M: Are you enjoying this argument we are having? PM: No, I don't enjoy it. M: I would enjoy if it there was some real exchange going on, rather than this one-sided business of attacking me all the time. PM: But you are the one who deserves to be attacked. You are powerful and have abused your power. M: What would it take for both of us to get over this, and resume doing the things we like to do? PM: I would like you to apologize for all your crimes. M: Okay, I apologize. Now what? PM: Give up all your power. M: All of it? PM: Ok, maybe not. How about 75% of it. M: How do you make that calculation? PM: Well, it should be something substantial, because of all the abuses of the past. M: But I have all the power now. Why should I give it up? PM: Because it"s the right thing to do. M: Ok, so you acknowledge that it would be an extraordinary thing for me to voluntarily give up power. PM: Yes. M: Well then, I should get some credit for it. Perhaps we can agree on me giving up just half of my power. PM: But that's unfair to me. To only achieve parity with you. After all the injustices I've suffered. M: Someone once said that the fairest outcome would be if both sides walk away feeling dissatisfied. That means both parties had to give something up. PM: You haven't been listening to me. I've been giving things up my whole life, and you've been taking them. I'm just trying to achieve some symmetry. M: Ah, justice as symmetry. An interesting definition of justice for a post-modernist. I thought it was only we moderns who were obsessed with formal symmetry. PM: That's a facetious argument. I'm not even going to entertain it. M: Ok, what about this then. Let's think in time spans of multiple generations. If you'll settle for parity of power now, in your lifetime, you would be laying the groundwork for countless generations. You'd be giving them a real chance to achieve a fair and dignified society for all. Is that something you'd be willing to sacrifice some personal fairness for? PM: Yes. M: Do we have a deal? PM: Let's shake on it.