Clad in a particularly heavy and dark atmosphere, one would assume no living being would reside in such a place. The stench of rotting flesh and burnt ashes linger — leaving traces of what once was considered a fruitful life. What is seen are only shambles of what used to be, parts, no longer something whole.
That’s how we all knew of our origins. There’s no certainty, we live off assuming and connecting those dots since long ago. Tales of war and the downfall of the human race have been thrown around carelessly — not that anyone would care to verify anything in such a state. Besides, what’s the use of the word when we’re still here. What matters is that we live on to see another day, everything else that could hinder this goal should be immediately obliterated.
In such a world, there’s no longer the need to differentiate between what’s good and evil. For a person to make such categorization, one would argue that certain behaviors should fit into one of those boxes. We would be able to gear our actions closer toward one of those categories. Which could only mean that we should be able to choose — to some extent, what we could do in any given situation. Interestingly, this can only be achieved if we are not constantly in a state of fear. Fear of losing one’s existence.
We don’t see the need to make up imaginary borders. It’s a strange concept, separation itself — now that we think about it. Perhaps it’s because we no longer make clear boundaries between ourselves and those surrounding us. From what we heard, our ancestors lived in what was called a state. Each of these had its own set of customs and values which they proudly uphold. These were what they would deem as identification of the sort — telling those outside of the walls where to stand, should there be an encounter in the future. Only upon agreement would one of those parties step inside each other’s affairs.
We imagined a lot of conflicts stemmed from this fact alone. Not that we would know anything past that. What we heard is what we heard. Like we’ve said, these were all merely scrapes of information that we had put together ourselves. The whole picture had been distorted since long ago. The more we think about it, the harder it is not to assume that they had not known any better.
In regard to existence, our predecessors emphasized that we should always fear death. Not only that, but this fear should always precede any other fears. A milder and more irrational version of fear is thought to be anxiety. How it works specifically, we may never know, but anxiety comes when there’s an unknown threat to our very existence, which, we can’t exactly pinpoint what is and isn’t. In other words, it’s the fear of not knowing what causes the fear itself — an aversion to uncertainties. They would even go as far as saying that the root of all anxieties is death itself. This way, our brain was wired to fear death and all things that could lead us there. This might be true, back then, but with how things are now — it’s easy to assume that nearly all of us are desensitized to the idea.
If, back then, the idea was seemingly a far-fetched one and people only encounter such a thought in critical times — now, it’s at the very center of our existence. No way calling it mere anxiety would cut it. We always envy the thought that something such as that could even be considered a choice. We nearly couldn’t fathom the notion that someone would choose one or the other. It was truly an ideal state to live, the way they lived. How things currently are, it’s no longer what could be — it has become part of reality. The contrary just seems too unlikely, this is how we were raised. And what we have grown accustomed to.
Another thing that could be of one’s interest is perhaps how we create a system in such a state. To put it simply, we don’t have any that can be considered thorough nor complex. For one, the word “justice” is hardly ever heard in conversations. Like we have noted, the problem of good and evil is no longer the parameter that we use to determine a behaviour. We know about how our forefathers were so fixated on doing the right thing through certain behaviours to get closer to the good end. They even invented something akin to the moral compass to better understand just how right or wrong an act is, or sometimes, even where a mere intention stands. What it’s based upon is also up for debate.
From what we have gathered, though, to make such an abstract notion more concrete, they even made a set of punishments. These punishments vary in degree, depending on how severe the impact that it had upon another; based on their judgment or what they had come to an agreement about. This concept alone is ungraspable for us. We don’t need something so vague and subjective to take place among us. Our goal here is merely to survive as a collective.
Anything that could disrupt our sense of oneness should and will immediately be thrown away. So we have left this notion among the ruins of past time.
In a world where almost everything is absolute and equal, there’s no use for a hierarchy. This is another reason why we do not have nor wish to create a thorough system. We divide people based on how well they can organize and gather resources. It’s the only thing that has an inkling to a system that has been practiced for the longest of time. It might seem too literal and down-to-earth, but we don’t care about putting up a front.
The faster and easier to comprehend a concept is, the better. Isn’t that the whole point of the invention of the human language? If we don’t use language as a tool to explain something reasonably, then why use it in the first place?
But what do we know? We’re nothing but products of the past that will soon be forgotten.
