Ramblings of a Villain

Duality

Did you know you are two?

That was too blunt. My apologies. Allow me some context.

You are many, composed of many, yes, we've been through this road before, but today I'm here to tell you that you are more than many. You are two.

Let's take a look at your brain.

Surely you know, your brain, as any other part of your being, and the universe for that matter, is a composite of many parts with different tasks and different functions with the ultimate purpose to serve the system.

Locomotive modules, sensorial sectors, chemical glands that regulate and maintain communication with the rest of your body. Your brain is the helm of your body. And it has two captains.

The brain is not one. Two hemispheres. Its division, vastly more than cosmetic.

You are two.

Two different, contrasting personalities, with different agendas, different goals, different beliefs, conjoined twins, stranded in the same vessel. One, mute, arguably subservient. Forced to work together and do all that they can to ensure self, and thus mutual survival. Parallel systems, and given enough time, a gestalt.

This is no fiction or hyperbole - are you aware that you can split these twins? The vessel would survive, but all direct communication between its captains would be lost. The hard-earned efficiency, gone. You have two entities, functional, but each deprived of main and essential components. Can you say they are still human, when they've lost so much of what they are?

This is not the ship of Theseus - these are two rafts sailing from the same mast.

Ask yourself, what can you lose?

You have two kidneys. You can do with one. Ten fingers in each hand, ten toes. Two hands, two arms, two legs, two ovums. You are duplicate in many aspects. None of them vital, but each adds to your performance. Of course, the lesser your performance, the greater the risk of termination or perpetual disability, and losing 100% of your lungs is not adviceable.

Each loss incurs a different consequence. Lose your main index, and you will never shoot a gun again. Lose the thumbs, and you will have achieved the status of protomonkey. Still, you can still live, and even deprived of activity, your mind is whole. Scarred by the event, yes, but still whole, and capable to heal, capable to be.

So, could you lose a part of your mind and still be?

You could lose your senses, yes, and the outside world would shut down. Without stimuli, without connection to the rest of the universe, you would find no reason to exist. You would shut down, for, again, no human can exist in a vacuum.

You could lose your memory. Permanently, and with the inability to learn again? Then you'd be less than a beast. Only that which is directly in front of you exist, and you have no idea what it is. Do you even know how to walk? No, of course not. Another dead end.

How about just your past memory? The you that you were is effectively dead. You might carry its vessel, the old connections in your previous life are still there, family and friends, but they are strangers to you, and they might not realize that you are a stranger to them as well. But you can live, yes, and start anew.

How about your emotions? Losing some of them would make you irrational, unpredictable, deaf to things that should concern you, naive to things that should alarm you, apathetic to things that keep you moving and alive. All of them? Then you'd embody the previously-mentioned apathy. You exist, but you have no drive to do so. You have no drive to do anything. You'd think it sounds a lot like clinical depression - this can be worse.

We do not need wonder much for the parts that regulate the status of your body. Overheating, lack of oxygen, too much oxygen, intense sweating, dehydratation, without regulation, your body will collapse in a matter of seconds.

I do believe that covers everything. So, let me ask now.

What would you give away?