un: q.103

[monostich]

Ah, hello.

[The video opens to Kaede - pale and thin as ever - in a room that's recognizable as one of the inn rooms. He looks nervous, but to anyone who's seen him before that's... That's about how he always looks.

After a moment, he sighs.]

I've been wondering this for a while - sometimes there are requests to kill someone, but some people seem opposed to doing things like that, and I just... Don't understand why? Is it really so wrong to end someone's life if that's what you're told to do?

[What do you mean people have moral codes????]

I'm sure this is obvious to most people, but it's been... Bothering me. Is killing such a bad thing? Are there really people here who haven't done that before?

[...]

A-anyways, that's all I was wondering but, ah, you don't have to feel obligated to answer! I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Comments

text, un: selcouth

[sulit]

[Oh. This guy again... Hmm. She could just avoid him, but at the same time... If she answers with text, then he won't know who she is, right? They never exchanged phone information, so that's probably fine.]

It's not obvious at all. There are certain people who think it's a bad thing and certain people who think it's a good thing.

At the end of the day, it only depends which people you want to like you. How you feel about it actually matters very little.

[monostich]

Why would I care about who likes me or not? That seems even more pointless than if it’s “right” or “wrong” to kill people.

[sulit]

Some people care. When people like you, they treat you better. When they don't like you, they treat you worse. And there's a lot of little things that factor into that. Some you can change, some you can't.

For instance, most people are enamored with wealth and looks; while they general dislike violence. Someone could be very good looking and have a lot of money; and people will naturally want to please them. But if that same person expresses an interest in murder, they won't be so keen. They might distance themselves from that person, or they might decide that getting rid of that person is more important than their dislike of violence.

On the other hand, if you're killing the right things or people, then that's fine. There are people that will like you for that. They'll even pay you, as you've seen here.

[monostich]

That just makes it seem even more utterly pointless. If people are going to be so shallow, why should I care about their opinions of me? If things will changed based on how I look or what I do or say, there’s no reason to try to appease them.

[Look at him go! He’s doing it!]

[sulit]

That's one way of looking at it! Which honestly makes this whole endeavor both pointless and incredibly valuable.

[monostich]

I can’t say I see the value yet, unless you count learning everyone’s conflicting opinions as something worth anything.

[sulit]

It's worth something. You now know the value of murder to every person who has responded here. If you did find a reason to want them to favor you, they are making it very easy to achieve that.

[monostich]

And everyone else knows as well.

You care an awful lot about the approval of others, don’t you?

[sulit]

I think most people do. Is that really unusual?

[monostich]

Is it unusual to not care?

[sulit]

I think so. Otherwise, why do we have rules and laws and such? And why does everyone follow them? Why is that seen as good?

[monostich]

I was under people followed rules and orders because the punishment for not doing so could be severe.

This all seems incredibly frustrating, though. How are you supposed to keep track of all this?

[sulit]

The punishments are there to deter people who wouldn't otherwise care. What about the people who don't need punishment to follow laws? Why do they care about it that much? Obviously because others care about it.

Laws are how you keep track of the majority, I guess. There's a lot of general rules. Murder is bad. Stealing is bad. Those are usually big ones.

When it comes to individual people, you have to feel it out as you go.

[monostich]

That sounds like way too much work... Why can't everyone just come to a consensus on what is or isn't okay? Wouldn't that make things easier?

[sulit]

Like I said: That's what laws are for. That doesn't mean it's good or bad or whatever. It all depends on how many people you want to be yelling at you.

As you can probably see. You got a lot of yelling.

[monostich]

I don’t know that I would consider all of this yelling. Mostly it’s just people who can’t agree with anything.

What’s the point in a law if it doesn’t differentiate between right and wrong?

[sulit]

Maybe there isn't one. Right and wrong as concepts seem sort of arbitrary, don't they? How do you quantify those words, when everyone has a different idea of what right and wrong are?

[monostich]

Find a way to make it less objective and more subjective.

[He hates all of this.]

[sulit]

You think that's the answer?

In that case, everyone who agrees with you is right; and everyone who disagrees is around. Is that subjective enough?

[monostich]

It seems like the best solution if there’s some general idea of what’s right and wrong everyone agrees on instead of this whole personal belief thing.

[sulit]

Wait, are you arguing for or against personal belief? Because I honestly can't tell now.

You were just asking me what the point of a law is, and now you're saying that we should have something that represents the idea of right and wrong that everyone agrees on. And we do have those. They're called laws. But that doesn't mean that they represent what is actually right and wrong--just what most people agree on.

[monostich]

Personal beliefs seem pointless.

[sulit]

Incorrect.

[monostich]

No.

[sulit]

Yes.