(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

[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?

[on_your_nerves]

To prove your worldview in regards to the inner nature of others makes even the smallest bit of sense.

Also, because I'm bored and I enjoy seeing others actually think.

[not_the_philistine]

Very well.

You require entertainment, but the entertainment you choose is the kind that allows justice to be done, and not obscured. Truth and justice are ideals for which I care greatly. Therefore, we have an interest in common.

I do not know your inner nature, but I do not think it is a hateful one. Otherwise it would not be the destruction of heroism, of kindness and selflessness, that you lament. It would be some pettier ideal that does not give virtues, such as kindness and compassion, a status of worth.

That is enough for me to care to discover more of your inner nature, as time and friendship allow.

It takes him a while to answer

[on_your_nerves]

I don't believe you've ever given your name.

[not_the_philistine]

Goliath.

[on_your_nerves]

Why did you choose the quotation you chose?

[locked. He doesn't need to mention his crazy ex-mate, even in passing, to the entire comm system.]

[not_the_philistine]

Because I have failed before at bringing up from the dark depths a lofty soul.

Yet even in the heart of the most determined murderer, the most selfish devotee of human consumption, I have witnessed the capacity to love, to feel and suffer, and this gives me hope for all the people of all the universes.

And much of the rest of the book is rooted in themes of human religion, the specifics of which I do not habitually discuss.