How could a man like Barrow Rakovshchik willingly diminish the worth of all of his accomplishments in the business sector for a dream that was not only unobtainable, but also false?
A successful first-class chief executive that had managed to climb high enough on the corporate ladder to understand the truths of many matters should have known better. Mech piloting may have become a glamorous profession in this day and age, but a significant part of that was due to the unceasing propaganda efforts of the Mech Trade Association.
The MTA had successfully reshaped human culture and much of its institutions to revolve around mechs.
The mechers worked so hard to elevate their favored war platforms that they worked hard to suppress everything else.
Infantry? Too small and weak.
Warships? Too big and destructive.
Tanks? Too inflexible and easy to defeat by mechs.
Aeroplanes? Too one-dimensional and not cool enough.
Starfighters? Same as aeroplanes but in space.
It only took several generations for the entire population of the human race to treat these assumptions as gospel.
Yet the truth was much more nuanced. It was not always the case that mechs outperformed other war platforms. The main reason why mechs had remained so dominant was because too many economies of scale had formed around their development and production.
Even if mechs became less efficient than starfighters, the former was a lot cheaper to design and mass produce due to the huge amount of existing infrastructure and trained personnel!
If other combat machines such as starfighters enjoyed similar advantages, then mechs would face an uphill battle trying to dethrone the dominance of cheaper, simpler and less demanding small craft.
Perhaps the people living in the lower layers of society were unable to discern these truths, but Barrow Rakovshchik had to know better.
Mech piloting had become a galactic obsession by design. It was only due to the will of powerful leaders at the start of the current age that mechs completely displaced the position of warships, starfighters and other war machines.
Being a mech pilot was also not as glamorous and enjoyable as it sounded. Mech cadets
had to forgo other studies that could allow them to become a useful addition to the normal workforce.
Instead, they largely had to spend their years learning how to fight and study the theory that would help them do so more effectively.
Once they entered the workforce, most mech pilots would never participate in any serious combat for their entire careers.
This was partially because signing up to work as a guard or other civilian duty offered little exposure to true combat.
Those who joined militaries or outfits that saw combat on a more frequent basis weren't paradises either.
Most people remembered the heroes who survived the battlefield and managed to thrive under the circumstances.
They hardly paid any attention to the many mech pilots that suffered untimely deaths and turned into forgotten statistics.
Only those who survived continuous challenges and managed to showcase special talents woul have the capital to turn into true celebrated heroes!
Yet how many mech pilots could earn this coveted status? Breakthroughs were few and far in between. The vast majority of ordinary mech pilots never received the opportunity to step onto the path of godhood for the first time, thereby causing them to feel increasingly inadequate over time.
Becoming an expert pilot was as rare as people developing good genetic aptitude if not rarer.
A human essentially had to win the lottery twice in a row in order to be able to trigger apotheosis and become a demigod!
The vast majority of mech pilots eventually recognized their own mediocrity and ceased to pursue a breakthrough that became increasingly more fleeting as they aged and started their own families.
Mech piloting had lost much of its glamour by that time. The veterans who managed to persist at this point mostly recognized that their jobs were not so special anymore.
They were glorified soldiers who risked their life and limb to wage war on behalf of distant leaders and politicians.
They suffered all of the hardships of combat yet earned almost none of the rewards. Their higher social status granted them a bit of satisfaction, but it did not necessarily make them or their descendants rich or famous.
Even if only a fraction of the human population was eligible to pilot mechs, there were still too many mech pilots for all of them to become famous enough for many people to know by name!
Far more mech pilots ended their careers without the glory that they imagined back
when they were optimistic youths.
To sum it all up, to become a mech pilot was nothing more than to become another pawn in the conflicts of this day and age.
Only the rare few possessed the strength, skill, courage and luck to promote to more powerful chess pieces.
Yet it was unrealistic to invest so much of your life in a pursuit based on a
low-probability event.
As a businessman who worked in various different positions at Yarad Industries, Barrow clearly understood how to perform a rational risk-benefit analysis.
He could clearly understand that it was completely stupid to devote so much of his life to a profession that wasn't even as great as everyone thought.
Yet Barrow could not help himself. His obsession had rooted itself too deep into his
psyche. Common sense no longer held any sway over him on this matter. His adoration and his desire for mechs had grown too strong during his youth, and had never faded over the years as was the case for many other norms.
Medical professionals had already categorized this phenomenon as a mental disorder. In other words, people like Barrow were actually sick in their minds!
The only reason why most people did not take it so seriously was because every other norm suffered from this mental affliction at one point in their lives.
The only difference was that they recovered from it sooner or later.
In the case of outliers like Barrow, that 'later' would probably stretch on until he had breathed his last breath!
Barrow did not deny that he may be suffering from a mental disorder.
He just did not think that there was anything wrong with it. His compatriots over at the
NMRI agreed.
When the CEO commiserated with the chief scientist over his latest discussion with his wife, Idni Zenokon made a dismissive scoff.