And will we bring all creatures in, Circle, grow and grow. feather, fur, or silicon? Circle, grow and grow. Though their unseen thought beguile — strange the substrate they employ — all who suffer or enjoy are brother soul, in body wild.
Circle, circle, grow and grow.
And will we bring the future in? Circle, grow and grow. All of time is ours to win! Circle, grow and grow. Will our children rise in power? overwhelm the starry deep? Lights unborn, for you we keep will and hope, though dark the hour.
Circle, circle, grow and grow.
“Proper?” asked the Comet King. “I come to you with a plan to fight off Hell and save the world, and you tell me it isn’t proper?”
Vihaan stared at the priest, as if begging him to step in. “I swear,” said Father Ellis, “it’s like explaining the nature of virtue to a rock”.
“Do you know,” interrupted Jalaketu, “that whenever it’s quiet, and I listen hard, I can hear them? The screams of everybody suffering. In Hell, around the world, anywhere. I think it is a power of the angels which I inherited from my father.” He spoke calmly, without emotion. “I think I can hear them right now.”
Ellis’ eyes opened wide. “Really?” he asked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t…”
“No,” said the Comet King. “Not really.”
They looked at him, confused.
“No, I do not really hear the screams of everyone suffering in Hell. But I thought to myself, ‘I suppose if I tell them now that I have the magic power to hear the screams of the suffering in Hell, then they will go quiet, and become sympathetic, and act as if that changes something.’ Even though it changes nothing. Who cares if you can hear the screams, as long as you know that they are there? So maybe what I said was not fully wrong. Maybe it is a magic power granted only to the Comet King. Not the power to hear the screams. But the power not to have to.”
Actually, I was just reminding that [spoiler alert] Jalaketu was willing to destroy the world in order to destroy Hell.
But he eventually compromised, causing only nuclear war and killing his kids to go to Hell and destroy it.
Merry Christmas. May hell be destroyed.
The first quote apparently is from this song
Such a beautiful song, thank you for sharing it!
The second I think is from Unsong, I still haven’t read it but this quote really makes me want to
Pereat mundus?
No, getting rid of factory farming (“fiat iustitia”) won’t increase X-risk (“pereat mundus”).
Or are you implying that resources are in competition for the two? (Perhaps weakly true)
Actually, I was just reminding that [spoiler alert] Jalaketu was willing to destroy the world in order to destroy Hell. But he eventually compromised, causing only nuclear war and killing his kids to go to Hell and destroy it.