10th July 2013
09:27 GMT -5
Kal-El gives me a faint frown, then looks past me in the direction of LexCorp. "Were you just… Talking to Lex?"
"Yes. I'm a bit worried about the Enabling Act that's getting voted on-
"
He sighs and winces.
"-at the moment, and I thought that if Mister Luthor didn't have a problem with it then I was getting worried about nothing.
"
"Please tell me you didn't call it 'The Enabling Act' in front of any reporters."
"I didn't call it 'The-'.
"
He sighs again, but this time with amusement. "
Did you call it that in front of any reporters?"
"No.
"
"Okay. So what's the problem?"
"It gives us far too much power indefinitely. And even if it wasn't being organised through the League, it's still too much power going to any one place.
"
He frowns, puzzled. "I.. suppose it's a little expansive, but it only really covers a lot of the things we've been doing anyway. Would you really want to undo all the work you've been doing in Hub City?"
"No. But I wouldn't have done what I've been doing in Hub last year, despite the obvious advantages. And… I've been speeding it up, but nothing that I've done in Hub
couldn't have been done by conventional authorities, or… Just normal people.
"
"But they weren't."
"Democracy requires an educated and alert demos in order to work. If the people responsible for organising things
aren't, then people with the right skills should step forwards.
"
"Like
you."
"So we
are taking over the world?
"
"Ah-. That's not what I meant. We're not apart from society, Paul. We're a part of it. If that's what you're worried about, I don't see how having us do things is all that different from having a government contractor do it. Even economically; I checked, and on a per hour basis it's usually more expensive to get the Justice League to do civil engineering than it is to use an actual firm of engineers."
"Okay. Let's say that assigning responsibility for these things to a tiny number of self-selecting individuals is civilisation's response to this sort of crisis. We're not imposing ourselves. This isn't… The
English Civil War, of the king and the top tier aristocrats versus the mid-tier aristocrats and wealthy merchants. This is the
Glorious Revolution, where an unpopular king was politely escorted to the border and replaced by his daughter and her husband. The response of civilisation to the crisis isn't to fix the current system, it's to throw it out and… Replace democracy with oligarchy.
"
"I…" He nods slowly. "Wouldn't go that far, but I can understand where you're coming from."
"But even then, the top level decision-making is getting done by Batman and Mister Atom. Right?
"
"Not.. quite. They're doing most of the oversight, it's true, but Diana's been wrangling the politicians and, ah…" He hesitates for a moment. "
Arnus helped draft the legislation."
"But the strategic planning part. I know that I argued for redundancy, and, yes, two people is an improvement on
one, but it looks like we're building a system that's one unlucky dose of Smilex away from being run by someone who thinks that humans would be better off if they didn't have to waste time
eating.
"
"I agree Batman's working too hard, but who else-." He blinks, then looks over my shoulder again. "No."
"I wasn't actually thinking-. Though I suppose that his anti-matter brother could probably-.
"
"N
o. I'm not putting Lex Luthor in charge of the whole world."
"So we are putting
someone in charge of the world?
"
"I trust Batman not to use it like that. And-." He visibly ponders his next statement. "And I trust Mister Atom to realise that he isn't ready to rule the world, because I don't think he'd have agreed to join the Justice League if he hadn't. I
cannot say the same about Lex Luthor."
"Anti-matter Lex Luthor isn't that bad.
"
Kal-El sighs. "No. He
is, he's just on our side. He's every bit as ruthless and controlling as our Lex, he just does more to help people with it."
"Um.
" That's… News to me.
"How..? Do you..?
"
"We were considering offering him League membership, so we did an interview. He was surprisingly open about it."
I frown.
"He… Could probably-.
"
He holds up his right hand to forestall my objection. "We used Diana's lasso. I'm pretty sure he couldn't fake that."
Ah… No. If he was giving answers and the lasso was active, then he wasn't lying.
"I'm pleased that you thought to ask like that. Is that a standard check now?
"
"Ah…" Kal-El looks a little self-conscious. "He
is a Lex Luthor."
I sag inwardly.
"So this
is all depending on Batman.
"
"Batman hasn't been going out into the field as much…" He nods. "But if you're worried about this legislation, doesn't the fact that the rest of us aren't good enough at strategic planning to make use of it on the global scale make it easier for you to accept?"
"No, because if this
is a societal shift, the League suddenly not being able to do the job it's accepted is… I don't know if it's worse, but it's certainly bad.
"
"Okay, have you tried talking this over with Batman?"
"No.
"
He looks a little concerned. "Are you..? Worried that Batman's going to.. do something?"
"Work himself to death? Go back to managing a huge part of the League by himself causing the same single point of failure issue it had before? Yes. Turn the world into a police state? Not really. If only because we don't have the manpower.
"
"I don't think he'd do that anyway."
"I didn't think
Alan would do it anyway, and then I went a few parallel universes sideways and look what I found! But…
" I raise my hands theatrically.
"In the interest of maintaining better communication channels and avoiding another Nabu incident-
"
"You said it, not me."
"-I'll talk it through with
him. Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.
"
"I think
everyone on the League would make time for you, Paul."
I smile blackly. I suppose that they would.
"How's Ak-Var been getting on?
"
"As well as could be expected. Better than Kara, honestly. And I think it helps her having someone from Krypton that she can relate to around. How about..? Your Kara?"
"As chipper as ever. She's enjoyed having Bleez around for 'girl stuff'. I've made absolutely
no progress in working out how she got here or how to get her back, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all.
"
"As long as she's happy. Good luck with Batman."
Even if you think you have good reason to be angry, that's no reason to take it out on him.