Bringing Ragnarok: Book Three

by Andrew M. Tanner

“Maybe, maybe not.” Yoshi-san replied with a thoughtful emoji. “Narrative storytelling is the oldest form of philosophy, you know. The human mind is wired for narrative, and can connect incredibly different types of information together in unique ways through the structure of a story. People have been telling stories for almost as long as they’ve been singing or dancing, and the necessary traits that produce such distinct behaviors would not have remained in the gene pool, had they not offered some benefit to the species at some point. Organisms rarely waste energy without purpose, even if you cannot perceive it.”

“Communication is ultimately what defines the reality we inhabit. Because humans live together as a function of our biology, we must learn from a young age to determine what is real and what is not by communicating our perspective to others. But because our peers and parents are as cognitively limited as we are, what we perceive as ‘reality’ is actually always at least a little bit broken. So it is crucial to remember that even simple communication can and often does go wrong. In a world where vital aspects of our existence, like what ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ mean to different people, vary greatly from person to person and group to group, webs of miscommunication too-often result in conflict cascades.”

“Well yeah!” Chavez shrugged, still grinning. “Berserkers in the old days were usually combat veterans or people otherwise so traumatized by violence that they had a serious case of post traumatic stress syndrome, but out of necessity—psychotherapy and medication not being widely available—learned how to weaponize it. People like to believe they were all hopped up on drugs or psychotic killers, but I’ve always believed that the stories are actually showing old veterans getting triggered and going, well, berserk.

“here’s what you must remember about all truths and facts: They are held to be as such by people, who always have the inherent freedom to accept or reject those truths they do not like. A fact is not a fact unless people believe it to be, and if you dispute this, feel free to run into any crowd and demand they accept something you consider to be fact, but they do not!” “It is impossible to categorically and universally prove any alleged truth in such a way that every person everywhere and in every time agrees. Because we all experience reality as individuals, only ever able to access another individual’s experience through communication, to claim something as truth and therefore irrefutable is very dangerous. If you properly interrogate any truth, you will always reveals a hidden nugget of faith.”

“That’s what his Theory of Relativity truly means, if you didn’t know. Two different objects can have very different relative experiences of reality. If they happen to be able to perceive themselves and the world around them, they will always be prone to the mistaken belief theirs is the correct perspective. Not because they are malicious, but simply because they have failed to consider that factors totally external to both that bind them in a mutual relationship. One where you must understand the whole, to perceive the relationship between the parts.”