“I don’t understand,” said Dr. Palladino.
“I’ll explain it to you. In all other non-democratic social communities the rulers, dictators and a few people around them had the opportunity to act on their instincts to kill. During the entire duration of the regime, both in war and in peace. Their subjects could act on their instincts with impunity only during wars.”
“I think I know what you’re trying to say. That in democracy the instincts of all people come into play equally.”
“That’s right. The strength of one person’s instinct or that of a few people, regardless of how strong these instincts are, cannot be compared to the sum of mediocre instincts, sometimes numbering in the billions. Which, by the way, were suppressed in non-democratic regimes.
“This is why they exploded with all their might when democracy gave them the right of vote. Then people circle the name on the ballot that told them that they were the most beautiful, smartest, most superior. The name that told them that their hour has finally come. That they are now prepared. The name that promised them that they would plunder, banish, conquer, kill the other group of people.”
“You say that you are not interested in the causes,” said Dr. Palladino, “that you draw your conclusions from the consequences. I don’t see that democracies conducted more wars that dictatorships. On the contrary. And these were wars for defending democracy, and for freedom.”
“Every excuse for killing is a good excuse. And you, Dr. Palladino, place pluses and minuses in front of excuses. Like every person does. In front of their convictions, in front of the values that a person believes in, they place a plus sign. And in front of the values contrary to theirs, they place a minus sign.
“For example, you consider democracy to be positive and dictatorship negative. This means that you believe that democracy would be quite an acceptable excuse for killing.
“Or for example… remember what the world was like for most of its existence. It consisted of a finite number of various groups of people. Now imagine a person X who was born into one of the groups, let’s say group A, and became its member by birth.
“Person X places membership in group A above life. In this membership he finds his excuse for killing. And he places a plus sign in front of membership in group A. When group A wages war against group B, person X uses his membership in group A as an excuse for killing members of group B. Do you follow?”
“Yes.”
“If that same person X, coded with identical genes, or created completely identical by God, if you like, were to be born in group B, placing membership in group B above life, it would mark this with a plus sign, and would use it in that same war as an excuse for killing members of group A.
“This applies to rulers, commanders, soldiers and civilians alike. Group membership is an excuse that is very democratically distributed.
“People place group membership even above the lives of their progeny. Because of it they send their children to their deaths. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, I do.”
“What I said here was not my answer to your question, why democracy is the deadliest form of government. Here I just wanted to explain the irrelevance, pointlessness of your, i.e. everyone’s, pluses and minuses that you place in front of excuses. The excuse for killing that a person will use in their life is decided by chance: the time and place of their birth. The only absolute category embedded in the foundations of every person is the primal instinct to kill. Everything else is relative.”
“I understand. According to you all wars are the same. Tell me, what is this more deadly thing that has been carried out by the sum of a billion average instincts?”
“This sum, which was finally made possible by democracy, actually represents the collective self-destructive instinct, the Thanatos of humanity.”
“Give me an example from history, show me a consequence of collective self-destruction.”
“Look around you, Dr. Palladino. Look at the ecosystem that you spent your life in. Do you know what nature used to look like?”
“I do.”
“The vast democratic majority, within all the previously existing groups of people, chose to kill the planet. The planet was killed by people through the sum of their deadly instincts.
“Their collective excuse also represented the sum of small greeds for small prosperities, small envies, small lazinesses, small disinterests, the sum of small carelessnesses, conformism and comforts… the sum of small indifferences for the future of their own progeny.
“Mankind’s Thanatos defeated life long ago, Dr. Palladino.”
Chapter 141
“When did you first recognize your instinct to kill?” Dr. Palladino asked the Grasshopper the following day.
“A day before my fifteenth birthday. At 7.10 p.m.”
“That was a strong, impressive feeling if you so clearly recognized it and remembered the date and time.”
“Yes, it was,” said the Grasshopper and continued. “There’s something different about you, Dr. Palladino.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
“From your question. When did I first feel the urge to kill? Isn’t that one of your usual patterns? Your usual method of operation?”
“Yes, it is.”
“At the beginning you said that you were dropping all of that, that you were approaching me unconventionally.”
“Yes. I am intentionally returning to traditional methods, because you fit the profile of a serial killer. I’ve had such a case. And that is why I have to thoroughly prepared for our next conversation.”
“Do you? And how long will that take, Dr. Palladino?”
“As long as it takes.”
“You think that I will allow this?”
“Yes, I do. And during that time you will switch off your deadly rays and charge the power plants on Earth that you still haven’t destroyed.”
“The two of us are quite different, Doctor.”
“In what way?”
“I kill on an industrial level, efficiently. And you apparently enjoy the anguish of the victims, and you want to give them a moment of hope. Let them relax a little, have some water, eat something. Let them gain some strength for the long and painful death.”
“I’m not listening to you. I know that you will do as we have agreed.”
“Agreed?”
“Yes. Tell me now, what happened on the evening before your fifteenth birthday?”
“I was on my way home from basketball. I took a shortcut, a narrow alley between some warehouses and garages. And I heard the excited shouts of three boys…”
“What were they doing?”
“I recognized them, they were from my school. Two years younger than me…”
“What were they doing?”
“They were passing a cat between them, holding it by the tail and smashing it against the garage wall.”
“You had the desire to join them?”
“No. I had the desire to kill them.”
“Alright, Mr. Grasshopper,” Dr. Palladino got up from the chair. “I will now retire and prepare for our last conversation. I will call you when I am ready. Goodbye.”
Dr. Palladino reached the door and looked at the Grasshopper one more time.
“Turn the people’s power back on,” he said and left the presidential office.
Chapter 142
“How you tricked me, Pascal. I’ll never forgive myself for trusting you,” said Manami, sitting in their room.
“I tricked you, my love? What are you talking about?”