1        Soul Bound 1.3      Making a Splash 1.3.3    An Unrequited Love 1.3.3.18 Sharpe Lecture: allies (part three)

Flashback to being a student in 2030s studying "Effective Political Activism" at University College London.

Dr. Sharpe gave a florid bow and dismissed the slides with a wave of a hand holding the electronic controls.

"I want you all to remember this. Unity is a powerful tool, a tool you'll need, but like all powerful tools it can be used for ill as well as for good. The story about the reeds I told gained iconography based upon a Labrys, a Greek double-headed axe, and bundle of sticks - what the Romans called a fascis. It became the symbol of Fascism, and the justification used by every tyrant since who wanted an pretty sounding excuse to sacrifice individual rights for the sake of the interests of the majority (or at least the tyrant's unquestioned interpretation of what the majority wanted). There are few powers more valuable to a tyrant than having a population accept the tyrant's right to act in their name with inadequate transparency and accountability, but one of those powers is the power to control the means by which their people access information and, in particular, to define the words their people use to think about, interpret and discuss that information - the issues, values and that very fairness or inevitability of the way things are done.

Control the definitions and you can control the imagination. The human mind continually looks for patterns, in its quest to understand and predict what's going on. Like a postman trying to deliver a letter that has a precise location code written in large clear easy-to-read characters at the bottom of the address, the brain goes 'yippee, I don't have work work hard, I know what to do with this one' and feels free to not 'waste time' checking the rest of for additional distinctions - most of the time it's good enough, and the postman can live with Mrs Jones in flat 3b getting the occasional letter for Miss Jane in flat 3a.

But what if the stakes are not Miss Jane getting a late letter? What if two opponents of the tyrant fail to form a strong alliance despite their common interests, because they're trapped by false assumptions, trapped into talking and behaving in ways that lead each of them to think the other group is just one more enemy who doesn't care and whose actions contribute to keeping them down?

The easiest way to identify when someone is misusing an appeal for unity is a one simple fundamental underlying attitude, that's displayed by tyrants time and time again no matter how they try to disguise it.

They don't think of certain groups of people as being the same as them. Not just not part of their 'tribe', but not even the same species or kind of being. They try to justify this to themselves, try to explain to themselves why it is correct to not take the lives and interests of some others into consideration, and it leaves a mark, an ineradicable stain, upon the way they use language. They refer to members of these groups as subhuman, as species of animal (often vermin), as diseases or even inanimate objects. As categories that 'naturally' don't possess the same entitlement to consideration as a proper human. At the extreme end, you see people being denied a right to decide or use their own name, in favour of compulsory use of an externally chosen name, role or even just a number. It's a process called "dehumanisation" or "objectification", and it affects both the target and everyone around them who is complicit by reason of unthinking acceptance.

Win the war to define the primary label attached to a group, and you gain the power to affect how others view them, how others will assume that group deserves to be treated.

Which brings me onto Miss Sabanagic's very reasonable request, and a confession."

He paused, letting anticipation build while he cued up the next slide.

"The process I used to interpret the meaning of whichever side of your communication card you chose to display was...

I ignored them all, and picked the definitions I wanted to use."

He grinned at their expression, then continued.

"Which may lead you to wonder, what was the purpose of making them, handing them out. Anyone got a guess?"

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

He spent a minute going around getting answers, most of which she couldn't remember. Some guessed he was polling for sexist assumptions. Some guessed it was about age, class, militarism, race or even homophobia. Wellington's answer she did remember, because it was so different.

Wellington: "I believe the images come from more than one painting, and that the colour of the dot indicates which painting it comes from. The exercise provided you a visual survey not just of which of two sides people thought you would interpret as their approval (which depends upon their model of how they think you model them), but also of how the pieces selected correlated with categories of selector. Was there, by any chance, a link between extroversion and the chances of picking a piece showing small details versus one giving a wider contextual view?"

Still under sixteen years of age, Wellington was much shorter than every other student and dressed in neat simple clothes with no effort made to impress or stand out. Yet he spoke with such calm confidence, he might have been talking about the weather. If only she could be like that, rather at the mercy of the flood of emotions so often sweeping her along. Then again, no. She admired Wellington, but perhaps she didn't want to live as him. And at least when she was singing she felt firmly in control of the flood, using it without fear like an experienced navigator in known waters.

Dr Sharpe shook his head.

"You're all missing something. I didn't pay attention to your choices. The exercise was an opportunity for you to notice and think about your own assumptions; I'm not here to rate or evaluate you, just to provide you tools and opportunities you may use to aid you in becoming more effective political activists, if you wish. But that wasn't its only purpose. Let me tell you a story, one that links wars, slavery and strikes.

Like the Tauri, the Sabines were also a mountain people who, though smaller than the Tauri, were still tough warriors and proud of having originated near the great Greek city of Sparta. Finally they settled down, founding a new smaller city, Cures, a couple of days' march north of Rome. Which was unfortunate for them as Rome was expanding, and despite peace treaties, it didn't take much to trigger wars between them.

Sources differ on whether the final conflict between Titus Tatius, King of the Sabines, and Romulus, King of the Romans, was triggered by the Romans luring artisans away from the Sabines with the prospect of high paying jobs constructing Rome's new walls, or by the Romans abducting young maidens in order to rape and have children by them, but the result was a climactic battle with the better trained Roman forces that the Sabines seemed doomed to lose. The pieces with a black dot come from a depiction of the event, painted by the French artist Jacques-Louis David in 1799, the final year of the French Revolution. Those of you with relevant pieces, turn them over to that side now, and you can see how they fit."

The screen showed a painting now, two sides fighting before the walls of Cures. But, in the center was a large black area. Some of the pieces were missing!

"You can probably guess what's in the missing bit, right? Everything focused upon the important people, the personal duel between two great kings each representing their nation and its values. You've seen these sorts of pictures before, so you know how they're structured and what to expect. It's a battle. Only one side can win, and the other must be the loser. They're the only options. The only ones that fit what we expect."

He pressed a button, revealing the central figure to be a woman surrounded by crawling babies.

"Assumptions are like bear traps - most dangerous when hidden.

The story of the Sabines is memorable because one person, Hersilia, a Sabine captive (and later wife) of the Roman King, dared attempt something different. She led all the women made pregnant by the Romans out onto the battlefield, where they stood between opposing lines, and declared that they would rather die than see their children be either deprived of access to the family of the fathers or deprived of access to the family of the mothers. She demanded not just that this battle stop immediately but also, rather than signing yet another fragile truce, that the two Kings must agree to unite permanently, with a marriage between Numa, heir of King Romulus, and Tatia, daughter of King Tatius.

She'd found a third option. Alliance.

Eventually the Sabines became quiritis (about which more in a moment) and equals in Roman society, even founding some noble houses.

You can see the big picture now. But could you have predicted it just from the pieces of puzzle I chose to let you have access to, even if you'd worked together? Did the question of what might be missing occur to any of you, as you queued to enter?

I advise you to try to always be aware of who controls which information you see; even when there is nothing obvious at stake or that can be done about it; even if all they control is the order or frequency with which information arrives and is repeated. Even when the one with the power seems helpful and harmless (perhaps especially then) - stay aware! Because, on the occasions it does matter, you don't want to be like a cow so used to resting its head on the chopping block, it still reacts lazily even after it notices a double-headed executioner's axe in the farmer's hand."

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