hadriel | seventh. text.

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seventh. text.

Consider the following exercise in critical thinking, if you can tear yourselves away from gossiping about each others' love lives long enough to put some actual thought into formulating an answer:

If you had never before encountered a being like yourself before - a human, for example, or however you classify yourself - what would you most want to know about these beings? What are the most important concepts that are fundamental to your existence?

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I would want to know whether or not these beings were capable of loving, and how they determine their loyalties. What kind of ties bind them together? What will cause one to stand at another's side when death will almost certainly be the result?

Edited 2017-01-15 10:42 (UTC)

That's an interesting answer. What would you do with this information? How would you put it to use once you've obtained it?

I would use it to open a dialog with them. If we both understood that we had deeply-held values in common, we would know what to say to one another.

And what if you discover that you don't share common values?

Then we could start from knowing that we don't. That's not always the worst case scenario.

What would be the worst-case scenario?

That we hate one another on sight, and proceed to slaughter each other.

I could think of something worse than that.

And what would that be?

The other parties pretend to be friendly, learn everything they can about your weaknesses and how to exploit them, and then proceed to slaughter you.

Actually, in my past, I was the one most likely to be the cunning betrayer. I don't much fear anybody else trying to do the same to me. I'm hard to fool.

Good to know. But some people are very good at deception.

True. I suppose I should not completely rule out the possibility of myself being deceived.

But I'm curious. How would you answer your own question? What would you most want to know about these hypothetical beings? And what would you do with the information once you obtained it?

[If Mello were inclined to answer entirely honestly, he'd say that what he would want to know is their weaknesses and how to exploit them, because that is, in his experience, the most efficient way of convincing others to do what he wants. He's far too smart to do so, though.]

I would want to know what's most important to them and the lengths they'll go to in order to achieve their goals. I think you can tell a lot about a person's character by that.

[ An exploiter speaking to a former exploiter. XD ]

True. That knowledge is always the beginning of negotiation.

But what would you do with it? Would you try to negotiate?

If necessary. But it's best to have a better understanding of the other party in any sort of interaction. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."

[ Chuckle. ]

That sounds almost Elvish. It seems our cultures have something in common.

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