Chapter 9 preamble

I have lived in several social groups, from Menzoberranzan of the drow to Blingdenstone of the deep gnomes, among the most ordinary human settlers in Ten-Towns, and experienced their A unique way of life, and join those dwarves in the Mithral Hall of the Cairn's Cone.I also spent some time at sea, which was a completely different social group.All of these places have different customs and other things, and they all have various government agencies, social forces, sects, and social classes. So which social system is better?You can hear a lot of bickering on this topic, mostly based on prosperity, divine power, or just plain fate.To the drow, it was simply an attitude of faith—they built their own social structure to satisfy the chaotic Spider Queen, and then waged wars frequently to change individual parts of that structure, despite the actual changes. It is not the structure itself.For the splanchn, their way of society is to pay homage and due respect to those elders in their race, accepting the wisdom of those who have lived for many years.Among the human settlers of Ten-Towns, leaders rely on their own prestige, while the barbarians choose their leaders purely by physical strength.Dwarves, their leadership relationship is determined by blood.The reason Bruno is king is that his father was king, and his father's father was, and his father's father's father.

I measure the merits of any of these social systems in a different way - based entirely on the freedom of each individual.Of all these places I have lived, Mithril Hall is my favorite, but I understand that it is only because of Bruenor's wisdom that his people enjoy freedom, not because of the dwarves themselves. political structure.Bruno is not an aggressive king.He is fond of being the spokesman for the clan's strategic affairs, the commander of battles, and acting as a mediator in the conflicts and squabbles in the areas under his rule-but only when asked to do so.In fact, Bruno still stubbornly retained his identification with the unfettered joy of living in Cairn's cone.

I have heard many queens and kings, mistresses and priests, in order to prove their leadership and maintain all their own interests, thus declaring that the common people who serve them need to be ruled and led.In some societies that have existed for a long time and have endured for a long time, this may indeed be the case, but if it is, then the only reason is that these generations of rule have been stolen from the hearts and souls of the ruled something important, because layers of the ruling class have robbed ordinary people of the confidence to decide their own way of life.All ruling classes share in liberties apparently stolen from the led individuals by imposing certain conditions on the lives of every citizen in the name of "society."

I am familiar with the viewpoint of "society". It can be said with certainty that individuals in any group organization must accept these unhappiness and even make sacrifices in the name of the public interest and social prosperity.How solid and stable society would be if those sacrifices had come from the heart of each citizen, and not from the decrees of elders, matrons, kings, or queens. Freedom is the key to it all.The freedom to leave or stay, the freedom to work harmoniously with others or to choose a more personal approach, the freedom to help or say no to big things that come up, the freedom to be poor or to create a happy life, the freedom to do anything. Freedom to try or do nothing.

Few people resist the desire to be free; everyone I meet does, or I think he does.But it is very strange that so many people deny what it is necessary to pay for freedom: responsibility. An ideal society should be well-functioning because individual members should take their responsibility for each other's happiness and the unity of society as a whole, not because they are all ordered to do so, but because they understand and accept these choices as own benefits.Because in fact, for everything we decide to do or not to do, every choice we make matters.My concern is that those importances are not immediately obvious.A selfish person may think he has earned it, but his friends may not be there when the person needs them most, and in the end, the selfish person will be forgotten and no one will remember him Come.His greed may bring him material luxury, but it cannot bring him real joy, the unspeakable joy that exists because of love.

The same conclusion can be drawn about the hateful, the lazy, the envious, the thief and the rogue, the drunk and the idler.Freedom allows everyone the right to choose the life before him, but freedom also requires people to take responsibility for these choices-whether the consequences of choices are good or bad. I've heard a lot of people think this before: at the moment of their death everything in their life is replayed, even the fragments buried deep in their memory.I believe that in the end, at those last moments, before the mystery of death is approaching, when we are being blessed, or cursed, it will be the choices we made that will play back before our eyes, watching them starkly Emerge in consciousness, where there is no confusion, no vague perceptions, no empty promises unfulfilled, that adorn the surface of day-to-day life.

I wonder how many clergymen refer to these moments of starkness in their descriptions of heaven and hell. — Drizzt Do'Urden