Unfortunately, because
they are only human, frustrations and best intentions sometimes drive
transcenders to the dark side. This happened in fiction to Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars), Ozymandias (Watchmen) or Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight), all committing murder
and/or genocide in order to do their own perception of good, but also numerous
times in reality. History have treated many leaders harshly in retrospect, yet
in their own time they might have been hailed as saviors by their subjects. As
aforementioned Harvey Dent forebodes in The
Dark Knight; ‘You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see
yourself become the villain.’ This can be certainly be said for many
revolutionaries of the past. Robespierre, Mao and Stalin for instance. Toppled
one tyrannical regime just to form their own.
From their own
point-of-views even the starkest pretenders might perceive themselves as transcenders,
serving the greater good. Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and countless other
pretenders committed the transgressions they did because they felt they were
fulfilling a higher duty. Be it the right of the Master Race, God’s Will or
whatever, they believed they had the right to kill others to achieve what they
perceived as the greater good and they used the Trinity of Control to persuade
entire populations to follow their causes. The easy answer to this conundrum
was that they, as well as the other historical leaders mentioned above, were
never true transcenders but rather a more fundamentalist pretender, or maybe
even a dancer, playing to the tunes of previous pretenders. Intelligent yes, no
doubt, they came a very long way towards their respective goals, but they never
left the Dancefloor of Existence and were throughout their endeavors still
controlled by other powers than their own, even if they did not perceive it
that way themselves. Regardless of where they originated, one cannot dispute
where they ended, at the very peak of pretendence, conceiving themselves as
all-powerful Masters of the Micro-Multiverse and using that self-imposed title
to deal out death and judgment over entire population groups. As such they
remain as stark examples of how to manipulate the Dancefloor of Existence into
submission by utilizing the Trinity of Control.
In contrast, true
transcenders are their own masters and possess the humility to never force
their opinions on others but rather just shine a clear bright light down onto
the Dancefloor of Existence, like a lighthouse beacon, slowly shining through
the smoke, strobes and all-encompassing chaos of the Dancefloor, at times
getting through to individuals who as a result manage to escape to a more
enlightened place. They lead by example rather than by force. They may employ
the Trinity of Control but only to people willing to listen. Transcenders are
in it for the species, pretenders are in it for themselves. But the dark side
is always there and the longing for a quick fix solution to our species’ most
serious problems can drive even the most well-meaning transcenders into
darkness where they suddenly no longer see the light and resort to
reprehensible actions like the examples given at the beginning of this post.
Self-imposed transcendence is a bit of a paradox, because assuming that title
could send you on a path to the dark side, given how darkness seems to persist
in all of us at some depth. More on that to follow.
