NationStates Jolt Archive

Creating the Übermensch

Sedaht Rand was born December 7, 1972. He and his younger sister Lucy were raised by a strong willed single-mother. Their father left Stella when he learned she was pregnant. Stella was a remarkably intelligent woman, well read in ancient texts. Fiercely religious, she was not afraid to demonstrate her love for her children through rewards and punishments. Her activity, although sometimes flawed, was an inspiration to Sedaht.

Stella worked at a small pub in the suburbs of Esthar. Being a philosophy major had left her with little options. At least the general banter provided some intellectual stimulation. Here the populace could convene to flirt and fight, to play and debate. Entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and the omniscient Freemasons frequented the pub.

The most influential ideas Stella got from talking amongst these people came from the elderly Freemasons. As old as the nation itself, this group upheld the long forgotten morals of honor, sacrifice, proportional equality, and hierarchy. Within the Republic of Bjornoya, it was taught that every member of society not only deserved the chance to, but could achieve greatness through the capitalist system. This ideal of equality was so engraved into the populace, it was almost a given. However, talking with the Freemasons led her to believe this was not the case, not everyone was equal, not everyone deserved the same challenges. Natural abilities beyond the individuals’ control, along with a good upbringing led to greatness, not lieing and cheating to acquire the most wealth. Her children were better, and she was already making them so. They would achieve their own greatness outside the system.

Time would prove her correct.

As Sedaht reached middle school, Stella made him read the ancient texts of Bjornoyan culture and religion. She also carefully introduced him to some philosophy; a little Plato, a little Marx. Although he despised it, Sedaht channeled his anger into destroying the beliefs held within the books he was forced to read. At the age of 13, Sedaht discombobulated the Bjornoyan religious texts, “God was dead.”

The absence of a father wore on Sedaht, especially when dealing with young Lucy. “Why did he leave us? He doesn’t love us… what did we do wrong?” Sedaht viewed his father with contempt. He was weak, unloving, unworthy of being a parent. Sedaht was also more familiar with the financial responsibilities of being a parent, and concluded that in this society the want for wealth and pleasure outweighed the love for one’s children. This Marxist cynicism took root within young Sedaht; “all social relations are being reduced to a cold cash nexus.”

As he grew, so did his hatred for the capitalist system. The death of his mother would eventually push him over the edge.

Sedaht’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during his sophomore year of high school. In the Bjornoyan Republic, health care was extremely expensive. Stella went through chemotherapy twice, but was too weak to fight the cancer. After spending 16 months in the hospital, she succumbed to her sickness on February 11, 1988. The last words Sedaht remebered his mother saying were, “Do not worry; I will always be with you. We will meet again; I will be looking down at you from heaven. I love you, never forget.”

Those words fell through the nothingness that engulfed young Sedaht. Lies, so many lies; how could this comfort him? His mother was gone, leaving him to raise Lucy alone. His mother did not deserve to die; he was not capable of raising Lucy alone, they did not deserve to be left like this. In his sadness and his rage, he sought the source of this suffering, the root of this evil. Sedaht looked at the sign above the hospital entrance:

Visara Corporation

Of course, the penultimate materialization of the capitalist regime; here Sedaht would seek his revenge. The nonchalant, carelessness in which the world treated his mother’s death; the funeral casket, the cemetery, the inheritance taxes, it was a bureaucratic orgy. Behind it all was the will of the capitalist; alienating mankind from itself, striving for its false god money.

The day after Stella’s funeral, Sedaht bought a pistol from a gun shop within Esthar, and made his way to the tallest building in the city, the headquarters of Visara Corporation, the dwelling place of Wilhelm Kaufmann.

Wilhelm Kaufmann was in his fifties. Born to wealth, he lived his elderly existence far from the commoners below. He took control of Visara Corporation at the age of 25, and was successful in every societal sense of the word. He raised three children, and already had two grandchildren. He was a loving father, and taught those he found worthy the elitism and superiority that could only come from living a life of solitude. After his kids graduated high school, he spent most of his time alone atop the many skyscrapers he owned within Esthar. He always took a helicopter, as to never stoop below.

After his father’s untimely death, Wilhelm changed Visara from a state-wide marketing monopoly into an empire. After 27 years of ruthless business tactics, 95% of the citizens within Esthar worked for Visara. However, to maintain his empire, Wilhelm needed to create products that were sellable, that would be bought by the general public. Wilhelm despised this predicament, the stupid masses found value in mindless television programs, and the hollow bourgeois pop-culture. He did not want his empire to be founded on an appeal to the most basic of human pleasures. Love, what was love in his society? A bundle of roses? An evening at a fancy restaurant? An ice cream cone? Within their ignorant selves, the masses had thought an act of love was giving people what they wanted. Wilhelm knew better; love was giving people what they deserved. Unfortunately, he did not have the time or energy to give everyone in the city a swift kick in the ass. These people were spoiled, corrupted, and there was little he could do about it.

Behind all of his pride and power, Wilhelm felt he missed something. He looked out his window at the city he owned. With this power and his will, he had carved from the earth itself the great capital of Bjornoya, Esthar. He was a respected leader, and the possibility of his absence worried him. What would happen when he retired? Who could replace him? His two sons became scientists, and his daughter became a police officer. None of them were capable of wielding the immense responsibility required to maintain an organization of Visara’s size and stature. Pompous underlings kept talking of mergers and stock-holders. What would his legacy be?

Wilhelm glanced to the streets below, then to the quarterly profit report. His office doors slowly opened. Visibly annoyed, Wilhelm asked his security for an explanation.

“Sir, we’ve apprehended another one. He tried to carry this in.”

The guard placed the pistol on his desk. The other guards dragged in a thoroughly beaten and humiliated 16 year old boy, another would-be-assassin. Wilhelm dismissed his security, who left him alone with the intruder in his office. Wilhelm loved these moments; some ideological idiot would attempt to blame him for the world’s problems, and he would shatter their fragile world, a far more suitable punishment than anything the current inept government could offer.

The fateful conversation that followed would change the fate of a nation.

Wilhelm glared at the child. A smirk on his face he asked, “What do you want? Money? Power? You just wasted both on this worthless contraption,” Wilhelm shook the pistol nonchalantly and placed it back on his desk. Sedaht brought his bloody head up to Wilhelm and spat out, “Justice.”

Wilhelm was somewhat surprised by his answer, it was somewhat more intelligent than what others had given him, but what Sedaht meant was unclear and he doubted the child had a clue what he was talking about. “Justice, really? You were going to kill a man you never met, never did anything to you in the name of Justice? Tell me by all things rational what the hell do you mean?”

“My mother is dead, and all I could do was watch. I could do nothing, we are poor. But you, you swim in your world of wealth. You had the power to stop it and you did nothing! Hell you just made over $4,000 by her death you son of a bitch! I now have a no family save my little sister, no money, and no job to support her.”

Wilhelm felt awkward, he wasn’t a total asshole and was not about to throw any more daggers into a child who had just lost his mother. But somehow he felt a certain connection, a certain intimacy with this lowly creature. He could have blamed the doctors, he could have blamed her work, he could have blamed the undertakers but instead he went straight for the most powerful man in the nation, a bizarre attraction of opposites. Wilhelm set up his defense and chose his words wisely, “I am truly sorry for your mother’s passing…”

“You never knew her, you don’t care! Stop with that bullshit.”

“Hmm, fine I empathize with you for I too have lost a mother.”

Sedaht grumbled, sick of the smallness of the talk. Wilhelm noticed, he wondered if this was all that was on the child’s mind. “What is bothering you?”

What was bothering him? How could he even begin? His entire society was a wasteland, carefully constructed and maintained by the man standing in front of him. His entire situation, all his suffering was a direct result of this man.

“You, you’ve created a monster! This society cares more about clothing, cars, and sex than it does about its own health! You spend more money advertising your damned hair conditioners than you do providing the society with its needs! Where were the drugs, the doctors, the technology required to save my mother’s life!”

“We’re working on it…”

“Well you sure have some strange fucking priorities, you found a cure for male impotency before you found a cure for cancer!!?? What the hell kind of business are you running here?”

Wilhelm was growing annoyed, not knowing a reasonable route to calm this creature down. “Precisely that, a business. Child have you ever run a business? Have you ever held any position of power? It’s my fault we haven’t found a cure for cancer?! Child, do you know what happened to the businesses that were researching such cures? They were swallowed by their competitors years ago, the competitors who made incredible amounts of money by selling skin care products or anti-balding creams. Do you think that it was the companies’ faults for not getting their priorities straight? It was you, you little underlings who spent all their money on little things instead of saving it for the right thing. Simple beasts, beasts of instinct you indulge yourselves in the most superficial of pleasures and then dare to blame us for your suffering!?”

“I am not like that!”

“Really, is that why you came here? You wished to satisfy your lust for revenge before even thinking about your sister? Who would have taken care of her should my guards have dispatched of you as they should have?”

Lucy… Sedaht suddenly remembered. She would be getting out of school in two hours, he had to pick her up. He ran to the heavy metal doors and tried to open them to no avail, locked. He turned quickly to Wilhelm and screamed, “Let me out!” Wilhelm stood stoic as a god, not saying a word. “Let me out, I need to pick up my sister!” Silence, Sedaht hurled himself towards the elderly man and started punching him as hard as he could. Wilhelm was a statue; every blow fell from him like wind. After a few minutes the exhausted child brought his bloodied hands to his face, fell to his knees and began to weep. In his scattered breaths he could hear him say the name ‘Lucy.’ In that moment Wilhelm felt an absolute and unconditional love for this creature. He waited for Sedaht to regain a bit of his composure, then spoke,

“I have never known life as it is down below, and don’t think it is in your right to condemn me to that suffering. I am aware of how ugly the world is when observed in close proximity however, but I also know how beautiful it is when viewed from a distance, from above. Is the world, this society such a disgusting and terrifying place because it towers above you, dominates, and controls you? I think you have such a pessimistic view because you have been living your life on your knees. Arise child, I can show you how beautiful the world is from above. I too dream of fixing this hell hole, but I am merely a businessman. Perhaps you can find a different power, a power beyond this to save our nation from the path it is choosing to take. Until then I will care for you and your sister, I will raise you to the light. Come, I will give you a ride to your sister’s school so we can pick her up.”

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