|
|
| Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 0 post(s) |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
138
   |
Posted - 2013.07.29 05:41:00 -
[1] - Quote
Respectfully, Fae-haan, it seems a little early to be proclaiming ourselves monsters. At a glance, the average clone soldier is a much less monstrous being than the average capsuleer.
Mr. Boletarias:
There do seem to be a number of clone soldiers about who suffer amnesia as a side effect of their implantation (the implant replaces a portion of the brain involved the formation of long-term memory, which may have something to do with it). Whether any record is available of your previous life probably depends on whether your identity has been changed, which may also suggest whether your amnesia is accidental or intentional. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
139
|
Posted - 2013.07.29 07:04:00 -
[2] - Quote
Galm Fae wrote:Oh yes soldier, perhaps you are right. Perhaps it will all turn out like those splendid Gallente pioneer films, where the dashing space commando saves the day, gets the girl, at makes it back before bedtime!
We are bred to kill. Next to clearing drone hives, there isn't much nobility in our work. We may not be the angry gods that eggers have become, but we are as of now their puppets. Until we can liberate ourselves from the empyreans, we are doomed to violence.
Respectfully, Fae-haan, we are not "bred" to do anything. We're built, and we're built to die as much as to kill. We are Empyreans. We share the capsuleers' pseudo-deific characteristic. In fact, we surpass them in it; their optimum clone transfer accuracy is 99.99%, and that is with a top-of-the-line clone. That's pretty good until you iterate the loss ten thousand times. They cannot die nearly as often as we do without eroding badly.
And they are more fragile than you seem to give them credit for. One 'clone failure,' and they're done. How often do you get interrupted mid-activation? Did you perish forever when it happened? They do.
The capsuleers can die, and we may eventually be the ones to kill them. Far from being their slaves, the day may come when we are called upon to be their executioners ... if we are not to be destroyed alongside them.
Respectfully as well, I am not so naiive as you suggest; our role will be, at best, a mixed one. We are not heroes; heroes risk their lives-- and even when they sacrifice those lives, they are not remembered with honor by all.
We can barely aspire even to that. But we can serve a purpose.
You cannot please everyone, soldier. The most we can do is to try and play our part, and play it well. The rest will be for the policy-makers to decide, and the historians. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
144
|
Posted - 2013.07.30 21:31:00 -
[3] - Quote
Galm Fae wrote:I increasingly like your thinking... To an extent. I have heard rumors of proposed operations where mercenary groups invade entire Titans to clear them out. So far the feat has never been publicly attempted, leaving the proposal as a serious method of waging war more or less up in the air at the time being. In time however, things will change. As of now, our grip on the universe is loose. We act less as corporations and more as gladiators fighting for the entertainment and profits of capsuleers. For now, that is the life we are doomed to. It is a fact we will have to endure.
One day though, when we have grown powerful off the squabbles of these starship captains, we shall turn it around.
So far, mostly, we are the hired help for either the empire militaries ("mercenary" missions) or various baseliner organizations, from Mordu's Legion to nullsec entities such as True Power (why these ... people, revised and edited, these worshipful victims of Sansha Kuvakei, are allowed to post contracts is one of the great mysteries of our age).
I do see your point, though. A lot of our work occurs in the capsuleers' shadow. We will probably see more capsuleer involvement in our lives if the Molden Heath experiment is proclaimed a success. And ... yes, they will probably have the edge on us in resources and in firepower, for a very long time.
The key capsuleer weakness is a blind spot: they reliably dismiss any threat that cannot defeat them in naval combat. If the capsuleer falls, it will be an ape (or ape-like artificial organism) with a tool box that kills it.
Quote:And so Lynch-haan, to tie this back to you: It isn't about what you were. It is about what you will become. Will you be a puppet, or a person? Continue to fight these battles if you wish, but remember that these fights will just devolve you into another cog in the war machine. Or... You can fight your own war. Bring purpose and begin fighting for yourself.
I predict a great disillusionment following in the footsteps of the Arkombine. It is only a matter of time.
You seem to have tasted, or more than tasted, of disillusionment, yourself, Fae-haan. Is it so terrible to be a cog, if the machine is doing something worthwhile?
For good or ill, we are instruments, tools, perhaps playthings, of the powers that be. This may not be exactly an empowering perspective, but to turn it around: those same powers are the forces that structure society in the empires and beyond.
Is civilization a bad project for us to be involved in? |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
147
|
Posted - 2013.07.31 17:46:00 -
[4] - Quote
Shattered Mirage wrote:You shouldn't take things at face value... Some of us have the potential to be much more monstrous than the capsuleers could ever hope to be.
I have seen your post elsewhere, would-be destroyer. With due respect to your fighting prowess, you have neither the firepower nor the ammo capacity to do as you describe.
You may have the will and blood lust to match the worst of capsuleerdom, but you lack the destructive firepower. What you could not do in a hundred years with unlimited ammunition and an LAV to compensate for your 'Colossus' Heavy vk.0's waddling pace, a titan can do in an instant.
A nasty little mass-murderer, you might be, or become. A world-shattering horror, you are not.
Galm Fae wrote:Nothing matters but ourselves and that which we decide to invest our time in. For that exact reason, the supreme force in the universe is not unity, but one's ego. All power is granted from the individual.
These words, with much respect, Fae-haan, seem to reflect a great deal of pain. If you are willing and interested, I may be able to ... help, a little.
The Way of the Winds and the Achur faith are recognized by practitioners of both to be different perspectives on a single truth. Normally, we do not presume to instruct the Caldari on their path, close kin to ours though it may be, but there are ... insights ... that are easier to perceive from an Achur perspective.
If you wish it, I will offer what I can. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
150
|
Posted - 2013.08.01 01:20:00 -
[5] - Quote
Fae-haan,
Very well. I will enter this here, partly because you have so bravely expressed your pain here in the open, and partly because there are others here struggling with matters of identity.
From what I have been reading, your disillusionment seems to come from the gap between what you had believed or hoped the world was, and what it is. The world, as you say, runs on double standards. That is, it does not conform to the ideals it claims to hold. It is not fair. It is not just. It isn't even really consistent.
The problem is not that you expected the world to be good, and it is not; nor is it even that the world is indifferent. Some more animistic sects will say differently, but this is what the Shuijing sect teaches.
The rocks on the battlefield do not notice who emerges victorious. The grass our spilled blood nourishes cannot tell Caldari from Gallente. When all of us are dust, the stars will burn on without a tear for our passing-- not because they do not care, but because they will not notice.
The problem is that the world isn't human, isn't built for humans, and never was. The supreme force in the universe isn't ego; it's the universe.
The world that humans see is not the universe; it is our minds' model for navigating the universe. The world that we see is a world of illusion. Some of those illusions, such as fictional characters, are easy to recognize. Some, such as money, are obvious illusions, but we all agree to treat them as real and therefore make them important. Others are very difficult; I won't go into most of those right now.
The trick to illusions is not that they are not important; many of them are. It is that they are not real. At their best and most useful, they approximate reality and help us to navigate it. At their most dangerous, they falsify reality, and trick us into actions or expectations that do not match the contours of the land.
An ideal is an aspirational illusion. It is an illusion that does not try to tell us what reality is, but what it should be. At their best, ideals guide us to act in ways that improve our lives. At their worst, they trick us into trying to force reality to be what it cannot. The pain you are coping with comes from learning that the land does not conform to the topography your ideals described.
Of all illusions, possibly the most important and difficult to pierce is ego. Ego is the illusion that is the self. It is an important illusion, but an illusion just the same: the voice that says, "I am me, I am myself, I stand apart." If we can each be described as unique and individual snowflakes, it is because we are dropping through that brief span between the clouds and the snowbank. And it is snowing hard.
Would you have meaning, apart from your siblings? You might persuade yourself so, but the universe will not be interested in whether you are "meaningful" or not. Only your siblings are interested.
Your siblings, your fellow figments, are engaged in a grand project. It's called "civilization," and it's a sort of fragile structure mostly made out of tentative agreements, spun glass, spider webs, playing cards, and a lot of self-deception. It's more fragile than it looks, and it doesn't do quite what it says on the tin-- in fact it's not really honest, just in general.
It's hard to be a part of it, and be consistent-- to avoid double standards. In some sense, it probably makes everybody you know a hypocrite. But it does provide some shelter, and a scaffold for other projects: a way we can do things like philosophy, corporations, and clone reanimation units.
Now, maybe you play the honest man. You scoff at all these fibs and fairy tales, and you find a loose thread and take as much of it as you can. Never mind the damage-- it was never real to begin with, right? Never mind that you are a bit of fluff and flim-flam sneering at other bits of flim-flam engaged in building a great interwoven structure of shadows, gossamer, and flim-flam. Never mind that in tossing off all these deceptions you are embracing the deeper fiction that the universe gives a toss whether you are honest.
Never mind how many of your fellow wisps you savage in the process. Never mind that you're tearing down their shelter. A barbarian provides for himself and his nearest and dearest. He is an animal (aren't we all?), but he might be sort of honest for a human.
Or, perhaps, you find your place and help build. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
155
|
Posted - 2013.08.01 05:44:00 -
[6] - Quote
True Adamance wrote:Heresy
Respectfully, Templar, it is difficult to be a heretic in a faith that has no conception of heresy.
Fae-haan:
Forgive me, but there is one note of caution I feel I must offer.
My sect is among the most spiritually skeptical of the Achur sects. Our name, "Shuijing," literally means "a crystal suitable for use in jewelry" on account of its clarity. Achura Shuijing teaches no conception of cosmic good or cosmic evil; the universe does not seem to judge the righteous from the wicked. Different approaches seem to work in different places, and for different people. Achura Shuijing is therefore morally relativistic.
We do, however, teach moral guidance of a sort.
One way in which the Totality does react to our actions is through consequence. Acts that run against the proper flow of the universe send out ripples through the Totality. They may rebound back on their source, or they may spread outward and harm others. The more disruptive the act, the greater the waves ... and the more suffering they cause.
Most often, such ripples are a product of arrogance.
This is not "evil" or "sin," as such, but we do seek to avoid such actions. Even if we could be certain that the consequences would not rebound upon ourselves, it is rude to bring disruption to another's life. You could consider it a matter of existential courtesy.
It is partly for the sake of conforming ourselves to its flow that we seek to perceive the Totality-- to develop the insight, the wisdom, to identify the flow of the universe and move with it, not as a fish in water, but as the water itself.
There was another Caldari who spoke of a great destiny for humanity, a great weapon manufacturer and utopian philosopher. In his wisdom, he decided he could, that he had to, "fix" human nature. He took a hatchet to the human mind and slaved what was left to his will.
The consequences burned nearly all that he had built, and the waves have not calmed to this day. Like a forest fire, his Nation spreads, claiming what it touches. It will continue until it is destroyed, or until we are all of us either dead or "fixed." It is a carnivorous, predatory thing; its enslaved minions do not deserve to be hated, only feared, pitied, and, whenever possible, destroyed.
You have heard his name, of course: Sansha Kuvakei. Apparently, to this day the poor man still cannot see his mistake. |
Yun Hee Ryeon
Dead Six Initiative
Lokun Listamenn
157
|
Posted - 2013.08.01 19:27:00 -
[7] - Quote
Galm Fae wrote:And Ryeon, I understand your concern. I don't seek to pull the rug out from others or collapse the fragile life some have worked so hard to preserve. I have no goal or ambition to speak of. I'm less of a visionary and more of the boy who ran away to see all this life has to offer. I merely feel the need to pause and make commentary on what I observe along the way.
I never said it had to be on purpose, Fae-haan. It usually isn't.
Mm. That said, it does seem like you've found a balance of sorts. Exploring the universe is an idea we share.
It may be unnecessary for me to say this, but ... you spoke earlier of these truths as "bitter." I'll certainly admit that they're difficult, even painful, for those who aren't brought up with them to come to see, but, respectfully, I see nothing dark in them.
If this universe had been made for humans, and yet it had turned out like this, the deity who got it all going would have much to answer for. If God, in the Amarrian style, is anthropomophic and His creation is supposed to be anthropocentric, he and I are going to have words.
But, if the Totality exists for its own sake alone, and not for ours-- well, it is no surprise that the most we can ever seem to manage is to muddle through as best we can. Life is a struggle, as the Way of the Winds teaches, not because it is designed to torment us but because that is the way living things survive. We struggle, we suffer, but the Totality is innocent of all that.
And this, all this, this colossal-beyond-colossal everything that we are a part of? It's amazing. |
|
|
| |
|