What we had learned from one piece

Being a hero is a heavy burden only a few able to hold it, to fly with it. We can hardly find the reason of why people become a hero instead of becoming the average person. It would be hard to determine, to define, who’s a hero, who’s a villain, in this increasingly wild, wild, world. But, historical accounts have defined who are eligible to be a hero, since the hero is the person who wins, and the winner takes all, and the winner gets to write history. Yet, the myth of heroes is not monopolized by mere historical accounts, but by works of fictions as well. Picture taken from another website This writing holds the assumption that what are found in works of fiction can be also found in real life. Thus, the wisdom drawn from fiction are also applicable in real life. This is a piece of writing that considers the story of One Piece (written by Eiichiro Oda) so I really, really, mean it when I state this: heavy spoilers. “I am going to be the pirate king! ” When Luffy asked why he wanted to be a pirate king in One Piece, he said that he wants freedom. He declined to be the captain of the Strawhat armada because he could lose his freedom (and so the armada leaders decided to become Luffy’s subordinates by their own freedom). Does Luffy really mean it? Does he really going to be the pirate king for the freedom? Why doubt, though? Seeing through Luffy’s past during the flashbacks, we can see several scenes important towards his decision of being the pirate king. Even though this is a work of fiction, we can find wisdom in it. Rene Girard finds wisdom mainly in works of fiction that are applicable in the real world. We can find Luffy’s reason(s) from the first telling of the story. First, we can see Shanks lost his left arm for saving Luffy. After, Shanks gave him the late pirate king’s straw hat. Shanks is also the first person to hear that Luffy is going to be the pirate king in Luffy’s own words. In a blink in that arc, Luffy went away for his journey to become the pirate king, leaving his village after a long time. The first reason has Shanks as the model for Luffy to become the pirate king. This by itself can become a reason for the protagonist to make the story go forward. Luffy was deeply moved because previously, he thought he lost his blood brother, Sabo. Second, he thought Sabo was dead among the pyres of Gray Terminal. This traumatized Luffy because previously, he needed to prove to his older brother that he can be a pirate. They even shared cups with Ace as well to prove that they are blood brothers. Say, the thing about Sabo is an indirect cause for Luffy to become a pirate king. The second reason has Sabo as the catharsis for Luffy to become a pirate. Deeply traumatized, Luffy needs to overcome the trauma to keep on living. By storyline, “the death of Sabo” is the first loss Luffy has ever experienced. Third, not the least, it’s about Ace. Luffy saw Ace as an example of how a life should be lived. Ace’s a pirate, and a strong one at that. Luffy also saw Ace and the Whitebeard pirates as hindrance to become the pirate king. But, Ace and Whitebeard died on the war. Now this is a real trauma, as the audiences can experience it as well; because Luffy thought that both of his blood brothers are dead (Sabo didn’t die; just moved with the Revolutionaries). The harder thing was that Ace died in front of him, in front of the audiences as well. From this point of the story, Luffy decided to become stronger. Now, what are the real reason of why someone decided to become stronger? What Luffy has identified that he finds in the people he’s helping? We shall continue immediately with the question. First, the reason is about loss. Luffy lost the people he dear. In turn, he decided to become stronger so at least he can protect the people he dear, and ultimately to become the pirate king. Second, Luffy has this logical sympathy towards people without the assurance whether that the something a person hold dear might survive. Luffy is strong so he just can help people, and he identifies with the people who must suffer from the perception that something dear to them might gone — the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must. Luffy is strong and weak at the same time; it’s what makes Luffy still human, even though it’s a fictional universe. Luffy goes to see that he must not lose to protect, and if possible, other people don’t have to lose, too. This is clear in the Baroques Works Saga, when Luffy disarmed Miss Wednesday/Nefertari Vivi and to uncover her royal mission and let Nico Robin join the crew. Luffy will always try to befriend. If it’s not possible, Luffy will try to make the other person lose, as he has done towards his opponents. Luffy draws a line between us and them when it comes to losses. If the said person might lose something dear to them, Luffy will come to their aid. If the person has nothing to lose, and especially, makes other people’s lives at risk, that person is the enemy for Luffy. With that said, Luffy can avoid useless battles against the Marines or other pirates, even though the said opponent is weak. Now, I don’t want to linger on Luffy’s story anymore just because I have slept through it and still didn’t find any other ways to continue linger in his story. You see, the two reasons above are both sound reasons; they can complement each other, they can substitute each other — they can interact with each other. I don’t try to make any persuasion here, but I just want to vent out my current thoughts on one small aspect of leadership (however persuasive my words can be). Now, what is there to do when there are rival reasons, each of them sounds towards the audience? People has always in need of reasons, whether there are any real reasons or not. Let’s understand more about reason. Reasons are, in fact, unnecessary in action. What’s necessary is conviction, and conviction may only come from reasons. Don’t let this confuse you, as you can see that reason is the indirect cause of action — it doesn’t directly influence action — and for both to interact with each other, they needed the medium of conviction. What I have been doing right now is to gather all the sound reasons to put into conviction. It’s like a diesel machine; you put solar into them and in turns into energy. Afterwards, all the reasons got burned up into the conviction until it doesn’t matter anymore — at least the human sense can’t sense its residues anymore. Now, to do things with reason, you don’t have to do any “real” things with reason. All reason can do is to serve as a proof of story whether that story is being “logical” or not. What are truly real are actions, and what are truly logical are actions — just like the day of marriage, when your love finally turned into an institution with its own rules and punishment. From actions, stories emerge. But stories may emerge from lies as well, as lies can also be reasonable. Remember that stories can be made into reasons. This is the reason to doubt the reason of why Luffy wants to be the pirate king — perhaps it’s just an intricate lie woven by the lips of men, but after all it’s a work of fiction. What we’re enjoying is a work of fiction, yet we’re still convinced of Luffy’s conviction on becoming the pirate king. All reasons, true or false, are burned as fuel in the human conviction machine. When the machine moved, whether the machine suffers from a more abuse of usage, it won’t really matter as the human conviction machine can repair itself either physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. Maybe it suffered from the fuel known as lies. Maybe the abuse is minimum when the fuel is honesty. Maybe it won’t move when the fuel is dishonesty. When the machine has already moved, the reason does not matter — they’re gone into thin air. Especially when there are rival reasons of conviction, all the thing a human can do is to disregard those reasons and move with conviction. Movements are natural for human, and thus enjoyable — conviction is enjoyable. As movements and convictions are enjoyable to a human, it is a state of flow where a person is experiencing the optimal experience. Flow happens in street fights, seduction efforts, and in efforts to broaden the erudition. It feels like your brain is working optimally, your brain is generating more neurons than before, unlike the times you’re stressed beyond measure that you choose to space out. Flow cannot become the fuel of conviction as flow is the state of being, the phenomenon, observed in people with conviction. The human conviction machine cannot optimally mix observation and practice at the same time (observing practice and practicing observation sounds about the same in theory, but they’re contrasting practices). This is how academia just can’t separate between theory and practice, since it’s their job to theorize everything into theory, while practitioners are just doing it like flipping their hands (except when they’re handicapped). Now, to return to our story, for Luffy, the reason doesn’t really matter — or, he can just say that there’s no reason at all. He would keep on beating Yonkous on their games ’til he dies (the ending nobody expected, maybe). But, why though, does he have to beat Yonkous? Why does he have to become the hero who defeated the Yonkous? Why should he become a hero? I’ll repeat once, you dimwit: the reason doesn’t really matter. What mattered is the scale of conviction being held by a person. With conviction comes strength, and with strength comes power, then responsibility, more power, more responsibility, etc. Eventually, you shoulder all the world into your body, and the world relied on you for whatever you have. But interestingly, you can only suck all the world when you have a hole in you, a space in you people can come to. At first, it might come as an injury for you. But actually people can shelter in it, as the caveman shelters on a cave. So, when you imagine yourself as a black hole, it means that you can suck things into you, and the things will enjoy it as they need a shelter to stay. Imagine the size of an injury if you want to hold all the people in the world. Luffy fits this requirement very well. He has a hole in his heart, which is the loss of Ace right in front of him (all the remnants of Whitebeard’s crew have this hole of Whitebeard, but we’re discussing about Luffy here). As a story teller, Oda can stretch Luffy’s hole, for metaphorically and characteristically, he’s the protagonist and the rubber man of the story. Being this flexible and gains from injury, or should I say disorder of the world around you, are a set of true human superpower — you won’t need to become a rubber man like Luffy to become a superhero. All you need is an injury, and make a story out of it, make a reason out of it, and burn it into your conviction ’til it doesn’t matter anymore (it could still matter so you can repeat the burning process). This is the real undiscovered path of superheroes. Even though at first, your movements aren’t graceful, you will learn. Even though at first, you’re not enjoying the ride, you will. People will flock to you, celebrate you, even though it’s only for your existence. They will thank you for being alive. Sounds like mass manipulation, I know, but if you follow One Piece closely, the only meaningful manipulation is the storytelling, and that’s all you need to start — maybe another injury or two. Now, I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but rather to show you that it is possible to imitate your idol. All idols are built upon violence — at least the injury or losses they already have in their hearts. If you see human violence as a problem, then you’re a problem, too, for you a human as well. I cannot stop you from viewing violence as a problem, but I realize that violence has always been the state of the human nature, sometimes being used, sometimes peace. We have always lived in periods of war, periods of peace, sometimes with heavy abuse of violence, sometimes without. The final use of violence, in every period, is to bring an everlasting peace with the introduction of prohibition and rituals as the first human institutions. It is also prohibition and rituals that made religion possible at first, enabling longer periods of peace relative to the observed period. The evolution of modern humans is the evolution of institutions: from culture, religion, kingdoms, nation-state, to high technology companies. This modern evolution happened in jumps, namely the has-never-been-and-will-never-be-expected scapegoat mechanism, in which it doesn’t matter whether the scapegoat is innocent or not. A hint of responsibility, power, or uniqueness, among the characteristic of the scapegoat will be enough to determine whether one can be a scapegoat (imagine Hitler and the dead Jews). Scapegoat mechanism is responsible for all phases of modern human evolution, for it serves as the origin of all human institutions. Now tell me again, prior to his death, is Ace guilty or innocent? Is it wrong for Whitebeard to treat his crew as his family? From the wimpiest to the bulkiest to the manliest of man, from the most effeminate to the most tomboy, I have plenty friends cried like a baby witnessing the execution of Portgas D. Ace, sympathizing with his death — they cried when they read it, and they usually read alone just because they don’t know what will happen next. It tells me that losses are universal human experience best enjoyed alone (I know, for I cried as well). Everybody can experience loss, whether innocent or guilty, whether active or passive; it really doesn’t matter. The scapegoat mechanism has always been that unexpected in having its victims (in Rene Girard’s terms, “the surrogate victim”).