"Yashiro, you better see this."
Choe Gu-sung plopped down on the white couch next to her, crossing his leg with the knee pointed at her. He was wearing a purple shirt, green pants and brown boots. Handing her his tablet, she saw that there were many recent videos. All of them about Abe Asuka and her husband.
"I never thought their deaths would be made public in this way," Yashiro shook her head.
Instead, she was sitting with her legs slightly apart and one hand on her thigh.
"You knew them?" he looked up at her.
"I was present during her interview and his death."
"Abe-san was well known in his neighborhood, and no one believes he killed her wife," Choe showed an image taken from a higher building, where they could see the enforcers executing the man. "They're criticizing the PSB. But many of these accounts are banned already. The reason given by the traditional media is instigation of order."
"This brings back some memories," she closed her eyes for a few seconds. "The Specimen Case, three years ago. A lot of people were talking about the murders and the bureau—especially since the culprit was never executed. He just disappeared. Some of my favorite channels were banned because of it. I never found them again."
"Touma Kouzaburou," Choe frowned and looked at his hands on his thighs. "You never knew what he was thinking—whether he was going to have a beer with you or stick a pen in your eye."
Yashiro let out a short chuckle with her mouth closed.
"You knew him too, right?" Choe turned to her.
Yashiro's smile slowly faded, and she raised an eyebrow for a second. His red and yellow eyes opened a bit, completely fixed on her, and yet she stared at the red carpet on the floor.
"Yes. I met him a couple of years before you," her voice was clear and dry.
Choe watched her with parted lips, but asked no further questions. When Yashiro finally stood up, walking towards the huge crystal that showed a jungle-like nature outside, narrowed golden eyes followed her across the room. Makishima Shougo was standing in front of the fireplace, one hand in the pocket of his light purple pants while the other held a book.
"Instigation of order… incitement of violence," she folded her arms. "When the speaker is found guilty of a crime for inciting a crowd, which then riots and commits various assaults and crimes against person and property. In my opinion, it can only be considered a crime if we deny free will and freedom of choice, and assume that if someone tells a group of people to riot, those people will then inevitably be determined to act and commit unlawful acts.
"But while it might be immoral or regrettable for those people to support a riot, this strictly belongs to the realm of personal advocacy and shouldn't be subject to criminal sanction. Of course, if that person participates in the disorder, he becomes a rioter and is liable for punishment. Moreover, if he is the head of a criminal corporation and orders the bank to be robbed, as an accomplice, he becomes a participant or even a leader."
Yashiro exchanged a glance with the golden eyes.
"Freedom of speech can't be sustained if it's not included among individual property rights," Makishima looked at the fire again. "Another area is slander and libel."
Yashiro nodded, "It's generally held that it's legitimate to restrict freedom of speech if it falsely or maliciously damages another person's reputation. I disagree."
Makishima smiled for a few seconds and raised his head a bit.
"What this law does is assert someone's right of ownership over his reputation. But no one owns his reputation, since it's a function of the subjective feelings and attitudes of other people. And since no one can possess the mind and attitude of another, no one can have a property right over his reputation. Reputation varies according to the opinions of others. Therefore, expressing oneself by attacking someone can't be an invasion of his property right, so this expression shouldn't be subject to legal restrictions or sanctions."
"Another action that should be unrestricted is boycotting, where one or more people use their right of speech to urge others to stop buying someone else's products," Yashiro continued, gazing up at some trees. "If they organize a campaign to stop buying beer, this is advocating something and defending a legitimate act. A successful boycott may be unfortunate for brewers, but it falls under free speech and private property rights. However, labor laws have always infringed on the right of unions to organize boycotts against companies. It's also illegal to spread rumors about the insolvency of a bank."
A deep, short laugh escaped Makishima's lips, who responded, "An example of the privileges the government grants banks by affecting the freedom of speech of those who oppose their use."
"What about picketing and demonstrations?" asked Choe.
"I admit I've never seen one," Yashiro raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "Freedom of speech also implies freedom of assembly. But picketing is illegitimate when it blocks access to a private building, or when it threatens those who cross the demarcation line. But even peaceful ones are. Who decides the use of streets? The problem arises from the fact that they belong to the government. If streets were privately owned, the owners would decide whether to rent their street for demonstrations, to whom they rent it and at what price. So, the point at issue is not freedom of speech or freedom of assembly, but property rights."
"You don't believe in freedom of use of radio and television either," Choe commented with a wave of his hand. "Even though nobody uses radios anymore."
"It's a mockery," Yashiro responded. "Broadcasters always had limitations and were forced to adjust their programming. Today, every opinion is countered by rebuttals from responsible entities. So is music. It doesn't matter how talented you are. Everyone knows that the title of artist is now given by Sibyl, and those who are not recognized can't even perform on stage or publicly release their albums."
"Which inevitably creates a black market," Choe shrugged his shoulders. "The same goes for books, movies..."
"In this country art is not valued. Cinema is censored and there are restrictions when it comes to creating content. That's why movies are becoming more and more boring. But there are no longer incentives to improve quality, because this is the public's demand," a male, quiet voice echoed in her mind.
"What do you think about regulating movies to prevent possible crimes in the future?" Choe kept looking at her.
Yashiro raised her head and blinked a couple of times.
"The question of whether movies influence human behavior is not for the state to answer. And banning violent movies because they might cause someone to commit a crime is…" her voice trailed off and she slowly shook her head.
"A denial of man's free will, and the violation of the right of those who would not commit crimes by watching violent movies," Makishima finished her sentence.
"It's still less justifiable to ban violent movies for this reason than it would be, for example, to incarcerate everyone who lives in a neighborhood where there has been a psycho hazard, because they have a greater tendency to commit crimes than the rest of the population," Choe frowned, staring at the fireplace. "Like banning guns. It's not the solution but part of the problem. All it does is leave decent people unarmed. The criminal doesn't care about having a license to carry them, or buying them legally. He will always turn to the black market. If you want to solve traffic congestion, would you ban the use of cars? Regulating or banning has never been a solution and the past proves it."
"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," commented Makishima. "It's true then… that we seek freedom when we've already lost it."
"Because the price of liberty is eternal vigilance," Yashiro pointed out.
They gave each other a relaxed, lingering look, while Choe looked back down at his tablet and continued speaking, "These companies have to allow any kind of content. When you start censoring, you become a media outlet. And a media outlet can be sued for its content. People have no freedom to express themselves. They were allowed that they couldn't be sued, and yet now that they have all the power, they're doing whatever they want. If they're not responsible for what I post, then why are they banning so many people's accounts?"
Makishima closed his book, "In the past, the state helped these companies grow as they have. And that is extremely dangerous. State interventionism has made them gain so much power. When Germany became a one-party dictatorship, the Nazis orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to win the loyalty and cooperation of the Germans.
"The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings and rallies, art, music, movies and radio. Viewpoints that in any way threatened Nazi beliefs or the regime were censored or removed from all media.
"Benjamin Constant said the ancients' idea of liberty was linked to their public life—it consisted of participating in the fate of your community. But as a private individual you had no freedom at all. The laws regulated customs, and there was nothing to regulate the laws. You weren't the one who decided about your religious beliefs, your marriage, how to educate your children or what to do in your free time.
"Moderns had a different idea. For them, liberty was the right to express your opinion, to choose your profession and exercise it, to dispose of your property and your life. Naturally, this idea also had political connotations, such as being subject only to the laws and the right to influence the administration of the government."
Yashiro continued, "Fascism and communism were the cruelest and bloodiest enemies of these political ideas. Both advocated that the individual should submit to a communal interest that in reality was the whims of a ruler with disproportionate power in his hands. From Hitler to Stalin and Mao. Every socialist is a disguised dictator. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny, the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also, only of a less intense kind. You shall do as we will, and not as you will, is in either case the declaration.
"To stay in power, they need to kidnap society, take away its decision-making power, suppress its self-esteem, rights and freedom. Many times they chose weapons and violence as a mechanism. But under the influence of Antonio Gramsci, some understood that the struggle is cultural and followed what this thinker affirmed, when he said that the conquest of cultural power is prior to that of political power, and this is achieved through the concerted action of intellectuals infiltrated in all media, expression and universities.
"There is criticism of the use of economic planning as a substitute for market-based allocation of factors of production. Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, explained by the Austrian School. Regardless of any methods, details, decrees, policies and promises, the ideals are evil—this horrible principle that man must exist for the sake of the state. I think there will never be revolutions in this country. Not only because the revolutionary will become a latent criminal as soon as he thinks of changing a paradigm, but because people themselves are not interested in change. Isn't that the dream of every dictator? Aren't we the ideal citizens?"
"The perfect dictatorship," Makishima continued, holding a book against his chest with closed eyes. Brave New World was written on its cover. "That which has the appearance of a democracy, but is a prison without walls, with prisoners who wouldn't even dream of escaping. Slavery without chains, where slaves love servitude and ask to be whipped."
"Anyone listening to us would think we were planning a coup," Choe smirked.
Yashiro smiled for a few seconds, exchanging a glance with him, then looked straight ahead again.
"Governments will always tend to the destruction of individual rights to preserve themselves. The history of mankind is a record of the irrepressible conflict between power and freedom, with power—government—always ready to increase its sphere of action. We can turn to the state or the police to protect us from private criminals, but who can protect us from the state? No one, since it monopolizes the protection service, claims a monopoly on violence and decision making in society. We haven't pointed out that the government's monopoly on coercive weapons has led it over the centuries to massacres, tyrannical and oppressive acts greater than any decentralized private agency could have ever committed.
"After all, what is the state if not an organized mafia? What is taxation if not theft on an uncontrolled and gigantic scale? What is war if not mass murder? What is conscription if not mass enslavement of citizens? Can you imagine a private police force with even a fraction of the impunity with which states have acted and still act?"
"How would your society defend us against another state?" questioned Choe.
Yashiro nodded and looked down for a couple of seconds.
"Wars are the result of conflicts between nation states, each armed in suspicion of an inevitable attack by the other. But if we were a libertarian country it wouldn't constitute a threat to anyone, not because it had no weapons, but because its desire would be not to attack any person or any country. By ceasing to be a nation-state, there would be little chance that it would suffer an attack from another country. One of the great evils of the nation-state is that all its citizens are identified with it, therefore in any interstate war the innocent civilians, the citizens of each country are subject to aggression from the enemy state. But in a libertarian society there would be no such identification and consequently there would be little chance of a devastating war."
"What about terrorists?" he insisted, shaking his head. "Who would defend us from outside attacks if we didn't use coercion to recruit soldiers?"
Makishima's smile was barely visible, with his golden eyes narrowed, and a slight frown studying them like a strategist watching a game of chess.
"We have no moral right to use coercion to force others to defend us. Besides, why do we need to recruit people? No one is recruited in the free market. Why not hire defenders, just as we hire private security guards? Why is it not possible to hire soldiers in the same way? While it's legitimate to use violence against criminals in defense of one's own person and property, it's unacceptable to violate the rights of other innocent people. War is only appropriate when the violence is limited to the specific individuals who have committed the crime."
"Unfortunately, states exist and each has a monopoly of violence over its respective territory," Choe smirked and tilted his head. "Your system would be efficient, prosperous, moral and free, but you've said nothing about how to move from the present system to the ideal. Liberalism hasn't been established all over the world. The larger the area where freedom is first established, the better its chances of surviving and resisting any attempt at violent overthrow. If it were established worldwide, there would be no national defense problem. It'd be reduced to internal police disputes. But if it were only established here in Tokyo, while the other cities and the rest of the world is statist, your chances of survival would be minimal. The government of the day would invade and crush you."
Makishima turned his head towards Yashiro.
"But, as long as states exist, they must limit their activities to the territory they monopolize," Yashiro explained in a soft voice.
"You have your feet on the ground," Choe rested his arm on the back of the couch. "You are a minarchist in the short term and in the long term, you are anarcho-capitalist philosophically."
Yashiro's eyes widened and she turned to the glass again, averting his gaze. Makishima's lips curved further up.
"And… to do that… to have a limited and minimal state, people of each country must put pressure on their own," she finished her sentence.
"Which won't ever happen in this country," Choe glanced at Makishima. "For now."
Yashiro raised an eyebrow and shook her head slowly, a smile shadowing her features.
"They figured out how to rule more effectively and lastingly than Caesar and Napoleon did. It's about ruling the soul of one man, to rule the rest. The soul can't be ruled, and they broke it. You won't need prisons. People will surrender to the police to be arrested. Much like Sasayama did. They have discovered a mechanism that works for them and ensures their existence forever. Making people feel small and constantly guilty for a crime they have not yet committed. Killing their dreams and ideals. Making man destroy himself. Preaching that the only thing that exists and will exist is the Sibyl System. That they must be virtuous and honorable citizens according to its preferences, leaving aside their own aspirations and making them give up any notion of their personal value. People will always ask for Sibyl's guidance and support like a religion. They end up accepting and obeying this very system, because they have lost perhaps the most important thing—their integrity. And they will obey because they can no longer trust themselves. This is how some people gained power and ruled millions in the past. They started talking about sacrifice, social justice, equality… but they seek to be the masters."
"Whose profile are you working on?" Choe's voice echoed, as he looked from her to Makishima and his face contorted in disgust. "Whose profile is she working on?"
Yashiro blinked a couple of times and closed her eyes tightly for a moment. Makishima was still looking at her with darkened features.
"Despite our market economy and accompanying freedoms that have real gains and benefits, this is a backward, totalitarian nation. In terms of free political, social expression and state indoctrination, it resembles the world of George Orwell's 1984. Organization is one of the most powerful tools that human reason can employ, but I am against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better. I just wish for a world in which… people can guard their most valuable treasures—their thoughts, their will, their freedom. And the greatest of these is their freedom."
Yashiro's eyebrows and the corners of her lips drew downward. She remained like that for several seconds, until she finally turned around and looked back at the couch.
"Choe, I need your help," she blurted out with widened eyes. "There's this woman. I've been looking into her file to no avail…"
"Yashiro," Choe frowned and got up from the couch with his tablet, walking towards her. "I told you not to open them without my help, because you might be flagged."
"She's top brass. Head of the bureau. Name's Kasei Joushuu. I think she's the key to everything. But I doubt you'll even find an address," Yashiro spoke fast, almost incoherently.
"I'll see what I can do," he lowered his head to her and sighed. "Just get some sleep."
She looked up at him, and their gazes lingered for a while. Choe was serious, studying the dark circles under her eyes, until he had to take a call and left the room. Makishima approached the glass.
"What is it about this woman, Yashiro?" his voice echoed.
Yashiro sighed audibly as she walked over to the couch to lie down on it, placing one of the three orange square pillows on the end, and tucking her right foot under her outstretched left leg. Her hands clasped together on her abdomen, and her gaze fixed on the ceiling. She curled her lip and widened her eyes, a complete contrast to the usual calmness she was so often identified with. But Makishima continued to observe nature.
"The fact that someone like her could be responsible for the management of the Public Safety Bureau—no, that she is none other than the person who represents the Sibyl System, only proves my point—that this nation is doomed," she shook her head as she spoke in a slightly louder voice, waving her hand in the air. "She would gladly talk about the invisible hand or explain the broken window fallacy, and criticize the Keynesian model or Marx's labor theory of value. She loathes collectivism and the people who advocate it as much as we do, but would want to be in charge of prescribing how others should dispose of their lives. People who seek control over the lives of others can't pose as defenders of their rights. But this isn't doublethink. She's fully aware of her ideals and her methods. And she's willing to take them to the extreme, socially and morally speaking… for the good of society. Although by society she must mean people like herself, and not the other individuals who compose it. I worry about them having a voice in the Ministry of Welfare or even others. Imagine they start doing what was done in the past. These guys ruin your economy in four years and indoctrinate your culture in the long term. They wouldn't destroy the free market, but people like her are… dangerous."
"We are dangerous," Makishima raised his voice. "Precisely because we know their speeches. We know their ideas, their methods, how to apply them and what the consequences are. This Kasei Joushuu, however… I should meet her someday," he turned around, but his smile faded as he observed Yashiro's body stretched out on the couch in a relaxed, thoughtful position. "He would always lay on the couch like that. Touma Kouzaburou."
"Is that so?" Yashiro closed her eyes.
The memory seemed to darken Makishima's features. Yashiro could not help but smirk as she imagined Touma lying down like that. The reprimanding look she was receiving was not dedicated to her manners, but to the memory of his. And yet, she continued to lie on the couch in the same way, pleased to be the driving force behind his annoyance.
"I didn't know you were friends before I met you," he folded his arms.
"I had known him for three years. But I wouldn't say friends," she slowly fidgeted with her thumbs over her abdomen and a relaxed face. "More like he took me hostage."
Makishima blinked and frowned.
"I never told you this—one day he waylaid me at the courtyard of the Ousou Academy while I was reading, and wouldn't go until we finished discussing politics and history. He lent me The Spirit of Law."
"Montesquieu," Makishima looked towards the window. "And what were you reading?"
"Herbert… Spencer," her voice was low and weak.
He smiled with narrowed eyes for a moment.
"It's interesting how books can show so much about ourselves with a simple cover. You can tell a lot about a person by the type of books they read. Most of the time people read books that reflect their character. What a man does is based on what he thinks. Therefore, to understand a man's actions, they have to be considered in relation to his ideas. Books help you discover this. I'm sure Touma formed an opinion of you the second he saw that cover."
After half a minute waiting for a response, Makishima turned around. Yashiro had her eyes closed with dark circles under them, and her head slightly tilted to one side. He watched her with a frown for a couple of seconds, until he left the room, passing by the couch. He returned about ten minutes later, carrying a thin green blanket. Quietly, he leaned over the couch and covered her up to her shoulders, as serious as a person covering a corpse, though Yashiro had simply fallen asleep. The usual strong perfumes of women always made his nose wrinkle, but Yashiro's relaxed his features instead. It was a natural, clean smell, like someone who just got out of the shower. He turned off the lamp on a small wooden table beside the long couch, darkening the room dimly lit by the nearly extinguished fireplace, and left.