02 . text

[systemize]

[The comm tag reads Stormer and is untraceable.]

Someone asked me recently how I'd define moral and immoral, but I think my perspective's a little skewed. How do you define it?


> private to Magicman
I need to ask you for a favor. Do they have you listed as an adult here? I wasn't sure what your official age would be.

> private to Isaac
I think I have your software finished. I can send you the file to download and you can check if it needs troubleshooting.

Comments

[systemize]

You're right. Normal has a different median value here. But I'd rather have become normal at home than shifted the environmental circumstances to make me normal.

[cephalothorax]

Really! Why is that? The desire to be "normal" continues to confuse me, if I'm being honest.

Also: what is your view of moral and immoral?

[systemize]

It's less dangerous. And it's simpler.

It's immoral to murder, maim, kidnap, manipulate or extort someone. It's moral to help someone when you're able to. The rest of it I'm working on.

[cephalothorax]

[Well gosh.]

"Help someone when you're able to" is a bit vague. Wouldn't it depend on who the someone is and what they need help with?

[systemize]

Well, yeah. But I'm trying to say inaction is its own decision. You can't just sit around.

[cephalothorax]

Fair enough. I think some places have laws about that. Good Samaritan laws? But then... if you do it because of laws, that's probably not technically moral reasoning.

[systemize]

Law and morality are necessarily separate. Good Samaritan laws protect bystanders who help in a crisis from being persecuted if they fail in anything, but sometimes they aren't very powerful, and people still end up getting punished for trying to be kind.

It's not right.

[Since Cadel had specifically had a class on legal loopholes that villains can exploit, he's pretty versed in where the law falls short. He's much more versed in it than where it succeeds.]

[cephalothorax]

I agree, of course - sometimes law is created to encourage adherence to morality, but they're just as often arbitrary.

[Well. In Chrollo's personal opinion the existence of law is arbitrary but guess what he's not going to say. That.]

I have to admit, I can't think of a case of people being punished for attempts at kindness, though. You sound pretty familiar with these things, though.

[systemize]

[Most of Cadel's formative years, he'd believed the existence of law was arbitrary, too. It's a little more difficult to believe that now, with a police detective for a father and all of his childhood associates debunked as unstable.]

I've studied them. It wasn't a fun study. Sometimes the law serves a purpose and sometimes it's just an obstruction.

[cephalothorax]

You studied them? That's interesting - at home or here? I don't mean to be nosy, it's just that kind of topic doesn't really get taught on my world.

[systemize]

At home. If criminals can get the law on their side then they aren't technically criminals anymore.

What kind of place are you from that isn't concerned about that?

[cephalothorax]

It's definitely a little different than most of the worlds I've learned about here, especially from a legal perspective.

For one thing, there's a test you can take to get a license that tends to smooth over all your legal problems - even things like murder or theft. And the test is more or less designed to be impossible for people who aren't physically superhuman.

[systemize]

The might makes right mentality? So if you're strong enough, you can do whatever you want?

I don't see how that's any different from being smart enough that you can bypass all the rules.

[cephalothorax]

Nothing, really. I guess it's just that they're more honest about it - win a license, solve your problems.

It's upfront, I'll give it that much.

[systemize]

Then you don't agree with it?

[cephalothorax]

I think it's silly to outlaw something and then allow loopholes, particularly loopholes based on accidents of birth. Physical strength, social status, that sort of thing.

[systemize]

That's what happens when you get so concerned with the letter of the law and disallow any room for interpretation. I don't like it either.

[cephalothorax]

On the other hand... isn't relying on interpretation an open invitation to bias.

[systemize]

You need a balance. That's why you don't just put one person in charge.

[cephalothorax]

A good theory, but then again even modern governments tend to have a single person at the helm, in the end... don't they? Presidents, prime ministers...

I suppose it's about having something that can override even that person, in the end - a council or congress. Parliament. Not that it necessarily applies only on the national level, of course.

[systemize]

That's all beyond me. I've never studied government. I know how it works essentially, but not enough to have opinions on it. Though I've been meaning to look into details on the one here. It's different from the America I'm familiar with.

[cephalothorax]

To be honest, my world doesn't even have an America. But I like doing research, reading... just about anything, really.

[systemize]

Well, it's a great opportunity for that here. Everything must be new if you don't have an America.

[cephalothorax]

It is. Very much so. I gather you're from a world more similar to this one?

[systemize]

It's not unlike it. The Cold War ended a long time ago and the technology is very different, but the geography's the same and it's nearly the same year.

I can't find record that anyone I know ever existed, which is probably for the best.