"Let me give you some advice, Captain." he said.
"Yes, sir?"
"It may help you make some sense of the world."
"Sir."
"I believe you find life such a problem because you believe there are the good people and the bad people." said the man. "You're wrong of course, There are, always and only, the bad people but some of them are on opposite sides."
He waved his hand to the city and walked toward the window.
"A great roiling sea of evil." he said, almost proprietorially. "Shallower in some places, of course, but deeper, oh, so much deeper in others. But people like you put together little rafts of rules and vaguely good intentions and say, this is the opposite, this will triumph in the end. Amazing!"
He slapped Vimes good-naturedly on the back."Down there," he said, "are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no. I'm sorry if this offends you." he added, patting the captain's shoulder. "but you fellows really need us."
"Yes sir?" said Vimes quickly.
"Oh, yes. We're the only ones who know how to make things work. You see, the only thing the good people are good at is overthrowing the bad people. And they're good at that, I'll grant you. But the trouble is that it's the only thing you're good at. One day it's the ringing of the bells and the casting down of the evil tyrantand the next it's everyone sitting around complaining that ever since the tyrant was overthrown noone's been taking out the trash. Because the bad people know how to plan. It's part of the pecification, you might say.Every evil tyrant has a plan to rule the world. The good people don't seem to have the knack."
"Maybe. But you're wrong about the rest!" said Vimes. It's just because people are afraid and alone--" He paused. It sounded pretty hollow, even to him.
He shrugged. ""They're just people." he said. "They're just doing what people do, sir."
Lord Vetinari gave him a friendly smile.
"Of course. Of course. You have to believe that, I appreciate. Otherwise, you'd go quite mad. Otherwise you'd think you're standing on a feather-thin bridge over the vaults of Hell. Otherwise, existence would be a dark agony and the only hope would be that there is no life after death. I quite understand." He looked at his desk and sighed. "And now, there is much to do, I'm afraid. Wonse was a good servant but an inefficient master. So you may go. Have a good night's sleep. Oh and do bring your men in tomorrow. The city must show it's gratitude."
"It must what?" said Vimes.The Patrician looke at a scroll. Already his voice was back to the distant tones of one who organizes and plans and controls.
"Its gratitude." he said. "After every triumphant victory there must be heroes. Then everyone will know that everything has been done properly.
He glanced at Vimes over the top of the scroll.
"It's all part of the natural order of things." he said.
After a while he made a few pencil annotations to the paper in front of him and looked up.
"I said" he said "that you may go."
Vimes paused at the door.
"Do you believe all that, sir?" he said. "About the endless evil and the sheer blackness?"
"Indeed, indeed." said the Patrician. "It is the only logical conclusion."
"But you get out of bed every morning sir?"
"Hmmn? Yes. What is your point?"
"I'd just like to know why, sir?"
"Oh do go away, VImes. Tere's a good fellow."

Exerpt from Guards Guards by Sir Terry Pratchett


Vetenari is right, more or less. Humanity is extremely efficient at one thing above all else, seeking the continued survival of comfort. And many of us will surrender any freedom, wear any slave's collar, sit idly by as we sacrifice the very lives of our fellows. All so we may enjoy mindlessly doom-scrolling along our devices, chatting empty trivialities on discord. Our mammalian brains' capacity for critical thought and the flame of our very birthright as humans frittered away like candyfloss at a farcical never-ending playground of our own imagining, all for the creature comfort of escaping what precious few corporeal hours of existence we are granted by an uncaring universe.

"Evil" such as it were, by apathy. Complacency. Complicity. As our neighbors are dragged away to be beaten, imprisoned or die, many sit in silence. It is the troubled silence of the coward but it without the immediate danger of personal risk or the long-term danger imposed by true freedom of choice.

To realize this is to acknowledge the sad truth of the creature.

However, Vimes is also right. Very much so.

For there is a way out of this cycle. It is an obvious one. Perhaps it is too obvious. It's very simplicity makes it practically invisible to the eyes of the common person, yet it can so easily be perceived by thousands of varieties of insect, mammals, those "lesser creatures" humanity considers itself somehow innately superior to. Something to do with building roads, toilets and certain types of pornography, I think.

Our freedom lies in this, that it is true. There IS no "justice". There is "just US." We are all we have. No "god" will step in to demand strict adherence to their prescribed code of standards and practices. No "demons" will cast fire, locusts and plagues of boils upon us for violating some series of platitudes handed down upon tablets of chipped stone. No. WE do all of these things for ourselves with great alacrity and little sense of responsibility.

This is the world. There is no other. It is up to us, ALL of us, to accept our responsibility for that. We must, one and all, seize those precious grains of sand we are given and hold them as best we can. Not clutching them desperately in panicking fists. But reaching out to one another and clasping our hands, mingling those shimmering precious grains of mortality as they trickle tirelessly away from us into oblivion. We must reach out across the barriers we have built for ourselves, nationalities, languages, sex and gender norms, ALL the constructs that bar us from simply existing as we truly are from our birth.

On species. One life. One brief, beautiful twinkle of a star in the cold blackness of infinity. The vital warmth of another's hand holding on tightly as we form a human raft to keep us all afloat. rocking gently, skirting only a single moment away from the inescapable fall into oblivion.

Our love can save us.

All we have to do is care.

It's truly so simple.


Reach out today. Reach out to another human. Don't see their t-shirt, their badge or their uniform. Don't see their skin color, their anatomy or their affiliation. See their humanity. See their heart. And let them see yours. Take care of yourselves and take care of someone else. Ave Luciferi.