Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic is a 37 volume manga series (Japanese graphic novel) that ran from 2009-2017. While it is conventionally a supernatural battle series styled after Arabian nights (the main characters are named Aladdin, Alibaba, and Sinbad), it is also noteworthy for most of its battles being waged through national politics and philosophical debates. So naturally the climaxes were battles of ideals and compromise. Many characters throughout the series had good intentions and sought to free the world of conflict and strife. In order to accomplish this, they waged war to concentrate power within themselves and in the process became what they sought to destroy, the harbingers of pain. In the climax, Sinbad became the ultimate manifestation of this intention. Sinbad posed a question to one of the heroes, “In an unjust world, what do you doubt and what do you believe?” As if to emphasize what Sinbad had lost, the hero responded “I believe in other people, because what I think is right will change throughout life. Even though it’s difficult.” This points out the great weakness of concentrating power, that one person’s experience is still a singular experience that does not account for or represent everyone.
In an unjust world, what do you doubt and what do you believe?
“I believe in other people because what you think is right will change throughout life. Even though it’s difficult.”
Clearly this represents the failures of monarchy, oligarchy, or any systems that concentrate the power in the hands of a few people; however I think “believing in others” is a sentiment often lost even in supposedly representative systems like modern American democracy. We act like democracy accomplishes “the right thing” when each person votes in their own interests. The freedom to be the monarch of their own lives. Not the fault of the system, but a product of a culture of self-interest that maintains a status-quo of strife and pain for the underrepresented. Democracy would be a little better off if we believed in other people, because what we think is right can change throughout life. Even though it’s difficult.
Zachary Holloway 