031. [Text]

[explosivecombat]

You know, I've realized that whenever I address the network nowadays, I always include some sort of apology for the morbidity of the subject matter; the subject matter is never any better the next time around, which I think just draws the validity of the apology into question by now. Ah, but that's neither here nor there - the subject today is still, however, not any better, so consider the apology this afternoon as genuine as it always is.

[In other words, sorry-not-sorry. Kimblee...]

I would like to discuss morality today, actually - perhaps befittingly, since there are so many morally dubious individuals around as of late.

Assume for a moment that you come across someone in peril; you're in a secluded area, and no one else is around to help this individual but you. The specific sort of peril they're in doesn't matter, but for the sake of argument, assume that it's something that you can handle easily - assume that assisting them won't kill you, and even if the situation you envision is dangerous you can call the authorities for help and that would be considered "assisting" for the sake of this experiment. For whatever reason, the person in peril cannot save themselves; if you don't do anything, the situation will prove fatal for the person you've come across.

No one will know if you help the person or not. You won't be punished or penalized in any way for not helping them - in other words, you have no legal obligation to do so - but if you don't, the person in peril is going to die. You've never met the person before this moment; there's nothing about their appearance or situation that implies that you should consider them an enemy, but they aren't explicitly a friend or an ally either. Just a random stranger that you are given the option of rescuing.

Most would probably agree that rescuing a person in peril like that is the "right" thing to do; I'm sure some would disagree, either because their beliefs are a bit unorthodox or because they want to feel edgy. So my question isn't necessarily what you believe - my question is why. Can you justify it, or are you just operating under "what feels right"?

Answer me anonymously if you'd like; as usual, your identity doesn't necessarily interest me, but your answer does.

Comments

[soundmind]

That sounds terrible. How do you keep anybody from becoming tyrannical? Or maybe...if there's always a war going on, that doesn't happen, does it?

[explosivecombat]

I doubt that anyone who tried would last long in office; it's to the country's benefit to ensure that the people are content with their ruler. Otherwise there runs the risk of anarchy, and once that occurs then we'll be easily taken over by our enemies.

So it's possible, but as you've said, it doesn't happen.

[soundmind]

[That's not entirely true, everyone loves Lord Death of course, anyone that doesn't though...tends to cause trouble. Maybe her world is a little too black and white to compare to others.]

I see. The President puts a lot of faith in Lord Death to keep the country safe, so we don't have as much strife compared to others I guess.

[...]

This is a stupid question, but is it just humans fighting against each other?

[explosivecombat]

It's more unusual than stupid; from the sound of it, monsters are fought often in your world, so I think can see where you're coming from.

It's not entirely humans against one another where I'm from, but that's what it is for the most part. There are also beings like the chimeras - they're created by fusing two living things together into one complete form. That's a branch of alchemy that I'm not familiar with, however, so unfortunately I can't tell you much about it; creating chimeras using humans is banned as a practice under our laws, but some of the animal hybrids are useful as guards or weapons.

[soundmind]

I see. That sounds like how the witch Arachne created the Demon Weapons.

[A pause, then she realizes that Mr. Anonymous Sir might not have heard wind of information about her world in the slightest, so she explains--]

Demon Weapons are people with the ability to transform their bodies into weapons. Arachne experimented and created the first Demon Weapon over 800 years ago by combining the soul of a witch with a non-living weapon. I've read a little about this "alchemy" you're talking about and the Gorgon sisters are probably what you would call alchemists in your own world, at least they like experimenting and toying with nature to meet their own ends.

But, Demon Weapons aren't forbidden or anything, it's become something that's a recessive gene in families--they're born every day and the Academy takes them in to train them so they don't accidentally hurt anyone. [Naturally there are Weapons that grow into a thuggish lifestyle due to the mistrust regular people have towards them, but that's a whole other topic.]