Intergalactic Summit

I would also prefer that. On the other hand I have done things I mistakenly believed to be justified by the ends.

A thought occurs to me, as I watch my fellow capsuleers debate the possibility of utopia: has it occurred to anyone that, ironically, we may prove not only to bring progress toward our ideals, but carry also the demise of the worlds we hope to create?

It is true that our appearance and rapid rise in prominence has been the catalyst of great change in recent years. But , for the vast majority of humans, what impact does this change have? Even if a new breed of powerful and mercurial spacefarers are now at large in the world, the majority of the human population that still lives planetside only knows of our kind through word of mouth, and articles in the news. Indeed, next to the excesses of the Blood Raiders or the widespread depredations of Sansha's Nation, the occasional capsuleer-perpetrated slaughter can often seem like the actions of one monster among many.

And as for our power, our freedom? It is true that I travel the stars as I wish, and that I have seen much that few other humans have. However, we are not yet the mighty and transcendent beings that some of us would like to believe we are. For evidence, one need simply vaporize an opportune target on the Jita 4-4 undock and watch what happens next. We are powerful, but we are, for now, controlled. Channeled, like rising floodwater. We are something new in society, but we do not direct it. We choose our own destinies - which is more choice than most people have - but we are not in control.

Indeed, if we were it would make no difference.

All this talk of utopia and striving for change glosses over important and essentially human qualities that nobody, be they Gallente or Caldari or even Jovian can truly escape. Being wealthy enough to satisfy all our needs, we still throw ourselves into the acquisition of greater wealth. Possessing more personal power than all but a handful of people in the cluster, we still engage in wars and factional contests with greater power as their aim. Finally, the great irony of our existence is that we attempt to work our will on the world an change it to our liking while clinging to artificial immortality - changelessness - ourselves!

I speak not of hypocrisy, or morality, or any kind of judgment. All I say is that nothing exists in a vacuum; the past informs the present. In times of peace, the people remember those who spilled blood so they would not have to - and in times of war, they do as those before them did. The same is true for any great acts which change people and societies. Utopia may be attainable, but it is surely not eternal. Perhaps those happy dwellers in the far future will remember that their world was shaped by undying adventurers among the stars, and seek to emulate them. Perhaps, if all one day are like us, it is the baseline that people will remember and seek to return to. Perhaps it is simply that acts of ours are remembered: our heroism, or monstrousness, or a million other things. But they would remember. And in such little things can lie the death of utopia.

We, not simply capsuleers, but all people, leave an impression. We are indelible. Thus, we are inescapable.

That is our curse.

Ha.

Do you really believe in a "New Man", in a utopia?



Edit: Added a link.