Practical Philosophy, Tuesday

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They were back out on the lawn again, albeit this time in the shade. Alongside the usual drinks offerings sat several pitchers of water, pieces of cucumber and lemon peacefully drifting within.

"I think I'll spare us all the extended introduction this time," Ender said, as soon as everyone was seated. "I thought I'd focus our topics somewhat, this half-semester. We, as sentient beings, struggle always to comprehend others, for our thoughts are both alike enough to inspire curiosity, and yet different enough to inspire confusion. And when the confusion outweighs the curiosity, it can result in horror."

He took a sip from his small glass of water.

"I'll be dragging along a few old, dead philosophers for the ride later on," he said. "For now, I'm simply interested in one question: when was the first time you actively remember yourself being confused by the actions of another being? And, with the benefit of hindsight, do you now understand why they did what they did?"

Comments

Sign In!

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Curiously.

Re: Sign In!

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana Vess

Re: Sign In!

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima Atreides

Listen to the Lecture

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Have some lemon water.

Talk.

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When was the first time you actively remember yourself being confused by the actions of another being? And, with the benefit of hindsight, do you now understand why they did what they did?

Re: Talk.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana spent some time considering not her answer to the question, but how much she wanted to share it. Eventually she decided that she was unlikely to share anything she didn't wish to, and so replied, "I'm sure there were times before this, but the time I certainly remember best as a potential first was when the invading forces of the Cabal hit several of our outlying farms and slaughtered every living creature they could find, including the animals in the fields. By that time, I understood that warfare involved killing each other, but I didn't understand why anyone would kill the animals, too, down to the barnyard cats." She shrugged. "And of course I understand. Good tactics, for what the Cabal was trying to do."

Re: Talk.

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"Which was, in your estimation?" Ender asked.

He could guess, but that wasn't why they were here.

Re: Talk.

[deathsmajesty]

"Eliminate us," Liliana said with a shrug. "This wasn't an invasion for land or resources or even subjugation. While some people might have been sent back as slaves to Otaria, they weren't in it for profit. It was a religious war. At best, they wished to use the Caligo as a jumping off point for invasion deeper into Benalia and declared a total war upon us for it. At worst, they simply wished to exterminate us for the glory and power they got from our messy demises."

Re: Talk.

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"No interest in conversion, then," Ender noted, picking up his water. "Why do you think that was?"

Re: Talk.

[deathsmajesty]

"Because our holding was a seat for the Forward Order, a major sect of the Church of Serra. The Order and the Cabal have been at each other's throats for centuries, probably longer. Possibly since Urza's time, even. Nine Hells, he was probably some way involved."

When in doubt, blame Urza, and you had better than even odds it was somehow his fault. Fucker.

"I'm certain that, for some, converting their religious enemies would be a major win. That kind of subtle vengeance isn't the purview of the skin-witches and lich-knights they unleash outside of Otaria."

C'mon, they were named 'The Cabal' and 'the Order.' Subtlety had been strangled in the cradle and then fed to a nightmare horror.

Re: Talk.

[atreideslioness]

"When I was a small child," Ghanima said slowly, "--I watched my aunt, my guardian, the one person besides my brother with a real chance of understanding me, go down a path I could not comprehend; chasing the future by overdosing on an awareness spectrum narcotic over and over again. Her sanity slipping away."

"It took until I was a few years into our reign that I understood. She had not just been abandoned by my father, but her own mother had fled the planet immediately upon my birth because it was 'too painful.' Alia was barely a teenager, now the regent of the Empire, with two defenseless infants, enemies everywhere, held up as a saint and a goddess and no one around her who could understand what the three of us were. I had Leto. She had no one."

Re: Talk.

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"Did realizing that change the way you looked at those around you?" Ender asked.

Re: Talk.

[atreideslioness]

"In a way," Ghani said thoughtfully. "It made me even more thankful for my nursemaid, Harah. She had also been Alia's, and was quite possibly the sole person who wasn't even the least bit afraid of any of us. To her, we were simply children who needed to be loved and raised. She was a practical woman who held no religious reverence for us, she was not scared of us, and did not view us as abominations. She was a steady rock in turbulent sands, and she loved us."

"But my aunt was so caught-up in the mythos my father had created and the weight that was crushing her, that she could no longer see Harah for who she was and what she offered. It has made me very aware of how no one person can stand alone, and how carefully I must choose who I surround myself with."

She smiled slightly. "Friendship does not always save the world. But sometimes it can save a person, and that is enough."

Talk to the Teacher

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If you catch him after class.

OOC

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I hate being sick. Especially when it's the me kind of sick, where I feel mostly fine until I get up and do something and suddenly it's nausea city.