8th Candelabram - Phone

[firstofthefallen]

What is paradise?

For the person who brought us here, this place is paradise. After all, they can play with their toys all they want, break them all they want, and repair them all they want. The same for their play set. And in a way, I guess that is a valid paradise, isn't it? In the end, comfort is what everyone wants to some degree. And this place must make our captor comfortable, so I suppose that then is paradise.

But what's paradise to one person isn't to another, as we're finding out here. I suppose, then, if you had to design paradise, a perfect world: what would it be?

Comments

[pinkscarflady]

I tend to prefer my paradise dry and a little dirty.

[firstofthefallen]

[The boy has to chuckle a laugh at that. The child form has always been the hardest to keep hidden, to keep his true nature from leaking out.]

It sounds like it would be pleasant, then miss.

Though I suppose paradise is always supposed to be such.

[pinkscarflady]

It usually is.

So then, fair is fair.... How do you define paradise?

[firstofthefallen]

I believe paradise will be a place where all may live together as equals.

[pinkscarflady]

Well, I'll give you points for optimism.

[firstofthefallen]

It's a forgone conclusion.

I've seen such worlds form before. They will form again.

[pinkscarflady]

Ah, but don't you think equality is ultimately based on our perceptions?

One may argue that everyone is equal in certain fundamental ways, but even if it were true, it would be meaningless unless everyone could be convinced to act as equals.

[firstofthefallen]

I agree, yes.

Which is why in the end the only equality that matters is that which is gained by the superior parts of the species.

[pinkscarflady]

Hmm, really? I tend to think the opposite.

In reality, equality itself is an illusion. The search for even the smallest bit of it is nothing more than a cosmic red herring.

[firstofthefallen]

I disagree.

Even if there is no inherent equality in the universe it will be created by our own hands in the end.

[pinkscarflady]

I suppose anything is possible. But my point was really more that it doesn't matter whether anyone achieves something so fleeting and subjective.

[firstofthefallen]

Is anything truly lasting? What isn't fleeting or subjective?

[pinkscarflady]

Absolutely nothing, idioms about 'death and taxes' notwithstanding.

[She pauses. Perhaps she's being too hard on him? He sounds fairly young, so he's certainly entitled to his idealism without having to debate with a grown woman on her fifth martini. Then again, she'd never pulled any punches with Rose....]

And should you find a way to achieve this equality, how would you enforce it? In any group of sentient beings, it is really only a matter of time before one of them decides that he or she is somehow better than the others.

[firstofthefallen]

Exactly.

The strong thrive, the weak die. Equality is not made by enforcing the idea that all are equal, but the fact that the strong will ultimately overtake the weak and continue to cut one another down until only the pinnacle survives. While "leadership" via one might arrive on account of that one being the strongest, these pinnacles remain equals and brothers in their abilities.

I suppose not traditional "equality" but an idea of a meritocracy based on the concept of thinning the herd until only the strongest remain.

[pinkscarflady]

But on what criteria would superiority be judged? Is strength alone enough?