Not so very long ago, some of the people I've since come to know and like were involved with Sansha's Nation. Vikarion, Cia... I don't exactly know the man very personally, but Silver Night fits the bill as well.
The thing is that they are good, honest people who genuinely saw the Nation - or rather their interpretation of it - as being the genuine best hope for mankind. Techno-utopianism, the use of technology to create a transhuman paragon of civilisation.
Honestly, it is a beautiful dream. At odds with my own view of how the galaxy works of course, but I can't fault them for wanting better than we have. Constructive chaos is a hard thing to embrace. Even I'm sometimes appalled at how unfair the universe can be, and I long ago accepted that said cruelty is what has made our species so strong, and what ensures that we will always be so. We thrive on adversity and diversity. Take those away, and you remove the very things that define the human spirit.
Which is why the Nation is such a toxic idea, of course. The whole idea is that Kuvakei intends to shackle all human life to his will, a process which is anathema to the positive, competitive anarchy that even allowed him to exist at all.
Frankly, Vik and Silver were hard to argue with at times. Because a lot of the time, they weren't actually wrong in any way that could be logically proven, and neither could I argue against their position without adopting an ugly, unpopular stance. After all, much of an argument is carried on charisma, on being able to win the audience over to your point of view. If one man is arguing that people have a right to choose an escape from the unfairness and suffering of the world into chip-induced happiness, and the other's position is that unfairness and suffering are burdens that humanity is enriched by enduring and overcoming, and that it is morally wrong to facilitate escape from them... well, who's going to win the popularity contest?
All of which is a moot point by now, of course. Because the real Nation, the one I saw lurking beneath the "Ultra™ Happy Chips!" façade and the enticing promise of utopia, is back and exactly as terrible as I always knew it was.
I miss those arguments. the Nation has gone from being an awkward philosophical construct with an enticing but toxic meme to spread, to being an almost disappointingly straightforward and immediate threat to people's lives. The good people have deserted it and while I'm sure their dreams about making the world a better place are still intact, I do feel sorry for them that what they put their faith in has turned out to be so inferior to their ideal.
Kuvakei, in short, is like all tyrants. Ultimately, he doesn't actually know what's in his best interests.
Save. End.
Really like this one. :-)
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