Blurb: Natalie Byers is an Erudite member and a journalist. In the following article, she outlines several events and changes that have occurred and presents her views on those. She releases this article anonymously.
Shift from Ancestral Grounds
This is the time to stop and reflect on our actions and to assess if our actions are in agreement with the vision of our ancestors. Are we changing the methods designed by our predecessors to improve our practices or to gain power?
Anonymous
April 31st, 2301
Our city and the rules were made about a hundred years ago and we have embraced the practices willingly while also tweaking them. Our faction system and the choosing ceremony was designed to help our city run harmoniously and peacefully. Each faction contributes to the well being of our community. We cannot function without the other. The question is how have we interpreted our ancestors' visions? Are our actions a reflection of their goals for our city?
The recent news and events suggest to me that we are wrapped up in individual desires and ambitions more than the welfare of our city. By this, I do not insinuate that individuals must suppress their desires, but we do need to question our desires when they have the potential to become the failure of our city. I am specifically talking about the continuous attacks on the Abnegation government, and, zoning in, the radical changes in the Dauntless training.
Few of our Abnegation members have given their life in service for the betterment of the city. They are our government. Every faction has a say, but the final verdict is given by the government, Abnegation. The Erudite representative, Jeanine Matthews, for the past couple of months, has been targeting the members of the government for being selfish, hoarding food in the warehouses and depriving our city of the basic necessities. I and several others wonder if these are just the facts or means to bring down the existing power.
In one of the recent articles, the Erudite wrote, "The recent transfer of Beatrice and Caleb Prior, the children of Andrew Prior, calls into question the soundness of Abnegation's values and teaching." This statement to me, seems a sheer contradiction of what our ancestors wanted us to have, the freedom to choose who we want to be.
How can we judge the entire community's values by a transfer incident in one family of that community? We are forgetting that we were given this system as a means to be better individuals and we choose the community we think we will belong to the most, so that our city continues to be tranquil. I suggest that these insinuations do not reflect an act of providing feedback to improve the actions by the government, but a critique to take down the government.
The article released by the Erudite seems to me a call for revolution wrapped in the clothing of rationality. It asks to bring down the entire government. I believe doing so is not going to benefit our city because it calls for war. This is an action benefitting Erudite to climb the political ladder.
Both the actions of Erudite and the gradual shift in the Dauntless priorities make me wonder about our practices, as a society. The shifts in the Dauntless training should be given limelight. In one of the personal interactions, I was told that about 6 years ago, the Dauntless leader changed the priorities to test people's strength, which totally breaches the purpose of the establishment of the Dauntless faction. Dauntless initiation has a very popular game of conquering the flag. The two teams in the game begin by hiding their team's flag. The teams then set out to search for the other team' flag thereby conquering it. The game was a competition then and is a competition now, but the mindset has changed. Through this game, the leaders in the past taught teamwork, critical thinking, flexibility and adaptability when the situation calls for it. As per several sources inside the Dauntless, members of the faction believe that now the game is a fierce competition where the goal is winning by using any means you want. This includes barbaric fighting.
A Dauntless member called the training and initiation "competitive and brutal" where one is forced to stand against the other. One of the stages of Dauntless initiation includes physical fighting which is aimed at physically preparing the members. As per the sources' observations, this stage has become a wrestling match wherein one does not stop fighting or beating until one of them gives up. There is a huge difference between healthy competition and unhealthy competition. In healthy competition, the motivation to win is to be better and set higher aims for the individual self. When the intention is overthrowing your opponent, competition becomes fierce and a conflict. An example is the attack on an initiate by another initiate because one was ranked higher in stage 1 of Dauntless training than the attacker. In the quest of this unhealthy competition, the attacker ended up stabbing the eye of a member so that the victim couldn't stand above or equal to the attacker.
We were to train people, who are mentally and physically strong to be brave in order to protect our community, which is their responsibility as a faction. We do not want an unhealthy competitive environment. The Erudite's reports on Abnegation practices and events also highlights the spread of unhealthy competition. I worry such barbaric practices and shifts in mindsets of why we are learning certain things can infect our city and make one faction stand against the other in the near future.
I, as a member of my faction and the city, ask all of you to keep our eyes open to the happenings in the city; to look for places where we are moving past our founder's values, and purpose and to assess if this is the best approach to run the city or the faction. I urge the members to not blindly believe what you see. For what we accept, is what we become and none of us want our city to be in a state of war.