02. Text

[5thchild]

Imagine a world where you can live happily forever. With no insecurities in yours or other people's hearts, no hatred and no confusion. Everyone would understand each other, no one would perish and every flaw in every living being would be complemented by the strengths in others.

In exchange for that, you’d have to lose one thing, however. The one thing that brings you great pain and yet you seem to cherish so much: individuality. You’d all be united as one being and nobody would exist singularly, but merely as part of a whole. "Existing" would mean "existing for the whole" rather than yourself or few selected ones.

Someone called this "Instrumentality Project" and the same people saw this as evolution, close to the power of what you would call "god". Would you accept it? Would you prefer eternal happiness with no loss or pain, or your individuality that eventually leads to that?

Comments

text;

[hoboagogo]

fuck that
im pretty sure emotions dont work like that anyway

text;

[5thchild]

Why "fuck that"?

[hackitude]

Are you kidding me? Who would want that?

[5thchild]

[ that's basically what his canon is about. ]

Why wouldn't you?

text;

[blondtactician]

Without loss or pain, isn't the word 'happiness' completely meaningless?

text;

[5thchild]

Why do you say so?

isn't that what most look for? A life without pain, suffering and loss?

[slightlyoffchilt]

Usually when a hypothetical is presented, the inquirer of such a hypothetical has already formed their own opinion on the matter.

Would this be accurate of you?

[5thchild]

It is. I do have an answer to my own questions. [ always ]

But I'm much more curious about what others have to say.

video;

[larker]

[Yikes, all that for the whole hivemind thing.]

Woah, careful with that philosophy, kid. You'll start hurting heads with that.

video;

[5thchild]

Hello, Gabriel.

No one is forced to answer.

[sanguineseams]

My individuality is what makes me different from the rest of my kind, so of course not.

[5thchild]

Different how?

[fingerbang]

One doesn't usually pose a question this detailed without precedent. Was what you're describing just a prospect, or something more?

[5thchild]

It's a possibility. Something that, while not meant to happen, could still happen.

Video

[foreshadower]

Doesn't merely existing mean you aren't truly living?

It seems like an awfully steep price.

Video

[5thchild]

What would be "truly living" to you, then?

voice;

[taselikeabee]

Back home we have this saying... 'Til all are one. Some took that to mean the sort of merging that you're talking about and it only led to destruction. So I don't think that's what the intent behind the words were.

Being unified doesn't have to strip people of their individuality.

voice;

[5thchild]

By destruction you mean that happiness was not achieved. In this case, it would.

Would you still reject it, knowing that?

Text

[fantasykiller]

I've experienced a world similar to your imagined one. The sacrifice was different and everybody still held their individuality, but ultimately the end result was the same; a world of happiness. No conflict. No pain. No tragedies. It was a perfect world created with the purpose of crushing my very being.

I reject your happy world for the same selfish reason I turned my back on the other one. I simply want to live in my original world regardless of its flaws. It bothers me that all my hard work could be easily replicated with such a meaningless illusion.

Text

[5thchild]

Why do you wish to live in a world with flaws?

VOICE.

[osreborn]

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. [ So supportive. ] There's no point in making that kind of sacrifice in exchange for something impossible.

VOICE.

[5thchild]

Something impossible?

text.

[isaytheeneigh]

Only an idiot would think life is only lived along those two paths.

text.

[5thchild]

Why do you say so?

voice;

[choreographics]

Question. Why couldn't you exist as your own person while existing in perfect harmony with everybody else? There are different ways of being happy and secure.

voice;

[5thchild]

It's painful. Individuality brings pain. [ he will explain ]

There are many "you's". There is the you that you know. There is the you your friends know. There is the you a stranger knows. There is the you in your dreams and the you in your imagination. There is the you in the past, the you in the present and the you that is still yet to come. [ like Kaworu said. There are many "you"s, each formed by a bond to someone or something ]

"You" is fragmented into so many different you's, so it makes it difficult to actually know "you". And because no one will truly know and understand "you", that brings "you" pain. That is why the heart is always in such pain, always suffering and always yearning. Because no one can truly and fully know "you", and all others have and all you can show them are fragments of "you".

That's the price of individuality.

it's painful. And rather lonely, too.