There is a notion bought by the majority of people that there is such a thing as a homogeneous humanity and then there are Others. Aliens, machine intelligences, angels and demons. This is utterly fucking ridiculous as I know, or know of, human beings that fit every possible archetype of an intelligent being you can imagine. And I don't believe in Cthulhu or Solaris. Hence this exercise which has nothing to do with mythology but rather describes actual people I know. If you don't find it helpful, spare me and fuck off. If you're offended because you're religious, fuck off even harder.
Humans
First there are the ordinary humans. They lead ordinary lives. They don't have individual power over the world, they don't transform it, they don't even dream of it. They live their lives as part of society. They are an integral part of the world.
These are the people who think they're dreaming big if they wish to be mutants with magic powers so they can "fight crime" and gain glory. Or win the lottery so they can acquire lots of pieces of paper and gain glory. Or be an insignificant cog in a dubiously effective mass protest that makes it into the papers so they can gain glory.
Or become politicians like Obama who are impotent figureheads incapable of changing the behaviour of the political system they belong to so they can gain glory. Or become head of a big corporation so they can be swept adrift by the storms of finance so they can gain glory.
Are you perceiving the pattern here? These people are PART OF THE SYSTEM. And the thing they ultimately care about is their place, their status, IN the system.
Types of Humans
Now, there are many different types of humans and the differences between them are rather interesting. The three major types of humans are cows, people and zealots.
Cattle are those placid humans who follow along with the group, always. They don't have any independent desires, not even to better their status within the group, unless of course the group says so. Don't think for a moment that cattle are pacifistic or harmless. Bloodthirsty mobs are made up of cattle. The genocidal savages in black Africa are made of cattle. Anyone who's ever seen a cattle stampede knows they are dangerous.
People are those with some independent desires but no great passions. They are moderate, not extreme. They have no overriding ideologies. They have Hobbies, not Causes.
Zealots are those with crazy ideas which they follow to extremes. Crazy ideas like participating in politics really matters. Or mass protests do a lick of good. Or industrialization is a bad thing because poverty is better. Or the economic status quo is something to be preserved. Or poor people ought to die, starve, freeze to death. Or we can avoid freezing to death using weak ambient sources of power like wind, sun and biomass which belong to the Medieval Ages. Or war is good. Or nationalism is good. Or religion is good.
Then there are two minor sub-types of humans. The super-man and the hero.
Super-men are humans whose will far exceeds that of ordinary humans, even zealots. They make things happen. They are leaders of humans. They're still human so their aspirations still lie entirely within the system. Their dreams are the system's dreams, and not necessarily the dreams (or orders) of those around them. Super-men want glory, they just want it infinitely more than ordinary humans. William Gates III is a super-man.
Heroes are people who sacrifice for the system, for society, for others. They achieve what nobody else accomplishes because it took exceptional and individual sacrifice to do it. If "sacrifice" is expected then it isn't sacrifice at all, it is mere duty. Sacrifice is voluntary. Soldiers and firemen are often called heroes by fascistic societies like the USA but they rarely are because they're just doing their jobs.
Zealots all like to think they're heroes. They aren't. Almost none of them are. They just fantasize they are like adolescents reading American comic books. Not even the zealot leaders are heroes since they rarely if ever sacrifice anything at all. Their usual method of operation is to demand sacrifices of their followers and the world at large. In exchange for special dispensations against guilt or just plain old ego stroking. They're indulgence sellers.
A human who's a combination of super-man and hero is obviously a super-hero. Oskar Schindler probably counts as a super-hero.
Powers
Powers are beings beyond even super-men. They're not at the extremes of humanity because they have moved entirely beyond it. They hold individual power which they have created rather than societal power which they were given. They have the willingness to impose their will on the system, on society, and on the world.
They are capable of independent judgement of good and evil (goals), not just right and wrong (what achieves a goal). They wanted to develop and possess their own independent standards. They can't be judged by human standards because they are the judges. It is the system, society and the entire world that are judged by the Power's standards.
Powers' lives can no longer be contained by this Earth nor any society within it because they seek to transform it. Their dreams are not of Earth but of Heaven. Powers come in two mutually exclusive categories, the merciful Angels and the merciless Demons.
Demons
Demons are Powers of limited empathy. They are incapable of genuine concern or mercy for anyone else's suffering. Their overriding concern is exploiting all others, whether they be minions or free-willed, in order to bring about their vision of Hell on Earth.
The demon Steve Jobs for instance is constantly seeking to bring about Appletopia. And if many zealots worship Appletopia this only means they're demonic cultists, not that there is anything redeeming about Steve Jobs' vision.
Arch-demons are lords of demons.
Steve Jobs' superior William Gates III is an arch-demon.
Elves are not the bowdlerizations of Tolkien but the enticing creatures of chaos and destruction depicted by Terry Pratchett. Elves are evil. Elves lie pathologically, they are malicious, and have no concept of morality. Empathy is beyond them.
The typical psychopath is an elf, whether violent or non-violent. Bonus points if they're charming.
Auditors are worse than even the elves. They seek the destruction of humanity for their own petty convenience.
Any demons pushing Deep Ecology are obviously Auditors. They push the ridiculous notion that morality entails homo sapiens sapiens submit to extinction so viruses can live. Obviously they have no grasp of moral theory and they seek to annihilate humanity to cover up that lack.
I'd like to classify Ayn Rand and other key lying zealot leaders of the right-"libertarian" Cause as Auditors. After all, if they ever succeeded in bringing about their hellish nightmare of a world where everybody is a psychopath and a slave, civilization would collapse instantly and human extinction would begin within a month.
But unlike the scary eco-zealots, the right-libertarians don't actually desire humanity to go extinct or to undergo a massive die-off. The eco-zealots do. That's what makes them Auditors. And it is why I personally vote they should all be put to death like the elves. Every single one of them, even the merely human zealots.
Angels
Angels are Powers of full empathy. This means they have an acute understanding of your suffering and are capable of genuine mercy. This does NOT mean they'll have any mercy on you. Meeting an Angel is not always an unambiguously good experience.
There's a reason the Fallen Angel and the Avenging Angel exist as stereotypes. The former has expended all its mercy and has none left to give you. The latter wants to see you suffer in retribution.
Angels live their lives dreaming of Heaven. Their overriding concern is transforming the system to make of the Earth into a Heaven. They may consider this Earth to already be Hell. If so then they want to make of Hell a Heaven.
I'm not going to name the Angels I know. I will say it doesn't take much effort to see their halos.
Archangels are lords of Angels. No longer just leaders or teachers of Angels, Archangels are grim and forbidding figures. They no longer implicitly trust Angels or consider them their peers. They may not trust Angels at all. They're now willing to veto, impose their will on, and even judge Angels. If they seem happy and amiable, it's just because everything is going their way.
Demiurges have mastered their power and are transforming the world using what's already there.
Gods create ex nihilo.
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