There are multiple morals to that story, but the one we’re usually going for when we tell it is that when trouble calls, love wins out.
When faced with adversity, people split along three different lines: those who search for meaning through love, those who search for meaning through fear, and those who trudge forward without meaning, indifferent.
We tend to see fear in the upper levels of government. It’s much easier to hang onto absolute power through the fear of your subjects. When you rely on your subjects’ love to keep you on top, you have to keep working to earn that love. Fear is a one-off thing; a hound bites you once and you’re like to remember it. But love has to be nurtured. You have to keep performing good works. You have to keep putting others first. And ■■■■ is that difficult.
My clan leads through love. It is, of course, our founding principle. Everyone along our line has held fast to it, from Katsuro and Fariz on down to Chief Tiama and her late husband, and Emilio and Joanna, my parents. And soon, me.
(My dad was a super dork. His words at his Voluval ceremony were “I think I will stay,” and no one got the reference.)
This is, at the root of it, why Clan Ramijozana opposes rule-through-fear everywhere we find it. We choose love. We choose the love of our kin, our homeland, our Matar, our Republic, and—vitally—ourselves. The spirits that surround us amplify that love. They shield us and provide for us, and that is why we love them too, such as it goes.
We reject the notion of a power-grabbing Sanmatar. We had similar worries regarding Karin Midular, but through all her faults, at least she tried to lead through love, even though she herself was afraid.
Shakor knows nothing of this. I’m sure he loves the people close to him, and, as a general whole, the Republic. But he lets his fear—his trauma, as Arrendis once put it when speaking of the modern Matari experience—rule over him. And so we wind up being led not by a man, not by kin, but by a specter of fear, not unlike the spirits of evil we’ve been discussing elsewhere. Perhaps Brute never shook off those artifacts after all.
The fear trickles in and infests everything it touches. Institutions like the RSS and Matar Planetary Security. Organizations like Ushra’Khan. It fuels us toward war and harm, blinds us to suffering, blunts our compassion. Somewhere, someone has to stand up to it.
It’s okay to be afraid. And to be angry, hurt, frustrated. We have suffered, and still do. Our sisters and brothers still suffer in bondage, no matter all the attempts to downplay and excuse slavery. There is much to justify that trauma of ours. But we cannot let that fear overtake us, moving our limbs, shaping our minds. We can’t afford the costs that fear demands.
My clan still hasn’t recovered from the occupation. We see the footprints of the oppressor every day. But we persist in love, because the meaning we’ve found is in the well-being of other people.
I’m about to save both of you a ton of time and currency.
There is no “origin point” of the “salvation” or “forgiving-God” idea. Or the “origin point” is beyond the EVE gate. The idea has always existed. It’s grown right alongside your idea, been fed through the ages beside your heroes and sefrim. But until now, your idea of an angry, unforgiving God who rules through fear and relies on the empress/eror to deliver compassion has been the dominant one, shouting over everything else. (Because love is quiet, until it isn’t.)
What changed? For one, we had Heideran to steer the Empire along a more compassionate route. For another, we have the Federation and the Republic. The former has given us GalNet, the holo-industry, and very shouty ideas about putting the people first. (Not that they’re the absolute picture of love in leadership, mind you.)
The latter has always been what it is, but now it has capsuleers. People all over the cluster can see for themselves… oh. They aren’t workhorses. They’re actually just like us. Why are we enslaving them again?
Thus did the they’re working towards their salvation! excuse for slavery blossom into prominence.
And the idea has some pretty brilliant champions, who happen to be really cool people and throw really great parties. Love comes with the best amenities. It’s so nice.
Meanwhile, the rest of you seek comfort in your fear—fear that love will upend everything you know and everything you hold dear. And it will. That’s why it’s so amazing.
It is absolutely incredible to be filled with love, to love and be loved freely and without conditions, to wield a sword that shines bright with the light of love and burns away all fear but leaves everything else unharmed, improved.
Lots of people get that. That’s why they want a forgiving God. Honestly, who wants to be scared of the being that created them? Who wants to be trembling on their knees because that’s what feeds their God? I’d much rather have a god who returns my love, who I feel like I could have a great chat with over a rich coffee. But maybe that’s a personal thing.
I choose to believe that your God is a loving God, by the way. Know why? Because the greatest, closest example of Him I’ve found is also loving. He loves me and he loves that God—and it’s a genuine, profound love, not just born of fear of Him.
That’s the biggest selling point for me. If I were to accept your God, it wouldn’t be out of fear. Try to reclaim me by the sword, and I’ll run a talon through your heart. Try to convince me with words, and I might listen (if I like you) with the interest of an academic. Convince me through love, and you just might sway me.
Hey, did you know a thread title also has to be 5 characters long?