Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
I think the story fumbled the message, ultimately.

The idea that conflict is inescapable to some degree and there will always be "things going wrong" and being resilient enough to cope with it – that much makes sense.

The idea the being safe is inherently dangerous and people will get bored of it? Firstly I don't buy the humanity could get to that state anyway – there is always going to be a villain or a mistake or a good-natured disruptor like Azem to keep things interesting, or a natural disaster will occur, or at worst a society might collapse but people survive and will try to rebuild.

The basic idea "accept that suffering will happen and prepare yourself to be resilient" makes sense, but it seems undermined by the suggestion that some races actually achieved perfection and then collapsed because of it.

The better message is to accept that things will go wrong, but still strive to make the world as good a place as you can.
The message was not about being inherently safe, is that true perfection and unity leads to destruction, the lack of motivation, just existing. No room for anything interesting, nothing to strive for, nothing to work towards. That's what caused them to collapse, they had absolutely nothing left to live their lives for, nothing that they needed to push towards, no real dreams. Just an empty existence. Striving towards it is one thing, but one can never grasp it. It's essentially akin to the tale of Icarus. Get too close to the sun, and you get burned and fall to your doom.