beau said:
ScioAgapeOmnis said:
Being an STS underground world and what that implies, it really disappointed me, how it is really just like above on earth, a small group has power over everybody, rules by inheritance, others just blindly obey and cannot take responsibility for their own existence and feel they need a "ruler", all that stuff.
I can see where you are coming from, but I can't help but think that sacrifice was the reason she made it to the underground, to be the Princess. Her third test, which was sneaky because the Faun was trying to trick her, was to give her own blood instead of "an innocent" - her baby brother. The Faun barks and and looks scary and all that about giving the blood of an innocent but to me that was a ruse, he was testing the purity of Olefia's soul. Why would an STS underground care about anything like that?
I dunno, but maybe it's a case of wishful thinking on the writer's part to have an STO hierarchy? The fairy tale ended with something like her being a good princess/queen who ruled for hundreds of years and the people loved her. I just can't help but see an oxymoron there, in "STO ruler". And the Faun did seem to have a thing with blind obedience, and then proclaimed how mad he is that she did not obey him when she promised to obey.
Since Ofelia was just doing what he said blindly, she wasn't doing it with any understanding of the purpose or nature of what she did and why. She was driven by the desire to escape her horrible predicament in the midst of a fascist nation and world in general, to a better world, and not to mention where she was promised to be a princess, where there is no pain, etc etc! At one point she even asked him if he was telling her the truth, and he said "A nice little Faun like me wouldn't like to you, would he?" in the most STS/creepy/red flag sort of way. The Faun understood her bad predicament in life and basically said "Well if you wanna get away from this horrible place to a really nice place here is what you need to do, and you have a time limit too!".. which didn't leave much time for thinking or understanding at all, but also is manipulative knowing that she'll most likely do it because it has the promise of "relief" or "salvation" attached, which is tempting.
There seems to be a correlation here to this group in the sense that this world is going to hell and we're looking for a way out, a place where we can structure our existence differently than is possible on this world, and to help as many people as possible to come with us and build a new world based on different principles, without feeding pyramids or control. But we don't blindly follow any protocol, any set of instructions or dogmatic holy writ, no obscure "tasks" that anybody has to do without understanding and with faith that those tasks are somehow necessary. The C's talk about faith, but I think they're talking about faith in ourselves and our understanding, not in any ritualistic actions and to just believe that they're important or useful. You could say there is some faith involved in the sense of growing our magnetic center, and other things that we may not really perceive or verify, things that are mentioned in esoteric texts etc. But yet, everything that we are supposed to do in order to grow this magnetic center is common sense, so it's just a matter of semantics. Nothing is obscure, there is nothing that esoteric texts say that we should do just because they said so. So while certain changes in our being may not be instantly perceptible, what they say we need to do in order to achieve those changes is pretty much the only thing it makes any sense to do. To seek truth and remove our assumptions, to be conscious and see our mechanicalness, to learn to act impeccably and with understanding of ourselves and the world at large. Pretty straight forward, very simple to understand that this is important and why it's important and what is the result of such actions on anyone that is able to do this, it's just the execution of this that takes constant effort.
But I'm not sure about blowing up giant tree frogs with firecrackers, Bush used to do that when he was a kid, and look where he is now, he's a kind and loving ruler, adored by millions, just like the fairy tale described her to be! And it's not hard to imagine that he could actually be stupid enough to be brainwashed and to believe his own nonsense, even if he does imagine himself to have good intentions. So while she may not be like Bush, that last task where she sacrifices herself proves that she has some STO qualities, which is basically "good intentions" but it doesn't mean she isn't allowing herself to be deceived, or has any wisdom and won't end up just someone's puppet. Fairy tales have a habit of making kings and queens seem really nice and loving. But isn't that a contradiction, something that is planted into kids' minds early and they grow up to accept unquestionable authority easier, remembering their fairy tales how kings and queens, or "rulers" in general are not such a bad idea, that there can be good rulers. It makes it easy to sold on the idea that your government or "ruler" can be good, missing the whole point about what a ruler is, what a hierarchy is, and what it isn't, osit.
But that's just my take on it, it seems to be a mix of STO and STS.
In terms of all that had gone before, it was a happy ending.
