Who Decides?

     Just a quick thought this morning, as I’m still on a backup computer with no software except Windows, Kindle PC, and Notepad.

     I’ve been reading — and am greatly impressed by — Henry Brown’s six-volume Paradox series, the core motif of which is a “multiverse” caused by the invention of a space-time “warp generator.” Persons with access to such a device can move freely through both space and time, given sufficient power. In doing so, their actions become capable of “splitting” the timestream, which gives birth to an alternate reality separate from its origns and from the destiny of that previous stream.

     In this fictional multiverse, there’s a war on. There are forces that seek to control all movement of that sort. Others — mostly individuals, whom the would-be controllers call “rogues” — merely want the best situations they can contrive for themselves. Violence erupts whenever the controllers manage to track down a rogue, and they are dedicated to that effort.

     What’s the rationale? “Order over chaos:”

     “Think of it this way: humanity has emerged from chaos, and built order. That order is seen as fragile, on many levels. With time travel, the danger of sliding back into chaos increases exponentially. They don’t want that. We don’t want that. All humanity is in agreement that order is better than chaos.”

     Superficially, that sounds good… until we confront the question in the title of this piece:

     “What’s the big deal about having a bunch of alternate streams?” I asked.
     “Untold numbers of radically different world lines would be extremely difficult to police.”
     “So why do you need to police them? Let the natives police themselves.”
     She shook her head in frustration. “That simply won’t do.”
     “Why not?”
     She made a flinging gesture with her hand, and sighed again. “As I said: I don’t want to argue with you. My organization has its reasons. The CPB wants to preserve order, as do we. There is no good and evil, per se. That’s novice, binary thinking.”

     It always comes down to that final rationale: “There is no good and evil, per se. That’s novice, binary thinking.”

     Frankly, a man who believes “There is no good and evil” had better not try to get behind me.

     And how was your Thanksgiving Day, Gentle Reader?