Morality
You may find this strange, but Cybertron never had any form of "proper" religion.
I personally found this odd, especially when, as a cadet, we learned of many of the different races in the universe. Every single one, without fail, had at least one form of belief which dictated the rules for a "good" life, what happened to those who actually manged to meet these standards, and what happened to those who didn't. Most had some kind of deus ex machina overseeing all that was Good and Pure, and his/her foil, the one who dealt with those who couldn't meet, or deliberately turned against, those guidelines. These ranged from the amazonian Varn, a purely matriarchial society who paid tribute to the Mighty Lady of Light, to the Amarax, a patriarchial society who blamed Womankind for any toil and suffering, and in accordance had the "holy" male and the "damned" female, to those of Kueppeku, whose road to paradise was through glory and sacrifice, and who followed standards so unobtainable that their suicide rate was phenomenal. We were patiently taught these beliefs, logically reasoned through their methods and motives, and generally learned how to deal with these people should we meet them - a lesson learned the hard way by wandering Cybertronians who had inadvertantly offended these native species. (One particular tale was of Commander Darenon, nearly executed simply for addressing a female on Amarax.) But we ourselves never learned any practice of religion, simply because there wasn't one.
I voiced my thoughts on this to our teacher one day, after learning of Earth and its many religions. Why, I said, did we have no guidelines for a "good" life? Why did our beliefs end with Primus, the Matrix and the Pit?
He gave a good, structured, logical answer. Because we didn't evolve in the way most species evolved. Because religion tended to lead to conflict, and we wanted to avoid any kind of in-fighting (here I brought up the Maximal/Predacon tension, but was swiftly talked over.). And simply because we were a logical race, and that religion, science and logic usually conflicted.
He was trying his best, I suppose, but it still didn't make sense. Cybertronians have the same need for reassurance that we are doing right, that someone is watching over us, as any other sentient species. We are NOT purely logical - else why would we form romantic attachments to each other, make friends, die for each other? That's not logic. And even though we had none of the "rules" of religion, we DID have Primus. It seemed we were taking the best elements of such a practice, and tip-toeing over any restrictions it might place upon us.
A good thing? A bad thing? I was never really sure. There were certainly no heated debates or fights over different "religions" on Cybertron...but there were clashes of ideologies. Wasn't that just the same?
So I never knew what a "good life" was from anyone else - I had to decide myself. And I chose the most common moral code on Cybertron.
Do what you want with your life. Do what you want with your mind and body. Follow any ambition that you see fit - but harm no-one, do nothing at the expense of another.
It was this philosophy that had made us an "enlightened" race among our neighbours, to choose for ourselves what we believed. And...and still...didn't that mean that if Megatron truly believed in what he was doing, he could not be condemned for it? Up until recently, Megatron was not murderer, nor thief, nor tyrant. He was not a pleasant bot, but he hadn't broken the law. Did the fact that, despite his bullying, underhand methods and ruthlessness, he had not done anything illegal, acquit him of anything that might have passed before the Beast Wars? Did the fact that he honestly believed that Predacons were oppressed make hima "freedom fighter" as opposed to a "terrorist?"
Such a notion makes my head spin - I try not to think about it.
Moving swiftly onwards...There was a reason I was commander of an exploration vessel, not a warship. I simply did not believe in killing. For any reason. The vast majority of moral guidelines said "Do not Kill." I thought that there must be something in the fact that this Law had made it across every race in the Universe. Yet...people still killed. They called it execution, they called it justice, they called it war, but it didn't change the fact that someone ended up dead. And, strangest of all, they did this "In the name of" their deity, or with their deity "on their side." If people with incredibly strict codes of honour killed when cornered, what chance did I have? The only solution was to avoid any situation where I might be tempted to do anything in order to preserve my life. I served my time in military training, as I was obliged to, and promptly left.
But then again...you know what happens next.
So I'm not the best commander. How can I instruct my troops in what is right if I don't know myself? How can I blame Rattrap for having survival as his priority? How can I blame Silverbolt and Blackarachnia for wanting to be together, no matter what havoc that might cause for the war itself? How can I say "your life and your love are of less importance than this fight"? Because the war will end - it is the people who fought it that must live on afterwards... with the consequences.
You see my dilemma? I can tell them strategy, tactics, drills, fighting techniques. I can give orders, discipline them for obvious errors...but I can't tell them what their priority is. Like me, they must decide alone. For Cheetor, it's the love of life, the adventure, that is the aim and the method. For Rhinox, it's seeing that the rest of us get through this as unscathed as possible. For Dinobot...for Dinobot the fight was the thing. The honour, the glory. There was no shame in the kill, only proof of the strong triumphing over the weak It took me a long time to understand him, to cope with his attitude. It's taken me longer to adjust to that attitude being gone for good. And for Depth Charge, revenge is the only thing worth living for.
I wonder what he'll do, if he succeeds in killing Rampage.
But they all come through in the end. Not a single one, not even Blackarachnia and Rattrap, don't have something they value enough to die for. No matter what they say, how selfish they claim to be...they have something they prize even above their own spark. A friend, a lover, a belief, the team as a whole...we all need that thing that defines who we are, that tells us our reason for living.
So that'd why I'm not authoritarian. I've no right, no need to be. Even operating as individuals, somehow we manage to pull together.
I suppose it's in keeping with the Cybertronian theory, "the whole is stronger than its parts."
I've been dead. I've seen the Matrix. Before I did however, I was terrified, angry, at the belief in a united afterlife. That all your struggles, all your meaning, all your personality, was lost in that giant plane of total solidarity. That you may have friends, lovers and children, and never actually be WITH them as you know them now, is a terrifying notion. Gestalts vanished with the Autobots - modern Maximals and Predacons have no notion of being only one part of a scheme, having someone else, or an amalgamation of minds, making the decisions that affect YOU.
The Matrix isn't like that. You're YOU...but you're everyone else as well. There is no other way to explain it. I won't even try to phrase it any other way.
The whole is stronger than its parts yes...but it's the sum of its parts too. The entire being, and the separate entities, are interdependent...and each must make its own way.
So I don't order Rhinox to participate more in battle - he knows his strength and he plays to it. I don't order Cheetor to grow up, because he'll do so in his own time. Far better to mature, than to have age forced upon you. And I don't ban our resident lovers from each others' quarters - partly because I have no desire to die at the hands of an angry black widow, but also because they have made that choice for themselves - it affects no-one else, and there is no law dictating that...erm...ah, certain acts cannot be done out of a formal bond.
Hmm..? Oh, didn't you know Maximals can blush?
So that's my reasoning. For better or worse, I made my own choice, to let my crew make theirs. And I suppose, in the end, that's the only way it can ever be.
You may find this strange, but Cybertron never had any form of "proper" religion.
I personally found this odd, especially when, as a cadet, we learned of many of the different races in the universe. Every single one, without fail, had at least one form of belief which dictated the rules for a "good" life, what happened to those who actually manged to meet these standards, and what happened to those who didn't. Most had some kind of deus ex machina overseeing all that was Good and Pure, and his/her foil, the one who dealt with those who couldn't meet, or deliberately turned against, those guidelines. These ranged from the amazonian Varn, a purely matriarchial society who paid tribute to the Mighty Lady of Light, to the Amarax, a patriarchial society who blamed Womankind for any toil and suffering, and in accordance had the "holy" male and the "damned" female, to those of Kueppeku, whose road to paradise was through glory and sacrifice, and who followed standards so unobtainable that their suicide rate was phenomenal. We were patiently taught these beliefs, logically reasoned through their methods and motives, and generally learned how to deal with these people should we meet them - a lesson learned the hard way by wandering Cybertronians who had inadvertantly offended these native species. (One particular tale was of Commander Darenon, nearly executed simply for addressing a female on Amarax.) But we ourselves never learned any practice of religion, simply because there wasn't one.
I voiced my thoughts on this to our teacher one day, after learning of Earth and its many religions. Why, I said, did we have no guidelines for a "good" life? Why did our beliefs end with Primus, the Matrix and the Pit?
He gave a good, structured, logical answer. Because we didn't evolve in the way most species evolved. Because religion tended to lead to conflict, and we wanted to avoid any kind of in-fighting (here I brought up the Maximal/Predacon tension, but was swiftly talked over.). And simply because we were a logical race, and that religion, science and logic usually conflicted.
He was trying his best, I suppose, but it still didn't make sense. Cybertronians have the same need for reassurance that we are doing right, that someone is watching over us, as any other sentient species. We are NOT purely logical - else why would we form romantic attachments to each other, make friends, die for each other? That's not logic. And even though we had none of the "rules" of religion, we DID have Primus. It seemed we were taking the best elements of such a practice, and tip-toeing over any restrictions it might place upon us.
A good thing? A bad thing? I was never really sure. There were certainly no heated debates or fights over different "religions" on Cybertron...but there were clashes of ideologies. Wasn't that just the same?
So I never knew what a "good life" was from anyone else - I had to decide myself. And I chose the most common moral code on Cybertron.
Do what you want with your life. Do what you want with your mind and body. Follow any ambition that you see fit - but harm no-one, do nothing at the expense of another.
It was this philosophy that had made us an "enlightened" race among our neighbours, to choose for ourselves what we believed. And...and still...didn't that mean that if Megatron truly believed in what he was doing, he could not be condemned for it? Up until recently, Megatron was not murderer, nor thief, nor tyrant. He was not a pleasant bot, but he hadn't broken the law. Did the fact that, despite his bullying, underhand methods and ruthlessness, he had not done anything illegal, acquit him of anything that might have passed before the Beast Wars? Did the fact that he honestly believed that Predacons were oppressed make hima "freedom fighter" as opposed to a "terrorist?"
Such a notion makes my head spin - I try not to think about it.
Moving swiftly onwards...There was a reason I was commander of an exploration vessel, not a warship. I simply did not believe in killing. For any reason. The vast majority of moral guidelines said "Do not Kill." I thought that there must be something in the fact that this Law had made it across every race in the Universe. Yet...people still killed. They called it execution, they called it justice, they called it war, but it didn't change the fact that someone ended up dead. And, strangest of all, they did this "In the name of" their deity, or with their deity "on their side." If people with incredibly strict codes of honour killed when cornered, what chance did I have? The only solution was to avoid any situation where I might be tempted to do anything in order to preserve my life. I served my time in military training, as I was obliged to, and promptly left.
But then again...you know what happens next.
So I'm not the best commander. How can I instruct my troops in what is right if I don't know myself? How can I blame Rattrap for having survival as his priority? How can I blame Silverbolt and Blackarachnia for wanting to be together, no matter what havoc that might cause for the war itself? How can I say "your life and your love are of less importance than this fight"? Because the war will end - it is the people who fought it that must live on afterwards... with the consequences.
You see my dilemma? I can tell them strategy, tactics, drills, fighting techniques. I can give orders, discipline them for obvious errors...but I can't tell them what their priority is. Like me, they must decide alone. For Cheetor, it's the love of life, the adventure, that is the aim and the method. For Rhinox, it's seeing that the rest of us get through this as unscathed as possible. For Dinobot...for Dinobot the fight was the thing. The honour, the glory. There was no shame in the kill, only proof of the strong triumphing over the weak It took me a long time to understand him, to cope with his attitude. It's taken me longer to adjust to that attitude being gone for good. And for Depth Charge, revenge is the only thing worth living for.
I wonder what he'll do, if he succeeds in killing Rampage.
But they all come through in the end. Not a single one, not even Blackarachnia and Rattrap, don't have something they value enough to die for. No matter what they say, how selfish they claim to be...they have something they prize even above their own spark. A friend, a lover, a belief, the team as a whole...we all need that thing that defines who we are, that tells us our reason for living.
So that'd why I'm not authoritarian. I've no right, no need to be. Even operating as individuals, somehow we manage to pull together.
I suppose it's in keeping with the Cybertronian theory, "the whole is stronger than its parts."
I've been dead. I've seen the Matrix. Before I did however, I was terrified, angry, at the belief in a united afterlife. That all your struggles, all your meaning, all your personality, was lost in that giant plane of total solidarity. That you may have friends, lovers and children, and never actually be WITH them as you know them now, is a terrifying notion. Gestalts vanished with the Autobots - modern Maximals and Predacons have no notion of being only one part of a scheme, having someone else, or an amalgamation of minds, making the decisions that affect YOU.
The Matrix isn't like that. You're YOU...but you're everyone else as well. There is no other way to explain it. I won't even try to phrase it any other way.
The whole is stronger than its parts yes...but it's the sum of its parts too. The entire being, and the separate entities, are interdependent...and each must make its own way.
So I don't order Rhinox to participate more in battle - he knows his strength and he plays to it. I don't order Cheetor to grow up, because he'll do so in his own time. Far better to mature, than to have age forced upon you. And I don't ban our resident lovers from each others' quarters - partly because I have no desire to die at the hands of an angry black widow, but also because they have made that choice for themselves - it affects no-one else, and there is no law dictating that...erm...ah, certain acts cannot be done out of a formal bond.
Hmm..? Oh, didn't you know Maximals can blush?
So that's my reasoning. For better or worse, I made my own choice, to let my crew make theirs. And I suppose, in the end, that's the only way it can ever be.