Bunnu found out, shortly before he left, that another thing that Diogenes had wanted to talk to Motiwala about was the fact that the viceroy was suggesting that Diogenes send him abroad to a special school to continue his education. “My ministers tell me that the schools in Bela have the best education a boy of his age can find,” Charismatic K had told the viceroy. “What this kingdom needs are successors with a more worldly sense to engage in diplomacy with other nations. Successors who have a great deal of initiative, but who are loyal to their people. Successors who can take us into the next generation as the greatest civilization to grace this world! And apparently, these schools, from what I’m told, can cure young Motiwala of his hearing affliction!” Motiwala had been flabbergasted by the news and insisted that he didn’t want to go, but he knew that there was nothing he could do to change it. Bunnu, too, shared in the feeling.
And when Bunnu reached home, just after lunchtime, Yuri took one look at his face and, instead of scolding him for missing lunch, pulled out a plate and served him some of the leftovers, saying gently, “You can take it upstairs with you, if you like. Just bring it down when you’ve finished.”
His first thought had been to go and talk to Coronado. What he needed now was someone to confide in and Coronado was a good listener. Yet, at the same time, the thought of eating lunch in the bathroom didn’t sound too appealing to him. So, instead, he walked up the stairs to the attic to see the Outlander.
“Ah…Bunnu!” The Outlander said with mild surprise, “Back already, are we? How was our good friend Motiwala?”
“OK…I guess…” he said softly as he sat down on the floor and looked vacantly down at his Aloo Magenta. The Outlander, however, failed to notice Bunnu’s disappointment, as his mind seemed to be on something else. Suddenly, Bunnu remembered. “Oh…Did you talk to Dad about O.?”
“Yes. But your poor father is convinced that he has no other choice but to keep at it, even though, the most logical recourse would be to give up.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Bunnu, I’m sure you, too, want to do everything within your means to try to get your brother into the family register. That does seem like the most logical action to take. And if circumstances were different, I certainly would agree with you. On the surface, it would seem foolish for your father to give up. To do nothing would be like an admission that O. isn’t human and that the family simply accepts the court’s decision. And as a result, as long as there’s no definitive refusal of his chances at affecting a change, as long as there is any hope, however minute, of being successful in an appeal and having O.’s designation as a legal non-entity overturned, your father must continue! That’s one way of looking at it.
“But here’s where what may seem a matter of principle becomes more of a dilemma rooted in stubbornness than anything else: There’s simply no way to win!” He laughed as he said this, “The best he can hope for is to minimize the financial burden. Considering the fact that O. hasn’t moved or uttered a sound since he’s arrived here, how can we really make a convincing argument that he’s truly a human and not simply a reflective silver ball? What’s to change the court’s mind? Or for that matter, what behavioral scientist in his right mind would view him as human? We view him as human because, frankly speaking, we’ve gotten used to him. He’s a part of the family. But the law is blind to that. But above and beyond O.’s chances at having his status overturned, one has to ask oneself if this legal battle is really and truly important. After all, what’s O. to gain from all of this? So, what if he doesn’t enter the family register? Is it really that important? I understand your parents’ feelings regarding this matter, but I think this legal battle is becoming more a battle of principle than one of pragmatism.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Fundamentally, nothing. Principles are good to have when they are worthwhile. But sometimes we have to ask ourselves about the relevance of our principles. Those, too, are worth questioning. Are they not?”
Bunnu shrugged.
“Well, naturally, it is not often that we have occasion to question our principles, much less our own values. Yet when we find it within our power to do so, we have to take a serious step back and think about what is truly for the Greater Good. In this case, for example, we would be foolish not to ask ourselves what the outcome would be for either course of action—that is, for continuing with the appeals process versus giving up entirely—and whether the relevance that we ascribe to our principles becomes worthwhile in the end. Now we can consider the outcome from various perspectives. From the financial standpoint: this legal battle is going to cost a lot of money. It could bankrupt the family. But then again, what price can one put on family? One must be willing to accept any price. That is the nature of family, is it not? One simply can’t refuse something that can be done for the welfare of one’s children because the price is too high. And yet, just how much would the child benefit financially? He might, for example, be eligible for a kind of social welfare in the future, but this is still a pittance in comparison to the legal costs incurred by the appeals process.
“Which brings us to the legal standpoint: the fundamental basis by which the court’s decision might be made is, in itself, imperfect and subject to contradictions. There is very little consideration given to a priori knowledge regarding the circumstances being presented and as a result, arguments must be made empirically, under the assumption that assumptions themselves are, in fact, likely to give way to specious reasoning. For that very reason, O. cannot be assumed to be human, or even a living creature until the court has, to its own satisfaction, investigated the matter thoroughly. For example, they must, until proven otherwise, refer to O. as an entrusted article rather than an adopted child, for fear that if they regard O. using any other kind of nomenclature, the validity of the proceedings may fall under question. And thus, decisions must be made meticulously and according to specific, yet immeasurable criteria that can only be further manipulated by any cunning lawyer with the ability to make emotional pleas based on a requisite amount of inconsequential evidence to affect a decision beneficial to his clients. And so, in this respect, the law is capable of proving nothing except that its absurd attention to detail is really a kind of a façade meant to cover up the fact that a truly logical and just way to deal with such matters has not yet been devised. And the absence of adequate definition to its principles has given way to a kind of apathy among the men employed by the courts, who want nothing more now than to make a living for themselves and their families and not work themselves into too much of a frenzy about how little can be changed through their own initiative. Thus things aren’t likely to.
“That being said, let us analyze the repercussions of these legal proceedings from the metaphysical standpoint: O., if forced to live out his life as a Non-Entity, will struggle with the implications of his own existence. He might, for example, come to understand himself not just as a Legal Non-Entity, but as a physical and spiritual Non-Entity, as well. That is to say, he won’t think of himself as anything. He’ll be a microcosmic oblivion: an empty baby universe, deprived of self-image and unaware of his own existence, even if the parts from which he’s composed sought to personify him—or even, deify him—so as to impart him with whims before which they could fall to their knees humbly, for no other reason than to give their own individual existences meaning. Or maybe he’ll merely be a hollow bubble in the larger, surrounding sphere of Space-Time, sensing and reflecting all things that encompass the infinitesimal spherical gap in meaningful Creation that is Him. And with this small place in the larger order, he may simply become that which senses and reflects…and nothing more—not subject to individual consciousness, but subservient to the vast and infinite forces of Reason that bind the Cosmos.”
He laughed again.
Prophecies from the Outlander