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

[hedonistic]

[Kagari laughs; it's not a particularly nice sound, almost pitying in quality.]

That's like asking me if I'd have hopped on a dragon out to Narnia if I could. It's a fairytale, dude.

[He shakes his head.]

These thugs, they found a way to beat the system, you know? It didn't lead to some kind of happily-ever-after utopia. There were riots in the streets. So-called "wholesome citizens" tearing each other apart like animals, just because they were handed a means to get away with it.

Just because you think the world is a good and kind place doesn't mean that's reality for most people.

[idealisme]

I do not believe the world is good or kind. It is neither, as history has shown. [He sounds more down about that than he'd like.] But I believe that it can be made better than it is, to the benefit of people in it.

[hedonistic]

[There's a pause on Kagari's end. He's too cynical and bitter about the world and people in general to believe that, but it's not like he hasn't seen that kind of sentiment before. Akane felt that way, and he always assumed it was because she had such a perfect psycho-pass, allowing her to life a comfortable and happy life. But even after shit went bad, she still cared. It was weird. He never really understood her, much as he would've defended her with his life.

Despite himself, he asks:]

Why?

[idealisme]

Why?

[It's a question he's never been asked before. Perhaps that came of his company back in France, all like-minded you men who had caught a glimpse of the dream of a Republic and decided to work towards it.

There is too much to answer. His forehead furrows in thought.]

What good is the world if those who live in it suffer because of the actions of a few?

[hedonistic]

[What good is the world, really. Kagari doesn't say it.]

I don't mean why do you want things to be better. I mean, what makes you think you can fix the world? Or that anyone can, really.

[idealisme]

Men made the world- this world, your world, mine also- society is what men have made it, through their choices and actions. If it is one way, then it can be made another way. In my own world, I know it because others have succeeded.

[hedonistic]

Hah. How do you know what it's like in those other places? Have you been there? Japan's supposed to be the perfect society. That's what they always claimed, and before the Storm, there were a ton of refugees from the wars outside who wanted in.

[He sighs. Enjolras always sounds like he's chasing some unreachable dream to give himself a reason to live. As far as he sees it, the truth is that nothing you do really matters in the end. You'll rot in the ground like everyone else and people will forget in a century at best.]

People in general are shitty and selfish. You might be genuine about it, might even find a couple people who feel the same as you--but a whole government? It's not going to happen. Not long term.

[idealisme]

[Sharply-] Why not? Why should the fat, the greedy, the rich always triumph over the poor and the weak? Men are not inherently good or evil, as the church would have us beleive. Men choose to be what they are. Why should men not choose for the good of the country?

[hedonistic]

I didn't say anything about good or evil, dude. Just that people are selfish. And "should" doesn't matter to selfish people.

[Kagari should know, he thinks, being pretty selfish himself. He chuckles softly, a little bitterly.]

Besides, what's the "good of the country" even mean? Plenty of shitty stuff gets done for the so-called greater good. Hell, the average person in Japan's just fine with what happens to people like me. Trash oughta be thrown away, y'know?

[idealisme]

[That last statement has Enjolras' eyebrows rise in suprise. It quickly turns to cold anger, anger on Kagari's behalf that he should be so labeled.]

No. I do not know. I have seen nothing in you that would warrant such a designation.

[hedonistic]

[There's a moment -- a brief little jump in his stomach, where he can't help but think about how strange it is for a person he doesn't even think likes him to jump to his defense like this.

...He tries not to linger on it. Flippantly:]

Even though I'm a heartless bastard that doesn't get all hot and bothered at the very thought of a monarchy?

[idealisme]

[Without skipping a beat.] 'All men are born and remain free and equal in rights.'

So wrote some men in my world, setting down a document which would guide them in creating a new government. It was the first article and of first importance.

[hedonistic]

[It's the second time he's heard this idea of people being born free. Kagari wonders what it might have been like, living in that kind of world. Would he still have been dangerous, like Sybil had said? Would he have turned out the way he is now? It's too frightening a thought to dwell on, the idea that he might have suffered for nothing.]

Sounds like a nice fantasy, dude.

[And yet there's a bitter taste in his mouth about it. Not so much about freedom, or even equality (pipe dream as that sounds to him), but the idea that this guy believed it, and then he died. The world chews up and spits out people like him, ultimately. Akane joined the MWPSB in order to learn the "purpose of her existence" because she'd been marked as uniquely qualified to offer her services there, and ended up watching her friend get murdered.]

But most people are gonna be selfish, ultimately. They'll wanna keep themselves safe rather than take care of everyone. Sooner or later, someone'll come up with a reason for some people not to really count as people, and then those "rights" will be out the window.

[idealisme]

Not necessarily. A man has woken here recently from some time in the future of my country. [Can you see Enjolras' eyes brighten he gets to talk about France]

Perhaps forty or fifty years after my death the monarchy I fought against has come to an end. The nation has a constitution now, codified law regarding the rights of all men and the necessity that they be respected.

[IT'S jUST VERY EXCITING OKAY]

[hedonistic]

[Poor Enjolras getting his French freedom party rained on .....]

Heh, Japan has one of those too. It's a nice thought, and all, but the whole thing's a sham since Sybil picks the politicians anyway.

[He s h r u g s.]

The law's only as good as the people enforcing it, right?