A few words on Jacob Seed
Have you ever thought about the true meaning of his "When this time the lives of the few outweigh the lives of the many and when the nation that's never known hunger or desperation descends into madness, we will be ready"? I was always thinking of those words like just...An obvious truth no one wants to accept since only his hard trials and training were enough to turn yesterday's farmers into soldiers strong enough to fight back the National Guard if it comes before the Collapse or to survive after it. Only today I got the true meaning of his words which is way more personal.... "When this time the lives of the few outweigh the lives of the many..." HE was always that "few". Collateral damage, acceptable loss of the Iraq Gulf war. His friends, his fellow soldiers, comrades were just numbers to those in charge. Expendable, replacable, renewable, since "tomorrow there will be more new patriots" (yep, it's Shepard's quote from Call of Duty Modern Warfare). And not just the commanders thought of Jacob, as "acceptable loss". Everyone back there, in the safety of their houses in any country during any war likes to say "It's OK, we had no choice", "Someone had to, anyway", "We have to protect the majority". And when he survived, that majority he fought for threw him away like nothing. Collapse for him is the way to turn the tables. "And when the nation that's never known hunger or desperation descends into madness, we'll be ready" YES, most of the common people don't have an idea of how dirty the life can be. We are fast to judge and unwilling to understand (even I with this post can be an illustration of how unforgiving people can be in their judgment. Just think for a second, WHO AM I TO DECIDE WHAT'S RIGHT OR WRONG? Always think. Analyze. Trust no one. A-a-and back to the post). And he endured the worst in life on his own skin. He knows the real price of survival. That's why he says "We have forgotten what it is to be strong". That's why his methods are extreme. If this life can easily shatter us into pieces, then what will the Collapse do? Yep, physically some "preppers" survived in bunkers like the ones we were looting on missions with a gem icon, but enduring the end of the world mentally is hell of a different story. And he had to train his soldiers hard enough to survive both mentally and physically when the time comes. No doubt, he breaks them - it's OK. No matter if we agree or not, sooner or later life breaks everyone. What really matters is who comes out on the other side? His role was to make sure that only those survive, who are able not just physically, but mentally survive too. Faith would be their backbone, family protection - their purpose and the Father and his Heralds - their guide. We all watched post apocalypse movies at least once, so we know that being able to physically survive and protect yourself isn't enough. Survivor's instincts should be kept in check or he becomes to kill everyone like a maniac, since the law stops him no more. Jacob had to make sure that his soldiers aren't just strong enough to survive but also to live in the New Eden, where violence would be used only for protection from the outer threat.
So those lines for him were very personal and not just about the Collapse but also about the world before and after. "I cull the herd". That's his role. And it's not about getting rid of physically weak, it's way more about not letting those "strong" who just wait for a chance to go off the rails live to the new world, otherwise, it would be again filled with never ending circle of violence. And at last..."Did you think you were free?" It comes from a deep personal experience. We all think we are, aren't we? In fact we just don't feel ourselves strong enough to choose what we really like and believe in. Always living up to other people's expectations, ashamed of what we truly desire and what we really are. He saw the darkest of himself when he had to eat his friend to survive. Yet he didn't kill himself later on, he didn't break like most of us do the second life goes not the way we want it. He found himself strong enough to accept it and move on. And that made him free. No one can kill him physically after what he had survived (well, I mean his survivability is at the highest level) and at the same time no one can break him mentally since he accepted the most disgusting of himself and continued to fight for other people's future by helping to prepare an army to protect the new world. And that's why he thinks "we have forgotten what it is to be strong", because we can't survive other people's expectations that in fact mean nothing. What would've happened to us if had to face a really hard moral choice then? That's right. We would've died. Right then. Maybe a little later, when left one on one with the guilt and no fear to cloud it. And the strong must survive. For the sake of others. Not other people nor this person himself, nothing in this accursed world must be hard enough to kill us. That's what Jacob Seed calls "strong"...That's with whom he was ready to march to the Eden's Gate...
