9/23/2024
Due to family medical issues, Requiem is on indefinite hiatus.
An elderly family member of ours took a bad fall on Labor Day night, and we’ve been dealing with the aftermath ever since. Hopefully, things will get sorted out, but as of right now, doing a daily comic is not something my schedule can allow.
Sorry to have this happen, but as everyone knows, real life comes first….and at least we don’t have too many running storylines on the backburner.
Dana McAllen is a member of the urban exploration association that is currently investigating remnants of the worlds previous civilization. She initially made her debut in the Tunnelrunners side comic. She has been Ian's closest friend since early childhood, and is still his closest confidant.
Julia Wells, significant other of Ian Caladharas. Julia co runs the Wells Hotel in Erech’s Clocktower District. For those people who have rpg’d in this world: The Wells Hotel is now known as Cytheron’s. Julia and Ian tied the knot in the City of Greyrest in the Crossing Territories.
Oh come on! What you know about, you have a chance of countering. You have no hope when it comes as a surprise. Even in the spook business, knowing is better than not knowing, especially when no one knows that you know it, and these guys are in a ‘spooky’ business. There is no such thing as dangerous knowledge, only dangerous people.
I’m going to disagree with your statement regarding no dangerous knowledge. It’s only not dangerous if you have all of it – and they only have part of the knowledge they need. Having part of the knowledge/information you need is the first step towards a wrong conclusion and all the chaos that can result from that.
Ken, I see your point, but isn’t that all the more reason to fill in the gaps? So you can then make your decisions as informed as possible? I’m with Slamlander on this one.
Maybe so. But there are situations where one is better off not knowing something, especially if there’s nothing you can do with the knowledge or nothing that can be changed about it. I have to agree with Dana’s statement… sometimes knowledge only causes you pain without helping you to prevent the pain and danger that not knowing might have caused.
Ignorance might get you ambushed, but if knowledge keeps you tense and anxious about that upcoming ambush every day until the ambush actually comes, and you have no way of preventing it from happening, then who is the luckier one? The one who got ambushed once, or the one who feared and worried and tried to fight the inevitable and still suffered from the same attack?
Knowledge is only helpful if you can do something with it. And sometimes even having all the knowledge isn’t enough to enable you do something about it. Sometimes, things are just going to happen whether you agree with or not, and whether you know about it or not. 🙂
@Ken and @Silanae: That is ‘prey’ thinking and far out of character for one whom is supposed to be a ‘predator’, is the first point.
@Ken: You never have all the data and it illustrates the point nicely. Sometimes you have to act on the data you do have and use logic to fill in the gaps as much as possible. Yes, more data will help but waiting will give the opponent the time to kill you. It’s a race to the correct conclusion. The need is for more data and as quickly as possible. The choice then become one of deciding when you have the minimum for effective and conclusive action.
@Silanae: That is the reaction of sheep being lead to the slaughter. With knowledge, you can escape the slaughter or you have a better chance. Anxiety is for the weak and to be conquered and those that cannot do so deserve the inevitable result of ignorance. Cattle die in blissful ignorance everyday and so do sheep.
You might not be able to prevent the ambush but you will certainly be ready to fight when it happens. You might even be prepared enough to survive it, versus the certainty that you will not if you are not prepared. Any anxiety is irrelevant unless you let it make you dysfunctional. In that case, you never had a chance to begin with, you are one of the sheep, you are ‘prey’.
It is a form of thought that is far too prevalent in America today. Americans used to be better than that. My generation really screwed up there, we’ve raised our children to be prey. It is sad.
Ah, but that presumes that there are predators and prey to begin with, whereas the matter of ‘knowledge can hurt just as much or even more than not having that knowledge’ easily stretches to aspects of life where such concepts don’t exist, or are utterly irrelevant.
Aside from that your reasoning seems to imply that being a predator is always better than being prey, whereas at times there are situations where being prey is better than a predator. Or is a serial killer better than the innocent victim that died, because the ‘predator’ lived and the ‘prey’ died? I would hope not. Just as I would hope that those who are afraid of something do not deserve that something happening to them. Even if they are too afraid to fight against it.
I also don’t think that claiming that Dana and company are predators and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to think as prey, which you seem to imply by your first point, is very correct. They are more than just predators… they are human beings with thoughts, emotions, worries and at times moments of weakness. If one wants someone who’s focused on one purpose and won’t be distracted by such ‘weak’ aspects, then one is looking for a robot or someone who has forgotten what it’s like to be human. Personally, I rather have a faulty human to help pick up the pieces that are bound to occur and have already occurred than someone like that.
Anyhow, I personally never interpreted this page as a ‘let’s just give up, not look for any solutions and simply wait for what our enemies are going to do to us’ statement. I saw this as a moment of calling a pause to the never ending quest for more answers and the desire to know all answers. Just a pause to stop and consider just which answers you want, and why you want them. If the new knowledge is going to hurt you, without helping you to face the current problems (which are dire), then why should you pursue that knowledge? Is all knowledge really worth having, even if it might slow you down or distract you? Food for thought, that’s how I saw her statement.
Also, since I’m not an American I’ll refrain from commenting on that part. Easy enough to say something about it, but that would come a bit too close to politics and that subject is usually best avoided. 😀
Warren is correct and the old aphorism is correct: ‘It is a dog-eat-dog world out there.’ You may reject that but that doesn’t change the underlying truth of the statement.
You do not have a choice, even in Real Life(TM) you either hunt or are hunted. When a salesman talks you into a mortgage, he is the predator and you are the prey. Humans are predators, that’s why we have binocular vision coupled with the deadliest weapon on the planet; the human brain. It is a non-Christian thought, I know. I’m not a Christian.
This is not a matter of simple philosophy and philosophy is not at a higher meta-level. This is not hammer/nail thinking either. Rather, it is reality that is right up there with the ‘You’ve got to kill it before you can grill it!’ school.
@Warren: Show me a difference between predator/prey and master/slave.
Ignorance might get you ambushed, but if knowledge keeps you tense and anxious about that upcoming ambush every day until the ambush actually comes, and you have no way of preventing it from happening, then who is the luckier one? The one who got ambushed once, or the one who feared and worried and tried to fight the inevitable and still suffered from the same attack?
Knowledge is only helpful if you can do something with it. And sometimes even having all the knowledge isn’t enough to enable you do something about it. Sometimes, things are just going to happen whether you agree with or not, and whether you know about it or not. 🙂
@Ken: You never have all the data and it illustrates the point nicely. Sometimes you have to act on the data you do have and use logic to fill in the gaps as much as possible. Yes, more data will help but waiting will give the opponent the time to kill you. It’s a race to the correct conclusion. The need is for more data and as quickly as possible. The choice then become one of deciding when you have the minimum for effective and conclusive action.
@Silanae: That is the reaction of sheep being lead to the slaughter. With knowledge, you can escape the slaughter or you have a better chance. Anxiety is for the weak and to be conquered and those that cannot do so deserve the inevitable result of ignorance. Cattle die in blissful ignorance everyday and so do sheep.
You might not be able to prevent the ambush but you will certainly be ready to fight when it happens. You might even be prepared enough to survive it, versus the certainty that you will not if you are not prepared. Any anxiety is irrelevant unless you let it make you dysfunctional. In that case, you never had a chance to begin with, you are one of the sheep, you are ‘prey’.
It is a form of thought that is far too prevalent in America today. Americans used to be better than that. My generation really screwed up there, we’ve raised our children to be prey. It is sad.
Aside from that your reasoning seems to imply that being a predator is always better than being prey, whereas at times there are situations where being prey is better than a predator. Or is a serial killer better than the innocent victim that died, because the ‘predator’ lived and the ‘prey’ died? I would hope not. Just as I would hope that those who are afraid of something do not deserve that something happening to them. Even if they are too afraid to fight against it.
I also don’t think that claiming that Dana and company are predators and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to think as prey, which you seem to imply by your first point, is very correct. They are more than just predators… they are human beings with thoughts, emotions, worries and at times moments of weakness. If one wants someone who’s focused on one purpose and won’t be distracted by such ‘weak’ aspects, then one is looking for a robot or someone who has forgotten what it’s like to be human. Personally, I rather have a faulty human to help pick up the pieces that are bound to occur and have already occurred than someone like that.
Anyhow, I personally never interpreted this page as a ‘let’s just give up, not look for any solutions and simply wait for what our enemies are going to do to us’ statement. I saw this as a moment of calling a pause to the never ending quest for more answers and the desire to know all answers. Just a pause to stop and consider just which answers you want, and why you want them. If the new knowledge is going to hurt you, without helping you to face the current problems (which are dire), then why should you pursue that knowledge? Is all knowledge really worth having, even if it might slow you down or distract you? Food for thought, that’s how I saw her statement.
Also, since I’m not an American I’ll refrain from commenting on that part. Easy enough to say something about it, but that would come a bit too close to politics and that subject is usually best avoided. 😀
For me, what comes to mind in the situation portrayed is freedom vs slavery. …or…’predator/prey’ as Slamlander so crudely puts it.
You do not have a choice, even in Real Life(TM) you either hunt or are hunted. When a salesman talks you into a mortgage, he is the predator and you are the prey. Humans are predators, that’s why we have binocular vision coupled with the deadliest weapon on the planet; the human brain. It is a non-Christian thought, I know. I’m not a Christian.
This is not a matter of simple philosophy and philosophy is not at a higher meta-level. This is not hammer/nail thinking either. Rather, it is reality that is right up there with the ‘You’ve got to kill it before you can grill it!’ school.
@Warren: Show me a difference between predator/prey and master/slave.