It is the rule in war, if ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if five times, attack them; if double, be able to divide them; if equal, engage them; if fewer, be able to evade them; if weaker, be able to avoid them.
We are weaker than our enemy. I refer not to the proxies, the servants, but to the Slender Man himself. We are weaker than him. He can kill us with ease. Presumably, he does not kill us all because of some unknown and esoteric reason.
And so, with an opponent stronger than us, we must evade him. We run. We are runners.
And yet, at some point, we must stop running. We cannot run our entire lives. To do so would be folly.
So what do we do when we stop running? We prepare. We prepare to find against a godlike foe, to pierce his Achilles heel, to weaken and kill him. We must prepare for war.
The Art of War tells of five fundamental factors in planning for war:
- The Moral Law: "the people [must] be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. "
- Heaven: "night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons."
- Earth: "distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death."
- Leadership: "the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness."
- Management and Discipline: "the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure."
Just looking at the first factor presents a problem: we have no leader, no elected or unelected ruler of the runners. If we had, I'm pretty sure it would have been Ezekiel Strahm, but unfortunately that is no longer an option. Instead, we must fight leaderless.
This will be both problematic (who will have the last word?), but it might turn out to be fortunate for us: there would be no head to cut off in our army. No assassination could deprive us of a leader, since we would have no leader in the first place.
Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
In war, it may be necessary to dehumanize the enemy. In this case, that would be simple, since the main enemy is, quite assuredly, inhuman. And yet, those who serve him are human. Can we make them into monsters to kill? Can we ease our consciences when they die?
No. No, we must not tell ourselves stories like "They deserved to die." No one deserves death. If I could find a way to move the Slender Man into a world that was empty, void of all people, and trap him there without killing him, I would. But I can't.
Death is inevitable. Killing is a necessity in war. And yet, I can't bring myself to dehumanize even those who would serve him willingly. Even those sociopaths with knives in their hands, eager to do his bidding; even they, baseless and evil, are human.
Let us war, but let us not lie to ourselves.
But it is war, you can't learn the name of every foe, you can't even see the life fade from all your victim's eyes. Not that you could anyways, heh, but the point is, in war, your enimies aren't human. In war no one is human, neither you, nor the animals you're fighting. You lose that right when you take a life.
ReplyDeleteSee you around
- Caged
You are right and wrong. In war, you must take lives, so you cannot stop to cry over every body. This would serve no good and would hinder you. But you must not tell yourself "This is good" or "This is right"; death is wrong. But sometimes it is necessary.
DeleteA leader then?
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be someone people admired. Looked up to. I would suggest Elaine, but... yeah, she has as many followers as she has enemies. M could also be an option, but something tells me the kid ain't up for a fight... GARGOYLE would be an option but if I ever meet him I'm fucking killing him myself (SERIOUSLY? PONIES?).
...That's gonna be an issue.
Then, as I said, we should remain leaderless. It would present its problems, of course, but none so large that we cannot overcome them.
DeleteLeaderless should not mean directionless, however. We would need a council - a group of people similar to the Sages, who have the virtue and the ability to command - who would set the direction and the rules of the army.
A stronger group would help many people. I also agree that taking someone's life should not be taken lightly.
ReplyDeleteS
To be honest most of the runners probably don't need to be dehumanized, they lost their humanity a long time ago with the necessity of killing proxies. The humanity they wear now is nothing but a poor sham of what they used to have.
ReplyDelete-Manic
I believe you have it backwards: one needs to dehumanize an enemy in order to kill them. The runners dehumanize the proxies, not themselves.
DeleteAnd, in any case, the necessity of killing proxies is just that: a necessity. In every war, there are casualties. If someone is running towards you with a gun, you shoot them. It's that simple.
but you need to disconnect yourself 'and' the enemy from being human otherwise one will be at a disadvantage, and as I basically pointed out many have dehumanized the proxies and stopped showing empathy for them, I have not and never will, also your group of leaders sounds preposterous as runners are free agents, and alot of them don't accept the word of some higher up. I personally refuse any power that tries to dictate me.
Delete-Manic
We're not going to pressgang runners into joining the army. If you do not wish to join, you do not have to. You can dree your weird another way.
DeleteEven if dehumanizing our enemy is necessary, dehumanizing ourselves should never be an option. We should never forget we are human or else we lose what we are fighting for. We lose the chance to ever be human again.
If you don't pressgang then I doubt many will join for fear of risking their own lives, and if you don't militarise and dehumaninise your army, then they will still feel sympathy for the enemy, even if you successfully get them seeing the proxies as animals, their reason will take over and intervene, it's why war isn't murder, which is one human killing another, war is animalistic, there are no inherent conventions we have that bind them they are pure primitive rage vs another force.
Delete-Manic
There are conventions for the treatment of war prisoners and victims. It is called the Geneva Conventions.
DeleteWe can fight a war without dehumanizing ourselves. If we debase ourselves into "pure primitive rage," as you put it, then we would find no difference between our side and theirs. We would end up no better than them.
The geneva convention applies to the world outside not ours, if we followed the convention no war would be one.
Deleteand aren't we?
How can we live in the world and not be a part of it?
DeleteTrying to be outside of the world merely makes us ghosts.
As we can't properly interact with the 'real' world for fear of involving others,in the 'real' world murder is abhorrent and not sought even in times of war, in our world murder is permissible as one side is 'good' the other 'evil', also we can't input into the world we can't create happiness, only pain and therefore we don't participate in the 'real' world, but this sphere of existence is our only place in the world, and we are ghost, silently going along waiting to finally disappear.
Delete-Manic
Murder is always abhorrent, but in the real world, it is justifiable during times of war. And if we move through the real world like a ghost, we will lose whatever connections we have with it, until finally we will no longer be able to even remember what it was like or why we fight for it.
DeleteWe already lost our connection with the 'real' world when we became involved with the slender man, the trend follows the stages of discovery, stalking, research, running, (optional,blogging),fighting, death. Where is the hope in there to rejoin the 'real' world or stay part of it, we are ghosts just accept it and move on, and to be honest I don't remember anymore what it is like being part of the 'real' world, and I'm afraid it will be the same for a lot of runners and fighters.
Delete-Manic
You can be normal again.
DeleteYou can be a part of the world.
Everything is fine.
Everything is normal.
There is no such thing as the Slender Man.
This is the best of all possible worlds.
Ah, you hold the presumption I want to be 'normal' again, and I don't want to be part of your world that seems to come from 1984.
Delete-Manic