"And then what would be left after? After the world submits?" He didn't sound upset with him suggesting the idea, more like he was trying to guide him towards a better truth.
"Free will's a hell of a thing. Someone controls the world like that, sure, there won't be any crime, right? But they'd have to control everything. Everyone. Constant control. Constant fear. And then every good person that wants the world to be better but thinks that much control is bad would be fighting against it, wanting a better way. A way that's more...more of a compromise. Between freedom and security. There's that balance that should be struck and just like people are fighting the chaos, they'd fight it if it went too far in the other direction, too."
He added, "People like me. Kang would kill them - he'd have to. And a lack of remorse would mean not caring about what good was lost."
Kang would. Not Nate. They weren't the same person, not in Jaime's eyes. But if Kang were to control it all, people like Jaime would rise against him and would have to die in this new world.
"I think...I think it's all out of control right now. But I also think there's a spectrum, with the chaos on one side, and the kind of security that means a total lack of freedom on the other, and like it is in a lot things, the best place to have it all strike is somewhere in the middle."
He paused. "A different middle than it was before, though. In both worlds. It wasn't good enough then."
Not in his eyes.
"That's what I've been pushing with the Defenders. I have all these ideas, you know? To change it all, but not - not for too much control. Like ways of training metas and stuff so another Stamford doesn't happen. Different from the way it was, but not all over-controlled like it was with the SRA, either. Different things that are the best of both worlds, I guess."
He tried to find a way to coelesce all those thoughts into something meaningful.
"If chaos is one end of the spectrum and a good ol' fashioned conquering's on the other end, then I think we should all move sideways," he said, giving Nate one of the little grins he always did when he was being a defiant little shit that made up his own rules.
no subject
"Free will's a hell of a thing. Someone controls the world like that, sure, there won't be any crime, right? But they'd have to control everything. Everyone. Constant control. Constant fear. And then every good person that wants the world to be better but thinks that much control is bad would be fighting against it, wanting a better way. A way that's more...more of a compromise. Between freedom and security. There's that balance that should be struck and just like people are fighting the chaos, they'd fight it if it went too far in the other direction, too."
He added, "People like me. Kang would kill them - he'd have to. And a lack of remorse would mean not caring about what good was lost."
Kang would. Not Nate. They weren't the same person, not in Jaime's eyes. But if Kang were to control it all, people like Jaime would rise against him and would have to die in this new world.
"I think...I think it's all out of control right now. But I also think there's a spectrum, with the chaos on one side, and the kind of security that means a total lack of freedom on the other, and like it is in a lot things, the best place to have it all strike is somewhere in the middle."
He paused. "A different middle than it was before, though. In both worlds. It wasn't good enough then."
Not in his eyes.
"That's what I've been pushing with the Defenders. I have all these ideas, you know? To change it all, but not - not for too much control. Like ways of training metas and stuff so another Stamford doesn't happen. Different from the way it was, but not all over-controlled like it was with the SRA, either. Different things that are the best of both worlds, I guess."
He tried to find a way to coelesce all those thoughts into something meaningful.
"If chaos is one end of the spectrum and a good ol' fashioned conquering's on the other end, then I think we should all move sideways," he said, giving Nate one of the little grins he always did when he was being a defiant little shit that made up his own rules.