Quoted By:
“Is the biggest lie that we're all just a slave-caste of Aristocrats and not a real species at all?”
<span class="mu-b">”Ouch, but not a lie- people just didn't know. Many species evolve from more primitive forms- plus that only applies to us. Try again.”</span>
“That life has meaning?”
<span class="mu-b">”Pretty close, but nobody believes that- thus no need to lie about it.”</span>
“That you actually love me?”
<span class="mu-b">”I never said I did.”</span>
You can't respond to that.
<span class="mu-b">”The lie I am referring to, Sunshine, is the lie that every single child is told by its parents, that ever society tells its citizens, that every species on every planet are inherently genetically predestined to believe if and when they become intelligent enough to communicate such ideas. It's the BIG lie. It has nothing to do with our species or the Hegemony- and it's this. The big lie is that <span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-s">life is inherently worth living</span></span>.”</span>
“You aren't a pessimist, Yuan.”
<span class="mu-b">”That's right, but it's still a lie everyone believes regardless. The tricky thing is that life <span class="mu-i">can</span> be worth living, but only for <span class="mu-i">some</span>. For the capable, the strong, the attractive, the wealthy, the powerful- and the lucky. It's the inherent part that is important. We as living beings are programmed to find the concept of being dead to be mortifying, we avoid death. But our death-fear is not the same as life-value. Evolution, even intelligent design, like in our creation, does not need its end products to actually be happy- merely more afraid of death then the amount of suffering they endure. It's a lie to think that simply being here- being alive and remaining so- is somehow valuable. There is no positive value to being alive in and of itself.”</span>
“You can grow and change- that's the value of being alive. Life has moments that are enjoyable.”
<span class="mu-b">”A <span class="mu-i">moment</span> is all it will be. Brief spikes of pleasure and forgetfulness to suffering are not equivalent to the suffering we endure day to day. Think about it- if life had an inherent value, then nobody would kill themselves. Nobody would lay down and die or feel depressed- because simply the biological act of homeostasis would fulfill them. But we both know that isn't true. The Hegemony knows this- it's why they don't allow their prisoners to kill themselves. It's the reason the worker drones are distracted constantly- even the elites and wealthy are not immune to this ennui. It goes beyond biological impulses and drives.”</span>
