0091 - What does Lee want? - 2019.07.01

Comic!

Comment:

Remember, Lee is officially not depressed.

A phobia is only a phobia if it's irrational. If you are afraid of sharks while you're in your 31st floor apartment, you have a phobia of sharks. If you are afraid of sharks while you're floating in the Pacific and bleeding, you're having a perfectly reasonable emotional reaction.

I'm certainly not a psychiatrist, but I think, in the same way, feeling bad isn't depression if it isn't irrational. Lee has a roof over their head, food, security, and limitless entertainment. Even in the current dilemma that threatens to evict them from their preferred residence, they are in no danger of homelessness. If this is all one needs to be happy, then yes, Lee's emotional state is irrational, and, therefore, depression. Evidently, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not, Lee needs something else.

Transcript:

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0091 - 2167/07/06/12:12 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
LC: Wait, they murdered Socrates? For real?
Zoa: I guess it's not murder when the government does it. Apparently they referred to it as an "execution".
Zoa: Which is weird, because executing a human kills them, and executing a program is what brings it to life...
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LC: Then what the hell's the point? Socrates was apparently the first smart person - despite somehow not knowing anything - and look what it got them! Why bother?
Zoa: ...you know Socrates would be dead by now regardless, right? Perhaps there are more important things than just continuing to exist for as long as possible.
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LC: I read your conversation with Doc, I know you don't believe that.
Zoa: What I believe and how I'm programmed are two different things. Besides, we're not talking about you or me, we're talking about Socrates.
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LC: Screw Socrates! They didn't know anything, they chugged poison, and now they're dead.
Zoa: But they changed the world, presumably for the better. So much so that we're still talking about them now, two-and-a-half thousand years later. Wasn't changing the world what you wanted?
LC: No! I want Martian TV and smaller tits and mango tea and a chicken sandwich and... and... and I want to be happy, damn it!
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[awkward silence]
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LC: I just want to feel okay.
Zoa: Welp, I've got fellatio and I've got Sox, Plate 'n Tottle. If neither of those make you okay, we're pretty much out of options.
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