let's talk politics (crystal)

[rathercommon]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Kitty Jones
RECIPIENT: Ev'rybody
WHAT: Politics!
WHEN: Backdated a touch
WHERE: Everywhere
NOTES: Shouting and threadjacking highly encouraged

So -

[ Kitty sounds, in her usual mode, sensible and direct. ]

I've been listening, and I've not heard much chatting about the election of the Divine over the crystals, which makes me suspect that everyone's doing it privately. But it seems to me that this is the sort of thing which we ought to be talking about as honestly as possible.

So - who's the best candidate? In your opinions. And what can we do to make sure the dreadful ones don't win?

Comments

[rathercommon]

How's it...different?

[katabasis]

One is driven along by people, and the other is divine. The latter inspires a kind of fervor that's difficult to satisfy.

[There's a different conversation to be had here; but not in public.]

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty gives a hum of hesitant understanding. ]

When religion is involved, it does seem like the rules of what's reasonable and unreasonable - what's wrong or right - totally changes.

[katabasis]

[gestures emphatically to all of thedas]

It certainly preys on a well-formed habit of not asking questions.

[rathercommon]

But so do ideas of - you know - nations and all that. To be completely fair. Most fighting seems to come out of filling people's heads with ideas and not letting them wonder if these ideas are true.

[katabasis]

If we're to fill people's heads with ideas, the ones that see a difference in the aftermath are where we win a war by with an accord reached by reason rather than one handed down by a Divine. Telling the same story our great-grandfathers heard leaves us exactly where we started.

[rathercommon]

Yeah. You're right.

[ Her voice is firm. That makes so much sense - That Exalted Marches and counter-attacks are all part of Thedas' cycles of violence, and to be resisted - that going with that old pattern will mean that nothing changes. And Corypheus - He's awful, and needs to be defeated, but getting rid of him won't make this world better; it'll just make it less bad. ]

What d'you think the world ought to look like, Captain Flint? Once all of this is over?

[katabasis]

[When what's over? isn't a question that a occurs to him, much less is spoken.]

Let's start with less killing each other for the right to keep one another miserable.

[rathercommon]

Definitely a good start.

[ But she doesn't quite relent. ]

But I'm sure you've got dreams for Thedas that go beyond that, haven't you?

[katabasis]

[Tear it to the ground and start over.]

All I want is for happiness to not be so regularly incompatible with being acceptable based on terms dictated by people who have never known anything but a comfort they've never had to question. Seeing as no one will get to decide what that looks like alone, I suspect it's wiser to reserve those dreams for when we have a better view of the way forward and who we're going with that doesn't first involve hacking through an army of Venatori.

[rathercommon]

Maybe. But in my experience, an excess of wisdom is often quite counterproductive to making a real difference.

[ She smiles, finding herself quite clever and adorable. ]

I just think it's worth it sometimes to remember...There's an end to the fighting. There will be. And we should be ready to act to build that better world.

[katabasis]

[A laughs. It's an easy noise.]

Then once we get there, we can draw straws to see who gets to decide for the rest of us. Make certain you've organized your thoughts for if you pull a short one.

[rathercommon]

Don't be ridiculous. We'll all decide together. With a great lot of screaming. That's how it works on your ships, right? You try to make a decision, everyone else kicks up a fuss and yells and tries to get their way, and then you finally figure out some compromise that no one's happy with but everyone accepts?

[katabasis]

That's more or less the way of it, yes.

[we don't talk about matters of bribery and base manipulation here]

[rathercommon]

Then that'll be the way of real democracy, too.

[katabasis]

[Kitty Jones, you warm his cold black heart.]