Our system of values.
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So, let’s go over this again. You have some young people who work long hours in what you call a ‘hospital’, where they must do a lot of difficult and demanding work, and they tend to members of your species who are sick, injured or at risk of dying?
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Yes
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And they are given hardly any of what you call ‘money’, and have low social status?
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Er, yes
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And you have some other young people who can make sounds with their voices that some other people find pleasant? And that’s all they do?
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Correct
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But they are given lots and lots of this ‘money’, and enjoy high social status, power, prestige and privilege?
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Yes
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We don’t understand
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Well, it’s to do with market forces and the mass market… but you’re right, it’s hard to understand
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Let’s try another example from what we have gleaned of your world. You have some young people who fight for their country in what you call an ‘army’, and they may even be required to lay down their lives to protect their people and their values?
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Yes, we call them soldiers.
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And you have other young people whose job is to pretend to be someone they are not, and to read out lines written by someone else?
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Yes, we call them actors.
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And remind me which of these two groups are paid millions of units of your ‘money’ and may achieve the highest possible social status and power?
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Mm, it’s the actors. The pretend-to-be-someone people.
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Not the soldiers?
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Never the soldiers.
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We do not understand this either.
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Well, it’s complicated…
And so on.