The Shadows are an alien civilization which also very mysterious, manipulative and powerful. Over millions of years they have come to oppose the Vorlon empire. Their philosophy and understanding are all driven by a simple question: “What do you want?” In this system, the identity of an individual is only defined in terms of actions and goals. Any identity, underlying motive or free will is not considered. This is similar to Consequentialism where the ends justify the means. Since most of our immediate desires are worldly, it might also be a realist or materialistic philosophy in its routine application.

Machiavelli is a good example of this style of thought. In his most famous work, The Prince, he describes how one acquires and maintains power. He does not attempt to describe “ideal” prince (that is to say “who he is”) but simply what actions must be performed in order to achieve a goal. This pragmatic view is political realism.

Not all desires are about the pursuit of power. For example we could ask of Socrates, “what does he want”? Could we say “rationality at any price”? (quote from Nietzsche). We could also say Plato: knowledge, Aristotle: wisdom, etc. (Incidentally Lennier indirectly asked for this of the Shadows.) If we pursue any goal too single mindedly, we risk losing our perspective.

Today’s society seems to seek happiness above all things – that is Hedonism. If we ask how is happiness achieved, we immediately see that our society has the goal of happiness but not the means for achieving it. Consumerism is the current solution – I would suggest Buddhism for its meditation or psychological therapy for those seriously pursuing happiness…

Some movements don’t even have an answer for the question “what do you want?” I am thinking particularly of post-modernism. Of course, this is not intrinsically good or bad. Movements like these specialize taking answers to these metaphysical questions and, effectively, analyze them until the original thought is obliterated!

And Other Issues

There are several secondary metaphysical questions that are mentioned by one or other of the characters and not aligned with any world view in the story. These questions serve as another thematic backdrop to the TV series but are not addressed at such a literal level.
Who do you serve? (TV Movie “In The Beginning”)
How will this end? (Series 2 Ep 9)
Who do you trust? (Series 3 Ep 16)
Have you anything worth living for? (Series 4 Ep 2)
Where are you going? (Series 5 Ep 22)

Have you ever noticed that in story telling, when characters finally ask these questions of each other and their situation, some critical information is revealed? I suspect the same is true in life.

The majority of people find all this speculation absurd since they can continue to live without addressing them. Obviously, people have to have some idea of good and evil but to ignore these issues is to have habit as the basics of ethics.

“Who am I? What am I doing here? and Where am I going? Those had to be the very first questions we began asking when we became sentient, and we’re still asking them.” JMS

Anti Citizen One