New kind of victory.

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone on the District Tours.
What| The Celebration dinners for all the Districts.
Where| Specified in thread.
When| The second night they are there.
Warnings/Notes| Find your district below. Leave any questions here. And please add any needed warning into your subject line when appropriate.

Comments

[burnedbrighter]

She felt sick to her stomach listening to his hopeful cheery (And in her eyes condescending) lecture. Sure she herself was condescending but she felt she had earned the right. What had he earned? How had he earned it?

"Fail enough times and sometimes you simply break whatever you're trying to improve beyond repair." She countered. "Our society did not become strong because of luck or foolishness. To overturn the system now to satisfy the cries of a few who will always believe that they can have something better then they deserve will punish those who have earned their happiness already."

"Some of us actually had to work very hard to gain the pleasures we are allowed now." Implying once again that she did not believe he deserved his post as mentor.

[orestes]

The implication flew over his head blissfully. Even if it hadn't, however, he wouldn't have cared. To imply that he didn't deserve his position would have been the same as removing his capability in the situation and thus, his guilt over it. Patiently, thoughtfully, he considered her words, letting their arguments both explicit and implied wash over him as he decided which to respond to first.

"In the first case, any state which does not provide for all of its people cannot be said to be strong. Tyranny is not the same thing as strength, regardless of how you might conflate the terms." His voice held an almost teasing quality to it. Even if he, as a rule, did not like Azula, he could still enjoy debating her. It was rare to find an opponent so dedicated to their argument, however flawed it might be. "And in the second, no one has the right to determine the worth or another person -- what he or she deserves -- prior to their birth. If we are to rule by that system, let us create even more arbitrary distinctions between us. Let me suggest that those born in a colder climate are colder of heart and not worthy of my concern, or that those born near mountains are immoral and think too highly of themselves on account of the thinner air. They cannot help these things, and perhaps there is no truth to them whatsoever, perhaps I have simply invented these fictions I now propagate to you, but nevertheless, we should judge and condemn them for it. You do the same to your own people, you understand."

[burnedbrighter]

His blathering on was becoming white noise and it was becoming difficult for Azula to keep her focus. She had been such a good student once! How could he be less interesting stogy old professors?

"It is a necessary system put in place because of people like you who felt too entitled to consider the good of the world. Focusing all your attention on making your own opinion the law of the land instead of the real issues that nearly brought our society to extinction."

Even if she hated to admit he sounded logical, what he said simply couldn't work.

"Your opinion on what makes a society strong is invalid because you will never know true strength such as you are. Your opinions on the rights of individuals doubly wrong. In every society people are born to want, or to want for nothing. With or without a government it wouldn't matter. No matter where you are born into this world you can claw your way to the top with enough determination and hard work. District five is not a luxury district. It is not pampered and crooned over like Districts one or two. But I worked hard every day and prepared myself so that when opportunity rose and I had my chance at a better life I could take it. Anyone too weak and foolish to fail at that should blame no one but themselves."

[orestes]

"I am considering the good of the world. You are considering the good of but a few. Moreover, by your faulty logic of equating economic well-being to moral character and, by your estimation of my character, I should have been born in poverty to wanton parents out of wedlock. Would it trouble you to know that in my homeland I was considered part of the ruling class? Nevertheless, I do not believe in such a system because I can clearly see its injustice and inadequacy." There was no end to their argument in sight. All the same, Enjolras couldn't help but engage. They could play Glaucon and Socrates for the entirety of he evening, as far as he was concerned.

"You escaped through the Games. My very being has denied the children of this District their chance at repeating your experiment. Would you say that all of them were destined to live miserable lives with no chance at bettering themselves? Surely you cannot think that."

[burnedbrighter]

It didn't trouble her so much as confirm alot of her worst thoughts involving people who didn't have to work for their rewards. He was essentially a Capitol Citizen in his own land.

"They have every opportunity to better themselves through work and education. Life is full of opportunity for those willing to put forth the effort. Though your existence will make their lives more difficult if you don't at least make an effort to help our tributes succeed in the games."

[orestes]

"The fact that they require me, or the Tributes at large, to champion the justification for their existence is evidence of the difficulties of your argument." Precisely which part of her argument he was refuting in that moment, Enjolras left open to interpretation. The amiable nature of his tone hadn't changed, and likely wouldn't, but they were touching on layered issues of institutionalized inequality. It was possible, he realized, that Azula couldn't see a flaw with the system as it stood simply because she had never been trained to consider anything else. For someone like him, brought up with classical and Enlightenment thought and a dedicated student of the Revolution, questioning the established order of things was second nature. In fact, it was a manifestation of his patriotism, to demand purity and justice from any government to which might claim legitimacy over him or anyone else.

If she had ever possessed hope for a better world, it had probably been lost long ago, schooled away from her subtly if not forcibly. A haughty, conceited form of pity came to him perhaps too easily. "Have you ever thought how your life might have been different if you had been afforded not just the privileges of the Capitol, but the rights and liberties they enjoy as well? What I would like for everyone in your country --not just the Districts-- is precisely that. I do not want to deprive the Capitol of its riches, however badly acquired, but I would like to perpetuate human dignity. Something which, at present, your country is sorely lacking. How can that be considered entitlement? And how can that be something detrimental to your overall society and culture?"

[burnedbrighter]

"Because!" She was practically spitting with irritation "All things in life must be earned. Even the pampered Capitol Citizens must earn their place among the Capitol or squander among the forgotten and the ignored."

And to be forgotten and ignored in the Capitol was a fate worse then death.

"History has proven that such a world simply falls in on itself. And you may try and try again to perfect the flawed system, but you cannot change human nature no matter how much you simper and whine about it."