COTE: The Best Generation

Vol. 1 - Prologue

PROLOGUE

Kiyotaka's POV

As I was sitting on the bus waiting for it to arrive at its destination, I began thinking of the things that has been on my mind lately.

Are people equal or not?

A proper society will constantly strive for equality. There are those who clamor for men and women to always be considered equal. As a result, we raised the employment rate for women, we made specialized subway cars only for women.

Sometimes, women will even argue over the order of names in a family register.

The public opinion of people with disabilities has also changed. We're now told that we should not use the term "disabled people" when referring to them, so as not to discriminate.

Nowadays, children are taught that all people are created equal. But is that true? I have my doubts. If men and women have different abilities, then their roles should also differ. People with disabilities are still disabled, no matter what polite euphemisms you use. No matter how you try to avert your eyes, the meaning of the word does not change.

So, my answer would be, "No, we are not equal." To be human is to be unequal. Equality does not exist. Long ago, in a bygone era, a great man said that heaven does not set one man above or below any other. However, he did not necessarily adhere to the idea that everyone is equal.

Did you know that there is more to that famous passage? The rest goes like this: Everyone is equal when they are born, so I ask, why do we see differences in position and status? And it continues: Do you or do you not encourage learning to create a difference? 

So then, education creates an imbalance. The point's spelled out there, in the incredibly famous work Gakumon no Sume.

I, myself saw this inequality with humans even before I was integrated to society. I witness many people fall behind, unable to meet the expectations set up for them. But I did and as a result I was consider better than anyone. In short, my existence alone proves that equality is a myth. And it's pointless trying to fight for something that doesn't exist.

So, why when I came out of that place, the people in society strive for it? I have seen it at internet, television and any kinds of media that I manage to get an access to in Matsuo's household. Protest, rally and movement around the world for equality, despite the fact that we live in a modern and "free" society, it still run rampant across the globe.

Did some ideology or belief misled them into believing it exist? Race, gender, workers, identity or education. These are the things that commonly people fight for equality. These things also had independent movement from each other, some of them overlap on one another. A person who belief in racial equality might not support gender equality or vice versa. The point is people had different say on different matter. Just because this person fight for equality of this doesn't mean that person will also fight for equality for this. Which is to me, doesn't sound equality at all.

So, what they are actually fighting for? Most people who fight for equality are the one who experience harsh treatment from other people or the system they live in, regardless of what kind of equality they are fighting for. They hadn't experience better and wanted to experience better. So, the most logical conclusion I can came up is; "people do not fight for equality but for change"

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, stated that "change is the only constant in life." And if you think about it, he is right. Kingdom rises and fall, people live and die, ideology surfaces and vanish in all throughout human history, but humanity's drive for change ironically, never change. Even if our society can be considered as the freest time in human history for normal people, many still wanted changes. Some even want to go back to the point where our freedom is reduced.