Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XVIII - "The Dialectic of Centripetalism, Part 2"

From force of habit, Isaac looked around, but the rest of their classmates and teachers were still arguing over a controversial Squirrelman arc from a few years back that involved him dying via a nailgun to the head (he got better).

“Towards the center,” Reed repeated. “Centripetalism has an unfair reputation of being associated with communism. Nothing can be further than the truth – that is merely a lie cooked up by plutocrats and other regimes who feel threaten by the centripetalist surge. Another symptom of the plutocratic disease is that we accept government slogans and school textbooks and mere headlines as facts, without doing any research of our own.”

Isaac swallowed. How many times have I used my school textbooks to form my opinions? But school textbooks wouldn’t just lie...right?

“In truth, centripetalism has its philosophical origins thousands of years ago. The centripetalism form of government and society was laid out by none other than Plato in his Republic – that of the philosopher-king. The goal of centripetalism is to establish the worldwide Kallipolis – the utopian society founded upon the backbone of knowledge.”

“Pla-to?” Audrey repeated. “I've heard that somewhere...oh, isn't that the little pot of clay you can make funny things with? Like gingerbread men, except they're clay!”

“...he’s an ancient Greek philosopher,” Reed told her. “I had to read about him in middle school. He had this theory where, if you live in a cave your whole life, you think the cave is your entire reality or something like that. The fact that this is just a cave doesn’t even enter your mind since that’s all you know. But if someone gets you out of that cave, brings you under the sun, and you see what reality really is for the first time...”

Reed looked at Audrey and Isaac for a moment, then back down at pamphlet.

“The goal of centripetalism is to govern for the sake of human of knowledge and progress. We don’t concern ourselves with the plutocratic goal of profits or even the ideological goals of other movements. In fact, centripetalism absorbs the best of ideologies for the sake of human prosperity. Centripetalism’s endgame is to create a syncretic society, a true amalgamation of the best humanity has ever had to offer, and that will end history for good, a utopia built upon knowledge.

“Strength will be the defining trait of the centripetalist world order. The only way to overcome nihilism is through strength, on both a personal and societal level. Only the strongest will survive in this society, which will be a true meritocracy. Those with the highest intelligence and sense of justice will be chosen as rulers. Democracy has no place in the new world order because of its key failured – namely, that the uneducated can decide its leaders, and that people are able to vote themselves money. Centripetalism will abolish that by ensuring everybody gets what they deserve.

“And, in turn, the ruling class will rule justly. Acting justly is in everybody's best interests, something often-forgotten by our rulers of today. A personal bank account may grow, but the foundations of society grow weak and crumble until the thrones you sit upon give way beneath you, dooming everyone. No, the wisest must rule, since, above all others, they know that it is best to rule justly.”

The trio looked back and saw Clayton and Hanai get into a shouting match over whether the Minute Man had the ability to skip through time or simply erase time itself (it was very unclear).

“Classes will not be abolished,” Reed continued. “Rather, the classes will be based on ability and merit, yet through the rule of the just, class antagonism will be eliminated in favor of close cooperation in overall service to the state. We reject the withering away of the state – the state is the most crucial idea there is to service humanity. In fact, the state will become everything – the state and humanity will be one and the same. There must be a state in order for its people to believe in something greater than itself. The state will be based upon a founding myth, something its people can truly believe in, akin to the American Revolution or victory in the Great Patriotic War.

“And what will this myth be? Victory in the final conflict. The centripetalist world order will begin with a single state that finally puts this theory into practice. Then, the process will snowball. The wise and just in this state will expand globally, picking up steam, until it accumulates more of the best and brightest, until every nation falls to it. Centripetalism’s complete victory, the first time humanity has been united under one world government, will be the founding myth. This will be a true, final victory of the have-nots over the haves.”

From the scrunched look on her face, Isaac saw that Reed was thinking hard, but was also growing frustrated – whether it was at the pamphlet or society or herself, Isaac couldn’t tell – so she decided to wrap things up.

“With the rule by the wisest and just, societal nihilism will be eliminated. Ruling for the sake of profit will be eliminated. The just rulers will ensure those with ability will be recognized, those with dedication will be rewarded. They will ensure a strong society filled with citizens fit in body, mind, and soul. The citizens will have a proper respect for culture and myth, rather than mindlessly consuming. Citizens will have something to believe in – nationalism for the human nation, religious worship of humanity itself. When humanity is educated and reaches the pinnacle of Understanding, that is where justice can be found and can only be found. Knowledge is the greatest thing of all. A society based on knowledge will be the great society of all. Everyone...will be happy...”

The trio didn’t know what to say.

Isaac felt overwhelmed by all of it. I really need to learn more stuff. Half of these references and saying are going right over my head. What the hell’s a He-gel?

And if it weren't for Audrey, I wouldn't have known he wasn't talking about the pots of clay.

He looked at the sky. I want peace, and these guys want peace. But I just say I want peace, while they have an entire plan and governing system for it. Does that make them right? No, just having a plan doesn’t make that plan right. But I don’t even have a plan, so where does that leave me?

My brother has a plan, and when I got here, that plan made sense. It's the one I said in my interview to get into the Academy, after all. But I don't know. I can punch better, I can move faster, my body's grown stronger - but I feel like I know far less about the world now. Or maybe I'm starting to know about how much I don't know.

Did I just spout empty slogans at Harriet? If I knew more, if I could speak more clearly, would she not have killed herself?

Looking just as confused as Isaac did, Reed handed the pamphlet back to Stennis.

“Don't be afraid,” Stennis answered, refusing to take it. “The current ruling order fears an educated populace more than anything else. Take it, and study it.”

Reed shoved the pamphlet in his hands. “I’m not sullying my good name by holding something like that. Look, I liked what you were saying at first about television and consumption and all that. But by the end, you were kind of losing me. I’m no expert, but the state being everything...I’m like ninety percent sure that’s the definition of totalitarianism.”

“And what’s so wrong with that?” Stennis fired back. “In the past, totalitarianism has been wielded by those who know little. People with incomplete worldviews. People who were ignorant. In the coming world order, totalitarianism will be wielded by the just.”

Reed didn’t look convinced. “I mean...it still kinda sucks, I feel. It’s totalitarianism, for Christ’s sake. I don't agree with anything that requires five or more syllables to pronounce.”

“Would you prefer this?” Stennis exclaimed, gesturing toward the air, or maybe society itself. “Would you prefer getting high all day and feeling empty inside, or would you rather embrace a system that will care for you because caring for everyone is in everyone’s best interests? Do you know hard it is to go through things alone? Wouldn’t you rather be part of something bigger than yourself?”

“I took a rhetoric class in sixth grade,” Reed said. “I’m pretty sure you’re using some sort of logical fallacy on me right now. You’re making me choose between living like as a junkie and totalitarianism. I have to think that there are steps in between that.”

Stennis murmured to himself, but agreed to take the pamphlet back. He looked straight at Reed.

“Are you truly happy?”

Reed's face turned scarlet for a moment, then frowned and walked off. “Thanks for the information,” she said without looking back. “Let’s go, guys. I’ve expanded my horizons far enough.”

Isaac sighed in relief, ready to leave the ideologue – and the uncomfortable questions he raised – behind them.

“I didn’t understand a lot of it, but keep up the writing!” Audrey exclaimed, then headed after her friends.

Stennis raised a hand, then gasped.

“Hey, wait!” he called out. “You guys are Technical Academy students! A short, Napoleonic-looking girl, tall blonde, taller guy."

That did make Reed look back. "...Napoleonic?"

Stennis jabbed a finger at them. "Were you the ones who refused to let my mother sit down on the train the other day?!”

Reed shrugged. “Maybe we did.”

“We?” Isaac repeated.

Stennis yelled at them, his wise, sophist aura disappearing into anger. "My mother’s a very nice woman!”

“Well, maybe if we create your little utopian society, we’ll be wise and just enough to know that if you can stand, you can stand,” Reed answered.

Stennis went to yell back at her, but a burly soldier with a thick, red beard and dressed in the Pond Free Corps uniform arrived on the platform from a nearby guardhouse, a rifle slung around his shoulder.

“What seems to be the fuss up here?” he called out.

Stennis, pamphlets in tow, slinked away off the edge of the platform, acting natural as he power-walked away on a dirt road, away from the mercenary. Isaac sighed in relief, glad to be rid of him. He then prepared a quick answer if the mercenary asked them about what they heard; Stennis was some new wave religious guy, nothing more. Reed was good in situations like these, so he planned on letting her answer first.

But his fears were soon alleviated. The mercenary directed his attention on the large group of students on the platform - more specifically, the ones arguing about comic books.

Piper freed Coleridge from her headlock. “We’re arguing over who’d win – Squirrelman or the Minute Man?”

“I see,” the mercenary said. “Well, you’re being awfully loud about it. Today’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving, so the mill’s closed today. The townspeople were looking forward to some rare silence.” He rubbed his beard. “But didn’t Squirrelman die from a nailgun?”

That set off another round of arguing, the mercenary giving it as good as he took it.

Leaving them be, the terrible trio sat on a nearby bench on the platform, trying to gather their thoughts.

“Are you guys happy?” Reed asked, resting the sheathed Domino Sword in its scabbard on her lap, running a hand along it.

“I’m happy!” Audrey exclaimed, smiling.

Isaac scratched his head, but he had to agree. “I'd say I’m happy.”

Reed sighed, looking at the empty railroad tracks ahead of them, caramel-colored forests on the other side. “What does being happy mean, anyway?”

“I think it means you feel good!” Audrey supposed. But then she looked at the forests with Reed, the wide smile fading into something neutral and thoughtful. “But sometimes when I talk with my sister, I get the feeling that the definitions to things aren’t that simple.”

Reed agreed. “No kidding. When are you happy, Isaac?”

Isaac leaned back on the bench, looking at the sky.

When am I happy? When have I been happy? I don't think I've ever asked myself that before. I guess I took something like that for granted.

“Hanging out with you guys and all my other friends,” he supposed. “I’m happy when we do dumb stuff like walking to school or school dances or watching television with everyone. I was happy eating leftover Chinese food at Domino Dojo with you on that Sunday morning. Things like that. And I’m happy when I do good in training, too. I'm happy when I accomplish things.”

“But those are individual moments of happiness,” Reed said. She let the Domino Sword rest at her side. “I feel like there’s a difference between happy moments and happiness. On an individual basis, I can be happy. But happiness seems more like a state of being than a bunch of moments.”

She crossed her arms and legs, a smug smile on her face. "And besides, you didn't eat Chinese food with me that morning, you ate it and forced poor me to starve."

Isaac liked seeing the smile return to her face. "Would you say you were happy then? Or happy right now, even?"

Reed shrugged. "I was happy that morning, sure. Right now I'm still confused, but I told you last month, Isaac - our banter can occasionally bring a chortle out of me. But chortling every so often doesn't mean a person's happy."

Audrey rubbed her forehead. “My brain’s overheating. There’s been so much philosophizing today. I think that...I agree with Isaac. I’m happy when I’m with Esther, I’m happy when I’m with you guys, I’m happy when we have sleepovers, I’m happy when I do good in something I worked hard at. Maybe all those moments adding up is what makes an overall feeling of happiness!”

Reed thought on that. “When it really comes down to it, I have no idea. Maybe it’s easier to tell what a lack of happiness is than what happiness is.”

“I don’t know, either,” Isaac supposed. “But we can figure it out. We’re Team Red!”

Audrey cheered and pointed a finger gun at him.

“Who’s better than us?”

Isaac pointed one right back at her. “No-body!”

Reed waved them away as they made pew-pew noises at each other, firing their finger guns. “Alright, alright. The question of happiness can be a later problem. Right now, let’s just go beat the stuffing out of Team Blue.”

Audrey rose from the bench. “Agreed! Maybe winning the match will be a happy moment! And then we're getting ice cream afterwards!”

Reed chuckled, then followed Audrey off the bench. Isaac did as well, still thinking.

Happiness. All that talk about being unhappy. Every day, it’s like I learn a new point of view. But that also means everything I assume about life might not exactly be correct, either.

Getting older is tough.

But, as Reed said, that would be a later problem. The trio rejoined their classmates, who seemed to have finished up their argument, demonstrated by a firm handshake between a grinning Mogami and an equally-grinning mercenary.

“So, who would win?” Audrey asked them.

Coleridge answered, his face featuring a look of relief to the signing of a peace treaty ending years of warfare. “We agreed that, if it really came down to it, Squirrelman and the Minute Man would have no reason to fight since they're both beacons of justice. And if there ever was a fight, it would most likely end up with them taking down a third party bad guy together. Thus, there couldn’t be a fight between the two, rendering the argument most illogical.”

Coleridge smiled with pride at his big vocabulary.

Unfortunately, the trio had ignored his answer and were now looking at the sky, prompted by the sudden jabbing of Audrey’s finger.

“Look! A blimp! A blimp!”

Coleridge sighed, then looked along with his teammates at the approaching airship.