Chapter 675 - 316: Burning
"No."
"I made the decision for them. With the arrogance of a savior, I dragged them onto my war chariot."
"What if this so-called ’righteous path’ is just me comforting myself, a way to mask my own ambition?"
"If I ignore the civilians being held hostage and continue to open fire, am I not just hastening their dehumanization? Am I not, in my heart, treating them as nothing more than tools?"
"At that point, what’s the fundamental difference between me and those insurance company CEOs who see patients as just data on a spreadsheet?"
These words laid bare a core truth that no politician wants to face.
Why should the current generation have to pay the price for a future one? What gives them the right to decide the order of sacrifice for others?
Roosevelt sighed.
"You’ve asked the most fundamental question."
𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
"About the definition of justice."
"The real tragedy is not the struggle between good and evil, but the collision of two forms of justice."
"Your pain right now is because the people’s right to survive in the present has collided with future generations’ right to freedom from want."
"Both of these rights are just."
"But resources are finite, and time is linear. You have to choose one."
"You think you don’t have the right to choose? You’re wrong. You do."
Roosevelt’s voice turned severe.
"Because you won the election, you sit in that chair, and at this moment, you are the sole decision-maker."
"You must bear the absolute responsibility for your choice. The dizziness and nausea that come with that responsibility are the very proof of your existence."
"If you shrink back because you’re afraid of being branded an executioner, you’re just handing the power to choose back to those greedy capitalists."
"That is true evil."
Roosevelt adopted a more pragmatic tone.
"Besides, Leo, don’t think of the masses as so sacred."
"From a class perspective, the masses are always utilitarian and short-sighted."
"Give them money today, and they’ll praise you to the heavens. Let them go hungry for a day tomorrow, and they’ll trample you underfoot."
"Their loyalty is tied to their appetites."
"You feel you’re letting them down now, but in reality, as long as you win—as long as drug prices fall and the factories reopen—they will instantly forget these few days of suffering and start cheering for you again."
"This is why you must constantly provide them with benefits, constantly feed them."
"It’s also why we need to create external enemies."
Roosevelt pointed to the darkness outside the window.
"When internal conflicts cannot be reconciled, when you can’t satisfy everyone’s desires."
"You must find them an enemy."
"Right now, that enemy is the pharmaceutical giants. It’s Washington."
"Through hatred, through opposition, you can take those atomized individuals who only care about their own interests and reforge them into a collective whole called ’The People’."
"It sounds despicable, doesn’t it?"
"But that is statecraft."
"If you don’t want them to kill each other over limited resources this winter, you have to make them vent their anger outward."
"You have to be ruthless, Leo."
"You have to be more ruthless than those capitalists."
"Because they are using civilians as human shields."
Roosevelt had pointed out the essence of this war.
"Look at what those insurance companies are doing. They would rather watch patients die than give up the slightest bit of profit. They’ve backed you into a corner. If you back down, if you lower your weapon out of pity for the hostages..."
"...you’ll just be proving their logic right: that civilians are bargaining chips to be exploited indefinitely."
"You have to show them that this tactic doesn’t work."
"Only when you show the resolve to act as if you don’t care about the lives of the hostages will the kidnappers feel true fear. Only then will they actually come to the negotiating table."
"This kind of cruelty is, in fact, a defense of the sovereignty of life."
Roosevelt continued, "You need to accept one fact."
"You are a man with dirty hands."
"You are no longer chasing the instant gratification of public opinion, no longer trying to get everyone to call you a good person."
"What you must pursue is your value in the great river of history."
"Their hatred is real, and so is your sin."
"But your goal is just as real."
Leo took a deep breath.
The air in his lungs was still cold, but the look in his eyes began to change.
The confusion and guilt were fading, replaced by a hardness forged in fire.
"Mr. President, I’m not afraid of being reviled, and I’m not afraid of going to hell."
Leo stared at his own blurry reflection in the glass, his voice low.
"The only thing I fear is whether I’ve already become detached from them."
"I worry that when I sit behind that desk and start measuring lives with data and charts, I’m no longer on the side of the people."
"I worry that the word ’people,’ in my mouth, will become an excuse to hide my ambition, a hollow political symbol."
"That is precisely what I wanted to talk to you about."
Roosevelt’s voice grew grave.
"Leo, you’ve fallen into a logical trap. Or rather, a game of words."
"This phrase you use, ’on the side of the people’—what does it actually mean?"
Roosevelt began to peel back the layers of this concept.
"In your subconscious, you believe that being on the side of the people means you must always empathize with them, that you must satisfy their every immediate desire, that you cannot allow them to suffer even the slightest harm."