007 // blink and you'll miss a revolution

[serpentis]

Who: Dorian!
Broadcast: Fleet-wide!
Action: On the Three Twins
When: 5/26, night

Well, now that we've all gotten our fill of rampant debauchery, I thought I might pose a little question to you, Fleet. A more...somber question.

[Dorian looks considering for a moment, and when he speaks, he talks with his hands as much as his mouth. It seems like a subject he's certainly into, that's for sure.]

What would you do if, for example, you disagreed with the politics of your home? What measures would you go to? At what cost would you ensure that things were righted, were changed for the better?

[He raises a brow.]

Would you kill for it? Would you bring about chaos and disarray because the end would justify those means, as it were? How many deaths can be justified by a revolutionary change? 10? 100? Thousands? If it were for the greater good, how many lives could you sacrifice?

[He brings the hand back to his chin, thinking.]

Color me curious. What are your politics there?

Comments

audio;

[asinisterkid]

...I had a mentor who was pretty hardcore about how killing criminals makes you no better than they are, how they should be delivered to the proper authorities, because we could trust in the justice system. I tried his way. It didn't work. But he's not completely wrong. We had a philosopher back home, Nietzsche. He said, "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

[ There's a careful, measured quality to his words, a sense that he's trying very hard to find exactly the right words to explain something he passionately believes in. ]

I think that sometimes, the only way to make necessary change happen is to risk becoming the monster you're fighting. And that's a choice you have to make each time: is the suffering you prevent by killing someone greater than the suffering you cause? Is it worth damning yourself a little bit at a time? Sometimes it's a really easy choice: they tried to kill you first, they do horrible things to kids, whatever. Other times, not so much.

[ He speaks from experience on that score: by his own moral standards, he's halfway to being a monster himself. Necessity is not goodness. ]

That said, if I'd done the math and decided things were bad enough that outright revolution was the option that caused the least suffering overall... I'd fight from the shadows, and I'd start with whoever the disenfranchised underclass is. If the government's oppressive enough that kind of large-scale change is needed, there's probably at least one exploited group seething with resentment and pent-up anger. I'd focus on gaining their trust one dead abusive overlord at a time, making them believe change is possible... And then the assholes in charge would have not just the one enemy, but a small army of enemies who cook their food and clean their houses and guard them while they sleep. [ Is he paraphrasing Fight Club? He just might be, but it doesn't make the point any less valid. ] More than that, that gives me a network of informants who know better than anyone else who needs to die, and who can be reasoned with, because in a lot of cases, the person who brings you your food or shines your shoes is practically invisible. I would also do everything in my power to make sure my people's families were safe while we set up to take out the overlords in one fell swoop. One last attempt at negotiation, just to give them the chance to not die horribly, and then a whole lot of corpses in a very short time period. Make it quick and clean, and allow for the bare minimum of opportunities for people to get caught in the crossfire.

Skipping a whole lot of ifs and maybes and variable strategies, and the fact that no plan concocted off the top of your head in response to a random question will actually work in the field without a helluva lot of tweaking, once I'd made room for someone better to take power, I'd have people without blood on their hands waiting to fill the void. Ideally, people who didn't approve of what I'd done to put them there. Otherwise, it's just setting everyone up for more of the same in a few years.

...And that's a lot of ranting, even for me. [ He sounds almost sheepish. ] Sorry.