126 - ALPHA PLUS THEORY.

[buywithme]

[There's a slight rustle of pages, before Prefect speaks, and the first thing he says... doesn't sound very Prefectish.]

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

[Pause.]

I don't know how I can talk about what circumstances it might be all right to kill people under. I haven't successfully killed anyone on the Barge, but during the time that I served the Factory I initiated the paperwork for thirteen hundred and seventy two people to be discontinued.

[He's quiet for a moment, then speaks.]

To be killed. I don't know what the exact proceedure was, and at the time there wasn't any reason why I should think on it too much, but if I had, the understanding that I would have come to was that I was arranging for them to be murdered.

Maybe that's why it seems strange to hear people talking about how the atmosphere on the Barge devalues life, because for me, being here did the exact opposite. Even though, Comrades, I went through hell here. Even though I died, even though I was tortured, and even though it was ignored by the wardens who were here at the time, being here still made life seem more valuable. It put what I'd done into perspective.

I think some of the things here happen because people are desperate, and because they're scared, and because life here is hard, but I think most of the things that happen here, just happen because we're evil, and because we never cared about who we hurt.

[There's another pause, another rustle of pages, then:]

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

[HM.]

I found a book of quotes about not killing each other in the library.

Comments

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

I can, comrade. A little of it, anyway, comrade. I was about... ten, maybe? When the Revolution happened. I remember my father's part in it.

How do you reconcile that with things like your inmate's ability, comrade?

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

I think that Barron's power just... uses the parts of your mind that forget things, to hide your real memories, and make new ones. I don't think he really gets rid of the old ones, people just don't know to look for them anymore.

It's like he gives you amnesia. If you know you have amnesia, you try and remember things, and eventually maybe you do, but because he puts something else there instead, people don't try to remember them correctly.

He can't actually take away what's happened to you.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

But all of reality is a perception, comrade. If you don't believe it's happened, has it?

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

That doesn't make sense, Comrade. If all of reality was perception, then no one would ever be wrong about anything, because reality would be what they perceived.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

Or everyone would be wrong and a collective perception would be right, comrade.

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

Except, Comrade that if you all thought back, you'd all know that it wasn't.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

Or you'd all mistrust your individual memories, and think you'd just imagined it.