Friday, May 10, 2013

Agent of Order

An agent of order does what is right.  Doing the right thing is inherently justified, intrinsically good.

I quite like my breakdown of beliefs, possessions, and relationships as the components of man's dominion.  Below are the key fundamentals of orderly action in preserving your dominion as a man.

In beliefs - all: know nothing is as it seems, trust nobody, act decisively, never regret, believe in Him.

In possessions - finance: pay debts, save money, live cheaply, diversify investments.
In possessions - property: own few, repair broken, preserve ageing, conserve scarce things.
In possessions - position: fulfill all duties, exceed expectations, under-promise, over-deliver.
In possessions - body: lift weights, exercise often, eat meat, cut carbs.

In relationships - superiors: honor, respect, don't instruct parents, elders, benefactors, bosses.
In relationships - inferiors: respect, instruct, command; do not insult, demand, threaten.
In relationships - all: never complain, question, explain, yell; honor your word.
In relationships - general: be confident, calm, positive, strong; disclose minimal information.

Be an agent of order.

Right of Heredity

Disorder is the consequence of mutually exclusive effects.  Humans act to achieve their desires.  Human action is an effect.  Power is the means by which potential effects are impacted.  Social disorder is, of course, inevitable given that humans have infinite desires and finite time.

Power is only perceived or realized.  Power is realized as action.  Power is perceived as influence.  Action and influence are the two forms of power.


The three types of power are spiritual power, manifest power, and social power.


Spiritual power derives from that which you command with faith.  In the spiritual domain, action is dogma and influence is religious.  Your spiritual power is based on the conviction, universality, and immanence of your beliefs.


Manifest power derives from that which you command with force.  In the manifest domain, action is action and influence is perceived.  Your manifest power is based on the security, desirability, and proximity of your possessions.


Social power derives from that which you command with information.  In the social domain, action is sovereign action and influence is political.  Your social power is based on the rivalry, excludability, and value of your relationships.


Your beliefs, relationships, and possessions form your dominion.


Social power is a funny thing and sovereignty is miraculous.  All human societies are disorderly to a degree - generally to the extent that collective social power is perceived nonexistent.


Collective social power is restrained by faith and constrained by force.  In other words, to the extent the ruled do not openly rebel against the ruler, there is combination of actual faith and threat of force.  The less political information is, the more faith in the ruler and the less force need be threatened to deter rebellion against the ruler.


Rule by faith is the right to power; rule by force is the will to power.  The less manifested power (action ipsum action) was perceived required to achieve recognized right of rule, the more likely there is belief in the right of succession.  The case of minimal manifested power is the case where belief is inevitably immanent.  This is also the only case wherein authority, responsibility, and incentive all stem from the same source - that which created it.   Indeed, the act of creation is participation in that which distinguishes Him - sovereingty itself.  If rule by faith is orderly, rule by recognized birth right is order itself.  The right of heredity is inevitable.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Conservatives Encounter Rusty Rock of Governance

It's always amusing when the futile, desperate, noble attempts of the outer party to just get a whiff of real power crash against the rusty rock of governance.  Secretary of State John Kerry's key line from his statement is:
We have to de-mythologize this issue and certainly depoliticize it.
Bewildered conservatives!  Was Benghazi a cover up?  What horror!

Fear not, tender reader, our dear Huckabee is on the case.  As Politico reports:
“I believe that before it’s all over, this president will not fill out his full term. I know that puts me on a limb [...] But, I remind you — as bad as Watergate was, because it broke the trust between the president and the people, no one died. This is more serious because four Americans did in fact die.”
[...] 
And as the truth about the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi emerges, Huckabee said, “they will have lost the right to govern.”
The right to govern!  Were there such a thing that the governed could revoke by fiat!

The issue here is not that facts were or are irrelevant, inconvenient, misconstrued, evolving, or contradictory.  It's that they are inappropriate.  The truth of the sovereign is not to be implicated, let alone transgressed.

If conservatives were to have had more experience in actual governance, as opposed to the populist whining of democracy's perpetual losers, they might even understand why.

Bewildered conservatives - do feel free to reacquaint yourselves with that old, rusty rock of governance:
No human society can exist without government, nor government without sovereignty, nor sovereignty without infallibility; and this last privilege is so absolutely necessary, that we are obliged to suppose infallibility, even in temporal sovereignties (where it is not), on pain of beholding society dissolved.

Three Red Pills

What can a person be said to possess?  Yes, there are material possessions, personal relationships, language skills, knowledge of history, professionals achievements.  But these are particulars - what are the most fundamental possessions of man?

More precisely, what are the intrinsic ends of human action?

Proposition: pleasure, wisdom, and power are the three intrinsic ends of man.

Pleasure - momentary by nature, man's experience of himself, a physiological experience.
Wisdom - everlasting by nature, man's experience of his Creator, a spiritual experience.
Power - everything not momentary and not everlasting, man's experience of others, a social experience.

With respect to Plato's theory of the soul as explained in Book IV of The Republic:
Pleasure is epithumia.
Wisdom is nous.
Power is thumos.

And, of course, Catholicism:
Pleasure is body.
Wisdom is spirit.
Power is soul.

In other words, it ends where it begins.  Yes, there really are only three red pills.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Your Blindness

What is the meaning of all this?  What is the reason for this experience of being?

There is no ultimate, general, permanent purpose of life, of course - at least none accessible to mere man, but what might one say is the heart of the matter?

You are bound to the supreme throne by a chain.  You do what you can; you do what you will.  You demand proof of this, revealing your blindness; proof is unnecessary and not even possible.