"That's a tautology."
"I'm building up to an important lesson in your education as an Orange Lantern. Please hold your questions until the end." She glances my way but doesn't otherwise comment. "The goals people follow are their goals. The goals they say they have aren't their goals."
What they say is not always what they
mean. What they really want is not what they
say they want. Perhaps even what they
really want deep down. To put it simply, people
lie, even to themselves.
I pause, and she nods.
"A fairly disturbing example of that last one was the actions of Nazi Germany towards the end of Earth's Second World War. Rather than put all of their effort into fighting their enemies, they instead stepped up the extermination campaigns they were conducting against minority groups in their own territory. They diverted more effort towards something that was a net drain on their economy, rather than put it into fighting."
I see he's trusting her to look that up in the database, under the concerningly large entry for 'Earth'... Still, better than 'Mostly harmless'. Because it very,
very much isn't...
"There are other examples; people who say they want peace, compromise and coexistence but when pushed will admit to only wanting those things on their terms. So what they actually want is victory, supremacy and dominion but they don't say that because they've been taught that the other things are good and that what they actually want aren't. You can make people pull some quite amusing faces if you bring them to awareness of their own cognitive dissonance on some issues."
Which he's done on occasion. Far too many times to recount here, though.
"As an Orange Lantern, this is something you must be aware of in yourself. An Orange Lantern's ability to use their ring is dependant on understanding and working towards the realisation of your desires. And since as a Coluan I imagine that you're going to want to use more sophisticated constructs than the rest of us, that's doubly true for you. You'd be surprised how many Orange Lanterns get stuck on the first step and are remarkably weak until they actually get into combat and start being driven by a need to preserve their own lives."
On the upside, she's got the smarts to make complex constructs. The true test is if she's got the emotional self-awareness to create
strong constructs... Sure, Dox can manage because he's got his emotions under such tight control, but other Coluans? It'll be interesting to see.
"I will try to avoid that."
"Ego's another problem. One of my core functions in the Corps is to advise Lanterns on how to overcome their psychological limitations. And yet, only a few people have actually come to me for advice. Most of the time I've had to actually go to people myself, which… Rather undermines the whole process."
I mean, how many of the newer recruits even know
who he is? Not in the 'oh, he's in the database' sense, but in the 'He's the most powerful Orange Lantern around, ask him how to be stronger. You might regret it later, but you'll improve' way...
"But getting back to my original point; if the stand we're taking against the Reach is a righteous and noble struggle because they exterminate conquered people, we ourselves cannot exterminate people we conquer. If the stand we're taking against the Reach is a righteous and noble struggle because we don't mind control people, we ourselves cannot mind control people. Ah, outside of combat, anyway. And if the stand we're taking against the Reach is a righteous and noble struggle because we value individual freedom, liberty, and the right of people to be involved in their own governance… We can't just go around quashing protests because they're inconvenient."
You can't look like 'new boss, same as the old boss.' It's a hard line to walk even in peacetime diplomacy. During a war where convincing people the other guy is 'real bad, m'kay,' it's even tougher.
Polite, isn't she? OL does tend to ramble a little when he's being philosophical, doesn't he?
"You appear to be entirely rejecting the idea that anything other than complete honesty is useful."
"More or less."
Honesty to yourself is important as a Lantern. That much is true. Lying about what you want, to yourself especially, jsut weakens you.
"That runs contrary to my experiences. In many situations, Amalak told people that he wanted one thing when he actually wanted another in order to gain an advantage in negotiations."
"Was his most powerful weapon an orange power ring, whose output was dependant on the extent to which it enabled him to realise this desires?"
"We prefer positron beams for anti-ship work."
The good old 'speak softly, but carry a big stick'. He certainly didn't get where he was by being honest...
"Are you telling me that if I offered to trade Amalak rings for ships on a one-for-one basis-?"
"He would refuse, as he could not control other power ring wielders in the way he can control people who use the ships he owns."
Ah, there's the rub. It's all about control for Amalak, isn't it? He can't trust other people to act as he wishes, unless he knows them well enough to do so.
"And where would I be, if I'd done the same thing?"
"You.. would not be the Illustres of an Orange Lantern Corps."
He'd probably still be running around merged with
Best Snek, for one.
"Just so."
We near the target address and I descend to street level, Lantern Gozzi a few metres behind.
Not the most subtle approach vector. Any target with the brains to look out the window will have seen them coming a kilometre away. But by the same extent, it say 'I'm not concerned if you run. it just means you'll be caught tired.'
"There are an almost infinite number of approaches a person can take to almost anything. But if you've taken up an orange power ring, you have to proceed in a particular way or you cripple yourself."
"You're certain?"
Hey, it's worked for him so far. Wait... Is he angling to nudge her into seeking orange Enlightenment? She's probably got the focus to achieve it, certainly.
"I am until a Lantern with abilities superior to mine comes along."
She lands besides me.
And that may be some time, given the way things are going. Wartime isn't the best time to be experimenting spiritually with your power ring, and most of the recruits aren't the kind to do so anyway.
"And we are here because you wish to give these people the opportunity to explain themselves."
We're attracting a degree of wary interest from the local pedestrians. The local humanoids have red-brown skin and cream coloured horns projecting forward from the sides of their skulls. Though this planet is a little more cosmopolitan than the makeup of this particular street suggests, this area isn't one off-worlders generally live in.
The description puts me in mind of
Iktotchi.
You know, one of the Jedi Masters Sheev shanks with his flying drill attack in '
Revenge of the Sith'.
"No. They don't need to justify themselves to me. I want the opportunity to discuss the subject with them. To see if I can allay their concerns. Not because I care about them at all-"
One of the nearby pedestrians frowns at me.
Yeah, I'd say that guy (or gal, who knows?) took exception to that remark...
"-but because I care about the ideals that I hold. Because I want to be the sort of person who tries talking. Make sense?"
"And what if I told you that I only care about efficiency?"
Then you'd be short-sighted, especially if you only cared about short0-term benefits. These guys are protesting NEMO activity, right?
Why are they? Is it because of cultural concerns, Reach influence, or some other personal reason? You wouldn't find out if you stepped on them like bugs...
"Then I'd asked why you were still in an organic body. Why you worked for Amalak rather than taking a position with a Crown Imperium noble family who could pay you better. Why you were speaking to me rather than using ring-based communication bursts, and so on and so on. And when you'd answered those questions to my satisfaction, I'd ask how the heck you were judging anything other than short term efficiency with any accuracy in such a complex situation."
Yep. In a battle of hearts and minds, such as this is, you have to consider the longer term, the bigger picture. If the protestors has real, rational concerns, it's better to address them and resolve the conflict, not come in all jackbooted thuggery.
"You may assume that I'm Coluan."
"You still need data you don't have. If anything, the fact that… You've read up on our first battle?" She nods. "Do you think you're more intelligent than Vril Dox the Second?"
Well, I doubt she'd open up herself to as much dataflow as Dox did while a memetic combatant is on the field, so she's probably got
that much going for her.
"No. So you plant your standard and let others rally to you or not as they see fit."
"Pretty much. Though I'm happy to let other people fulfil any desires they may have which are not diametrically opposed to my own, because that's how I see the galactic community working best."
To quote
someone: "In times of trouble: Foolish men build walls,
wise men build bridges..." There's less hard feelings to be found when you can convince people to rationally come around to a line of thought you don't disagree with, rather than holding the proverbial Big Stick over their heads.
I turn in the direction of the building displaying the name 'Dynamist Functionalist Union Party'.
"So let's find out what they want, and how we can all get what we want."
As long as you don't trigger a revolution. I doubt Dox would be happy with that...
