Therefore I Am
By: CrystallicSky
Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown or any of its characters, nor do I make any profit or attempt to with the writing of this or any of my other pieces. Warnings: Language, sexual implication, homosexuality, etc.
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It was a calm, spring afternoon when Chase Young got it in his head to engage his consort and apprentice in a philosophical discussion.
The boy often claimed he was a genius and it'd been quite some time since the everlord had been involved in a truly intelligent conversation, and so out of the blue, he simply asked, "Spicer…tell me what you think of Good and Evil."
Jack stared at him for a moment, obviously confused. For a minute, Chase feared he would get a typical teenage response like, 'What?' or 'Why do you ask?' Perhaps he would receive even worse: the simple and disheartening, 'Good and bad, hero and villain, etc, etc, etc.'
Instead, the goth gave the man pleasant surprise when he thought on it a moment and replied, "I guess there really isn't much a difference when you get right down to it. I mean, as a society; as a species, humans have collectively decided on what constitutes Good and what constitutes Evil, but all that really does is give us two loosely defined groupings with a vague set of qualifiers that puts somebody in one category or the other. You see it all the time in religions and fairy tales: the Good guys are always antagonized by the Bad guys for what is most of the time no good reason; just because they're the Bad guys, and that's what Bad guys do: antagonize Good guys. Either way, you'll never see the Good guys going around starting shit with the Bad guys, even though that's how it works out in real life a lot of the time."
Chase grinned, immensely pleased with the response. "Perhaps there are no morals, then," he suggested. "If 'Good' and 'Evil' are simply ill-defined categories, then is it not conceivable that moral judgment as a whole, deciding whether something is wrong or right, must be done on a case-by-case basis?"
"Definitely possible," his consort immediate agreed. "After all, the worth of an action can only really be determined by its outcome in relation to the person enacting it. If I were to blow up a building or something trying to kill a particular person and hundreds of people died, but of those killed, the one I'd been aiming for had bitten the dust, I'd probably think of the explosion as a success: the guy I wanted dead would be dead."
"So, you believe it is best to do what is in one's own interest, then, Spicer?" the dragonlord inquired.
"Why not?" Jack asked in response. "In today's society, self-reliance and independent thought are seriously important as issues, if not practiced as widely as it should be. If you can't look out for yourself, who the hell will?"
"A valid point," Chase hummed, folding his arms across his chest, "but what if looking out for one's interests specifically regarded the gaining and protecting of physical objects? People these days are highly materialistic, as if all that matters in this world are things that can be physically touched."
"Well, that isn't true," the albino pointed out. "The very idea of the real world is joined at the hip with our perception of it. Material things mean nothing in the long run, because humans have the ability to perceive that which may not necessarily be there. Someone could think they've got a material possession, like a vase or something, but it could just turn out to be their imagination or a figment of it if they're even just a little bit unstable. What good are physically-tangible things if they're only real because we believe them to be as much?"
"Ah, but suppose a person is perfectly sane?" the warlord challenged. "Then, reality isn't just a matter of how an individual perceives it, it is a tangible, rational thing in which all mysteries and conundrums can be explained with logic and science."
"Well," Jack began a coy smirk on his face, "if we're ignoring the somewhat unpredictable elements of magic and the supernatural or at least ruling them out in this case, that might be true." He casually leaned back in his chair, wondering, "But how can we even know that reality itself is real? All anyone can really know for sure is that they exist. Like me? I know I'm real. I think, therefore I am, and all that crap. But how do I know you're real? Sure, I can hear you and see you and, if I wanted, I could touch you, but how do I know it's really real? I could just be imagining it all! You, the world, and everybody else in it could all be a figment of my imagination for all I know!"
Chase grinned. "Such a thing is relative," he conceded. "However, what is a figment to you is reality to me; and to the millions of other people inhabiting this godforsaken planet. Life is a different journey for all peoples, and what can save one's life could easily end another's. Relativity is the key; the method to the madness."
"You're right on that one," the goth readily agreed. "Relativity is everything. Like, as an example, the difference between physical and mental states and how they affect one another. The physical can directly influence the mental, but in a twist of relativity, the mental state can't change the physical: if my leg gets broken, I'm gonna be pretty fucking unhappy about it, but if I end up being happy anyways, it's not gonna un-break my leg." Jack sighed, musing, "It seems to work that way with pain especially. Being in pain can always bring your mood down, but no matter how much positive thinking you do, you're never gonna delude yourself into truly believing that you don't hurt."
"How well-said," the everlord praised, "but you mustn't limit yourself to deciding such matters based on experience or logic by themselves. Alone, going only by your logic will lead you to illusions; things that aren't necessarily true. Trusting only experience, the outcome will be subjective to a specific instance. There must always be compromise in terms of decision-making between logic and experience if one is ever expected to truly learn anything."
"Oh, believe me," Jack reassured, "I've got the experience and the logic backing me up on this one. I've been subjected to enough pain in the physical and the mental to be able to write several books on the subject. In fact, looking back on all the crap I've been put through, it makes me wonder if there really is some great point to it all; y'know, life. From birth, I've been fed all kinds of bullshit truths and values that don't reflect reality at all. One has to wonder if life even has meaning or if it's just some sort of cosmic accident; if we're just the day Mother Nature forgot to use protection."
Chase couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips. "Eloquent," he teased, nonetheless going on to say, "but I subscribe to the theory that there is some point to life, whatever it may be. The world, I believe, is eternal, as is the divine half of a person's soul. It is the other half that is mortal; the individual half that will die along with the body. That is why I must find a way to pause your life as I have paused my own, Spicer," he explained. "Were I to be so foolish as to allow you to die, I would never be able to retrieve you, be it through reincarnation or resurrection, for the individual piece of your soul would be irreparably gone."
"I wouldn't worry so much about that," the genius grinned. "I'm a believer in transhumanism: one of these days, I'm going to develop the proper technology to eliminate the aging process and increase all of my personal faculties beyond that of a normal human. Effectively, I'll become a posthuman, a human that's broken past the barriers and pitfalls of humanity itself."
The overlord was admittedly impressed with his apprentice's initiative. "While I've no doubt that you, with your already staggering intellect can be the one to achieve this," he nonetheless warned, "I would caution you to be careful with such technology. Yes, it would make you a superhuman and an immortal like myself, but should it fall into the hands of the public, the entire world will become populated by superhuman immortals. No one would ever die, people would continue to reproduce, and eventually, the planet would be sucked dry of its resources, leaving us, along with them, doomed to death for the sake of their stupidity."
"Good point," Jack acknowledged. "I'll keep that in mind when I start entering the serious development stage." The goth sighed and briefly thought back to the earlier topic of discussion. "I think it's ridiculous," he declared.
"What is, my consort?" Chase inquired.
"Trying to figure out the meaning of the universe," the young man clarified. "It's impossible. No one's ever gonna have some internationally-recognized epiphany and just stumble across the meaning of life. It's…it's…"
"Absurd?" the dragonlord filled in. "It is humanly impossible to find meaning in the universe, and the idea of doing so is absurd: all attempts are utterly doomed to failure."
"Yeah," Jack agreed, "that sounds about right."
"Of course," Chase pointed out, "it could, someday, be possible for the meaning of life to be determined."
"Oh, yeah?" the goth demanded. "How?"
"If society as a whole could overcome its destructive emotions," the man explained, "rid themselves of hatred and fear and jealousy by achieving a state of perfect moral and intellectual perfection, then mankind would never again be subject to errors in judgment. All humans on the planet would become sages, and all of their combined wisdom could serve to solve the long-pondered mystery of, 'Why are we here?'"
Red eyes stared at the man for a moment…
…and then Jack simply began laughing. "Is that your way of saying it'll never happen?" he managed to ask around his giggles.
"Ah, Spicer," the everlord purred, yanking the youth up and out of his seat, "you know me so well…"
The albino took advantage of the new, closer position and wrapped his arms around his lover and master's neck. "You know…" he slowly began, "some people believe that it's stupid to think about the big questions like, 'Why are we here?' and all that…"
"Oh?" Chase wondered, now nose-to-nose with his consort.
"Some think the pursuit and enjoyment of pleasure should be the ultimate goal in life and that all that thinking just gets in the way."
A wicked grin took the dragonlord's lips at that almost-casual statement, and he deftly plucked his apprentice off the ground; draping the boy over his shoulder. "I'm inclined to agree with that outlook, Spicer," he informed, carrying the goth all the way to the bedroom for a well-deserved break from the intellectual.
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A/N: So, I was thinking of random philosophy, and this resulted. XD If anyone wants a brief overview of the particular philosophies I used in this fic and what they are...here you go: Dualism- vague concepts of Good and Evil Moral particularism- there are no moral principles and moral judgment can only be made on a case-by-case basis Consequentialism- worth of an action is determined solely by its outcome Egoism- do what is in one's own self-interest Individualism- independence and self-reliance have ultimate importance Materialism- only that which physically exists matters Idealism- the nature of reality is based on the mind; the 'real world' is inseparable from consciousness and perception Hegelianism- only the rational is real Solipsism- one's own mind is all that exists; anything outside of one's own mind cannot be proven Relativism- some elements of experience are dependent on others ("One man's trash is another man's treasure") Epiphenomenalism- physical states can cause mental states, but mental states cannot influence physical states Kantianism- using reason without experience will lead to illusions; going by experience alone without reason is purely subjective to specific instances; therefore, compromise is necessary Nihilism- values are falsely invented and do not exist; life is meaningless Averroism- the world is eternal, the soul is divided into two parts (individual and divine), the individual part of the souls is not eternal, and resurrection of the dead is impossible Transhumanism- develop and make available technologies that will cease aging and enhance human physical, psychological, and intellectual capacities; become posthuman Pragmatism- considering consequences and effects of actions and scenarios Absurdism- humanity's efforts to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail; are humanly impossible Stoicism- destructive emotions are caused by errors in judgment, and only a person of perfect moral and intellectual perfection would not be subject to them Hedonism- pursuit of pleasure has ultimate importance Anyways, thanks for reading this fic, and I hope you liked it! :D