On who I voted for President of the United States of America

"In Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga
...Abner Doon ...destroyed everything.

The old universe was a decadent empire where those with wealth and power
could extend their ability to keep things in stasis by thousands of years.

...The result was a predictably stagnant and hopeless society.

How Abner brings about the fall of the empire is never directly addressed,
but is alluded to in the way he plays a game...

In one of the worldwide tournaments where players purchased the rights to play nations
in a computer simulation that began in 1914,
one player had managed to build Italy into a powerful empire on the verge of global domination.

...Abner buys the rights to play Italy, refuses to sell,
and destroys it by carefully orchestrating corruption, oppression, and aggressiveness
in a way that leads not to isolated rebellion,
but a total and simultaneous collapse into anarchy.

...out of the ashes rises are more diversified humanity
better equipped to plumb the depths of [the real world]

...Abner Doon ...resurrected life,

resurrected humanity’s soul.

Yes, it caused pain.

Yes, it caused discomfort.

Yes, it caused upset and confusion and turmoil.

But it was in humanity’s best interest.

...When does a life of comfort and stasis cease to be life?

How much adventure and uncertainty do we need to be human,
and when do we slip deep enough into routine that we cease to be?

it is in times where you don’t know,

times of uncertainty,

times where you’re challenged,

where you struggle that you learn, that you grow, that you become.

Pain and suffering and endurance are often the catalyst for people becoming better,

stronger, smarter, more capable.

Some people fear change.

Some people accept it and adapt.

Some always look back to what they had before,

they glamorize what once was

–or what might have been.

Others live in the moment.

How much destruction is justifiable in an act of creation?

Is playing the devil any worse than playing God?

How much does one individual have the right to force on all humanity?

Maybe Abner Doon was good and evil, just and wrong,
...at the same time...

Justin and Becky