" (or so the slogan ran). Again, there were some dissenters who argued that the J____s Plan was pie in the sky thinking, and that the unbridled optimism it entailed would lead to an eventual disaster on the scale that even this Empire had never before witnessed. They argued it was economic adventurism, politically naive, and diplomatic suicide. The Congress that eventually passed the J____s Plan to replace the Five Year Plan was nasty, brutal, and many old comrades found themselves on opposite sides of the aisle during the debate, and would wind up never speaking to each other again (or even about each other, such was the acrimony) has been called the "Bloody Congress." Even though no actual blood was spilled the Party had virtually bled itself white during the debate.

The J____s Plan after its implementation, promised a new dawn for the Empire. It held that a unprecedented age of prosperity, wisdom, and general happiness was going to reinvigorate the Empire, and that the Five Year Plan's age of gloom and doom was a thing of the past. And you know what Comrade? Those damn Elephants (as they came to be called) were right. The Empire opened it borders (some even say its heart) and flourished. Trade became easier, travel became (more or less) unrestricted (like submarine warfare should be), and a period of general good will infected the Empire. Certainly there were a few hold out to the general good mood that permeated the general population (the ES for example) but they were mostly contained in the Pellrin province, and were unable to gain much traction or cause too much upset to the Empire. After all the Empire had not become so intoxicated with happiness that the Black Hats were disbanded.

This "golden age" lasted for around three years, and it seemed as if the last hold outs opposing it had been consigned to the "dustbin of history." However, like most good things it could not last. As you (whoever you are) have to now the recent Bucatini insurgency has led to suspension of the J____s Plan, and many fear to its eventual total collapse. There are rumblings in my province, and the surrounding ones that the Committee has failed us. That it has become a shambolic, disinterested, bumbling shell of its former self, and that the Empire's very existence is under threat.

Out here on the perimeter there are no "stars" of either Elephants or Bucatinis to sway, instruct, incite, or lead us. Out here we are like stones, we have lost the senses to perceive what the "right" path is, we are lacking direction, and feel as rudderless as the Empire was before the Five Year Plan was adopted. Those "Death Valley" years, if you lived through them, are something that must not be repeated. Those few thinking men left among us know that a return to those years will surely be the end of the Empire as a viable entity.  Therefore, it has devolved upon me as the senior cadre member here, to write this letter, this cri de coeur to ask for guidance. To beg for some clarity in a world that appears to be collapsing in upon itself. The Empire, a beacon for many, is dimming, and is in danger of being extinguished completely unless strong men act with the courage of their convictions, and lead it out of the morass in which it finds itself.

I, as well as many, await further instruction/guidance from some member of the Committee for Central Planning, if such a Committee still exists, and it is our fervent hope that it still does.

Signed, with faith in the Empire

Comrade U______y