The Well of Souls (The Final Arbiter of Destiny) - Chapter 2: Eman’s Visit

​It had been spoken of for centuries that a messenger would come to show the people the way from their mundane strife. He would show the people the way to liberty and self-identity. They would be freed from the bondage of others to manifest their potentials within them to their fullest or to choose not to. Finally, after centuries, Eman arrived.

Eman came to show the way to freedom to the people and to set their sights. He appealed to them to find themselves, to pursue the potential invested inside each of them, and to manifest it. He inspired to them to reach inside, focus, persevere, and draw out the treasure. Sometimes some of it is on the surface and other times other parts are buried. It is travail, a non-ceasing pursuit of triumph over vice and venality and sometimes the benefit of correction from failure along the way. But, in the end, it is always for triumph in the pursuit of freedom.

Some of the ways Eman manifested himself was in feeling, body, and the inspiring light of triumph. His light was bright like the sun and covering all in his presence. He spoke to the people; those who chose to hear him. There were some who chose not to listen, as triumph was no longer what they pursued in life but instead defeat.
Some got caught up in comparing the terms on which they were required to struggle with that of others. “Why is it,” they would ask, “that some people get all the beauty, talents, and parents who guide them, giving an advantage over others?” Then, after seeing it, in defeat, they refused to try any further.

Eman showed them that it is the prize to focus on. He said, “Focusing on the prize doesn’t lead to making excuses for failure and asking for an answer to a question that is unnecessary to be answered; it leads to victory through perseverance and admiration of triumph, wherever it is, and is virtuous. It is all in your hands and always has been. What it will be is what you make of it. Your initial circumstances are out of your control, but what you become in them is in your control. Maybe your immediate contest is self-pity or aversion. You are free to choose. Free to whine about it or seek victory over your circumstances.”

Eman organized the people by motivating them to establish commerce with others. Some people were hunters and trappers who promoted the sale of their goods in return for others. The idea of commerce began to pick up, even to the point that some clans began trading with others that otherwise, recently, would have destroyed them in the name of survival. Commerce grew and the people began producing more than ever and certainly more than enough for everybody. There was a push-back, as some tyrants were not going to just give up their power. But those who sought freedom wouldn’t give in, and at the expense of the lives of many heroes who laid their lives at the altar of freedom, a society based on freedom was born.

More and more clan wars subsided, tyranny was weakened, the vacuum was filled with cooperation, and people began to grow their individual talents. People grew fields of crops. Others built structures. Some were very capable in hunting and trapping. Others developed rare skills like wine making and others in entertainment. Talents were developing everywhere, establishing a norm of cooperation amongst the people of all the clans. The system, commerce, grew stronger and stronger with little organized intervention. If there was a need, a solution would arise on its own to satisfy it. Centuries passed, and commerce became a way of life that supported exponentially more people and without wars. The resource limitations of the past, upon which battles were fought to survive, were no longer the norm, as the prosperity from commerce made them obsolete. It left the only virtuous basis for war as the need to defend against aggression.

People started businesses with things like food carts, and then serving carts became restaurants. Restaurants expanded to include bars, and then to bars that included entertainment, creating opportunity for artists. To follow, theaters and museums were created, and artists had more opportunity than ever. Great businesses were created: sawmills, great vineyards, cotton plantations, leather clothing factories, fishing and cannery enterprises, and newspaper empires. The benefits of these great new super businesses were that some people’s talents blossomed as a result of education, and education and technology grew as the people and enterprises prospered. Prosperity advanced through the opportunity of employment and the natural desire to advance one’s circumstances. And the greatness and achievement of individuals made it all work.

As time passed, the people learned and understood that advancement came through self-reliance and personal effort. This was a principle that Eman knew had to take hold and be understood for the people to survive, otherwise disaster would be the ultimate result. The people’s society was replete with opportunity and it became fertile ground for this principle to take hold.

The understanding that self-advancement through work was virtuous became evident in the daily lives of the people. Prosperity was there for all who chose to pursue it. It established cooperation as a society norm, and the people as a whole, a beneficiary of each person’s individual efforts. Pure in its form, it was a win-win principle. Individual freedom was advanced while society benefited as a whole. Prosperity produced great universities and the people became educated and sophisticated, all intending to advance one’s circumstances and in the end benefiting all in society. The needs of the people were vast and the individual efforts given to meet those needs were abundant.

Eman brought a sense of duty and patriotism to the people. He organized the land into regions, so the people’s prominent cultures could localize laws based on values and beliefs. Eman’s light had penetrated society. Society prospered throughout the world as a beacon of freedom to all by inspiring all peoples of freedom. The words that came from his mouth were, “It is freedom that truly unites us and nothing else can.”

Then he led the people to develop and ratify a Declaration of Freedom to all people. Rights to liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and life; and sovereign governments for all mankind created by powers lent by the people and for the people. This motivated the people to develop and ratify a Constitution designed to protect individual rights and limit government, and it included a Bill of Rights given from a Power greater than oneself to protect all the people from tyranny.

The people came to understand the importance of a set of rights that were given by Something greater than themselves. So, over the next several months, the people agreed to organize a Constitutional Convention. Each sovereign territory sent delegates to represent it. Over a period of several months, the delegates hammered out each article that established each government part, being careful to ensure none had too much power. It was designed to ensure freedom and protect against the powers that would try to violate its principles.

The principles within it were intended to facilitate public action whenever one part of the government grew too overbearing in the laws or orders it imposed. Finally, after all the debates and actions taken, the document was ratified and they called it the Book of Light. Now it was up to the people, almost like a fourth branch of government, to keep the principles within it secure.

“Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, the people’s pact has been ratified, by the people and for the people, as the supreme law of which all the people and the administrators of government must give allegiance in the name of freedom upon which we form our great union of sovereign nations,” said the town criers across the land. The people displayed the public document on the Great Lectern, as an inspiration and tribute to freedom and an unrelinquishable gift from One greater than themselves. And upon the foundation of the Book of Light, they carefully and watchfully created their laws. Upon their own shoulders was the burden to protect against encroachments on individual rights, as they understood the nature of government, which was good for the freedom it was intended to protect, but also bad in that it could easily be perverted and take it away.

The rule of law was a fundamental principle of what the People of Light believed. However, law enforcement was privately organized, as were schools, fire departments, and penitentiaries. Even large pieces of the military were privately operated. The infrastructure, like roads and bridges, were developed privately. The few elements of government not private were those that were designed to exist like the people’s representatives, executive members, and justice. The motivation for a small government was to keep government under control of the people.

The people were wise to be sensitive to the size of government because they understood the necessary evil it provided. But they also understood that it was necessary to chain it down to keep it from mischief. Government was needed to provide protection from foreign threats and to enforce the rule of law, and just as important in the long term was to keep the public educated in the principles of freedom. The people were armed with their vote, which kept government accountable, but the right to use their vote was vulnerable to the temptations of self-satisfaction above the health of one’s country. Educating people in the basics of freedom helped keep the voting public sensitive to encroachments on it, as freedom was naturally and overwhelmingly what the people wanted.

Centuries passed, and the people’s established government assured freedom and opportunity for all who chose to pursue it. No government agent could unjustly lord over the people without eventually leading to judicial action. The people lived free and free from unauthorized government intervention in their lives. Never in the history of mankind had a people had so much freedom and the generation of personal wealth and prosperity. Prosperity created an overall good and a greater minimum standard of living for all than without it. Even those who chose to do little in the way of productivity benefited in ways they could have never dreamed of.

Eman said, “My mission is accomplished and I am satisfied with my People of Light.”