View Single Post
Old 2012-11-13, 23:42   Link #550
Rainrir
Tin Can
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
@Misconceptions of the system
Firstly, there is zero indication that most young ones die early like Marga. I am not sure where people pull that idea from, but the existance of young of non-dying young children is shown again and againm and the fact that there are actual youths (like in the teens) in the 5th would indicate that MOST 5th goi do not die young. Only people born with low Magoi, like Marga (or Morgiana if she was born here), would die young. Mogarett already said that death rates are far lower than it was before, this cannot be true of the young are dying en masse (considering the amount of screwing going on in the 5th, I doubt there is a lack of for such data to be "invisible").

Secondly, I don't really see the chancellor as a "Nazi". Again, he is more of a colonialist who thinks that the "barely human savages" should live under the "enlightened rule" of their betters. Replace "Magicians and Goi" with "Americans/Europeans and Rest of the World", and you have the thinking that still persists in some circles till this day. I think there should be clarity on the difference between "Colonialist" thinking and actual "Nazi" thinking. Mostly because, Nazi is such a loaded word that it becomes thought terminating these days. He already said he is not out to abuse or kill all the Goi (that would make him Nazi), he merely thinks that the Goi are not capable of ruling themselves and needs to be kept down permanently for the good of everyone, including the Goi themselves (that is Colonialist thinking).

Thirdly, Mogarett doesn't have black rukh because he seriously believed in what he is doing. He does sincerely want a place for Magicians. The girl from Kou already said how she is seen as a freak back at home, while Sphintus showed us how Magicians are being used by non-Magicians for political purposes, then discarded. All I can say again, is that Mogarett is basically what Magneto is originally, before they watered down his character. I don't see how he mentions he is "superior of Scheherazade", he merely says that he wants to help people with magical potential like Yamu and Scheherazade to avoid the fate of being exploited by the Goi for their own ends. Note that if Yamu really IS burning her own lifespan to help Sinbad, I would consider Sinbad to be as horrible as the Mustaphim nobility in terms of exploitation. And from what I see of Sinbad, that is totally within what he is capable of if it protects his Kingdom.

Of course, his view of seeing Goi as merely animals is detestable. But as Aladdin said, this makes him beyond good and evil...just...well...crazy...with some good intentions and alot of trauma from his own past.

@How to solve the problem

Ultimately, the question is really complex here. "Blowing shit up" isn't going to save anyone. To save everyone, the real difficult questions are as follows.

1) Without the magoi contributions to the magical devices, how is the nation supposed to maintain the level of crop production that made it possible to feed everyone? Remember, the 5th Goi are no longer subjected to things like famine, despite their unproductivity. One of the defining features of the current regime is that the Goi basically pay for their own food with their Magoi (which is actually fairer than forcing magicians to use their Magoi on crops for the sake of the Goi). Blowing stuff up merely will cause mass famine for everyone, including the Goi that such an action is meant to help.

2) Despite the unhappiness of some of the young 5th at a destiny they never chose for themselves. A large population of the 5th do not want to be productive, as seen on the "field trip" of the magician students. They will never get such an impression if most of the 5th Goi actually want out.

More problematically, they had been unproductive for a long time (10 years). That amount of time being unproductive make people lose essential skills that are needed for work. Especially if a majority had not farmed in years? More importantly, the young of the 5th have absolutely ZERO skills to speak of. By releasing them from this system, how are they suppose to find employment or be productive when they don't even know how to farm?

Everyone can say that everybody can pick up themselves by their bootstraps, but people who think like that never saw people who have been out of the labour market for decades. In reality, "going back to work" after a prolonged period of "not working" is difficult. This is due to the suden liefstyle change and the fact that these people do not possess the skill that is in demand by the economy by then.

3) The 5th Goi youths might be unhappy with their current existance. Yet the real question is that under the old Mustaphim, would their lot really be any different? Right now, they are fed, given medical care and kept warm, but are condemned to a life of unproductivity and zero opportunity. Under the old monachy, they would be hungry, vulnerable to disease and cold, while still being condemned to a life of slaving in the fields with almost no other opportunity. Any "blowing up" of a system like this requires answering how are things such as opportunity are supposed to be afforded to the youths of 5th?

4) What kind of status should the Magicians have in this new system? While I do not buy Mogarett's idea that they are fundamentally a different species from the normal humans, the fact is that their abilities already make them functionally different from normal humans. As a result, equality of treatment is nearly impossible, in the light of their natural abilities that normal humans do not have. Are they obliged to help the Goi at the expense of their own lives when there are natural disasters (like in the old Monarchy), just because they have the power to? How are we supposed to prevent the exploitation of the magicians by the masses? Right now the system basically make every 5th Goi "substitute" the livelihood of other 5th Goi by draining Magoi indiscriminately, instead of the old way of making the Magicians "substitute" the livelihood of the Goi by burning down their lives. In some sense, it is actually fairer than it was before.

If it was up to popular vote, the Magicians would almost always be outvoted on situations in which the magicians would sacrifice for the "greater good". Democracy does not necessary solve that problem, without basic decency from the electorate (which is lacking, seeing how they behaved in the old Kingdom). In a non-magician-ruled kingdom, the Kings/Aristocrats would always monoplize and oppress the Magicians as they are the key to political power, which would have led us back to the Mustashim situation. So, how do we make sure there is no repeat of such shit?

I am interested to see what kind of proposal people who want to "blow up the system" have to answering such issues.

Last edited by Rainrir; 2012-11-13 at 23:53.
Rainrir is offline   Reply With Quote