[b]York![/b]

She relaxed; this was an argument. She was relieved; she could do arguments. Arguments made her feel worthwhile.

"A few reasons," said Orange. "The first is because we're currently experiencing another environmental collapse and the exact same people and systems are still in charge. Two is because it's the right thing to do. Three is because now we have an unprecedented opportunity to follow up because of how distracted everyone is and how many old people will be looking to clear their consciences. But the real reason..."

She took a deep breath. This was something that [i]she [/i]believed.

"Because history is important," said Orange. "More important than anything in the battlefield for ideas, and Aevum doesn't have enough of it. People your age and your level of online suspected but didn't [i]know[/i], but kids going through the education system today sure as shit aren't taught the controversy. They're taught the polished version where nobody was to blame and all of those far away people were a statistic that didn't mean anything. It's almost poetic the way they say it, that it was just the natural culmination to the environmental disasters that had been ravaging earth to that point - one last act of nature. But it wasn't an act of nature, it was a decision made by people that hurt people who weren't them, just like every decision that incited the climate catastrophe in the fist place."

"Think about how many people lost their faith in America when they looked into America's history - the Trail of Tears, the United Fruit Company, the Red Scare. The historical records of those things are important [i]because [/i]they're non emotive. They're not relevant, not defended, not part of the present day culture war - they're factual atrocities to be absorbed intellectually, and in so doing provide the intellectual framework that lets people unplug themselves from the emotional battle over politics. It's an undefended front that the shock jocks can't rage against; the wikipedia rabbit hole that helps intellectuals reason themselves out of unexamined positions; the revealed lie that makes you question everything else."

"Nobody cared then, just like nobody cared at the time about indigenous people during colonization," said Orange, impassioned. "Just like nobody cared at the time about the slaves of Rome, about the famines in India. But because nobody fought for the historical dead then those eras of history were allowed to sink into culture as facts rather than choices, as a golden age beset by external tragedies, something worth preserving and recreating and continuing. If Aevum [b]began [/b]with a blood-soaked genocide then it's like an American learning about George Washington's slaves. The whole edifice creaks as its foundation shifts."

She sighed, looking down again. "It's the most important battle to me. It's just not the most important battle to all of me. Anyway, get Junta a condiments set. Hospital food's not great and I think he'd appreciate being able to add flavour to choice back in."

[b]Dudekov![/b]

The Chase Black didn't look sympathetic - he didn't quite have that range - but he managed a look of disgust that was close enough to pity. "You're [i]delirious[/i]," he sneered. "Come on, sir. We need to get you debriefed. Can you walk? I can call for a stretcher."