On Mon, 17 Nov 1997, Richard Lawson wrote:

If evil is TRULY conserved, then every advance you make has to occur at
someone else's expense.  By helping someone, you would have to hurt
someone else.

Ultimately, this story is a tragedy.  Serenity saves her soul at the
expense of humanity.  If evil is truly conserved, then all human striving
is futile.  No matter what our heroes and heroines did, they could not
win, for any victory would have to be balanced by defeat in something
else.

Or am I misunderstanding your point?

Hmm.  How to put this.

It's not so much that there must always be as much evil as good.  Those 
philosophies have always bothered me, too.  It's that Serena's method of 
dealing with evil - by making sure no one ever feels pain, ever - is not 
the right way of diminishing evil.  Part of it is my belief in the 
fundamental right of everyone to *choose*.  We must be allowed to choose 
evil, if we want.  Serena was depriving people of that choice, and I 
believe that's wrong.  Of course, we can always hope to create a world 
where no one will ever choose to do evil, where being good is the only 
reasonable thing to do.  But creating a world where the choice is removed - 
that's evil in and of itself.  That's kind of the point "Brave New World"  
 and "1984" were making.

	Normally I wouldn't butt in here, but Lawson-san has managed to
put into words something I've had a difficult time expressing. This
happens to be my pet peeve with the Amazons from Ranma 1/2, as well. It's
not that the Cologne from the manga and/or the anime is evil (altho she
clearly is in some 'fics), it's that the culture seems to preclude free
will and free choice. The attitude, both with them, and with a LOT of
anime/manga societies seem to reflect an attitude prevalent in Japan, Asia
as a whole, and most tribal civilizations. Our way or the highway. Don't
stand out. Go along to get along. The nail that protrudes feels the hammer
of heaven. 

	In two words? "no choice." *shrug* I can't live that way, and I
suppose it shows, both in my behavior, and my fanfics.

	Guess I'm a cranky old anarchist and a rugged individualist. *heh*

I probably didn't state that very well in my pontificating.  :)

	No, Rich.. I think you did an excellent job of it, and picked a
pair of examples that light up the problem nicely.

Side note:
My own vision of Crystal Tokyo is that of a society in which the problem
of physical evil has been solved, but not that of moral evil.  Moral evil
is less of a problem, because some needs and wants that drive people to
immoral actions are more easily met in moral ways.  Eventually, I'll get
around to writing Black Moon Rising, which will actually set this vision
out.  All I have to do is finish my 20000  other projects...:)

	ME! ME! ME! I WANNA SEE IT!

	(A SD Minerva sneaks over to Biles's house and hits him up with a
giga-dose of caffeine, and an IV drip of glucose, chaining him to a word
processor, and telling his employer, family, and friends that he's not
available for the next year... then repeats the actions for Lawson.)

Heh.  Well, when you get to it, I'd find that a *very* interesting vision 
to read about.  When you get the other 1,999 projects out of the way.  :)

John Walter Biles

Thanks for the thought-provoking C&C, John.

	Yeah.. thought-provoking is right.. damn it, now my head is so
full of moral philosophy, I'll probably try to write an anime/Ayn Rand
crossover... *sigh*

-Richard
sterman@sprynet.com

	Ed Becerra

	"Dreamers may die, but the dream is eternal..."