I couldn't decide whether to quote the long chunk or just the bumper-sticker-sized slogan at the end, so I'm hedging my bets and bolding the soundbite.
"[...] Free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last loose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." -- UN Commissioner Pravin Lal, a character in the game "Warring Factions" and/or the game "Alpha Centauri"
(I'm not sure whether the games are related, and if so, how. Neither am I certain what player or game designer actually authored that quote to put into the character's mouth. But searching the web for it leads back to pages related to both games. In one it's listed as coming from "U.N. Declaration of Rights", and in the other it's from "Librarian's Preface". Clues appreciated.)
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"Warring factions" isn't a game, but rather a description of the splintering of the giant colony ship along ideological lines. Commissioner Pravin Lal is one of the faction leaders.
The gameplay consists of fouding cities, improving them and the land around them, terraforming, researching technologies and philosophies, evolving your government, building up your military, conducting intricate negotiations with other factions, and waging war. Victory is achieved via UN elections, conquest, or transcendence.
The factions and their leaders:
- Deirde Skye, Gaia's Stepdaughters (Environmental)
- Sheng-ji Yang, Human Hive (Totalitarian)
- Miriam Godwinson, Lord's Believers (Theocratic)
- Nwabudike Morgan, Morgan Industries (Capitalist)
- Corazon Santiago, Spartan Federation (Militarist)
- Pravin Lal, UN Peacekeepers (Secular Humanist)
- Prokhor Zakharov, University of Planet (Rationalist)
The expansion added five more human factions and two alien races, but I never played it.
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