Ishtareans

The Ishtarean school is another one of Mesopotamian origin, although this time originating in Assyria rather than Babylonia. Just like the case with the Thotherites, not all followers of the goddess Ishtar belong to this school, only a dedicated subsection of them, as some worship her due to her being the patron goddess of their settlement – which includes cities like Uruk, Lagash, Nineveh, and others – or some similar reason. However, the functions of Ishtar, or Inanna, as she was called by the Sumerians, do certainly relate well to the beliefs of the school. She is the goddess of beauty, love, sex, and warfare, and so it should not be surprising that the Ishtareans seek one thing only – pleasure, and as much of it as they can gain.

Of course, such hedonistic cults have existed for a very long time, many millennia by now, and often under the banner of Ishtar in Mesopotamia. It is said that the first ones originated in Uruk as far back as three millennia ago, and quickly spread throughout the region, as Uruk settled colonies everywhere from the Levant to Elam and so Uruk’s inhabitants brought their ideas there. However, while Uruk stayed strong for many centuries, it eventually declined and its colonial empire fell, and so the Ishtarean cult did as well. It probably retained some followers, but in far fewer numbers. At the same time, Mesopotamia entered a much more tumultuous and destructive period, which saw the rise and fall of empires led from Akkad, Ur, and Babylon, as well as incursions from Gutian, Kassite, and Lullubi barbarians, and so other philosophies such as the Hammurabite one became most prominent, as the people now could hardly afford pleasure oftentimes and started focusing more on stability.

However, the Ishtarean cult had a resurgence quite recently, a sort of revival of the movement which put it back into popular thought and made it into a competitive philosophy once again. This happened in Assyria, very much as a reaction to the totalitarian regime of the Adaside Dynasty, as the people were tired of all the restrictions and wanted Assyria to liberalize. This, of course, was suppressed at first, all the way up to the fall of Ashur itself a decade ago, when the city was taken by the Daughters of Ishtar, in collaboration with the Assyrian merchant coalition and invading Elamite forces. We all know what happened next – Ninsina, the leader of the Daughters, entered into an agreement with Shilhak and was enthroned as the queen of Assyria, with Assyria itself becoming a relatively autonomous puppet state of Shilhak’s ever growing Elamite empire. The old Assyrian government was purged completely and the vacant positions were divided between the Daughters and their affiliates, as well as the merchants who had helped them. This was probably the most radical change in government in any country in recorded history, but then again, Tiglath’s and his predecessors’ regime was the most brutal and totalitarian one I know of, so peaceful and gradual change was hardly possible. And while I wouldn’t say that the Ishtarean philosophy is the state philosophy of Assyria, it certainly became much more accepted, and something that even prominent officials followed, as opposed to only underground rebels. Thus the thought spread through all of Assyria, and back into Babylonia as well, as there the new Babylonian regime led by Nebuchadnezzar was also more liberal than the Kassite rule preceding it.

The main tenet of Ishtarean thought is the seeking of pleasure, and so it is a pretty simply understood philosophy and has many followers among all classes, even the lowest ones. There certainly are Ishtarean scholars, though the works often deal with such subjects as which drugs are the most potent and how to avoid impregnating women so that intercourse with them could be enjoyed as often as possible. And, believe me, if there is a school which practices what it preaches, the Ishtarean is certainly one. They have clubs dedicated to their… teachings, in many cities in Assyria and Babylonia, and now Elam as well, probably even Dilmun and Magan too, where the Ishtareans gather to gain as much pleasure in as many ways as possible. I had the pleasure of visiting the largest one in Nineveh during my travels a couple years ago, and it certainly was a unique experience. However, it’s not for everyone, it may certainly be too intense for many people not used to such a lifestyle.

Now, one may say that these are nothing but a bunch of sex and drug addicts masquerading as philosophers to gain more legitimacy, and while there may be some truth to this, pleasure is not actually only about such acts. Pleasure is usually divided into two groups – lower pleasures, most often relating to the body, and higher pleasures, relating more to the mind. And so some Ishtareans try to gain more of the former, while others prefer the latter. The former group focuses on expensive food, alcoholic drinks, potent drugs, gambling games, and wild orgies, while caring little for the higher matters. The latter group, however, while still often partaking in the mentioned activities, focuses more on reading, watching plays, listening to music, and the like, often themselves creating such works of art. In fact, just like how most scientists associate with the Thotherites, so do most artists affiliate themselves in some way with the Ishtareans. Other than direct funding from the monarch, this is often the best way for them to receive revenue from their work, as the Ishtareans are always hungry for more works of art. This also allows artists to experiment in their works and create something new, rather than just doing the same as has been done for millennia so as not to anger the monarch who commissioned some new piece.

The two Ishtarean groups do not conflict and seem to get along very well. The goal, after all, is pleasure, and not the promotion of some specific activity, and so they accept whatever brings you pleasure, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else – that is, does not take away pleasure from another. Murder, thievery, and other such harmful acts are obviously still denounced by the Ishtareans, even if it brings one pleasure to murder another. However, to relieve the tension for such individuals, the Ishtareans also often organize various sports competitions and fight rings, where consenting members can beat each other up while the others in the club gamble on the outcome and enjoy the show. Really, the Ishtareans just want everyone to have fun. They understand that they do not know anything about politics, warfare, or economics (unless it’s the rise in opium price), and delegate that to the government, while themselves just enjoying life the best they can. For the governments it’s also a pretty good deal, since the Ishtareans do their own thing and do not interfere with the rulers at all, which makes it easier to govern.

The school has a rather diverse follower pool, since it does not discriminate against anyone. There are men and women, and individuals who do not identify as either, identify as both, or something in between. There are also many homosexuals and bisexuals, as the Ishtarean school is the most accepting of them, as well as being the best place for them to safely find other such people. The philosophy is followed almost exclusively by urban inhabitants and has the youngest average age of all the major schools, which often results in bitter rural elders with Djedist characteristics citing the school as a sign of society’s decadence, urban degeneracy, and the sign that the end times are coming. The followers of the school have a branch here in Kemet and Kush, where they are known as the Hathorites, whereas in Retjenu they are known as the Astarteites. There is also a smaller branch in the Mycenaean Confederation, where the followers are known as the Aphroditeans. All these goddesses – Ishtar, Hathor, Astarte, and Aphrodite – are basically equivalent, as they all focus on beauty, love, sex, war, and the like, and so all the branches function very similarly. Supposedly, a follower of any one of them can access the clubs in any other’s territory, which is certainly a useful benefit.

Accepting such a life of low risks and still relatively high rewards is certainly not the worst deal, if I do say so myself. It may not have much to offer to the ambitious person, whether that be in the political, scientific, or any other sphere, but then again, not everyone can be successful in such endeavors and certainly not everyone needs to be. This philosophy could be seen as one hindering growth, but would any of these Ishtareans contribute anything else if they were denied this life of pure pleasure? I don’t really believe so. Maybe the commoners really have nothing to contribute, and it would be best to just let them enjoy life while we do what needs to be done for the countries to prosper.

Siwans

If you asked a random person on the street what they thought a philosopher was, they would probably describe someone similar to an adherent of the Siwan school. To put it simply, the Siwan school is probably the default position where everyone who wants to get into the field begins, before drifting to some more interesting option. Of course, some don’t drift anywhere and stay right there. In the very same place, just aging and withering away without doing much of use anytime in their lives. This may sound loaded already, but you remember my debate with one of the travelling Siwan philosophers, and from that discussion it was probably made clear that I do not care much for the school. It’s certainly not the worst, but its unimaginably boring values do sometimes irritate me and I think followers of this philosophy give all of us a bad reputation.

The Siwan school places the highest value on virtue. Their goal is to live a virtuous life, free of sin. Doing good things is good, and bad things is bad. Certainly revolutionary ideas. I know I am being harsh on them, but I just don’t really see much value in their philosophy and don’t see who it would appeal to. Sure, if we were living in a world ruled by Apep, a world where everyone was killing each other and eating their corpses on a daily basis, then such a philosophy might be useful. But we aren’t living in such a world. We live under Ra and Horus and other good gods, and so by default we are already adhere to the moral laws as soon as we are born, I would say, unless something very drastic and unexpected happens. I just don’t see who this school could serve. Criminals, maybe? Teaching them to stop killing people and choose a virtuous path instead? Well, I doubt that would work, considering even written laws didn’t stop them, so it’s probably impossible to change their ways if they go so far. Or, if someone was about to rob a store because they needed more money, I doubt a Siwan philosopher could stop them.

But then again, a mind-numbingly boring philosophy goes along with a mind-numbingly boring region. The Siwan Oasis, also known as the Amun-Ra Oasis, is home to probably one of the most isolated settlements in the whole world. You may have visited it on your way to Libya, though it would still be quite far away from the main path. It is one of the oases in the western desert, but one located the furthest away from civilization, and it would take days of travelling to reach it, for little gain, I might add, as I’ve seen it and found little to be impressed by. Now, I don’t have anything against the people living there, I can understand wanting to live in a simple and quiet place, away from the chaotic nature of civilized states. I am just poking fun at the philosophers from there, who act as if they have discovered the wheel. Maybe it really is just the case of information travelling to there slowly and so the Siwans have little idea of what developments happened in the previous few thousand years. Or maybe life in the oasis there is just so unimaginably boring that they must constantly remind themselves not to commit mass murder to finally feel something, and so invented a whole philosophy as a form of coping. I would probably go insane too if I lived there for sixty years.

The average age of a Siwan adherent is probably sixty, if not more, as I doubt many youngsters would be interested in it, considering the other available options. I would be hard pressed to find a follower of this school who is not an aging rural peasant or priest, though even priests often make for more interesting company. And this lack of appeal makes perfect sense – the school seems to just take the worst aspects of other philosophies and combine it into one amalgamation. They have the sluggishness and lack of involvement in anything of the Ishtareans, that is, the Siwans argue against trying to pursue any sort of important career or really trying to change anything substantial, instead saying that the government, or whoever is in charge, is always to be listened to, and that the gods have already placed everyone where they need to be, similar to the Hammurabite thought. At the same time, they have those Djedist “virtues” of poverty actually being a good thing, and in their minds any sort of advancement, any sort of luxury, any sort of pleasure, any sort of fun is actually bad. I guess the difference between the two is that in the Djedists’ perfect world each of them would have ten slaves and would have be happy at the expense of others, whereas the Siwans just want everyone to be equally miserable. Is this the philosophical equivalent to the Ur-Nammuist school of economics? Maybe, but at least the resources the Ur-Nammuists want to distribute are limited, so there is some logic to their ideas, but things like fun and pleasure are unlimited, so the Siwan idea to just cut all of that down to a minimum is really them just hating life. I understand, the Ishtareans sometimes go too far with their antics, sure, but that doesn’t mean one has to live the entire life in a shoddy hut eating only moldy bread and drinking from infested waters.

How does that help anyone? How does that make it a virtuous life? You can write book upon book about how not doing anything and living worse than a Kushite slave is virtuous, but that does not improve anyone’s life. That does not help the country, as you are not adding anything to it, that does not help your fellow man or woman, as how can you help them if you have nothing yourself? You have to help yourself and fix your own life first if you want to help anyone else, but I will go more in depth on this once I talk about another philosophy. And you certainly don’t help yourself by following such a philosophy, unless your starting point is somehow even worse. What about the gods? Many Siwans claim that they do this for the gods, starving for days and going on long treks in the scorching desert with no intention other than to suffer as much as possible. I can’t see any gods who would be pleased by such acts. There are gods of war, who are pleased by us winning battles, there are gods of wisdom, pleased by us understanding the universe better, gods of crafts, pleased by us building and inventing new things. Who do these Siwans please? If I didn’t know better, I would say only Seth, god of the deserts. He might enjoy seeing people of Kemet suffer. And no matter the god, offerings would be appreciated, but with such a mentality the Siwans have nothing to offer to them. Truly a shameful display. At least such ideas haven’t spread beyond our borders, as far as I know, definitely not to this extent. Maybe the lack of deserts brings other philosophers closer to civilization and so closer to sanity.

In the end, I can’t see anyone getting much use out of this philosophy, other than maybe a convict or a recovering Ishtarean, as it is a rather growth stunting mentality. Having few needs and living a simple life can be good in some cases, sure, but we are living in the best times man has ever seen, not in a collapsed society, a land ravaged by barbarians, famines, or natural disasters. So let’s enjoy what we earned over the millennia of hard work at once, for gods’ sakes! But at least the Siwans aren’t hurting anyone, unlike the Djedists, and so I at least can appreciate them not trying to enforce their backwards views on everyone else. They’re not bad people, just really confused ones. I can only humbly ask you, my lord, to build some roads connecting Kemet to those oases, so that the Siwans and others living there would finally see what real civilization has to offer. These people are genuinely unwell, I think our humanitarian intervention is quite warranted at this point.

Technomancers

Let’s now return to Mesopotamia, and specifically the most recent major philosophical school to have emerged. The Technomancers are actually a faction which split off from the Nabuites, the eastern branch of the Thotherite school. These disagreements had started a while ago, but a year or so ago they reached a boiling point and the split officially happened. It took place for a few reasons, one being that the Technomancers did not appreciate the Nabuites sharing their discoveries with the Thotherites and so inadvertently helping the OFK. They felt that the OFK’s discoveries don’t compensate well enough for this trade of sorts to be viable and so insisted on keeping their knowledge to themselves, in order to better strengthen the EC, but the Nabuites disagreed with such an assessment or just didn’t care about factional lines. However, this wasn’t the only controversial issue, maybe not even the biggest one. Indeed, the main difference between the two groups is that the Nabuites/Thotherites value knowledge the most and look both to the past and the future, while the Technomancers value advancement the most and look only to the future, often to the very far one. In other words, the Thotherites want to understand the universe, whereas the Technomancers want to conquer it.

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The Technomancers don’t care much for history and other social sciences, they are purely focused on the material world and on ways to improve it. At least for their own benefit. Technological progress is the most important to them, and the school is dedicated to pursuing it relentlessly and supporting others working on it. For most of history such a school couldn’t have existed, as technological progress was rather slow, and so the Technomancers would have had little to discuss, yet in these unusual times, when there are seemingly a dozen new important inventions every year, the Technomancers really could thrive. They are much more focused on very specific spheres of advancement, rather than everyone reading and writing about completely random and unrelated topics, and for them the only holy book is the newest version of the engineer’s manual. Of course, not everyone in the school is an engineer, but those who aren’t still often at least fund or promote those who are to make sure the group’s ideas are better realized.

Now, one might ask what these Technomancers are seeking, what’s their end goal, and those would be good questions. And the answer is that they are seeking everything. They want to become gods. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but their ambitions truly are never ending. For example, they want to colonize the entire world. After that’s done, they want to find a way to fly to other planets and colonize them. And then after that go even further, taking over any planet, moon, and star along their way before they reach the abode of the gods and take that as well. They want to improve their bodies by way of technology in order to become stronger than the largest beast and still more intelligent than the smartest man. Some are even thinking about immortality. And why would they want all of this? Well, the Technomancers have a variety of reasons. Some want as much power as they can gain, so that they could perhaps carve out a realm for themselves from the barbarian lands on this or any other planet and so reign unchallenged. Others want the profits from all these potential technologies so that they could become unimaginably rich and afford anything that can exist. Others yet want it from a sense of human destiny and ultimate supremacy, believing that humans are meant to rule over the universe and become gods themselves, possibly then creating their own universes and being actual gods in them. There have been a few works by the Technomancers, where a theory is laid out that the gods themselves used to be just a regular species before ascending by way of some technology and so gaining the ability to create humans and other life. In any event, the followers are indeed quite ambitious people and have some rather unattainable goals, though they are always willing to continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible. This differentiates them from the Hammurabites and the Ishtareans, and the Technomancers often outright are disgusted by these groups as they believe that members of those schools are wasting time at best, and holding humanity back at worst. The Hammurabites are seen as useful fools, who would become eventual slaves for their intergalactic realm, and the Ishtareans are even worse in their eyes, seen as mere animals, with their sole focus on, often bodily, pleasures. Meanwhile the Nabuites, as I mentioned, are more respected, but seen as misguided and sometimes even traitorous.

The Technomancer school is indeed an esoteric one, and their policy ideas often are too. For example, they are more or less against slavery, but not because of some morality, some virtue, oh no, those words don’t exist in the Technomancer dictionary. No, they want to get rid of slavery because they believe it is too inefficient and instead slaves should be replaced by machines, which would work longer hours and would need less resources to be maintained. Meaning, they don’t like the fact that human slaves need to sleep and get some food. They are against conscription as well, but, again, not because they are against war, but because they need more workers to build their machines who could fight instead of them. And they are definitely pro-war, even if not directly against us, as they are constantly designing some new war machines which could potentially tear thousands of barbarians to shreds with little effort to make way for more EC colonies. In a way, there is a little similarity with the Hammurabites, concerning hierarchies. Technomancers also believe in hierarchies very much: humans are above animals, civilized peoples are above barbarians, and so on. And those who are below must be subjugated, while those above must become gods.

As one may then imagine, this is also a school which appeals more to the elites, rather than the commoners. After all, it was even founded by Boktnassar Nepeshu – literally Boktnassar the Machinist – who is the founder and current head of the Boktnassar Construction Conglomerate, one of the largest megacorporations in Babylonia. There are many stories about him circulating around, including how he was possibly planning to overthrow the Kassites with his private army before the war, and how he lost a leg – now replaced by a mechanical one – to an explosion he set up which also took out an entire Assyrian squad during their invasion of the city. Certainly, an interesting person, and he has managed to attract many other big businessmen and fellow industrialists to his cause. Some landowners follow him now as well, as colonizing more of the world for their benefit and replacing slaves with more efficient machines is enticing to them. However, some middle-class people follow this philosophy as well, various scientists, engineers, or just Mesopotamians fascinated by their ideas, often ex-Nabuites. It is even said that a Technomancer is now the court philosopher of the Elamite queen Lim-Kiririsha herself. This would not be surprising, knowing how she is constantly trying to get an edge over the OFK and is very invested in seeing her faction industrialize and outproduce us. Though the school is still for now almost entirely made up of men, since women usually don’t receive an education in such spheres and aren’t that interested in them in the first place, but that may still change in the future. The Technomancers have many very religious people, which may be surprising, but the gods in these circles are often worshipped a bit differently, that is, not as some unreachable divine beings, but as some highly advanced ones, the ranks of whom the Technomancers often wish to join. There are also no branches of the school, at least as of now, as it is still a very unique and esoteric philosophy and there simply aren’t enough people elsewhere to congregate around it. Hatti and Mycenae are much less technology advanced, while our Commonwealth has more advances in social sciences and spheres like medicine, rather than mechanics and engineering, where Babylonia is currently leading. Ease of travel and trade in the EC means that Assyria, Elam, Dilmun, and Magan also probably have some Technomancers, but the definitive center right now is Babylonia, the city of Babylon to be exact.

Now that I’ve talked about the Siwans and how their philosophy is holding them back, I certainly shouldn’t complain about the Technomancers, who are seemingly more ambitious than everyone else put together. And, after all, they have fixed all the issues which I had with the Thotherites, namely the decentralization, lack of national security, and the clinging to old and possibly non-existent books. Yet the Technomancers’ apparent disregard for human life, insatiable lust for conquest, and, possibly heretical, according to some, thoughts about overtaking the gods and becoming gods ourselves, is sometimes unsettling. We are only starting to enter the age of technology, and who knows what the effects of over reliance on it might be. But their cause seems to only be growing, and I suppose in this case it is best to fight fire with fire and get ourselves some Technomancers of our own to make sure we do not end up as one of the peoples subjugated by their new machinery.

Selfians

And so we come to the last major school of philosophy, one to which I happen to belong. As the name implies, it is a philosophy all about oneself, and no one else. It is the thought which values individual the most. We Selfians know that one is born alone and dies alone, but, unlike others, we do not pretend that the period in between these two events is any different. Everyone is looking out only for themselves, or at least they should, according to our school. We embrace living for oneself and not meddling in the affairs of others. And by doing that, everyone can thrive. That’s what this philosophy is about, at its core.

Of course, such ideas must have been prominent to some degree ever since humans first emerged, so one might not even consider this a philosophical school, which is fair, since it is probably the most decentralized of all the major ones. However, we still do have writings about our ideas, and the start of this more scholarly and philosophical Selfism can be attributed to a Phoenician writer by the name of Azmelqart (who lived before the age of last names). He started writing his works about eighty years ago and continued writing and expanding this philosophy for the rest of his life, up until about thirty years ago when he died after living quite a long life. The fact that a Phoenician wrote this philosophy down is hardly surprising, as we are a highly individualistic people, and this can be seen in our economy, politics, and culture. We never cared much for communities and instead focused each on ourselves, so this philosophy is, in essence, us exporting our individualistic culture to others abroad. We have our center right there in Byblos, but talking about branches might be quite pointless, as due to this being a highly individualistic philosophy, unofficial branches could be founded anywhere with as few people as one, so even I don’t know where we have expanded to by now. I imagine Babylonia and Assyria might be fertile grounds for us and have quite a few Selfians, also due to their individualistic nature, but, again, our greatest value is helping oneself and not anyone else, so we don’t have a large need of contacting them, unlike the Thotherites and the like.

So, are we all just selfish pricks who never help anyone else in our lives? Maybe. But the idea of this school is that interference with others often results in worse outcomes than not doing that. No one knows what a person wants, except that person themselves, and that goes for every one of us. We believe it is just better to leave everyone alone and let everyone deal with their own stuff without unnecessarily interfering. Thus, the philosophy could also be called just “minding your own business”, which would also describe it quite well. After all, haven’t most terrible things happened only due to the interference of someone else? If everyone minded their own business, we wouldn’t have wars, killings, rapes, Djedists, and other such man-made plagues which ravage our lands time and again. Everyone is different and has different ideas, and trying to force something on those who disagree with it only leads to conflict, so it is better to just keep everything to yourself. Now, some may say that we are hypocritical, because our philosophy is about forcing individualism, and some may not want that either, and instead may want to be living a more community-oriented life. And that’s fine. We are, in fact, not forcing this individualism on anyone, we are only offering it as a choice. Authoritarian regimes don’t give you this choice. If you want to organize a commune, share all the resources, and do everything together with other people, be our guests. Go ahead and do that, after all, that’s none of our business. Just don’t force it on us. Our philosophy is about not caring what others do, which means it is compatible with many other philosophies, as we Selfians only care that we are working only for ourselves, but others can do whatever they want. You want to be a Thotherite? A Hammurabite? An Ishtarean? That’s completely fine. Go ahead and join one of those schools, their existence does not interfere with our own. We only take issue with such schools as the Djedist or Siwan ones, which want to enforce their very rigid views on the entire society. They are completely incompatible with individualism, the Djedists especially, and so we do not approve of them. If the Djedists just lived according to their beliefs but didn’t try to force them on anyone else, it would be fine by us. If, say, the Thotherites tried forcing everyone to become a scientist or something of that sort, we would also take as much issue with them, so it’s not about what ideas the philosophy professes, it’s about whether it minds its own business.

So, we believe that meddling with others’ lives only leads to bad outcomes. But, on the other hand, we also believe that focusing on yourself only leads to good outcomes. We Phoenicians never had any imperial ambitions, or any thoughts of subjugating others. Yet we had and still have the highest standard of living in the known world, don’t we? If anything, there seems to be quite some correlation between peoples who mostly mind their own business and ones who always try interfering somewhere else. Phoenicia, Alashiya, Dilmun, Magan, even Egypt. What do these places have in common? They aren’t very expansionist and instead focus on internal development. And they have the highest per capita wealth as well as provide the best lives for the majority of the population. Meanwhile such regimes as Hatti, Assyria under the previous dynasty, Babylonia oftentimes, and all the countless barbarian groups – they always get involved in some conflict, started by their own accord, and no matter whether they win or not, they end up in a place which is not better than the starting position, if it is not outright much worse. And so this applies on the individual level as well. Why bother thinking about what your neighbor is doing? All that causes is unnecessary stress. That energy is better spent improving oneself, be it physically or mentally.

And that improvement could come in many ways, such as even the invention of new technologies. Now, some argue with this idea and say that new inventions come only from competition, but the Selfian school does not take that stance. Sure, minor improvements over some technology do often come because of competition, though I would say that they would have been done in any case, but it seems like the most important inventions came from individuals who only wanted to make their own life better and did not care much for what others were doing. The wheel was probably invented just by some merchant who wanted an easier way of transporting his goods. Writing similarly was probably thought of by some administrator who wanted his job of counting grain to be easier. All the agricultural and medicinal inventions also would seem to have come only from a personal need to get more food and not die as easily to some force of nature. The only inventions which came truly from competition and not personal need seem to be all the armaments, and other instruments of war. And do we really need them? Well, now we obviously do, but we didn’t need to need them. If everyone focused on themselves from the very start, no one would have needed armies, and, in turn, any of these weapons.

So this is the Selfian school. Due to its nature, it has followers from all kind and classes of people, and I welcome that. And I will admit, this is still not a perfect philosophy, it still has some flaws, and we discuss it with fellow Selfians about what is in line with our thought and what isn’t. There are some criticisms, such as the aforementioned supposed enforcement of individualism – which I have refuted – or how competition can actually be healthy sometimes, which is a more valid point. There is also the fact that cooperation can also sometimes result in more positive outcomes, however, for us that just means two individualists trying to gain something for themselves from each other and inadvertently also helping the other person, but this still comes from focusing on oneself rathe than cooperating just for cooperation’s sake. And some also claim that our school is too similar to the Ishtarean one, which is not quite true. We focus on personal improvement and personal benefit, whereas the Ishtareans focus only on pleasure, which often doesn’t result in any improvement or even gain, and so the argument that their actions in the end only lead to positive outcomes would be false. We do not reject pleasure, of course, but I would say that we diversify our activities a bit more, which result in more benefits to everyone, but, again, the Ishtareans are free to continue doing as they please.

Thus I think I covered all the major schools of philosophy which currently exist in the civilized known world and all their branches and splinters. It is certainly an interesting selection, but I believe it will only continue to grow, as more and more people start following one or another or create their own new one. Some of them may do more harm than good, of course, but it seems that most will result in a more positive outcome, and I welcome this change. In these last few years, it appears we have entered not only into the age of technology, but the age of enlightenment as well.