We Are Legion

You can claim I'm borrowing this topic from North is you want. I was commenting to him about it already though, so I get to claim a small bit of originality.

When I wrote my Solstice Story "In Memoriam" I knew I was writing a work of fiction. It was really the same old story that had been told a year before... I just added a few new elements that have popped up since then for an extra bit of supernatural flair. But regardless, the story is fiction not merely because it was a story that I made up, but because it was an impossibility to begin with. The fact of the matter is, no matter how united the runners and the fighters claim to be... they are not united. They cannot be united. Perhaps they are too selfish. Perhaps they are too scared. I don't know. Regardless, the fact remains the same.

And this is bothersome... because while certainly the simple idea the Solstice Story(s) suggest of throwing bodies at the problem until it goes away is... proooooobably a bad idea... it still remains that there is so much more we could be doing together as a group of that size than we could ever do alone. When speaking with North, I had mentioned in limited detail something from another story... in which a great dragon, powerful and wise as he may be, was overwhelmed by a swarm of rats. Certainly the rats were small, weak, and insignificant by compare to the dragon... but they possessed strength in numbers. Together, they were Legion. And the Dragon's bones were picked dry.

Now just think about that for a moment. The Construct may well be a god by some people's standards... but he's still only one creature. And us? Last time I heard the numbers, we were bordering on the edge of there being 7 Billion of us. That's 7 Billion Humans Vs 1 Construct. Now why oh why do you think he is so keen on keeping his existence concealed within the shadows? That he sends his Proxies to eliminate the ones he doesn't want? the ones that won't stop investigating? the ones that could expose him to the world? I can only reason that the creature is as afraid of us as we are of him. Certainly he holds the advantage over us by a wide margin. But hit something hard enough... hit it enough times... and eventually it will break. Do you really think, that if humanity opened its eyes and turned its collective fist against the Construct, that we wouldn't win?

But convincing the world is an impossibility. There are still people that believe the world is Flat. We're pretty much fucked at the concept of ever convincing all of humanity to share in any one single perception. But then... I really doubt that we need 7 Billion to do the job. 7 Hundred may well be enough... or even 70. Who knows? But I guarantee if enough of us truly banded together and put our minds to the task, then we'd find a way to beat this thing.

But once again, simply throwing enough bodies at the problem isn't enough. And nobody is going to sign on for such an obvious suicide mission. Several varieties of insects acting as a hive would gladly send themselves to die for the good of the collective when under attack by a greater predator... but human's are too individualistic to act in such a selfless manner. Not under normal circumstances anyways. Self preservation is typically more important to us. So we continue to act alone... and we continue to die alone.

There are two key factors which would be required to change this. One is proper leadership. Of which we have none. Certainly a few heroes exist amongst us who could perceiveably band together to unite us, but they seem reluctant to consider such lofty ideals. After all, the burden of every defeat must be carried by a leader. And surely, even among a group leadership... a Rule of Three, perhaps? ...the same issues remain. No one wants to carry that weight. But then, perhaps there are some who could carry the weight, but lack the renown or credibility to be entrusted with the task? It's always something...

The other half of the equation, is to have an effective means of assault. Without a weapon or a form of attack which can be utilized against the Construct, a gathering of this nature would be pointless. No one wants to fight a battle they know they can't win. Until a "weapon" is discovered that can physically harm the Construct, with effects that can be continually replicated, then any effort to unite the runners in an all out offensive strike would surely fail.



And yet even with these conditions met, I'm left to wonder... would the runner's ever truly unite in such a fashion? I look around and... I kind of have to shake my head. No offense guys but... we're just not there yet. And that worries the hell out of me.