#and how she was basically just an equivalent to Kratos

[j0rbits-art]

concept sketches of a younger Faye, from january. in her Rage era

[vaulthunter426]

Borderlands 3 | What we know...

Just because I’m not sure the best way to present this information, prepare for a long list of new features in Borderlands 3 with my comments because.... well this is my blog. I will not be discussing the two Vault Hunters we’ve seen gameplay of in terms of their action skills and skill trees.

Quality of Life improvements!

Borderlands has aged quite well, BL2 more than BL1 but we can go back to games almost a decade (and actually a decade) old and they still feel great and are tons of fun. After taking about a year hiatus from all Borderlands games, I came back after the Mask of Mayhem trailer and I found myself trying to roll or slide out of the way of charging enemies and merely crouched in front of them. After so long of this, I knew what I wanted out of Borderlands 3...

Sliding, Grappling, Ground Slams - A feature that I was hoping for beyond almost anything else were movement upgrades and boy we got them. The sliding adds a whole new dynamic to fighting a mob of enemies and the grappling opens up a plethora of verticality options. Be sure to be looking up high for hidden chests! The ground slams seem to be an upgraded, more visually appealing version of the ground slams from TPS. Zane cocks back an arm with a Digi-claw before slamming his fist to the ground while Amara leaps into the air slamming both fists to the ground (not to be confused with her Action Skill).

Vending Machines - Instead of manually purchasing each ammo type by spamming our select key on them, we can now purchase the max amount of ammo by pressing a key as we approach the machine, without ever entering the UI.

“Claim Lost Loot” - A new “vending machine” in Sanctuary III collects all the loot we didn’t pick up and store them until we access the machine. Once we activate it, all the loot comes spilling out onto the ground in front of us for us to check out and make sure we didn’t miss anything. No more lost Legendaries!

Sanctuary III is the first hub in the Borderlands franchise that features a unique room for our Vault Hunters! Our room will be tailored to the Vault Hunter of our choice with possible customization options. The wall holds a number of “mounts” where we can showcase our favorite guns as well as a couple spots for a relic, shield, and grenade mod.

Loot Instancing and Level Scaling - Is your buddy ten levels ahead of you? No problem! If you join the game of a friend who is a higher or lower level than you, your damage output will scale accordingly so no one is over or underleveled! Along with this will be loot drops. If you open a chest to a blue and purple rarity pistol, they will be at your level and ready to loot. Your friend will also see a blue and purple rarity pistol, but different manufactures and at their own level. You both can take both pistols from the same chest. All of these options have a toggle feature if you preferred the previous games style.

Claptrap as a General of the Crimson Raiders - It’s nice to know that the Crimson Raiders are continuing on after the death of Roland, but their priorities may be a bit askew if Claptrap is a general... then again maybe his title holds no responsibilities... all about the ego boost.

Lilith as Commander of the Crimson Raiders - Not all that surprising although I was speculating that maybe she had ditched our friends to deal with some of that pent up anger post-Jack. It seems like she has been broadcasting across the galaxy searching for new Vault Hunters, and maybe even “broadcasting” directly into Siren’s minds as a comment by Amara upon meeting Lilith went something like “Oh so you’re the voice in my head.” Sounds like our Guardian Angel...

Marcus - I have no doubt Marcus will be buying and selling us guns, but we do see that in person he will be our go to for SDU’s. This go around the currency used is money opposed to Eridium, similar to our BL1 days.

Moxxi - She still has her bar, this time with four different slot machines, possibly activated by a unique currency each, or rewarding different pools of loot.

Tannis - “Tannis’ Lab + Infirmary” read the sign pointing us toward our old friend, which leaves a noticeable lack of Dr. Zed on Sanctuary III. Was he a fatality of the ill fate that befell Sanctuary 2? Or is he on Pandora?

Ellie - Ellie takes position as our lead engineer / car provider for Borderlands 3, as we no longer have our dear friend Scooter with us (nice decal of him on the outside of the ship though).

Unlockable Vehicles - It looks like we will unlock vehicles as we progress through the story, similar to the Bandit Technical in BL2, but there seems to be World Event / Side Missions that allow us to come across unique vehicles parked across the maps that we can get in and return to a Catch-A-Ride station so that they are available to use any time we like! This means if your vehicle blows up before you can get it registered, you may be out of luck!

Alternate Firing Mode- Initially inthough a couple of gun manufacturers would have alternate firing modes but it almost seemed like every gun during the gameplay reveal had an alternate firing mode.

Hyperion Shields- I’ve been wondering how the shields would work for the Hyperion weapon and it looks like they are ADS activated.

Unique Dialog for our Vault Hunters - A feature introduced during some of the DLC for BL2, as well as through the entirety of TPS was character dialog unique to each Vault Hunter. It is most definitely returning for BL3 and I couldn’t be happier.

Unique Looting for our Vault Hunters? - When Amara opened a chest (really a repurposed car trunk) she punched it open in a similar fashion to Kratos in God of War. Although punching a chest open definitely seems like Amara’s style, I wouldn’t say the same for the other Vault Hunters which makes me wonder if certain chests will have unique opening animations for each VH.

Location: Ascension Bluff - This was the location title card that was on the projection screen after got the initial reveal demo which makes me wonder if the Children of the Vault Propaganda center(?) is on a map called Ascension Bluff. I could be wrong in thinking that, however I’m pretty positive that all of that was on Pandora.

Location: Meridian Metroplex - Some interesting reveals about the city we’ve seen from the trailers! The Meridian Metroplex is on Promethea, and has become an Atlas controlled city. For some this is great, for others not so much. Maliwan seems to be attacking the city with their new ally...

Locations: So far we have Pandora and Promethea listed as worlds we can visit but I believe it was Paul Sage also confirmed an Asteroid(?) map that will feature low-gravity similar to (but not quite the same as) TPS.

Tyreen + Troy Calypso / The Calypso Twins- These two are fucking Borderlands equivalent douche twitch streamers. They’ve leveraged this position (or vice - versa?) into being Cult Leaders for the Children of the Vault.

They have broadcast stations scattered around the galaxy that we can destroy / turn off as a world event style challenge.

Tyreen is a Siren who can leech the life and power out of other living beings. Being a Siren, she’s convinced her followers that she is their God - Queen. Troy is merely piggy-backing off the fact that she has all the influence, or it seems that way to me.

Tyreen has streamed her ability of sucking the life out of beings to her many followers, and to the Vault Hunters who she calls her most loyal follower yet.

What’s a cult without its followers? Instead of our typical “Bandit” enemies, it seems like the main enemy faction of that caliber has been rebranded to Fanatics.

Tyreen has struck a deal with the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for Maliwan, a guy named Katagawa (some dweeb who hates / envies / is jealous of Rhys, but also makes sense why he wants control of Atlas) and so mobs of both the Maliwan Assault Troopers and the Fanatics will be fighting you at the same time.

Randy Pitchford has let on that Tyreen is using the bandits, and probably her Maliwan allies, as a tool to find the Vaults so that she can gain the power of the Vault Monsters.

Zer0 has left the Crimson Raiders and is working with / for Rhys under the Atlas corporation, at least while the money and weapons are good.

Crimson Lance became the Crimson Raiders after Atlas fell and they joined Roland’s cause in Sanctuary. Now that Atlas is being ran by CEO Rhys, they are called Atlas Soldiers.

New Element : Radiation - Irradiated enemies will take damage and are also more susceptible to other damage types. An irradiated enemy can spread the effect to other enemies surrounding them. Upon death, an irradiated enemy will reach critical mass and explode.

Barrels - Elemental variety barrels can now be melee’d to launch at enemies before shooting them and causing them to explode.

Pipelines -Certain pipelines can be shot to cause radiation spills, or oil slicks that can then be ignited to cause an AOE of damage.

Enemies / Mini Bosses - There will be more mini bosses in Borderlands 3, and the weapons they use against you can be dropped so that you can use that gun on future enemies.

NPC - Certain NPC’s will assist you on missions, like Lorelei and Zer0, and then can also be downed. You can revive NPC’s and they can also revive you.

Paul Sage (Gearbox Developer?) - Paul made the comment about the low-grav environments as well as stating that if you “beeline through the story” it will take around 30 hours. Upon questioning if the guns in the reveal were better than what we will find (because of the basically non-existant recoil) he stated that in the past they’ve worked there way up to really good guns in terms of level progression, but this time they wanted to know if they could “start good, and make it fucking awesome.” So yeah. Guns are gonna be fucking awesome.

And that wraps it up! A nice guide to catch you up on things you’ve missed or to remind you of some things you’ve forgotten. I make no claim to have covered everything we’ve seen, but these were some things that I took note of. Feel free to add your own bits and pieces I missed in the replies! Borderlands 3 looks amazing, happy hunting.

- VaultHunter426

[sir-adamus]

Personal opinion regarding RWBY gods? We Gotta Call Kratos. Or some goddamn SMT/Persona characters. Or both. Hell throw Asura in too. These fuckers gotta die. On a side Note the gods just erasing humanity is basically the large equivalent of parents beating their Child to death because the Child wasnt completely blindly obedient to them.

yeah they’re the worst

one thing that bugs me is that when Jinn describes how Salem recounted the events, she says that Salem lies to Oz (for fear of being judged - as opposed to him lying to her, which is because he was already predisposed to not trust her because the God of Light told him to leave her alone and was purposefully vague about why) and blames the gods for what happened to humanity, and yeah, that could be a lie of omission, leaving out her role in things (even though her role was ‘fuck the gods they’re assholes’ and the gods response was ‘how about everyone dies because of you’, which... yeah no they’re definitely to blame for that - Salem exercising free will and not doing as the gods say because they’d done nothing to actually help her doesn’t make her the bad guy in that scenario), and makes me think that Salem actually did blame herself for it and so lied out of fear of being judged, because, as an abuse victim, she’s used to things being her fault, regardless of whether or not they actually were or if she could’ve actually done anything, and that idea is strengthened with the abusive undertones we get from the pair, especially the god of darkness

[iambloop]

Education & Democracy

Consider a ship. The ship is to undertake a journey - it has to sail through several oceans to reach a land far away. On its way, it will encounter difficult waters, storms even - it is guaranteed to be a difficult journey. Such a voyage requires a skilled captain. In order to determine who should command this ship, a committee of people is going to be established. These people will decide which person is best equipped for this task.

You are the first member of this committee, and you are assigned with the task of recruiting other people for this committee. Note that your task right now is not to choose the captain, but to simply assemble a group of people who will make that decision. Contemplate for a moment - on what basis should this committee be chosen?  

The objective of this committee is to choose the best candidate for captain. To do this, we begin by defining a criteria to judge whether a person is a good fit for captain or not. There are, broadly speaking, two categories of concern here.

The first one is technical: what route does the captain plan to take, how does she plan on dealing with storms, etc. The other is not technical: the voyage is not simply about going from point A to point B, it is to ensure that the people onboard are safe and that there is peace and harmony on the ship. For this, we question: is the captain prudent? Is she wise and careful? Is she aggressive? Is she kind?

As average people, it is not possible for us to be experts in each technical aspect - however, in order to judge whether the captain is qualified, it is necessary for at least some of us to possess basic knowledge regarding the technical aspects of sailing.

Now that we’ve established the qualities that we seek in a captain, we can determine the qualities that our committee members must possess.

To judge whether someone has a certain quality, we must possess an understanding of that quality itself. We must understand the benefits of such a quality, and if we seek our captain to have this quality, it must be a good quality, and if it is a good quality, we must ourselves wish to have it. Hence, the people who select the captain must possess the same qualities that they seek in the captain. Our task then boils down to looking for people who possess a subset of the qualities that we wish for the captain to have. Note that if they possess all the qualities that the captain should have, then perhaps they should be captain themselves. Therefore, we restrict our search to people who are strictly less qualified than required for captaincy - they possess certain but not all qualities that are required to become captain.

The people who select the captain, therefore, must be a partial reflection of the captain: the committee must be comprised of people who possess the basics of the technical know-how in order to judge whether the applicant is qualified or not, and also, the values required to judge whether the applicant is the right person to lead and manage the voyage in its non-technical aspects.

* * *

The idea of democracy emerged in ancient Greece. The word comes from ‘demos’ - common people, and ‘kratos’ - strength. Democracy is a Greek concept, and interestingly, one of the strongest criticisms against democracy comes from the founding father of Greek philosophy, Socrates. The story above is simply an extension of the argument that Socrates offered - the ship is the society, the captain is the elected government and the committee of people are the voters.

In a democracy by birthright, each citizen that has attained 18 years of age is allowed to vote. That is to say, each citizen’s opinion is given equal weight in the democratic process. This is equivalent to allowing all the sailors on the boat to be a part of the committee that selects the captain - it is, naturally, ‘equal’, but logically, it guarantees an inefficiency in the outcome of the democratic process - it accounts for the opinion of those who do not possess the skills necessary to make an informed decision. In a highly literate society, this would be a small cost to bear - as long as the majority is capable of critical thinking, the outcome would be efficient, along with the positive side effect of creating a sense of equality amongst the citizens. However, we are not living in a highly ‘literate’ society. Statistically higher literacy rates have failed to account for the limitations of the education.

Education all over the world has been moving further and further away from humanities, closer to natural sciences. Particularly in this part of the world, the education system involves very little amount of compulsory education in philosophy or political science. As jobs in these fields are not economically rewarding, students too lack the incentives to take up these fields or study them. However, what this has created is a society of highly educated illiterates - we understand trigonometry but we do not understand how to reason outside the realm of numbers. Engineering is held in high regard, but political literacy, an education in reasoning, in morality and ethics, it is often dismissed as ‘unnecessary’ for the simple fact that these do not lend themselves very easily to jobs that the capitalist society can absorb. By the virtue of understanding calculus or the laws of motion, one is not naturally equipped to make better decisions. The tools necessary to calculate the trajectory of objects are not the same tools that can be used to differentiate between right and wrong, good and bad - the progress of society has been lopsided.

* * *

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people” - nearly every introduction to the idea of democracy is built around this quote by Abraham Lincoln. It successfully highlights the essence of a democratic institution: people. The people are essentially the engine of a democracy. They participate in the process by adopting different roles: as citizens, journalists, civil servants, political leaders, etc. A democracy works only when all of these perform their functions effectively. Essentially, people are the ground upon which the 4 pillars of a democracy stand.

Our goal, then, becomes to ensure that this ground is firm, that it is fertile, which is to say, to ensure that people are not just well trained but well educated. This is an uncommon belief, in the sense that nobody would rationally disagree with this statement but there are not many people who understand its implications as well as what it demands from us as human beings - it demands a process of constant education - of learning, unlearning and relearning.

The reluctance to devote time and energy to human sciences is a product of several things. The present job market is one of those factors - but then, we don’t do everything just for the sake of work. There is another factor, one that discourages people from moving beyond newspapers and TV and social media - it is the subjectivity.

Society and its functioning does not have a basis in science, at least not in the same sense as the science of the physical world - there are no exact rules that dictate how society works, or how society should work. There are different schools of thought, and each of these lead us on different paths - perhaps, then, there is no objective measure to navigate this space, to understand this world. This belief is only amplified by the environment - the primary source for information in these matters is the news channels, the newspapers. Information has increased, sensationalism has increased, and without being familiar with the fundamentals the govern the debate, we watch news anchors spit over each other, fact after fact, accusation after accusation. With no simple way to understand and to catch up, it seems, the act of being an informed citizen demands far too much these days - how can we be expected to follow the chain of thought and to verify the information being thrown at us, when all of it is happening so quickly? Most people resort to making their own judgements about this information, then, and here too, our judgement is affected by the limits of our knowledge - without a real ‘education’, not just training, but education, our judgement is simply a byproduct of our sentiments - perhaps, this news channel is reliable, or this anchor seems to make sense, or in the past, he has been correct, or his stance is popular. We employ shortcuts in thinking - heuristics - to arrive at what seems to be an approximately correct answer. However, it is far from correct.

Human sciences are subjective, there is no doubt to this - but how subjective? There is no rule, no method that works in every situation - but are there rules that work well in most situations? Is there a way of thinking that can guide us, generally at least, in processing information and understanding society? This is exactly the purpose behind studying history, political science, economics and philosophy. An education in these subjects is essential in developing an understanding of society and participating efficiently in it. People dismiss the study of history - it is true, I gain nothing from learning the exact date that Hitler came to power. However, that is not the true objective of studying history - it is to understand the world that existed before us, so that we can understand how we got here. It is to learn from the mistakes of the past, so that we are not doomed to repeat it. Philosophy, perhaps, receives the strongest criticism - outside academic spaces, it is considered to be a form of intellectual masturbation, with no meaning to be derived from it. Logic is a branch of philosophy that enables us to understand how to reason for ourselves, to determine the validity of a belief, an idea. It is through philosophy that we study ethics, that we learn about morality, the differentiation between right and wrong, good and bad - terms that we encounter every day in our lives, not only in the broader political domain but the personal one too. Yet, most of us receive nearly no formal education in philosophy, and our education in history is limited to learning dates and listing out, in a formulaic manner, the cause and effect of historical events - 8 points for 4 marks, 10 points for 5 marks. To compensate for the lack of critical thinking, some schools have introduced sessions for moral values - to teach kids what is right and what is wrong. Still, the vision is missing - society continues to evolve - the challenges our parents faced are radically different from the ones we face today. It is not enough to teach them what is right and what is wrong -  what is necessary is to introduce them to a method through which they can determine this for themselves, for the countless challenges that they will face.

Democracy is flawed because its foundation is flawed: most people are not ‘educated’ in the true sense of being educated - they are highly trained to perform specific jobs. They work as engineers, doctors, businessmen, scientists, designers. The difference between training and education is subtle - but it counts, in every way. Our goal then, to be better people, to be better citizens, involves an education that does not end. It is a pursuit without a fixed answer, and as long as the answer keeps changing, we must keep learning.

[malisonquill]

Apparently I'm not the only one who rewatched Gravity Falls while also playing God of War, and I'm beyond happy to find out this :D Your art is awsome, and I'm so curious about your Gravity Falls God of War AU! But I don't know how to even start, what's the story about? I mean, how does it work with Stan being Kratos and Dipper and Mabel being in Atreus' place? And where's even Ford in all of this? XD

@guardianoflightanddarkness Thank you! :D Glad I wasn’t the only one either. I had a bit of an idea for how the story would work. I’m not sure on who all the characters equate to but I know a fair few. Below is basically the entire story as it is right now. Might change/ add things later. Hope this below will answer your questions but feel free to ask more!

Major Spoilers for both the God of War Series and Gravity Falls Below!

So to understand what’s going on in the God of War 2018 part of the story, I gotta start at the beginning.

Obviously it all starts in Greece.

Stan’s dad/ Filbrick takes the role of Zeus, and I think Stan’s mum is a Jotnar Giant like Fey who moved to Greece, possibly to avoid Odin (or whoever his equivelent is, maaayyyybe Bill im not sure) but she keeps this a secret from everyone. She and Filbrick have Shermy, Stan and Ford with Filbrick just thinking she’s a mortal. Ford is born with both his 6 fingers and birthmarks (which look like Krato’s tattoos). Stan’s Mum raises the kids with Filbrick keeping an eye on them, and when he notices Ford’s smarts in his early teens, he takes him to Olympus. There Ford learns of his God-like nature and learns his powers. He studies all the magical things of the Greek world, starting on a journey to become a God of knowledge. 

Stan meanwhile is outraged and furious that his father, who his mother confesses to be the king of Greek Gods, has taken his brother. He then leaves his home for a number of years, training to fight and to find a way to Olympus, along the way getting tattoos in honour of his brother. 

After several years when Stan finally gets to Olympus to find his father, he discovers that Ford has left to go gain knowledge of magical things and Gods of other lands. Stan demands to know where Ford is, but Filbrick will only tell him if Stan proves himself, and that’s how Stan gets the blades of Chaos and takes on duties as God of War for about a decade or so. 

During his time as God of War, he goes back to his home, only to find his mother and Shermie are gone without a trace. This helps fuel his fire of hate to make him more like younger Kratos. 

Eventually Stan confronts his father, saying he has done so many deeds that he must have proven himself worthy by now and demands to know where Ford is. His father states that he doesn’t actually know. Ford went off without ever saying exactly where he was going. Filbrick was leading Stan along this whole time to use him as a puppet. Stan gets mad and fights with his father, but he doesn’t win and is sent to the underworld.

It’s at this point where the story of the original God of War games comes into play, where Stan goes on a rage filled journey of revenge, eventually gets the Titans and defeats his father and destroys the Greek pantheon. 

So with the pantheon destroyed, and no sign of Ford, Shermie, or his Mother in Greece, he travels to other cultures to find them. I think maybe along his journey his mother left Stan a clue that sends him to Midgard and the domain of Norse mythology. 

There Stan would find Shermie and his kid (Stan’s Nephew). Stan gets to know him as he grows and becomes a bit gentler. Stan makes a home near to Shermie’s but tends to keep his distance. 

Stan is happy when Dipper and Mabel are born and takes a shine to them. But around this time, their parents (who are part giant remember) are killed by Odin’s Gods as they thought the parents could lead them to Jotunhiem. So Shermie raises Dipper and Mabel. 

12 years pass, and then Shermie dies (for the same reason Fey does in the game) and so Stan takes over caring for the Twin’s in Shermie’s cabin (which looks like the Mystery Shack). 

(Hey now we’re finally at the start of the game!! xD)

So like the game, Shermie marks trees for his burial which leads to Baldur(’s GF equivalent) mistaking Stan for a giant aka for Shermie. They fight, and so Stan decides he and the twins must leave and go on the journey to deliver Shermie’s ashes to the highest peak in all the realms. 

Atreus’ roles are split between Mabel and Dipper. Mabel has Atreus’ bow and arrows and Dipper has the knowledge of Ciphers and languages, as well as a sword cause, he has to help in combat too. Maybe they have different summons and elemental attacks too. Like Mabel has light and Dipper has electricity. I think both have the ability to talk to animals too. 

Stan also inherits Shermie’s axe. 

So the story is fairly similar to the game, except Stan is maybe a bit more gentle at the start than Kratos? But he still changes from ‘grumpy old man’ to ‘gentle and cares a lot about the kids’. 

 Brok and Sindri are replaced by Fiddleford McGucket and his son. So their arc is about a father and son coming back together and caring for each other. I thought they’d be a good replacement.

And then finally, we have Ford. And who is he in this AU? 

He’s Mimir. 

Stan and the twins find him at the top of the Midguard mountain stuck in the tree. Stan and Ford have a verbal fight. Stan is mad at Ford for leaving him in Greece and going off wondering the world without even caring about his brother or the fact he never tried to find him, when Stan spent so much time trying to find Ford. And of course Ford is mad that Stan destroyed the Greek pantheon and their father. 

The kids calm them down a bit, and tell Ford why they’re there. Ford informs them that the highest peak is actually in Jotunheim and to get there, they need Ford out of the tree. So instead of decapitation, they go find a spell or item, maybe in one of the other realms that frees Ford. 

So then the four of them are on their journey to get to Jotunheim. Stan and Ford are mad at each other, but through their journey and through the kids, they grow closer, mend their bonds a bit. 

Eventually they get to Jotunheim. It’s there they find the carvings that reveal that Stan and Ford’s mum was actually a Giant, and Shermie inherited her abilities, knowing about what would happen and leaving markings and clues to guide his family and bring them all together. The kids find out they’re also part giant, and that’s where their abilities come from. 

So in the end, the four of them are united together, spread Shermie’s ashes at the same place where his mother’s were spread, and they return home. 

Just in time for an accelerated Fimblewinter to signal the oncoming Ragnorok/Weirdmageden. :)

And that’s pretty much all I have so far. I don’t know where to put Soos, or Wendy. Maybe Soos is Jormungandur??? Maybe Wendy could be Freya with her Dad as Baldur? and their beef is about a ruined father-daughter relationship that mirrors Stan and his dad in some way? Maybe if Bill = Odin then Gideon is Thor? im not sure, would love to hear others thoughts. :D 

and sorry this was so long :P

[theoutgrowersworld-blog]

Education & Democracy

Consider a ship. The ship is to undertake a journey - it has to sail through several oceans to reach a land far away. On its way, it will encounter difficult waters, storms even - it is guaranteed to be a difficult journey. Such a voyage requires a skilled captain. In order to determine who should command this ship, a committee of people is going to be established. These people will decide which person is best equipped for this task.

You are the first member of this committee, and you are assigned with the task of recruiting other people for this committee. Note that your task right now is not to choose the captain, but to simply assemble a group of people who will make that decision. Contemplate for a moment - on what basis should this committee be chosen?  

The objective of this committee is to choose the best candidate for captain. To do this, we begin by defining a criteria to judge whether a person is a good fit for captain or not. There are, broadly speaking, two categories of concern here.

The first one is technical: what route does the captain plan to take, how does she plan on dealing with storms, etc. The other is not technical: the voyage is not simply about going from point A to point B, it is to ensure that the people onboard are safe and that there is peace and harmony on the ship. For this, we question: is the captain prudent? Is she wise and careful? Is she aggressive? Is she kind?

As average people, it is not possible for us to be experts in each technical aspect - however, in order to judge whether the captain is qualified, it is necessary for at least some of us to possess basic knowledge regarding the technical aspects of sailing.

Now that we’ve established the qualities that we seek in a captain, we can determine the qualities that our committee members must possess.

To judge whether someone has a certain quality, we must possess an understanding of that quality itself. We must understand the benefits of such a quality, and if we seek our captain to have this quality, it must be a good quality, and if it is a good quality, we must ourselves wish to have it. Hence, the people who select the captain must possess the same qualities that they seek in the captain. Our task then boils down to looking for people who possess a subset of the qualities that we wish for the captain to have. Note that if they possess all the qualities that the captain should have, then perhaps they should be captain themselves. Therefore, we restrict our search to people who are strictly less qualified than required for captaincy - they possess certain but not all qualities that are required to become captain.

The people who select the captain, therefore, must be a partial reflection of the captain: the committee must be comprised of people who possess the basics of the technical know-how in order to judge whether the applicant is qualified or not, and also, the values required to judge whether the applicant is the right person to lead and manage the voyage in its non-technical aspects.

* * *

The idea of democracy emerged in ancient Greece. The word comes from ‘demos’ - common people, and ‘kratos’ - strength. Democracy is a Greek concept, and interestingly, one of the strongest criticisms against democracy comes from the founding father of Greek philosophy, Socrates. The story above is simply an extension of the argument that Socrates offered - the ship is the society, the captain is the elected government and the committee of people are the voters.

In a democracy by birthright, each citizen that has attained 18 years of age is allowed to vote. That is to say, each citizen’s opinion is given equal weight in the democratic process. This is equivalent to allowing all the sailors on the boat to be a part of the committee that selects the captain - it is, naturally, ‘equal’, but logically, it guarantees an inefficiency in the outcome of the democratic process - it accounts for the opinion of those who do not possess the skills necessary to make an informed decision. In a highly literate society, this would be a small cost to bear - as long as the majority is capable of critical thinking, the outcome would be efficient, along with the positive side effect of creating a sense of equality amongst the citizens. However, we are not living in a highly ‘literate’ society. Statistically higher literacy rates have failed to account for the limitations of the education.

Education all over the world has been moving further and further away from humanities, closer to natural sciences. Particularly in this part of the world, the education system involves very little amount of compulsory education in philosophy or political science. As jobs in these fields are not economically rewarding, students too lack the incentives to take up these fields or study them. However, what this has created is a society of highly educated illiterates - we understand trigonometry but we do not understand how to reason outside the realm of numbers. Engineering is held in high regard, but political literacy, an education in reasoning, in morality and ethics, it is often dismissed as ‘unnecessary’ for the simple fact that these do not lend themselves very easily to jobs that the capitalist society can absorb. By the virtue of understanding calculus or the laws of motion, one is not naturally equipped to make better decisions. The tools necessary to calculate the trajectory of objects are not the same tools that can be used to differentiate between right and wrong, good and bad - the progress of society has been lopsided.

* * *

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people” - nearly every introduction to the idea of democracy is built around this quote by Abraham Lincoln. It successfully highlights the essence of a democratic institution: people. The people are essentially the engine of a democracy. They participate in the process by adopting different roles: as citizens, journalists, civil servants, political leaders, etc. A democracy works only when all of these perform their functions effectively. Essentially, people are the ground upon which the 4 pillars of a democracy stand.

Our goal, then, becomes to ensure that this ground is firm, that it is fertile, which is to say, to ensure that people are not just well trained but well educated. This is an uncommon belief, in the sense that nobody would rationally disagree with this statement but there are not many people who understand its implications as well as what it demands from us as human beings - it demands a process of constant education - of learning, unlearning and relearning.

The reluctance to devote time and energy to human sciences is a product of several things. The present job market is one of those factors - but then, we don’t do everything just for the sake of work. There is another factor, one that discourages people from moving beyond newspapers and TV and social media - it is the subjectivity.

Society and its functioning does not have a basis in science, at least not in the same sense as the science of the physical world - there are no exact rules that dictate how society works, or how society should work. There are different schools of thought, and each of these lead us on different paths - perhaps, then, there is no objective measure to navigate this space, to understand this world. This belief is only amplified by the environment - the primary source for information in these matters is the news channels, the newspapers. Information has increased, sensationalism has increased, and without being familiar with the fundamentals the govern the debate, we watch news anchors spit over each other, fact after fact, accusation after accusation. With no simple way to understand and to catch up, it seems, the act of being an informed citizen demands far too much these days - how can we be expected to follow the chain of thought and to verify the information being thrown at us, when all of it is happening so quickly? Most people resort to making their own judgements about this information, then, and here too, our judgement is affected by the limits of our knowledge - without a real ‘education’, not just training, but education, our judgement is simply a byproduct of our sentiments - perhaps, this news channel is reliable, or this anchor seems to make sense, or in the past, he has been correct, or his stance is popular. We employ shortcuts in thinking - heuristics - to arrive at what seems to be an approximately correct answer. However, it is far from correct.

Human sciences are subjective, there is no doubt to this - but how subjective? There is no rule, no method that works in every situation - but are there rules that work well in most situations? Is there a way of thinking that can guide us, generally at least, in processing information and understanding society? This is exactly the purpose behind studying history, political science, economics and philosophy. An education in these subjects is essential in developing an understanding of society and participating efficiently in it. People dismiss the study of history - it is true, I gain nothing from learning the exact date that Hitler came to power. However, that is not the true objective of studying history - it is to understand the world that existed before us, so that we can understand how we got here. It is to learn from the mistakes of the past, so that we are not doomed to repeat it. Philosophy, perhaps, receives the strongest criticism - outside academic spaces, it is considered to be a form of intellectual masturbation, with no meaning to be derived from it. Logic is a branch of philosophy that enables us to understand how to reason for ourselves, to determine the validity of a belief, an idea. It is through philosophy that we study ethics, that we learn about morality, the differentiation between right and wrong, good and bad - terms that we encounter every day in our lives, not only in the broader political domain but the personal one too. Yet, most of us receive nearly no formal education in philosophy, and our education in history is limited to learning dates and listing out, in a formulaic manner, the cause and effect of historical events - 8 points for 4 marks, 10 points for 5 marks. To compensate for the lack of critical thinking, some schools have introduced sessions for moral values - to teach kids what is right and what is wrong. Still, the vision is missing - society continues to evolve - the challenges our parents faced are radically different from the ones we face today. It is not enough to teach them what is right and what is wrong -  what is necessary is to introduce them to a method through which they can determine this for themselves, for the countless challenges that they will face.

Democracy is flawed because its foundation is flawed: most people are not ‘educated’ in the true sense of being educated - they are highly trained to perform specific jobs. They work as engineers, doctors, businessmen, scientists, designers. The difference between training and education is subtle - but it counts, in every way. Our goal then, to be better people, to be better citizens, involves an education that does not end. It is a pursuit without a fixed answer, and as long as the answer keeps changing, we must keep learning.

Written by Shivam Gangwani