LU Hang

Upon awakening, the children believed they were in Paradise, so magnificent was the place. The women cared for them, showered them with love. Never would they have thought to leave such a place willingly. The Old Man of the Mountain, at the head of a great and noble court, presented himself as a prophet. Everyone believed him. When he wanted to send an Assassin on some mission, he would give him a hallucinatory potion before bringing him to his palace. Upon waking up, the drugged man believed he was in the presence of a real prophet. To the Old Man's question, "Where do you come from?", he replied, "From Paradise". He added that, as Mohammed said, Paradise was a good place. His only dream was to return there. Thus, when the Old Man of the Mountain wanted to have a great lord killed, he encouraged his Assassins: "Go kill such-and-such. When you return, you will go back to Paradise, and if, by misfortune, you die, I will have my angels carry you there!" And they did everything he asked, so great was their desire to return to Paradise. Thus, the Old Man of the Mountain had all his enemies eliminated. The lords, who feared his henchmen, bought his peace and friendship.

 

But in the end, how does the story conclude? Sectarian assassins encounter Mongol state terrorism, and resistance leads to the massacre of the city of the Assassins, leaving only children smaller than chariot wheels alive. It is ultimately the amusing story of the big fish eating the little one. Assassination is perpetrated in the name of belief, people are killed in the name of "faith". Killers allow themselves to kill out of arrogance, believing they have the power to judge the lives and deaths of others. They are not aware of the limited nature of justice. They do not recognize the selfishness and darkness of humanity, thinking that by killing in the name of faith, they are exempt from all sin, all darkness. They fanatically construct a utopia in which their actions are not bad, nor are those of all humanity. This, even though man has caused numerous catastrophes throughout history, and they have all started in the name of justice, on the idea that one can create a Paradise.

 

Robespierre was guillotined, then Lenin came to power with his Cheka, followed by Stalin who set up his Gulag; finally, Mao Zedong emerged on the scene with his Cultural Revolution Group. And then Pol Pot gave us his Khmer Rouge... If these people on the front lines are assassinated, ousted from power, it changes nothing. The cycle of history continues and repeats itself always. Killing leaders is useless since the concepts, the ideals remain the same in people's minds. It is the people who create history, and history repeats itself. With this body of work, I would like to pose the following question: In our reality today, what are we doing to change this cycle of history? Are we continuing to kill leaders? Or are we trying to change the mentality of the people? How can we truly have a progressive approach to history?