The Ones Who Said "No Thank You, We'll Fix It Ourselves"

 

Let me show you my world. Come, walk with me through the streets and houses of my city. Where would you like to start? Outside in, from the city to the neighborhoods to homes to individual relationships? As good a place to start as any, for sure. My city is very much typical of my world, it’s a pretty good snapshot of society here.

I guess you could give us points for environmental friendliness. We’ve got infrastructure going for us at least. The rivers are clean, the houses solar powered, the transport efficient, and we haven’t driven too many species extinct in providing for our needs. Go us. Sorry if that sounds sarcastic; we really are doing a lot better than we used to. As far as my societies impact on the rest of the world is concerned… I mean, no place is a utopia, but we’re not trashing the rest of the planet. Well, not anymore. Nowhere near as much as we used to.

Now, inside society… where shall we start? Which neighbourhoods? I suppose we can get the bad neighbourhoods out of the way first. Yeah we have some bad neighbourhoods. People passed out in the streets from drugs, domestic abuse, neglected children… like I said, I don’t live in utopia here. To be honest it feels quite voyeuristic just showing you around. Please just take my word for it, I refuse to film folks at their worst for transworld entertainment.

That’s too depressing. Okay, we’ll go visit a more upscale neighbourhood. Everyone here is happy, healthy, beautiful. That’s better, why can’t everyone live in a place where there are no ugly or disabl- oh, you just realised how they achieved it, didn’t you? Yeah, good thing you’re not actually here in person. Not that you’re ugly or disabled or anything, but it’s not only those features they discriminate on. Don’t worry though, in all the diversity here I’m sure you’ll find some place that will take you, where you won’t have to encounter them ‘uns up the street. I’m being sincere here, there really is a place for everyone in this city. Just not the same place.

Of course, even here there’s not always domestic harmony. Especially when someone finds their chuldren aren’t what they hoped they’d be. At least in this neighbourhood they’re honest about their bigotry, so the weirdo kids can keep quiet if they are able to and plot their escape. They’re less honest about their affairs and infidelity. The polar opposite to some other places I’ve visited, really. Some people will be very proud about their second and third and fourth loves, and all the children from them, yet will carefully sweep their digital trail to make sure their slurs list is not discovered. We all have our pasts I guess. And our presents.

Anyway, those are choices we make. Grief is rarely chosen though, as I’m sure you’re well aware – and if not, I guarantee that at some point you will be. We have good healthcare here, and children still die. Sometimes things happen and you can’t control it. I can tell you from statistics that right now hundreds of expectant parents here are grieving the loss of a pregnancy. As one of your great writers once said, every world spins in pain. As hard as you try there’s always some residual. So it will be, till the world is mended.

At least we have friendship to carry us through. Most of us. If we’re lucky. Not everyone is. Often through fault of their own – it is quite possible to make yourself odious enough to drive away even the most gracious and patient of people. Often not – bullying is well known as an effective group bonding exercise, and that requires finding someone to bully. Friendship is hard. Even when we have friends, we don’t always find them faithful, or if faithful, we don’t always trust them enough or feel confident sharing our burdens with them. This too is a grevious evil. Everyone involved can have good motivations, and yet our communications fail us.

Where was I… yeah, my world. It’s not great. Not compared to many others in the set of all possible worlds. Would you believe that once upon a time, we were given a chance to be free of suffering and division? Peace was within our reach – and we let it go.

See, sometimes, a man of wealth and taste will come to your community, willing to make a deal. He will offer you happiness, racial harmony, even flight. If your newly founded town is struggling to survive, he will ensure it prospers for centuries. Paradise, or some close approximation to it at least, can be yours if you will sign on the dotted line.

And all he will ask in return is just a small act, just a tiny drop, of evil. A small sacrifice, a token of your submission. Nothing big, not compared to what he will give you in return. What is the life of a single child in return for the lives of all the children? When he came to us he asked not for even that. None of us, not one, needed to suffer to gain the utopia he promised us. We would hold a vote, and if we voted in favour, only those who voted nay would be lost. As he pointed out, if we all voted aye no one would be and we would get a free ticket to paradise. Out of all the worlds, we had the best deal he had ever offered anyone. Our leaders debated and dithered, but in the end, the promise won out over the lonely voices claiming it to be a trap and the vote was scheduled.

We voted nay. 60:40. Amongst the youngest children – there was no age limit in this referendum, that was the deal – 70% voted nay, drawn by the colour of the button they were to press. In the aftermath, there was great anger, and defensiveness, made perhaps worse by the secrecy of the ballot. We knew two in five people had voted to sacrifice their fellow humans – the youngest babe who just knew they liked blue best to the oldest dementia patient who had no idea what they were voting for – for a shot at paradise. We didn’t always know who they were, though the human need for justification meant quite a few told us. The damage done by the gentleman’s visit took generations to heal. If we wanted paradise, we had to build it ourselves, out of crooked timber. An impossibility.

An impossibility, but one a few mad dreamers decided to chase anyway. Or perhaps they were sane, dangerously so, more sane than the rest of us who were abandoning all hope and regretting with every little evil we experienced voting down the offer. At any rate they were different from the mad dreamers of the past. They were not optimists with rose tinted glasses promising a world of gumdrop smiles and chocolate fountains. They had abandoned such hopes long ago, even before we had been visited and tempted by the demon. These hard nosed dreamers accepted evil could not be defeated, not until the crack in the world was finally healed.

But it could be contained. They understood injuries would come; they did not conclude from that that bandaging the wounded and providing healing was a worthless endeavour. Nor was basic workplace safety. It was not possible to ensure that all children would be protected, provided for, accepted by their parents; it was possible to ensure that there would be a home where that would be true. To err is human, to provide grace to catch those errors is a divine mandate. Perfection is unachievable, slack is not. They didn’t just look forward, they looked backwards to see how far they’d already come. To prevent all childhood deaths was beyond human power, but human power had already achieved staggering reductions in child mortality. Addictions could be treated. Even when treatment was still beyond their knowledge, the dying would not need to die alone. No one would have to stay in a bad situation out of a fear of losing basic necessities (though, of course, this does not mean they will not stay). Out of the crooked timber of humanity they would approximate something that could be taken for straight at a casual glance.

And truthfully, how could it be otherwise? I told you at the start that this is no utopia. But consider what I gave as examples. All but one is self inflicted evil, the product of our choices. The only way to achieve a world where no one is rejected is to remove the possibility of choice in who we associate with and form relationships with. The kiss and the fist are both forms of physical contact. To allow for good is to allow for the possibility of evil. I have heard the stories of the places that accepted the offer of Moloch. I am very glad we are not among them.