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Lobha continued to be a scourge, and if any group warranted censorship it was lobha. It was an ongoing debate at Silad as to how much the lobha should be monitored and restricted. Sadly their dynamism was needed. These people were driven – as their name suggests by greed, and this drive was needed by society. But their greed could not be allowed to take over as it had done in history – the lessons of accumulation that were so clearly insisted on in schools. People accepted the need to control this greed both in themselves and in those for whom the drive took some hold.
Now there was not intolerance towards lobha that had been so prevalent in the years of stagnation that followed the dark years of accumulation. Whilst there were still people alive who could recall stories of the destructive society accumulation in power had created, there was no way that people could accept this. There was much censorship and repression of those with drive, all knew that drive was necessary but they were never going to allow that drive to create wars and poverty as it had done in accumulation times. But with the drive repressed there was stagnation, and in the end that apathy had created a certain level of destruction.
Human drive was vital, it brought the chi to society. The dynamism of vitality was needed, and whilst there was always creativity the kilesa of so many people provided that dynamism. Especially amongst the young fresh from conditioned upbringings. During stagnation schools controlled the dynamism of the young as they feared that youthful dynamic kilesa might lead to the rise of accumulation again. Now Silad knew that such energies needed to be redirected, during stagnation those energies were understandably squashed - recent history being tangibly that much more conscious.
But the Silad had discovered that channelling the survival kilesa of the young and using their drive for mutual benefit brought greater stability. It was necessary tightrope. Even now lobha were still a problem but it was recognised as a problem of immaturity. Lobha in young adults needed to be monitored as those adults had not matured enough to recognise their paths of compassion and sila. Once they did these people became good citizens as Yassat could personally attest; Yassat was ashamed of his own time when he was ruled by kilesa and was so grateful for the guidance given to him by the Silad.
Expert analysts still questioned why young were still rebellious. During the dark years rebellion was nature’s sila expressing itself as young people became aware of how unnaturally destructive a society of accumulation is. Young people rebelled against the destruction and rebelled against their parents because they were a part of the satrapy. Once stagnation set in young rebelled again, this time because the vital energy of youth was being repressed by those who feared the return of accumulation.
But now why was there rebellion? Most generally it was accepted as a natural consequence of nature’s conditioning. Despite Silad being more harmonious, the self that was created during upbringing needed to fight, needed to struggle, needed to suffer. It was selfish ignorance of the young. The self needed to suffer before path could assert itself by ending the suffering, this was how people matured. During this period of rebellion now such struggle was not socially beneficial as it had been during accumulation and stagnation. Now the rebellion just created suffering, and adults were just patient waiting for that suffering to lead to a mature acceptance of the path.
Yassat’s rebellion had been particularly strong causing his parents and the Silad great concern. It was of course during his teenage years that his rebellion first showed, and he acted out mostly at school; such behaviour was totally unacceptable at home. But Yassat soon became aware of the consequences of such behaviour, both in terms of the school and far worse what happened at home. He was acting out, as they called it, but he didn’t want a life of punishment at home. So he sought behaviours that he enjoyed but which did not bring him into conflict at school - so no problems at home. Theft gave him excitement, it was not theft for benefit because he could not use any goods he stole – and selling for profit might be detected at home. He often stole and then gave the goods away, but even that had its risks if his friends could not explain. This led to greater peer corruption because his friends had to be able to justify where the goods came from, before he would give them away. As a result he became very popular, but in the end there came a downfall.
The more difficult the theft the greater the excitement, and he eventually stole jewellery. He never understood the vanity that jewellery attached to but he was attracted to Jasmine – and she liked wearing rings. Because she wanted the ring, she lied to Yassat as to how she could explain the ring. When she came home with this emerald, her parents never let up – where had she got it? As was the expectation she was reported to the Silad where the questioning continued. The ring was traced back and returned to the jewellery store, and Jasmine was monitored; this became her only youthful transgression and her behaviour became even more exemplary. Her family had given her sila.
It became clear to her family and the Silad that this was going to be her only transgression so the Silad began to look to her friends. Amongst her friends there were a few names that had been involved previously in acting out - Yassat was one of them. Each was then monitored even though the Silad had thought the acting out had stopped. Yassat was discretely assigned a case monitor who first examined his behaviour and then looked into family life. Outwardly all appeared fine but within the family there was no expression. Encouraging creativity had become a measure of family stability for such case workers, children must express, adults must express – it is freedom. The case worker began to closely monitor Yassat, he found out later when they became friends at the Silad. Once Jasmine had been rumbled, Yassat was grateful that she had been true to her word; he took this as a warning to control his behaviour.
Weeks turned to months, and his need for expression led to acting out – he began the theft again; only this time he had a witness. His behaviour was recorded and he was confronted with it. This was the beginning of his recovery. The case worker understood his need for expression, his acting out – the thefts, and of course the roots of the problem. The family became marked. Yassat and his younger brother attended creativity sessions. The children accepted that their mother was safe but that she fell in line with the strict upbringing. The father had to accept that in this day and age his formal strictness was unacceptable, he too began correctional training. Soon the home was not so repressive. Yassat’s brother was comfortable there, the mother enjoyed a newer freedom, and was able to stand up to her husband with the Silad’s help. And the father attended counselling where they discovered this came from his parents; by the time in later years when Yassat and his father met they were able to talk about this. Yassat’s acting out had paid dividends, and the family recovered. But by that time the seed of Marie was inside Yassat.
Yassat had been assigned a new case whilst he continued to overview the monitoring of Gentec; this case arose through Gentec. The son of one of the executives had been brought up on an exploitation charge. Yassat went to interview the son, and the girl who had brought the charge.
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Public Domain Science Fiction Writer 
