(At night)
"Good evening, Senior Horikita~."
"Mm."
The two sat on a bench while Star Color drank hot cocoa.
"The clubroom and faculty advisor have been arranged. We can start club activities next week."
"Great~."
Manabu Horikita popped the tab on his canned coffee and asked, "Nagumo didn't give you a hard time yesterday, did he?"
Star Color's eyes shifted. Without a moment's hesitation, he replied, "Nope. Senior Nagumo was very kind."
"Kind, huh..."
Manabu took a sip of coffee and studied Star Color's mood. His gaze was so sharp it seemed ready to cut straight through him.
"What's wrong?" Star Color asked timidly.
"Nothing... it's nothing."
"Seishiki Otonashi, which do you think is more important: the collective or the individual?"
Manabu posed the question.
The collective and the individual? How boring. There was no right answer to this debate...
"They're both important. There's nothing wrong with choosing either individualism or collectivism, is there?"
"Oh? Why do you think that?"
"Individuals come together to form a collective, and a collective relies on individuals. Both are important."
"No matter which ideology people advocate, aren't they ultimately pursuing happiness? No matter how foolish or unreasonable someone's words might sound, to that person, they're still an option that can bring them happiness."
"An interesting point."
Manabu smiled. It was the first time he'd heard an answer like that.
"Collectives can be evil, and individuals can be selfish. What benefits the collective doesn't necessarily benefit everyone. And what benefits each individual doesn't necessarily benefit the collective."
"[Collectivism] is an ideology that respects humanity, but it overlooks human desires and malice."
"The collective is real, just as the individual is real. The individual isn't transcendent, just as the collective isn't transcendent."
"If one day you could decide the fate of an elderly married couple, what would you do?"
Star Color posed a question in return.
"What... is the point of that question?"
Manabu was taken aback.
"Some people believe the elderly are heroes of the past who built the Neon of today. But others think the elderly are [old parasites] who should all go die."
"Which view is right?"
"The first one."
Manabu answered without hesitation.
"In the past, [old parasite] was an insult for elderly people who hogged society's resources. As the population aged, those old lawmakers in their seventies and eighties in Neon's parliament increased benefits for the elderly to win more votes. Benefits cost money, and where does that money come from? Higher taxes."
"Let's say the elderly have ten units of society's resources, while young people have eight, and the tax increase takes one unit from everyone. How are you supposed to survive in that situation? Neon is a pitiful island controlled by the elderly. The people with real power are all old, so they look out for their own interests."
"A bunch of old people you don't even know are taking up a huge share of society's resources. If they keep living long lives, you and your children can only stay poor for the rest of your lives. That's the reality facing young people in Neon's impoverished generation."
"An aging population with real power is preventing the younger generation from developing fully. This is especially true in businesses and politics, where aging leadership is weakening organizations. Young people see no chance of a promotion or a raise, and fall into a state of having no ambitions."
"When the allocation of resources favors the elderly, it's only natural that the younger generation develops extreme ideas like [the elderly should all go die]. The reality is that so many old people are taking up society's resources at the expense of the young, so it's understandable that they'd think this way. The trend of hostility toward children that's spreading in South Korea has the same roots."
"If your family is poor, your thinking will be twisted and changed by your circumstances. It's like the individual and the collective: people think differently depending on their class, environment, and self-image. No one is wrong, but everyone is wrong..."
"Everyone has a childhood of their own. Maybe they remember it vividly, or maybe only a few memorable things happened. Those memories come together in fragments to form the 'general shape' of who we become. Not our appearance, of course, but the way our past experiences subtly become part of us and shape our 'personality'—what philosophers often call our inner world."
Star Color's purple eyes fixed on Manabu...
"It's a person's environment that changes their personality, so there's no point in debating ideologies. No matter the ideology, the ultimate question is... how can we be happy?"
By now, Manabu's impression of Star Color had grown increasingly hazy, even unsettling.
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