Chapter 676 - 316: Scorching
"You’re defining this concept as a kind of unconditional moral purism."
"But that isn’t politics at all. That’s religion. That’s the standard for Saints."
Roosevelt’s voice echoed in the space of his consciousness.
"The meaning of a word lies in its usage. In the context of politics, the term ’the people’ never refers to the sum total of every specific, living individual."
"It’s a collective concept, the current of history, a kind of greatest common denominator of interests."
"When you have to make a thousand people temporarily endure the pain of being cut off from their medicine to secure affordable drugs for a million people in the future, have you betrayed those thousand people? Yes. But have you betrayed ’the people’? No."
"Because in that moment, you represent the longer-term, grander interest of the people."
"This is the curse of a statesman, and also their glory."
Roosevelt continued.
"Often, truly standing with the people means you must go against their immediate desires."
"It means you have to force-feed them bitter medicine when they want to eat candy."
"It means you have to compel them to fight when they desire comfort."
"If you only listen to their current cries, if you halt your steps because of the tears of those few thousand who lost their medicine, then you are the one who has truly become detached from the people."
"Leaders who are praised as ’good men’ in the present are usually just those who lack the capacity to carry out that necessary cruelty."
"Because in your bid for a reputation of immediate benevolence, you have sold out their future right to exist."
"You have turned the term ’the people’ into a fig leaf to cover your own moral vanity."
"That is the greatest hypocrisy."
Leo was stunned.
He had always thought that conscience was about empathizing with specific suffering, but Roosevelt was telling him that a leader’s conscience is about taking responsibility for the outcome of history.
"This is consequentialism, Leo."
Roosevelt offered his final summary.
"On the chessboard of politics, motive is unimportant, process is unimportant, and means are even less important. The only thing that matters is the result."
"If you lose, if you let the insurance companies continue to bleed everyone dry, then no matter how benevolent you appear now, how much you seem to love your people, in the eyes of history, you will be nothing but an incompetent failure."
"Your people will continue to suffer, and your ideals will become a joke."
"But if you win."
"If you truly establish the Mutual Aid Alliance, if you truly bring down the price of medicine."
"Then, all of today’s pain, all the sacrifices, all the infamy, will be eclipsed by the light of victory."
"Future generations won’t care what decision you made on this night. They will only remember that from that day forward, they could afford their medicine."
"A statesman is not a nanny, nor a priest."
"A statesman is a surgeon."
"When you are performing surgery, you must cut through skin and saw through bone. You will make the patient bleed; you will cause him immense pain. But you must do it, because you have to remove the fatal tumor."
"If you put down the scalpel because you’re afraid of the patient crying out in pain, then you are a murderer."
"Bear this pain, Leo."
Roosevelt’s voice was like a heavy hammer.
"The pain of this choice, the loneliness of being misunderstood and reviled in this moment—that is the price you must pay for sitting in that seat."
"You have no right to feel aggrieved."
"Because this is how you become a leader."
Leo closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath, finally exhaling the foul air that had been building in his chest.
He opened his eyes again, his gaze clear.
’If this pain had to be repeated ten thousand times, if all of this had to happen all over again.’
’If he had to return to this night of torrential rain again and again, face the people who lost their loved ones because of his decision again and again, and endure that soul-rending guilt again and again.’
’Would he still do it?’
’Would he still press the button that cut the power for the sake of a seemingly distant victory?’
Leo looked out the window at the city.
He thought of the "Superman."
It wasn’t a hero with superpowers, but a person who dared to face the void, who dared to affirm his own life’s will without the endorsement of any god or moral code.
The Superman is powerful because he embraces the full weight of his destiny.
He embraces not only the glory and the victory, but also the sin and suffering that inevitably come with them.
’I would.’
Leo gave himself an answer in his heart, one as firm as a rock.
’Even if it happened ten thousand more times, I would still do it.’
’Because in this absurd and cruel world, there is no salvation from on high, no perfect justice.’
’Only through my will, by forcibly twisting the tracks of reality, can flowers bloom from these ruins.’
’If I don’t win, if I don’t shatter the old world, all this suffering will be meaningless.’
’I would rather be cursed as a tyrant by this generation, if it means the next will be born on land free of shackles.’
This realization brought him a sense of ease he had never felt before.
It was the freedom that comes after shedding the shackles of worldly morality, and the transcendence of gazing into the darkness from the edge of the abyss.
"Thank you, Mr. President."
The calm returned to Leo’s face, the cracks born from self-doubt rapidly healing.
"I understand now."
"That’s right," Roosevelt said, pleased. "In this world, there is no such thing as a structural reform that can be completed without bloodshed."
"Accept this imperfect justice."
"This is the truth of heroism."
Leo walked to his desk and picked up the report on the aftereffects of the power outage.
He stared right at it.
As if staring straight into the abyss.
𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
He was no longer afraid.
Because he had already become a part of the abyss himself.
He would use this dark power to devour the enemies who tried to block the light.
’Fearless.’
Leo silently repeated the word in his mind.
The rain was still falling outside the window, but Leo could no longer hear it.
He could only hear the footsteps of a new world arriving.