video, un: revolution

[idealisme]

What would you die for?


[There's no preamble. Enjolras is not in the mood to set the scene. He's been thinking and gotten nowhere so he wants the input of others. Over his shoulder it's apparent his room a shambles, a young man living alone with his mind on things other than housekeeping.]

For myself there's a cause that I've given all my life to. It's the highest ideal I can imagine. I know that is not a usual thing. Life is precious; until I woke up here I'd have said that death precluded any second chances at it. But that's beside the point.

I ask because I thought I others shared my opinions. It is rational to give your life only for the most important ideal. Sacrificing yourself for just anything- to get any item or even for another person... [His lips pinch together in thought, his eyes look distant for a moment.] I have not been able to reconcile it.

[A quick sigh escapes him, frustrated.]

I would appreciate your sincere answers and insights. Thank you.

Comments

[idealisme]

Can you explain what you mean by 'returned the favor?' Did your country die for you?

[latkje]

If it weren't destroyed, I wouldn't be here, right?

[idealisme]

Oh, I see.


It can't be said that our nations died for us. It was the storm which destroyed them. [ that's NOT THE POINT, ENJOLRAS ]

But to the point- what about your country made you prepared to die for it?

[latkje]

I was born there, of course.

[idealisme]

[That he can understand, at least partially.

He nods, pushing for more information.] But was it a good country? Did it have rulers who made wise decisions?

[latkje]

Some did, some didn't.

But I think countries are bigger than their rulers, yes?

[idealisme]

Of course. Yet a ruler is an easy measure of the quality of a country. Everyone within it is subject to them. If they're a poor ruler, the country and it's people will not develop into all it can be.

[latkje]

I'm from a theocracy. The head of our church is immortal and inerrant.

[ That's the party line, anyway. ]

[idealisme]

[ oh gross religion ]

Surely this place is enough to disprove any relgious ideas you had back in your home?

[latkje]

Has this place disproved any of yours?

[idealisme]

The priests told us that the righteous would go to heaven and the unrighteous to hell. All they really cared about was that their coffers stayed full. I never believed them.

[latkje]

Yeah, the priests I know told me that the world would end in chaos if we didn't follow their tenants strictly. We didn't and it did.

But it does sort of make me wonder why you'd go through the trouble dying for an ideal if it won't lead you to salvation.

[idealisme]

What is the salvation of one person next to the progress gained for a whole nation?

I died in the fight to bring freedom for the people of my country. I died because men have rights- rights not given to them by god, but innate to them because they are human, regardless of education or rank.
My life was worth nothing next to the progress that could be gained for all the people of my country if i had succeeded. Salvation? Bah. I expected death would be the end. I did not- do not wish for salvation.

[latkje]

Progress is tricky. Some people's ideas of going forward are other people's backwards. That's why my wife says I'll never get anywhere.

What rights do you mean, by the way?

[idealisme]

The rights inherent to men.

That men are free and equal, and that they are born so. They have the right to their own property, the right to live their life so long as it does not infringe on another man's. That he cannot be stopped by any law of doing that which does not harm others.

[ He wishes he had a copy of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. He can recite it all from memory, but it would make things easier. ]

There are others. These are just an example. There are many others.

[latkje]

[ It may seem obvious to Enjolras, but Nash's world has nothing like the Declaration of the Rights of Man. ]

Do they also have the right to die as they choose?

[idealisme]

[Definitely something to work on.]

So long as their death does not infringe the rights of others, but I believe so.

[latkje]

And if someone chooses to die for the faith? Or exchange their life for their friend's? Isn't that a kind of freedom?

[idealisme]

They are free to. It does not follow that such deaths are necessarily logical.

But there, men may live out their freedom irrationally. That cannot be helped.

[latkje]

Then, is it rational to desire freedom if irrationality is the inevitable outcome?

[idealisme]

Men will be irrational, whether or not they are free.