Faith of the Fallen pt. 2

Another small excerpt from Faith of the Fallen, this time speaking on life.

Faith of the Fallen, by Terry Goodkind (pg. 749-750)


"'Evil is not one large entity, but a collection of countless, small depravities brought up from the much by petty men. Living under the Order, you have traded the enrichment of vision for a Gray fog of mediocrity--the fertile inspiration of striving and growth, for the mindless stagnation and slow decay--the brave new ground of the attempt, for the timid quagmire of apathy.
You have traded freedom not even for a bowl of soup, but worse, for the spoken empty feeling of others who say that you deserve to have a full bowl of soup provided by someone else. Happiness, joy accomplishment, achievement. . .are not finite commodities, to be divided up. Is a child’s laughter to be divided up and allotted? No! Simply make more laughter!
Every persons life is theirs by right. An individual’s life can be and must belong only to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave. No one can deny another person their right to their life, nor seize by force what is produced by someone else, because that is stealing their means to sustain their life. It is treason against mankind to hold a knife to a man’s throat and dictate how he must live his life.
No society can be more important than the individuals who compose it, or else you ascribe supreme importance, not to man, but to any notion that strikes the fancy of that society, at a never-ending cost of lives. Reason and reality are the means to just laws; mindless wishes, if given sovereignty, become deadly masters.
Surrendering reason to faith in these men sanctions their use of force to enslave you--to murder you. You have the power to decide how you will live your life. These mean little men up here are but cockroaches, if you say they are. They have no power to control you but that which you grant them! This is what the Order offers you: death.'"