le_halfhand_easy said:Toradora! came with wonderful conversations (or at least in the Dub since I never watched the Sub) and a surprising level of depth. I think people are way too scared of being selfish that they'd rather give up on the things they want in life -the things that makes them happy. Pure altruism is an extreme. And it sucks the life out of you. I'm not saying be selfish to the extreme and only look out for yourself. But it helps to be more assertive of what you want and learn selfishness in moderation, because you know best about the things you want. Nobody else is going to get it for you. Stand up for what you want. You're in charge of your own happiness. And when you do that, you understand a little bit more the selfishness of the people around you. And it'll sting less because now you know that they are chasing after their own happiness. Nobody's getting hurt, unduly.
Hibike! Euphonium S2 made me realize something I think I've already known deep down. I love competitions. I hate being judged. I hate ranks. And I hate grades. They are often a measure of effort, not intellect. And I'm one lazy mofo. But how often do you get the chance to show just how much you've improved and how much effort you've put in? It sucks getting turned down. It sucks knowing that you're not as good as you think you are. But it sucks even more to clam up just because you're too scared to find out that you're not as good as you think you are. I'm an optimist. I never call it failure. It's called avenues for growth.
Code Geass was one of the anime series I watched during my adolescent years and the R2's World of C, side by side with Star Trek, helped shaped my perception about individualism and collectivism.
I still remember Charles' vision of peace: a world in harmony bereft of individualism and all the ugliness it entails. The ultimate perversion of the Vulcan mantra "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" in much the same way as the Borg (and the Optimum Movement in the Star Trek Federation novel) were. Death to individualism is death to desire, death to change, and therefore death to conflict. Change requires conflict and desires clash. Always has. Always will. That conflict is not necessarily war. But if you remove human sense of identity, of dreams, of hopes, and of desire, if you force humanity into a hive mind where the individual doesn't matter, only the species as a whole, you remove conflict. And for Charles, it's the ultimate peace.
But that's the problem. Death to change is death to progress. Death to progress is death to the species. It's the continued emergence of variation and society's relentless progression to a new state of equilibrium that keeps things moving from protobionts to primates and stone to spacecrafts.
I disagree with Charles' peace through conformity. I disagree with Schneizel's peace through force. And I see the fragility and naivety of Lelouch's peace.
And from that, here I am. I've come to realized that tomorrow keeps coming. And if we really want to work for a better one, we have to keep at it every moment of every day. All of us. A savior or a miracle will ultimately avail humanity nothing. Progress has to be steady and relentless. Or it halts the moment the savior and the miracle fades. Sadly, the great things in life comes through work.
And here I am, doing my part.