Prologue

The battle within...

It’s one of those pointless, meandering, and increasingly ridiculous discussions students of psychology, philosophy, the arts, and even law, get into regularly:

If you could have just one superpower, which one would you choose? Why would you choose that power?

At least two or three students will raise the usual ill-thought-out and facetious arguments that all power corrupts and that ultimate power corrupts ultimately. Therefore no one should ever be given superpowers because they would always misuse and abuse them.

While it is true that power does corrupt, it’s not for the reasons usually argued. It is not having power that corrupts. It’s being able to use it unfettered, unmonitored and unchecked. This lack of control or restraint dehumanises the user.

Being human is to live a life of constant constraint and restraint. The rules of your family, the laws of the community you grow up in. The rules at school, the practices of your religion, and the regulations of your country’s government. These are all designed to constrain and restrain our more savage impulses so that we can live together in relative harmony, peace, and safety.

Without them, we would be no better than the other predators on the savannah we evolved from.

As a Philosophy professor, I’m often asked by students to agree with them when they say that any religion or ideology is bad.

They are, but not for the reasons they all believe.

I point out that religion was invented by man (the male-gendered of the Homo sapiens species) for man to control man. And that, indeed, anything that helps to control and moderate a man’s more savage and fundamental nature is a good thing. Or were they suggesting we allow men free rein to express their natural animal savagery?

It’s always interesting to watch feminist students grapple with this concept.

But, getting back to the point.

What power would you choose?

If you believe the students, choosing the ability to fly made you a megalomaniac who wants to be above the rest of humanity. Wanting the power to flash fire people with your eyes means you were a serial killer in the making. Yearning for the ability to control other people’s minds means you were a control freak who wanted to rule the world and probably a rapist.

Then there’s the power of invisibility. If you want this, you are definitely a weirdo and a rapist. Why else did you want to go sneaking about unseen? If not so that you could perve on unsuspecting women and creep into their bedrooms?

No woman would want the power of invisibility, the women in the class would airily tell each other.

I’d wager at least a few did, but peer pressure is often terrible.

Here’s a question: What if you had access to almost limitless power? Power to do anything and everything you desired, but that this power came with stringent controls and constraints?

Maybe some overriding council of other super beings monitored and moderated its members and punished those that overstepped the acceptable bounds.

Or maybe the power itself had some inbuilt moral control feature. Use it to save or help people, and it worked exceptionally. Use it to hurt, harm, or destroy, and it would rebound back on its user and obliterate them.

Would it be safe to give that power to a human individual now?

I don’t know.

I don’t have superpowers. I don’t even have a cape or delusions that one man, even one super-type man, can change the course of history and stop humankind from destroying itself.

These stories are just more examples of American imperialism. Why else is Superman’s outfit red, white and blue? Why is Wonder Woman’s the same?

What I do have is a stone. It was bequeathed to me by my great-great-grandfather as his eldest living male heir.

My great-great-grandfather lived to a remarkable 136 years of age, outliving his son, grandson, and great-grandson in the process.

Why haven’t you heard of him? He never visited a doctor’s or hospital. It wasn’t his age that killed him. He fell off the roof of his three-story mansion.

The housekeeper said he told her that he had finally unlocked the stone’s ability to fly and that he was off on a surprise visit to his mistress’ place because he knew she was fucking his driver.

At 136, I’m not sure there was a screw left that wasn’t loose.

I was 49 years old when I received the stone.

Chapter 1 »