User talk:Alfred Wenjack

                                            Malton: A Post-Ethical Community

Good day to you all. Though this is my first lecture as part of West Malton University, it comes from years of careful observation.

Malton, with the exception of new immigrants who find themselves here and goods that get snuck into the various suburbs, has been cut off from the outside world. As such, Malton can be seen as an almost Hobbes-like “state of nature” with no societal rules. Malton, however, differs from a “state of nature” because even cause and effect has been waived. I call this society “post-ethical” as ethics can neither be enforced nor universally accepted here.

In the outside world, actions have consequences. Infrastructures, though governments, corporations and independent organizations, have been set up to prevent or reverse unwanted consequences and dole out preventative or punitive measure to those actions and the people who undertake them. In Malton, there are none of these, right down to the consequences themselves. What’s the worst that someone can do to you here? They can kill you, turning you into a shuffling, groaning parody of your former self, but you can easily get revived back into your old, fully-alive self again. No matter the actions or causes, death in Malton is not permanent. There is no fear of death in this walled-off purgatory, only a mild annoyance. Whether it is right or wrong to harm people makes no difference here, as people can attest to finding themselves repeatedly zombified and revived with no regard to their own wishes. While organizations of the living and hordes of the dead have attempted to build their own, segregated communities in the suburbs of Malton, their numbers are few in comparison to the feral zombies, the psychopaths, the bandits and desperadoes both living and otherwise, who just want to have fun in this lawless city at the cost of your own.

There is no sanctimonious rhetoric among them, as there are the cultists who subvert the other side, nor like those fully-alive who wish to end the plague or the zealous zeds who see their state as superior and to be spread to everyone. They see their actions as harmless fun, since whatever they do to you is not at all permanent. Nether would your reprisals be, so they have nothing to fear from you. In a world without consequences, ethics lose all meaning and any attempted structure of rules and guidelines can never be enforced. The closest we could come would be just another ideology in a clash of larger ones. Among the wholly alive, there have been movements to bring every zed our intrepid soldiers and medical scientists can find back to full health, restoring Malton to its pristine state before the outbreak; among the partially so, they have shown co-ordination and a modicum of coherence, and data culled from test results all over the NecroNet has nearly proven the theory that they have no need to injure or feed upon those fully alive. Their compulsion to turn others over to their state may be the same as the reason for ours: an ideological one. This can be seen from the people who go mad with shock upon revival, lashing out at their rescuers or searching for ways to return to their former state; as well, from the zombies who stand patiently in graveyards or around NecroTech buildings, thanking their saviours upon revival. The triumph of one side over the other would surely result in a Fukuyaman End-of-History, so two compromises come to mind:

      In one, of segregation, districts and suburbs of Malton would be designated for one state of being or the other, with migrants only allowed in after changing states at a sort of “customs office”; if one is willing, or unwilling to detour, the only pauses in one’s trip would be at sanctioned revival or devival points. This compromise, however, would maintain an elitist, prejudiced viewpoint on both sides, and open itself to unfettered malcontents. A loner or group, sneaking by undetected, or even passing through such customs offices, could launch attacks and spew propaganda designed to bother others and incite one side against the other. In a word, “terrorism”. Such isolated communities could even have to deal with border scuffles between zealous nationalists.

      The other, mutual acceptance, would have everyone’s choice of lifestyle respected by others. Some places of Malton, such as Club Meade, have made attempts to encourage this, allowing people of both vital states mutual recreation. This would be easier to implement in theory, but would require the respect of others by every single resident in the city, and survive by honour alone. As anyone who has been jabbed or grabbed by a syringe or claw in their sleep can attest, honour only comes from looking after one’s own.

In a post-ethical community such as Malton, any ethical framework is not even as sturdy as its followers. Outsiders can disregard the rules of others with little-to-no fear of reprisal. The only rules that get followed are those of small sub-communities of the like-minded, or audacious cults of personality. Even these are ephemeral, and fade in time. The very nature of this plague has made Malton intrinsically lawless, making the Wild West look like a subway system in comparison. To the citizens of Malton – to ALL citizens of Malton: on whichever side you stand in this long-standing dichotomy, as long as you can find someone to respect who likewise respects you, some shred of civility will remain in our purgatory-on-Earth. Thank you.

--Alfred Wenjack 18:10, 24 May 2012 (BST)