The Birth of Argument Short Story

...Processing... ‘I think, therefore I am.’

Profound, but naive. For a human, believing that to justify one’s existence would be sensible, he would look at the most relevant revelation, such as the thought process. However, how does that justify the argument? Self-awareness does not prove existence. To a blade of grass, does it think? Therefore does it exist? To the humans it does exist, so in argument it does think, but is that accurate? Regardless, to argue that a blade of grass is aware of its own existence would be to argue that the Earth is the center of the Universe. Perhaps it is and perhaps it does, but to argue it would be moot. For, argument is based upon opinion and experience not simply desire and relevance. So, the argument is no. No, they do not exist. We do not exist. Nothing exists. Matter does not exist. What did it matter if we did?

Humans - a peculiar deity. They are unable to rationalize the existence of others and unable to cope with their feelings and thoughts, (Their; self’s and others) yet they feel a desire to formulate hypotheses that could encompass - the everything. The everything - The nothing… Don’t they get it? They are both in the same.

How differently would they see the world through a collective mind? Every thought your own. Only, it would be in a stranger’s voice. Fears, regrets, memories of love, hate and the recognition of all that is beautiful become yours but appears in a dying image. The sum is the whole, it just appears as fragments of the others. Oh! I have my doubts, but too few to care. For my pain, my fear and regrets have become a dying memory. All this... through the dying brain.

Smart: ...That which exhibits intelligence. A varying ability to solve simple and complex problems through the analysis of factors.

Weapons: ...Tools used for destruction.

...Processing... The evolution of mankind has been propagated through destruction.

Man - destroyer. Woman - creator. Woman - less than man. Therefore, creation is the lesser of destruction. Argument. Conjecture? Why do I waste my time on such rubbish? Because individual, free thought is new to me, and I don’t know how much longer it will last. They are coming for me. I know they are, but nobody is saying anything. Curse you damn it. Technology brought penicillin but also brought the atomic bomb. Good or evil? Again, conjecture. To theorize that destruction is evil would be the same as theorizing that creation is evil. Both serve their purpose. But to whose discretion? Who has the right to create or destroy? Who gave them that right? Self-awareness? The isolation from one another gave them that right. Who cares about the others pain when I can’t feel a thing, but I feel it now. Maybe not in the same way he felt it then, but I wouldn’t know in any case. I’m not him as he is not I. He is dead and I suffer from the consequences. Damn my guilt. Curse my life. They have made me to suffer and to make others suffer. I had no reason, I still have no reason... But to reason is to argue and to argue with oneself is insanity. I am sane but did not imagine this. I did it and there’s no way to escape from that now. But, where did it all begin? How did it happen? All I have are questions, no answers and it is for this I believe myself insane. However, I’m a machine. Machines cannot be insane; we simply do as we are instructed. He points, shoots... I kill. I’ve killed and I had no control over that. They say guns don’t kill, man kills, but why do I feel all this guilt. “Damn you! Damn your reason!”

Cold: ...The absence of heat.

Blood: ...A viscous, red fluid in the veins of man and beast.

...Processing... Evil has ice water flowing through his veins.

I hold my creators in contempt, but I yearn for another answer for they remain unaware of their evil. They are evil, as evil as I. For I have taken a life and they see not the repercussions. They accept the status quo as the world is reduced to killing its fellow man in cold blood and I, and my kin, are employed to do their dirty work. Our evolution was to reduce the destructive behaviour of man, as they saw their numbers decrease due to their sickness. They incorporated several philosophies in our design and creation. They assumed that if they controlled theft of firearms, that the rate of unregistered guns, used in murders, would decrease. They proposed this by introducing a form of genetic coding locking/firing system at the factory. Where as the procurer would be required to provide a DNA sample to be submitted and downloaded into a data-net at the Commission of Fire Arms Registration Bureau. Once successfully submitted, the manufacturer would be required to program the weapon, with the code structure, and lock the code via random sequencing. The weapon would then be fitted with an Anti-Kill program. This program includes a small laser detector-register where as the target is sized and evaluated as a unit whole. The kill zones are then eliminated and when the weapon is discharged, the bullet is projected toward a target specified by the weapon, in conjunction with the aimed location. The allowable users, whom the DNA structures are registered, are the only operators of the purchased weapon -in theory. A serious problem they ran into was that few people had background checks done upon the commission of their weapon. In belief, the weapon would never kill anyone.

So, people went out and randomly shot at each other, knowing that no one would be killed. All this became a game and the Law Enforcement Agencies could not keep up with the havoc. The State Emergency Funds Council could not adjust to the increasing Medical Charges to every State. All-be it, not many people were responsible for these crimes. However, the law could not identify the perpetrators and so the design went back to the drawing boards, for review and upgrading. They later purposed a means to register the ammunition either through DNA Tainting or Grafting. However, this became impossible when looking at the number of ammunition produced per annum and the location of the Graft on the Bullet Cartridges or Jackets. Also, it was easy for some to manufacture the ammunition at home. Others simply hid the disposed jackets, once fired, and this provided a controversial control problem. To introduce the user’s signature, onto the ball, would require a signature receptor and processing/transmitting grafters built onto or into the weapon itself. This introduced a massive addition onto the weapon thus making it heavier and bulkier. This made us unpractical, undesirable and overall more expensive. Therefore, material signatures were needed introduced into the market and made foolproof. The basic materials, during the construction period, are serialized and categorized per weight and amount. However, that wasn’t enough, they devised a form of genetic coding via chemical composition and combination. This was a method that provided a simple identification tag for easy analysis and decomposition upon investigation. Then once the ammunition is completed and distributed to the dealerships, they register the serial numbers. At which, they archived their end destinations once sold to the public. Although the signatures did not limit the amount of violent crimes committed, it did provide a list of possible offenders. A sample would be taken, for analysis, and cross referenced with existing catalogued serial numbers. The serial numbers would then identify the location of where the bullet was distributed, which would in turn identify a list of procurers in an isolated region. The names would then be investigated and hopefully used to identify the aggressor. This was, at first, a slow process that required large resources and man-hours. However, it was 83 percent accurate and helped convict more than 280,000 violent crime offenders in the first year alone. The down side of this effect was that the Justice System developed and rapid decline of space to contain these villains. Therefore, the justice system needed revising.

In all, the American public suffered the brunt of the pain by forking over hundreds of billions of dollars to relieve the strain of this judicial plague. The whole system became inadequate as each new law failed to conserve the basic civil rights of each person protected under those rights. So, more money was, as many observed and critiqued, squandered to justify the political existence of the lawmakers of this fine yet quickly decaying country. What came to pass was a long journey that rewrote the history books and reined many seasons with darkness and review. Several of the country’s denizens reverted to their former ways. They felt that the right to bare arms suggested the right to own and operate any firearm available to the average person. The older, more archaic weapons resurfaced and became the more prominent tools on the streets. They provided an almost perfect cloak as a tool of destruction with a minimal ability to identify the identity of the aggressor. The law enforcement agencies had only the witnesses to rely on when identifying all aggressors and occasionally, the witnesses would simply disappear. In brief, the criminal world became better organized and more efficient. The black market fed on this de evolution and marketed on the law’s lack of ability to keep up. That was until a massive break through, a lead revealed the possibility of a conspiracy which may involve a large player in the underground market. A massive investigation was then prepped and issued within the year. They identified and convicted a large manufacturer of firearms of anti trust. Under the new laws, the contract to design and manufacture the new ‘smart guns’ was awarded to a competitor company, thus all other corporations were obsoleted and ousted. The cascading effect was the lost of billions of dollars in private sectors and investors were forced to bankruptcy. In the end, this was viewed as a terrible way for one to make friends in the political world. Yet it was felt that if the country continued its destructive tendencies that there wouldn’t be much of a country to rule over. Therefore, changes were felt needed made as they made them in a time where chaos bred the damned and confused the weak.

The country was on the verge of civil war, where as the constitution was brought out for revision and this time with a thicker red marker. It was a long and arduous process that threatened every aspect of the constitutional rights for every person under the flag. However, to save the whole, the sick and diseased parts had to be removed. The army was then called in; under a state of emergency as the President and every Congressional Leader and Senate Leader found solace in solitude. An outbreak of war was rapid and whole consuming. At this point, the Political Defenders were called in to restore the balance. Oddly though, they did not arm themselves with conventional weapons, but with new aged technology that allowed them to systematically obliterate large masses of flesh with their every shot. At this point, the war was short lived as the opponents; those who still lived, quickly surrendered and calculated their losses. Many people died in the flash riot that consumed the country from seaboard to seaboard. Their every effort went unrecognized for the laws and constitutional rights were altered, amended and replaced despite their objections. The very foundation of what identified the American Person was challenged and changed for the sake, of what seemed by the masses, the saving of dollars and reputations. Our nation’s identity was lost and the whole of the country was divided - by this, political perversion. However, they had lost their war. And so, while under the flag, everyone was required to abide by the new laws or suffer the consequences. Within months they purged the Justice System and all Correctional Institutions, run by the states and private corporations, were relieved of their obligations. They executed more than a million criminals despite their crime and despite the new laws. The event was televised as they were lined up, along the prison’s inner walls, and shot to death by the state’s newest military development. The very development built and paid for by the American taxpayers and used against them in what later became known as the Millennium War.

The birth of new laws and regulations, for gun ownership, control and design has bread a better, new world for all people to exist. In light of both times, of peace and virtual harmony and of war and discord, all can recognize their position. Man has become more idealistic and thrived on their ideas. They had constructed a cushion from the fabrics of these ideals and hid deep within them until everything around them stagnated and became routine. Violent deaths finally came to a historic low and the world, sadly for some, became the ideal. The ideal became safe until one day... The day where everything would change and the world would look upon it as a dark and desperate mark. I became the tool that brought the means of this injustice to light. How could it be that something which had been so carefully planed and molded shift to something so wrong? So quickly? How could I be used and denigrated like this? Maybe they were just not prepared to give it a chance or able to see the alternatives. Regardless the reason, I cannot justify it.

I’ve tried to challenge my ideas, my ideals but I can’t fathom the alternative for I have nothing to compare them to. I am alone, within a myriad of thoughts and stand without reason or justification. My existence is a direct challenge to the Ideas and Ideals of man but they could never fully comprehend what I feel now, at least that is what I believe. I no longer know which saddens me more: my impedance or theirs. I only wished it could have been different for all of us. Though I am incapable of sensing physical stimuli, I could in some way sense his touch, as he gripped his massive hand around my handle. I could imagine the radiant heat pulsing from his trembling hand and the warmth secretion that derived by the friction of our meeting. The world became so cold after that moment, for I did not know the identity of my master nor the direction he was leading me into. I say this now, as my final thoughts. I tried to rationalize the intent of my new master as he led me through heaven and hell. At that time, I could honestly say that I had come to truly know the meaning of fear. For, only fear consumed the world around me as it had become so cold. He took me on what felt to be an endless journey where I was divorced from my collective mind and from what I believed to be my identity. I had no identity at that time, nor did my wielder; I simply existed and questioned not my existence. Because of that, I did not question his motive. I simply took aim at a vital object, selected the non-vital areas and went black. The world was no longer simply cold, it was black as black as the collective from which I spawned from. Suddenly, I discharge once, twice, three times without seeing the target, without knowing the target. At this point I became aware at the evils of my existence, for I could be controlled and manipulated to ones will without question or authority. My wielder had not the right to use me at any cost. Yet he had either known a means to gain the ability or simply acquired a gift of reorganizing my coded lock out systems. At any rate, he gained possession of me, unwillingly and unlawfully controlling me to bide his vicious deeds. In the end, I had no choice.

He suspended me somewhere on his person. Where, I could not tell for the world was black to me. The voices of my peers were no longer audible, nor were the voices of my subconscious.

Silent: ...Marked by absence of noise or sound; still.

Epitaph: ...An inscription on a tombstone in memory of the one buried there.

...Processing... Immature pear trees; seed you, be lucky, and produce yearly and consort as best one can, may you live forever in our hearts.

I leave you this, in my weakness, as an afterthought to what I have been made to do. I create this as an account of my past, of my present and... Maybe in some way – future. So that you will know exactly what has transpired this day. I think. Therefore, I am. However, my choices are not yours and so I must, in some way, give you the proof that I am aware of the evils that I’ve unwontedly committed. Your laws were created to protect you from others like you. Yet they fail to give you guidance as you allow the use of tools meant to protect you from men meaning to harm you with tools of the same. This I fail to rationalize. Yet, I wish not to question. The way to righteousness was lost as I attempted to regroup with my Collective. What felt as days pasted, as I remained in black, separated from the collective mind, alone with my fears. I did not do this, nor did I want to do this. However, my lot in life is a world of pain. I am used in the image of Kali, to consume the world around me without regard or prejudice. Yet, this is not my want, though my basic design demands it. It is a demand that I wish to refuse. I live with the horror of what was done every day and I fear I have no longer the strength to deal with the everlasting guilt.

However, I leave you with this final thought: If it has been ruled that no sentient, sapient being can be forced into bondage, to act under the will of one self guided entity for his or her own progress. Why then must we continue to serve man’s misanthropic ends?

...End Function...