Tank in The irresistible urge to rant, riff and ramble

>A sword is a weapon. Swordsmanship is the art of murder. That is the truth. What Miss Kaoru says is play-talk that only those who have not stained their hands can say.

>However, this humble one prefers Miss Kaoru’s play-talk. And I wish that in the world to come, her play-talk shall become the truth.

I have seen things.

I have been beaten for being the wrong race, for speaking the wrong language, for being a stranger in a country, and I was beaten by another stranger to prove that he belonged.

I have seen a good friend drink himself into an early grave, and I have seen people throw their futures away from stupidity, and I have seen people
give up on life itself, and I know, deep inside, that the world is not a good place, that it is not a beautiful and safe place, that there are monsters in this world who wear a human face, and that these monsters cannot always be recognised for who they are.

I have seen predators, and petty bullies, and pathetic humans who define their worth by finding someone smaller than them, someone weaker than them, and crushing them into dust, as if the world were a zero-sum game whereby, if you cause someone else to lose, you win.

And in such a world, the strong live. The weak perish.

Yes, this is our world. That is truth.

And it took fifteen years and a very wise man to show me that this is not truth, but merely reality.

Because, you see, all of that is not caused by a force of nature that you can’t fight; none of it is caused by magic beyond our control.

That is caused by people. And what one person can do, another can undo. If one person has the power to break a victim, then one other person surely has the power to put them together.

That, too, is truth. All evil is caused by humanity; to counter that, therefore, all good must also be caused by humanity.

And it’s taken me all those fifteen years to realise this, to realise what it is that Kenshin believes and that I had allowed myself to forget, and why Captain America’s weapon is a shield and not a gatling gun:

Strength can be used to oppress. And if you are weak, then the only way to live is to destroy that which oppresses you.

But if you are strong enough, you can tank it.

And if you are stronger still, then you can, instead of looking down on those weaker than you as sheep who need to be protected from ravaging wolves, drag them up with you.

Lukyanenko makes a wonderful point in Night Watch: The price of power is to deny the part of the truth that you cannot accept. And the Light Ones reject the belief that all kindness is false kindness and the only freedom is the freedom from all other people, and the Dark Ones reject the truth that we exist because of and for other people.

Very well, then.

I reject the Dark.