*Ravenwolf on Mercy
Dearest Watcher, your mind returns to a memory of Ravenwolf’s philosophy. You recall hearing a discussion between Ravenwolf and Kha, regarding the nature of mercy for one’s enemies. It was a short time after the SOV’s recruitment of Kha that this conversation took place. Kha seemed to be unhappy with how Ravenwolf would stay his hand when he had the perfect opportunities to kill his enemies.
Perplexed, Kha decided to dig into Ravenwolf, regarding the subject, “Why do you refuse to put those worthless parasites out of their misery? Do their wicked actions not disturb your mind?”
Ravenwolf stands, overlooking the vast forest within the distance. He and Kha are scouting a foreign planet and have found a vantage point atop a crumbled building.
Ravenwolf, with his foot firmly pressed against the crumbled ledge of the building and his weight pressed against this leg, maintains his focus forward and replies, “Hope.”
Kha, who was standing behind Ravenwolf, reaches out to Ravenwolf’s shoulder, grabbing his attention, “Don’t give me that idealistic crap. Hope doesn’t feed the starving child’s belly; food does. Real, tangible, physical food. What you are waiting for is an unrealistic dream; nothing more.”
Ravenwolf maintains his weight upon that elevated foot, leaning into it and without a care in the world, he continues, “I am not after the child’s belly, Kha. I am after his soul. What you say may be true, yet, our vantage points, as to what is possible and what is fantasy, remain at odds. Looking through your eyes, I might tend to agree with you. The pain that you have endured has clouded your vision and torn a hole within your soul. That hole continues to fill with the opaque waters of vengeance and sorrow.”
Kha clenches his fist, the memories of how he was wronged remain, as fresh as if they happened yesterday, “All the more reason to destroy those that tore this hole into my soul. If they desired to dig that hole so badly, then why not bury them within their own creation? I would gladly take them into myself, if it meant that they would die along with me. My peace and their death are one in the same.”
Ravenwolf stands to his feet and turns toward Kha, “An action cannot be undone. What is taken will never return as it was, yet, what once existed cannot be lost. No matter how much pain resides within your soul, buried beneath this pain is the memory of happiness, suffocating by your desire for vengeance. The memory of your late wife has etched itself within the walls of your soul, reminding you of what love and happiness felt like. This memory is not lost, Kha, it is only buried beneath the opaque waters of vengeance.”
Kha became enraged and pulled out the scythe that he kept within his right bracer, “Enough! Don’t pretend you understand me. You cannot know what kind of pain I feel, every day. With each rise of the sun, with every season that passes and every century without her, my pain only grows. That hole continues to get bigger and one day, it will devour me, I am not foolish enough to claim ignorance to this. I don’t care. I will kill the ones responsible for stealing my life and my love from me.”
Ravenwolf nods his head, understanding that Kha will do as he always has, “I have no doubts that you will seek the vengeance that eats at your soul; I am not trying to convince you of my ways. That is not for me to decide. You are your own soul. However, the spirit within you is shared with all that exist within the infinite essence that is the Great Spirit. While I will not get in your way of the things that you believe you must do, in order to become whole once more, I will also not refrain from reaching into your soul and speaking to the spirit that remains within you.
“It is this spirit, which is within all things that I seek to protect. It is this spirit, which is even within our enemies, that stays my hand. To take a life is to harm that spirit; and I will not bring harm to something so pure, unless I have no other alternative. However, alternatives are created by those with power and will. If one has no alternative, then that means they have given up their power to circumstance. A true philosopher, a true strategist, will never enter into a battle without creating numerous alternatives for himself and for his enemies. Failure to do so does not rest within ones enemy, it resides within the one with the most power of mind. That is why I need not kill my enemy, for they are not powerful enough to best me. To kill the weak is not virtuous.”
Kha returns his weapon to its resting place, “What about those that will suffer because you did not end the tyranny of the twisted? Are their deaths acceptable?”
“There are no acceptable deaths,” Ravenwolf replies, “An act of vice does not create an act of virtue. That kind of foolish reasoning is best suited for a Utilitarian or Deontologist. By not killing my enemy and thus, committing an act of vice, does not make me responsible for whatever they do from that point in time. While I will not allow them to commit these acts, so long as I am able, I will also not use an act of vice to punish an act of vice. This does not remedy the problem, but serves only to prove incoherence. It reveals a lot about the weak nature of those in power, when they think that these incoherencies will solve incoherent problems.”
Kha shakes his head in disagreement, “What about in the case of stopping a forest fire? Is fire not used to burn down a large patch of foliage to prevent a large scale fire from spreading? To me, that incoherence, as you put it, seems to in fact be beneficial.”
Ravenwolf laughs, “Spoken like a true Utilitarian. Since when did you become a foolish consequentialist?”
Kha became angry, “I don’t give a damn about those idiots; I am merely trying to prove my point.”
Ravenwolf responds, “Fair enough. As you say, to save the many, you believe it is permissible to sacrifice the few. But a virtue ethicist cannot agree with that logic. The vice needed in order to stop another vice leads to situational virtues, which are not virtues at all. These situational virtues become foolish inconsistencies that claim something both is, and is not. Once it becomes realized that killing is both a vice and a virtue, the essence of meaning, in general, is stripped from the world and in its place, anarchy remains. Virtue then becomes what benefits those in power and loses any connection to what it truly was. If I am told that by burning the trees in this small area, I can save the forest, I then ask, but would it not have been more efficient to find the root of what started the fire and ensure that it had not the proper means to initiate in the first place?
I then ask, is burning a smaller area truly the best your limited minds can come up with to remedy the problem? Is this the height of human reasoning? To merely imitate whatever act of vice went in to creating the problem, only on a smaller scale; I would need to check the pulse of the evolution of mind to see if it is still breathing. Perhaps you believe that to sacrifice the few to the many is acceptable, because you are stricken by poverty of mind. Woe to those who innocently find themselves in the path of a raging forest fire, for the many can think of nothing other than murdering them to save the others.”
Ravenwolf returns to scouting the forest, “You asked why I do not kill my enemies; this is why.”
Kha could not argue his point any further. Somewhere, deep within his grieving soul, he knew that Ravenwolf was right.
Silence filled the air for a long moment and then, Kha turned around and walked away, “Whatever. Just don’t get in my way.”
Ravenwolf raised his hand in the air, acknowledging Kha’s request.
This was what you remember about that time, attentive Watcher. The thing that stuck with you was that, to commit an act of vice to remedy in act of vice, only led to more vice. There could be no virtue in this kind of thinking. You wondered if perhaps the mental evolution of the world is not ready for Ravenwolf’s unique philosophy. While this was nothing more than a drop of water in the ocean that is his philosophy, it made your soul resonate with a power that cannot be accurately understood. Was your own evolution somehow connected to his philosophy? Only time would tell.
Copyright (C) 2013 Arcane Ravenwolf
