Selection for Society Sanity

[Solidus throws his arms jubilantly to the sky.  Raiden gets a Codec call.]


Colonel    : Raiden, are you receiving? We're still here.

Raiden     : How's that possible!? The AI was destroyed!

Colonel    : Only GW...

Raiden     : Who are you?


[The Colonel's face becomes a skull. It flashes back.  This happens several
 times.]


Colonel    : To begin with -- we're not what you'd call -- human. Over the
             past two hundred years -- A kind of consciousness formed layer by
             layer in the crucible of the White House. It's not unlike the way
             life started in the oceans four billion years ago. The White House
             was our primordial soup, a base of evolution --

             We are formless. We are the very discipline and morality that
             Americans invoke so often. How can anyone hope to eliminate us?
             As long as this nation exists, so will we.

Raiden     : Cut the crap! If you're immortal, why would you take away
             individual freedoms and censor the Net?

Rose       : Jack, don't be silly.

Colonel    : Don't you know that our plans have your interests -- not ours --
             in mind?

Raiden     : What?

Rose       : Jack, listen carefully like a good boy!

Colonel    : The mapping of the human genome was completed early this century.
             As a result, the evolutionary log of the human race lay open to
             us.

Rose       : We started with genetic engineering, and in the end, we succeeded
             in digitizing life itself.

Colonel    : But there are things not covered by genetic information.

Raiden     : What do you mean?

Colonel    : Human memories, ideas. Culture. History.

Rose       : Genes don't contain any record of human history.

Colonel    : Is it something that should not be passed on? Should that
             information be left at the mercy of nature?

Rose       : We've always kept records of our lives. Through words, pictures,
             symbols... from tablets to books...

Colonel    : But not all the information was inherited by later generations. A
             small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then
             passed on. Not unlike genes, really.

Rose       : That's what history is, Jack.

Colonel    : But in the current, digitized world, trivial information is
             accumulating every second, preserved in all its triteness. Never
             fading, always accessible.

Rose       : Rumors about petty issues, misinterpretations, slander...

Colonel    : All this junk data  preserved in an unfiltered state, growing at
             an alarming rate.

Rose       : It will only slow down social progress, reduce the rate of
             evolution.

Colonel    : Raiden, you seem to think that our plan is one of censorship.

Raiden     : Are you telling me it's not!?

Rose       : You're being silly! What we propose to do is not to control
             content, but to create context.

Raiden     : Create context?

Colonel    : The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards
             the development of convenient half-truths. Just look at the
             strange juxtapositions of morality around you.

Rose       : Billions spent on new weapons in order to humanely murder other
             humans.

Colonel    : Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of
             their victims.

Rose       : Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations
             are made to protect endangered species. Everyone grows up being
             told the same thing.

Colonel    : "Be nice to other people."

Rose       : "But beat out the competition!"

Colonel    : "You're special." "Believe in yourself and you will succeed."

Rose       : But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed...

Colonel    : You exercise your right to "freedom" and this is the result. All
             rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The
             untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and
             accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value
             systems.

Rose       : Everyone withdraws into their own small gated community, afraid
             of a larger forum. They stay inside their little ponds, leaking
             whatever "truth" suits them into the growing cesspool of society
             at large.

Colonel    : The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is
             invalidated, but nobody is right.

Rose       : Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is
             being engulfed in "truth."

Colonel    : And this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a
             whimper.

Rose       : We're trying to stop that from happening.

Colonel    : It's our responsibility as rulers. Just as in genetics,
             unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out to
             stimulate the evolution of the species.

Raiden     : And you think you're qualified to decide what's necessary and
             not?

Colonel    : Absolutely. Who else could wade through the sea of garbage you
             people produce, retrieve valuable truths and even interpret their
             meaning for later generations?

Rose       : That's what it means to create context.

Raiden     : I'll decide for myself what to believe and what to pass on!

Colonel    : But is that even your own idea?

Rose       : Or something Snake told you?

Colonel    : That's the proof of your incompetence, right there. You lack the
             qualifications to exercise free will.

Raiden     : That's not true! I have the right --

Rose       : Does something like a "self" exist inside of you?

Colonel    : That which you call "self" serves as nothing more than a mask to
             cover your own being.

Rose       : In this era of ready-made 'truths', "self" is just something used
             to preserve those positive emotions that you occasionally feel...

Colonel    : Another possibility is that "self" is a concept you conveniently
             borrowed under the logic that it would endow you with some sense
             of strength...

Raiden     : That's crap!

Colonel    : Is it? Would you prefer that someone else tell you? Alright then.
             Explain it to him.

Rose       : Jack, you're simply the best! And you got there all by yourself!

Raiden     : Grrr...

Colonel    : Oh, what happened? Do you feel lost? Why not try a bit of
             soul-searching?

Rose       : Don't think you'll find anything, though...

Colonel    : Ironic that although "self" is something that you yourself
             fashioned, every time something goes wrong, you turn around and
             place the blame on something else.

Rose       : "It's not my fault. It's not your fault."

Colonel    : In denial, you simply resort to looking for another, more
             convenient "truth" in order to make yourself feel better.

Rose       : Leaving behind in an instant the so-called "truth" you once
             embraced.

Colonel    : Should someone like that be able to decide what is "truth"?

Rose       : Should someone like you even have the right to decide?

Colonel    : You've done nothing but abuse your freedom.

Rose       : You don't deserve to be free!

Colonel    : We're not the ones smothering the world. You are.

Rose       : The individual is supposed to be weak. But far from powerless --
             a single person has the potential to ruin the world.

Colonel    : And the age of digitized communication has given even more power
             to the individual. Too much power for an immature species.

Rose       : Building a legacy involves figuring out what is wanted, and what
             needs to be done for that goal. All this, you used to struggle
             with. Now, we think for you.

Colonel    : We are your guardians after all.

Raiden     : You want to control human thought? Human behavior?

Colonel    : Of course. Anything can be quantified nowadays. That's what this
             exercise was designed to prove.

Rose       : You fell in love with me just as you were meant to, after all.
             Isn't that right, Jack?

Colonel    : Ocelot was not told the whole truth, to say the least.

Rose       : We rule an entire nation -- of what interest would a single
             soldier, no matter how able, be to us?

Colonel    : The S3 Plan does not stand for Solid Snake Simulation. What it
             does stand for is Selection for Societal Sanity...


[Scenes from the Arsenal Tengu fights and the Fission Mailed screen are
 shown.]


Colonel    : The S3 is a system for controlling human will and consciousness.
             S3 is not you, a soldier trained in  the image of Solid Snake. It
             is -- a method, a protocol, that created a circumstance that made
             you what you are.

Rose       : So you see, we're the S3. Not you.


[Codec screen.]


Colonel    : What you experienced was the final test of its effectiveness.

Raiden     : That's crazy.

Colonel    : You heard what President Johnson said.


[President Johnson begins to speak.]


Johnson    : The Arsenal's "GW" system is the key to their supremacy.

Colonel    : The objective of this exercise was to establish such a method.


[Scenes from Metal Gear Solid are shown.]


Colonel    : We used Shadow Moses as a paradigm for the exercise.

Rose       : I wonder if you would have preferred a fantasy setting?

Colonel    : We chose that backdrop because of its extreme circumstances. It
             was an optimal test for S3's crisis management capacity. If the
             model could trigger, control and solve this, it would be ready
             for any contingency. And now, we have our proof.


[Codec screen.]


Colonel    : Raiden, there are also reasons behind your selection. Solidus
             raised plenty of other child soldiers. Do you know why we chose
             you over them?

Raiden     : ???

Colonel    : It was because you were the only one who refused to acknowledge
             the past. All the others remember what they were, and pay for it
             daily.

Rose       : But you turn your back on everything you don't like. You do
             whatever you like, see only the things you like, and for yourself
             alone.

Colonel    : Yes -- Rose can attest to that.

Rose       : You refused to see me for what I was. I lied to you, but I wanted
             to be caught.  You pretended to be understanding, to be a
             gentleman... You never made a conscious attempt to reach out to
             me... The only time you did was when I gave you no choice but to
             do so...

Raiden     : I was just trying not to...

Rose       : What? "Trying not to hurt me?" Dear, the one you were trying not
             to hurt was yourself! Avoiding the truth under the guise of
             "kindness" is all that you did!  It occurred to you to do nothing
             but look out for yourself. Even if you claim that it was for my
             sake, that feeling was nowhere to be seen. In the end, everything
             was for your sake... I was never part of the picture.

Colonel    : Ha, ha, ha...exactly right. So you see, you're a perfect
             representative of the masses we need to protect. This is why we
             chose you. You accepted the fiction we've provided, obeyed our
             orders and did everything you were told to. The exercise is a
             resounding success.


[Emma Emmerich begins to speak.]


Emma       : Didn't I tell you that GW was still incomplete? But not anymore,
             thanks to you.

Colonel    : Your persona, experiences, triumphs and defeats are nothing but
             byproducts. The real objective was ensuring that we could
             generate and manipulate them. It's taken a lot of time and money,
             but it was well worth it considering the results. I think that's
             enough talk. It's time for the final exercise. Raiden, take
             Solidus down.

Raiden     : Think again! I'm through doing what I'm told!

Colonel    : Oh really? Aren't you forgetting something?


[Olga begins to speak.]


Olga       : If you die, my child dies.

Colonel    : The termination of vital signals from your nanomachines means the
             death of Olga's child.  Not to mention the death of Rose.  She's
             wired the same way.

Raiden     : Rose -- does she actually exist?

Rose       : Of course I do, Jack!  You have to beLIEve me!

Raiden     : Damn...

Colonel    : It will be a fight to the death.

Rose       : Solidus, at least, wants you dead.

Colonel    : We will collect the necessary data from this last fight, then
             we'll consider the exercise closed.  So, Jack the Ripper!  Will
             it be Solidus, the Patriots' creation? Or you -- Solidus'
             creation? Our beloved monsters -- enjoy yourselves.


[The transmission ends, leaving the viewer terribly confused.]