The Healthy Dead

I have not posted here since the end of 2008; very remiss of me, I know. Since then, I have consumed (so my records tell me) more than 500 books, journals, and other publications, but fewer than a thousand such.

I break my wretched silence for this most excellent passage from Steven Erikson's The Healthy Dead, which I first read in 2005, and which when read five years later, has not lost any of its wry humour. The reason I'm reading this again is that it's part of Erikson's collected Bauchelain and Korbal Broach series, with the first three novellas concerning these worthies (and their manservant, Emancipor Reese) all in one eponymous volume.

The quotation is here. Bauchelain the sorcerer is speaking to Reese. Enjoy!

"I have been thinking, Mister Reese."

Oh no. "About deposing this kindly king?"

"Kindly? Do you not realise, Mister Reese, how perfectly diabolical is this king's genius? Every tyranny imaginable is possible when prefaced by the notion that it is for the well-being of the populace. Patronising? Of course, but when delivered with wide-eyed innocence and earnestness, what is a citizen to do? Complain about the benefits? ... we are witness to genius, plain and simple. And now, we are to match wits with this clever king. I admit, the blood rushes about my being at the challenge."

"I am happy for you, Master."

"Ah, Mister Reese, I gather you still do not understand the threat this king poses to such creatures as you and I."

"Well, frankly, no, I don't, Master. As you say."

"I must perforce make the linkage plain, of sufficient simplicity to permit your uneducated mind to grasp all manner of significance. Desire for goodness, Mister Reese, leads to earnestness. Earnestness in turn leads to sanctimonious self-righteousness, which breed intolerance, upon which harsh judgement quickly follows, yielding dire punishment, inflicting general terror and paranoia, eventually culminating in revolt, leading to chaos, then dissolution, and thus, the end of civilisation." He slowly turned, looking down upon Emancipor. "And we are creatures dependent on civilisation. It is the only environment in which we can thrive."

Emancipor frowned. "The desire for goodness leads to the end of civilisation?"

"Precisely, Mister Reese."

"But if the principal aim is to achieve good living and health among the populace, what is the harm in that?"

Bauchelain sighed. "Very well, I shall try again. Good living and health, as you say, yielding well-being. But well-being is a contextual notion, a relative notion. Perceived benefits are measured by way of contrast. In any case, the result is smugness, and from that an overwhelming desire to deliver conformity among those perceived as less pure, less fortunate — the unenlightened, if you will. But conformity leads to ennui, and then indifference. From indifference, Mister Reese, dissolution follows as a natural course, and with it, once again, the end of civilisation."

"All right, all right, Master, we are faced with the noble task of confounding the end of civilisation."

"Well said, Mister Reese. I admit I find the ethical aspects of our mission surprisingly... refreshing."

This is one of the most interesting declarations of political ideology I've found so far. I am sure that many Atlanteans would agree that it is amusing.