Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt

"So, in this formula, suffering is one, and happiness is ten thousand."

"For the greatest happiness of the greatest number, isn’t it justified to sacrifice that one?"

"By protecting Luigi, I am protecting the possibility of this greatest happiness."

"No."

Roosevelt heard Leo’s inflammatory moral defense and immediately refuted him, his tone firm.

"That is the origin of mob rule, Leo."

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."

"Luigi broke the contract."

"He took the law into his own hands."

Roosevelt’s voice echoed in Leo’s mind, but it did nothing to extinguish the fire in his heart. Instead, it only made him more agitated.

’Mr. President, you’re moving the goalposts,’ Leo retorted in his mind. ’We’re not talking about anarchic, indiscriminate killing. We’re talking about a specific, extreme evil being stopped.’

’This is a calculation—a calculation of the total amount of suffering.’

"A calculation?"

Roosevelt let out a cold laugh.

"Leo, you are too infatuated with utilitarianism."

"Do you think you can just take out a scale, put a human head on one side and ten thousand insurance policies on the other, and as long as that side is heavier, the killing is justified? That kind of utilitarian calculus is the logic of a butcher."

"Right now, you are trying to legitimize, even sanctify, Luigi’s actions. You are silently consenting to the idea that for the benefit of the majority, it’s acceptable to bypass the law and execute the minority."

"Fine. Now let’s universalize this principle."

Roosevelt continued, "If this principle were to become a universal law."

"Then, laid-off workers could execute the factory owners who shut them down, because the owners deprived them of their livelihood. Bankrupt investors could execute their Wall Street brokers, because the brokers deceived them. Even the rich who feel their taxes are too high could hire assassins to execute the Mayor trying to raise taxes—that is, you—because you are harming their greatest happiness."

"When everyone waves the banner of ’the greatest happiness,’ when everyone believes they hold the power to decide life and death, society ceases to exist. All that’s left is the jungle. It would be a war of all against all."

’It’s not the same!’ Leo roared in his mind. ’That CEO was doing evil! He was killing people through legal means! Luigi was fighting back!’

"Evil?" Roosevelt countered. "Who gets to define evil?"

"Morality is fluid. History spirals upward through contradictions."

"Perhaps you see Luigi as an agent of the World-Spirit, driving history forward. You think he represents historical inevitability—the destruction of the old system and the birth of a new morality."

"When Napoleon swept across Europe, he did indeed spread his legal code and break the shackles of feudalism. But to the German farmer trampled to death in the mud by French cavalry, Napoleon wasn’t progress; he was just a brutal invader."

"The individual is always crushed to dust before the grand inevitability of history."

"By supporting Luigi now, you are supporting this kind of unrestrained historical impulse."

"You’ve put yourself in the position of God, believing that for the sake of that grand objective, sacrificing the dignity of the law, sacrificing procedural justice, and even sacrificing the CEO’s life are all just the price of history."

"But we are not God, Leo. We are mortals. We are administrators."

"We establish governments, courts, and all those procedures so tedious they make you want to vomit, not just to punish evil."

"More importantly, it’s to lock away the beast within our own hearts."

"It’s to prevent a day when we ourselves become the evil, and someone storms into our office with a gun to take us out in the name of justice."

Roosevelt’s voice was like a great bell, so powerful it made Leo’s scalp tingle.

"The moment we allow individuals to usurp the law’s right to judge and enact violence, the social contract completely collapses."

"We cede our natural liberty in exchange for civil liberty under a contract. If you destroy this contract, allowing violence to supersede the law, then order will crumble."

"At that point, you won’t need capitalists to exploit people; the thugs on the street will be able to rule this city."

"Whoever has the strongest fist is justice. Whoever has the fastest gun is the judge."

Leo gritted his teeth, pacing back and forth in his office.

"I understand what you’re saying, Mr. President."

"Procedural justice, the social contract... I understand all these grand principles."

"But!"

Leo snapped his head up, the fury in his eyes practically setting the air on fire.

"What happens when procedural justice itself becomes a form of evil?"

"What happens when the law becomes a moat for the rich and a noose for the poor?"

"That CEO, he followed procedure perfectly! Every single one of his decisions to deny a claim was in accordance with company bylaws and the terms of insurance law, backed by dozens of top lawyers!"

"Procedurally, he was perfect. Legally, he was innocent."

"But what was the result? Patients died! Thousands upon thousands of patients died!"

"Procedure protected that CEO, allowing him to sit comfortably in his mansion, sipping red wine and counting his blood-soaked money, while that same procedure killed the patients who couldn’t afford their medicine!"

Leo slammed his fist on the table in fury.

"In a world where having enough money lets you hire the best lawyers, use procedure to bleed your opponents dry, and legally strip others of their right to life, the so-called social contract has long been nothing but a worthless piece of paper!"