How Intents Predict Cultivation and Odium’s Debate: Freedom vs Order

[Confused]

The I-2 Shard debate sketches the conundrum of human existence – how best do we organize ourselves to flourish with minimal suffering? The debate offers Brandon’s take on the ancient dialectic between Freedom and Order, the ideological poles that drive social systems. This post looks at the Shard debate in the context of Cultivation’s and Odium’s Intents.

Spoiler

A quick personal note. In college, I studied American Intellectual History from a visiting Princeton professor, Alpheus Thomas Mason. His textbook, Free Government in the Making, Readings in American Political Thought, develops his thesis of Freedom vs. Order in American politics. I think these ideologies drive every group’s politics, big and small. Brandon must think so too, since the Shards’ debate applies equally to the gods above and we mortals below.

Cultivation

Cultivation prefers to build systems. “We steer. We do not dominate.” A Shard can spare a child from death, but the child will die anyway unless the Shard changes the circumstance that causes the death. Systems prevent circumstance from reaching such exigency. The Growth Shard wants to cultivate society, allowing it to grow freely except for some pruning here and there. Systems establish guardrails and constraints to maintain and enforce Freedom. System-less anarchy is not Freedom...unless you’re a fan of the Purge movie franchise.

Cultivation by its nature takes the long view. She is patient. As a dragon Vessel, Koravellium Avast is used to immortality even before her ascension. Pre- and post-Shattering, she’s seen all sorts of human systems rise and fall. I suspect her patience and long view is why she chose the Cultivation Shard. Her nature matches the Shard’s.

Spoiler

I believe the Cultivation Shard’s “primal force” is Transformation – the interconvertibility of matter, energy, and Investiture. Lift is the best known example of Cultivation’s magic. Lift converts food (matter) into Investiture.

Cultivation’s Intent ensures a higher tolerance for human suffering than Odium’s. If the system doesn’t work, she knows people may be hurt. Cultivation will prune the system to make it work better, but people may hurt more in the interim. Cultivation believes in “creative destruction.” Brandon says she’s like Ruin in her willingness to destroy. Death feeds Growth. Transformation.

Which brings us to Odium...

Odium

Who wants One Shard to Rule Them All. Him.

Odium suffers a complete disjunction between emotions and intellect. That’s the recipe for autism and depression. I have to wonder why such a Shard exists. What Adonalsium power requires him to sever his mind from his feelings? The consequence is that Odium can’t regulate his feelings. It’s why his emotions tend towards the extremes: rage, lust, and hatred.

Odium eschews systems. This might be a feature of the Shard itself, since both Rayse and Taravangian want to rule the cosmere. Taravangian once was content to save his little piece of Roshar, the city of Kharbranth. Now he just wants to stop feeling the cosmere’s pain and suffering:

Quote

He stepped toward her, raising a fist, the emotions making a tempest of rage inside him. “I am the very substance of passion, and where a person suffers anywhere in this miserable galaxy, I feel it. That is the burden of this power.”

“It is why,” she said, “I called yours the most dangerous and difficult of them all. You can be the one who—”

“I know their anger, Cultivation. Do not lecture me. Oh, I taste it. Every moment. And I also know there will not be a way to soothe that agony, not until…”

...

“Not until there is but one god,” Odium whispered.

Odium talks about saving people from misery, but I believe he doesn’t want to feel their pain personally. IMO, the Odium Shard is inherently selfish. Emotions like rage and hatred drive others away, as he drove away Cultivation. There’s an element of narcissism in Odium, the belief he can solve the problems others won’t or can’t:

Quote

And he had an important mission, the same that he’d given himself years ago when he’d seen the threat to Kharbranth—then had moved to save it. He was the one who could both see the coming danger and be willing to stop it.

He was Taravangian, the divided one—and he could save them. All of them.

Fascism is born in the belief only you are the savior. Of course, to save those born in Kharbranth Taravangian was more than willing to sacrifice all other Rosharan humans. If he rules as the One God, what will he do to the cosmere to avoid feeling human “agony”? Kill them all?

Conclusion

I think the debate between the two Shards reflects their Intents. Patient, long-seeing Cultivation manages her mortal charges through systems. She believes in Freedom of choice, subject always to improving the system to prevent problems. Selfish, narcissistic Odium just wants to rule by himself. Unprotected by his logical side, Odium has no defense against the cosmere’s unceasing barrage of pain. He will impose his Order on the cosmere just to shut off the pain. The Shard Debate could not have gone any other way, as I suspect Cultivation already knew.

Edited September 21, 2024 by Confused

[Michael Portz he/him]

I couldn't agree more, especially with this important bit:

10 hours ago, Confused said:

Fascism is born in the belief only you are the savior.