(no subject)

[on_your_nerves]

Bored.

I'm trapped against my will in the Medbay and it's so excruciatingly dull that the only thing I'm able to do right now to entertain myself is reflect on the fact that there are talking ponies on this ship that are capable of grasping objects when they're not in possession of opposable thumbs.

Someone say something that isn't tedious.

SH

Comments

He fails so much at literature, he doesn't know that wasn't a title

[on_your_nerves]

Who's it by?

GIP

[not_the_philistine]

[not_the_philistine]

You have been beaten to the punch. Someone has already asked me that in jest.

[on_your_nerves]

I'm not asking in jest. You said it's in Dostoevsky. Who wrote the book?

[Wait.]

That's the author, isn't it. The name's somewhat familiar.

[not_the_philistine]

It is.

Much else by that same author regards the human tendency towards worship and the effect of the dissolution of law on human conduct. I do not find this tedious to consider.

[on_your_nerves]

I'm not one for philosophy but I suppose this has more to do with forensic psychology than anything and I'm bored, so it will do.

That's not how it works, at least not entirely. Someone might bring another up from the depths, but they can't make them into a hero or an angel when neither exist.

[not_the_philistine]

Neither exist?

I ask that you elaborate.

[on_your_nerves]

Well I suppose angels might exist, given how much more seems to be actually possible with multiple universes, but in the sense of the word it was used in they don't.

There are no merciful, faultless souls that never harm others and always act with grace and kindness and nary an unselfish thought, and there are no people that are walking personifications of courage and moral excellence. We're all flawed, petty things seeking to survive and thrive in an unfeeling universe.

[not_the_philistine]

Then a hero must be flawless, to be called one?

What do you call a person who devotes themselves to the protection and service of others, at the risk of their own life?

[on_your_nerves]

A decent person. A good person, perhaps. I do believe those exist. I've got one for a friend.

Beyond that, though, there are just idols, just things people want to believe are larger than life to feel better about the world, and everyone knows what happens to idols in the end.

[They get torn down.]

[not_the_philistine]

My people are not given to idolatry. Enlighten me.

[on_your_nerves]

They're torn down. People make others into what they need them to be to believe the world is better than it is and then destroy them to feel better about their miserable little lives. That's how heroes are made.

Independently, individuals with the attributes traditionally attributed to heroes do exist, but the archetype is just that--an archetype. It's fiction--a construct rather than a reality.

[not_the_philistine]

What proved this to you?

[on_your_nerves]

The world. It's not that difficult to pick out the patterns. People value the extraordinary and then they tear it down whenever it suits them.

[not_the_philistine]

I ask only because this has not been my experience.

I have seen much that was good torn down, destroyed - but out of fear and misunderstanding, not of an unexplained whim.

[on_your_nerves]

Does it really matter why it's done?

[not_the_philistine]

It matters deeply.

[on_your_nerves]

That hasn't been my experience but then the deeper motivations of why people do what they do matter little on my line of work. Love affairs, prejudices, sadism, desperation, those are motives that need to be understood. Go any deeper than surface, though, and you enter the realm of philosophy rather than psychology.

[not_the_philistine]

I confess the philosophy of the human spirit has been of great interest to me for a great deal of time. The reasons and the thoughts that drive prejudice, that drive hatred and fear - this has been of dire consequence to me.

Perhaps what you say is true, but I am ignorant to it in practice. I know many flawed individuals, and no perfect ones - but in my opinion, which is philosophical, as an opinion cannot help but be, I have had the honor of making the acquaintance of heroes. Many of whom have not, yet, been torn down for destruction's sake.

Time shall tell if I come to agree with your findings. But my friend, I hope I will not have reason.

He focuses on the oddest things

[on_your_nerves]

Do you call everyone friend so easily?

[not_the_philistine]

We have conversed in a civil manner, and we are both of us on the side of the law in a time and place of crisis which affects so many beyond even our circles of loved ones.

I hope I may consider you my friend, for all of our sakes.

[on_your_nerves]

You know very little about me. Isn't it a bit naive to assume you understand the nature of a stranger so easily?

[not_the_philistine]

Must I know everything about a person before I call them friend?

[on_your_nerves]

Of course not, but what can you possibly know so far?

[not_the_philistine]

You wish me to make a deduction?

For what purpose?