Old Unreadable Texts

The best of the elders gathered. Each had watched thousands of cases over many generations and considered which outcomes were desirable and which ended terribly, taking care to contemplate and understand their causes, mistakes, and process of decision. They sought to finalize their observations in a compressed form, distilling them into simple rules so all their people could benefit from this wisdom and move onto better aims than individually repeating unnecessary error.

After several generations of following these teachings, the mass had been separated from most error and no longer understood the reasons for the rules. They began questioning these teachings and even mocking those who honored and sought their wisdom, for they no longer had sight of how situations unfurled, nor their danger or prospects for loss. They instead believed that all outcomes were equally attainable, no matter their prerequisites or choices that carried doomed inevitability.

The compressed form of rules was an error of communication. While an excellent shortcut to an answer, the instinct of rebellion made each rule unstable, necessitating a voluminous explanation of every situation each elder observed, their common threads, and the reasons for the inherent factors of difficulty and capitulation that could be accurately predicted.

If another group of elders were to appear again and think it worthwhile to encourage the mass to avoid self-destructive errors, they would need to produce a well documented long-form explanation as a compendium to the rules. Unfortunately, the mass no longer reads books or seeks wisdom. The summarized brevity by the wise was an error, and no second opportunity for correction would appear.