Neytopia › Part 1: Dawn › Chapter 4

Skeptic

The boy had always carefully observed everything, which is why he was a skeptic. After the feast, the skeptic boy’s father grabbed his son’s arm and stood up, deeply embarrassed about his child’s stupid questions. He pulled from him to take him behind a tree and beat the nonsense out of him with a stick. But the goddess intervened,

Young boy, come here.

His father pushed his son toward her. She spoke softly so that only the skeptic boy could hear,

I have spent two centuries fighting to unify this continent. And before that, I ruled another continent for a few centuries more. I learned a lot there. At first we didn’t have these arbitrary rules. Life was hard on the other continent, and all day long we wandered, hoping for some food or drink. Then, if someone fell, or sprained a knee, well, they died. So I told them their life had a point: when they died, the gods would welcome them in the kingdom beyond this world, as long as they did the best they could. Suddenly people were not miserable because they had a goal, their life had a meaning.

But you lied to them?

No, I told them what they needed to hear. Now listen, because I’m not finished yet. Eventually we understood that instead of roaming around the continent like idiots, we could just stay near a river to grow vegetables and raise cattle. Now, that led to a whole new set of trouble. People started “owning” stuff like land, animals, and other people.

Before we had property, women and men were not bound for life if they had sex. The thing about polygamy is that it sounds fun, but it’s asymmetric fun and someone always ends up resented. Trust me, I’ve seen it too many times. After property though, sex meant joining two bloodlines and their property. It was a sort of contract. Infidelity meant breaking that contract. If the woman slept with other men, the husband might be leaving his inheritance to another man’s child. So monogamy became the norm because it was the only thing that made sense—

But what does this have to do with the arbitrary rules?

Patience, I’m getting there. When stuff came along, the meaning of life became having more and better stuff. A person was only a link in a long chain that stretched back into the past and forward into the future. Imagine now that the heir of the chieftain’s noble bloodline chose to not have children. The bloodline was lost, and with it the work and sacrifice of the generations before. That’s why noblemen despised homosexuality and other sexual behaviors that didn’t continue the bloodline. And that’s why the gods outlawed those behaviors. There’s a similar story for every other rule that you may think is arbitrary when you just don’t know the full story.

The skeptic boy was unimpressed. He said,

So you have the same explanation as the priest, only with more context. But to me, it all comes down to this: I don’t care if it makes kingdoms work, I don’t care if other people buy it. I don’t. I have the gift of doubt. I doubt the gods are real, I doubt our laws are the best they could be. I even doubt you are a good ruler.

Now she was angry.

Look. I was just trying to help you. If you refuse my help and keep questioning everything like you are deep or something, the tribe will just exile you. You’ll last a few days, maybe a week, and then die alone in misery. Don’t you get it? The individual doesn’t matter. All of you are just tiny grains in the sands of time, and I won’t risk my grand goals for the intellectual amusement of one of you.

But what if I’m precisely meant to do that, to question your goals, your law, so that what was already weak finally breaks?

She had planned for everything except for this. She had always believed human ideas would be confined to whatever frame of reference she chose. How the hell had he happened? She replied,

No. No, because I’ve spent two centuries working to bring peace. No, because peace is greater than me and you. I have sacrificed tens of thousands in war, and I will sacrifice even more. But I will have my peace. A single kingdom, a single people, a single law. No more bloodshed over control of the territory, no more bloodshed over which gods are the true gods, no more… burning children alive.

The skeptic boy looked into her eyes,

So what am I supposed to do now, just shut up and act like everything is fine?

Yes. Shut up and take it like a man. Hide what you think from everyone.

She came closer to him.

Or I will rip your heart out.

With that the skeptic boy returned to his seat and kept eating and drinking. He spent the next years working honestly, taking care of his ill mother and never once questioning the gods in public. But he knew he was right, and that was enough.