Monday, June 30, 2014

Nihil Dicit


Everyone knows the nature of the truth that is concealed from the public record by this taking of the Fifth.  Obviously.


Less obvious is the implication of fully digesting such an eminently dangerous realization: that this case clearly calls out for a Grand Inquisitor.  But Americans are not worthy of government that displays even the pretense of probity or virtue so whining, negotiating, and reforming will have to suffice.


Our maître à penser:

And yet, when we reflect, that the Inquisition, by its restrictions, and authority, would have prevented the French Revolution - it is hard to say, whether the Sovereign, who, wholly, and without reserve, gave up this instrument, would not, in reality, be doing an injury to humanity.
Americans know not the depths of rot to which their nation has sunk.

But they sure do deserve it.

Rep. Paul Ryan Encounters Sovereign Lawmaker


This interaction between Representative Paul Ryan and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says too much.

Repeat after me, Congressman: the United States is not a nation of laws; the United States is a nation of men.

Let us suppose that Congressman Paul Ryan did not so much enjoy the perks, prestige, and privileges accrued to him by virtue of his esteemed post in the House of Representatives.  Perhaps in such a farcical world Representative Ryan would have delivered a line more appropriate for the occasion of stumbling upon a man that enforces law by obstructing justice, such as:

I hereby resign from my post in Congress because I no longer believe that I can deliver on my obligations as I perceive them as Representative of Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District.

Alas, tender reader, we live not in a farcical world.  We live in the real one.  And this charade should boost Representative Ryan's ratings among Tea Partiers!

And so the world turns.

But, Americans - my dear, precious Americans, please - look at that man.  No, not the Congressman - the lawmaker.  Look at him.  Study him.

Imagine his world.






He openly flouts your representatives.  He lies by omission.  He admits nothing; he denies everything.

Look at him.

Notice his composure.  Notice his calm composure.  He is secure.

He is secure in his secret knowledge.

For as long as he testifies before Congress, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen pronounces truth, for there must always be one to whom it may not be said: you have erred.

Koskinen is - for the purposes of the IRS scandal - the face of sovereignty.

Koskinen forswears all knowledge, denies all allegations, and refuses all suspicions.  His words admit nothing, but what he does not mention says far too much.

He does not accuse; he does not beg; he does not reveal; he does not plead; he does not request; he does not complain; he does not question.

He defines what was and what is for the record.

By admitting nothing Koskinen literally makes law as only a sovereign can - by saying nothing at all.


And so, tender reader, that Representative Ryan does not believe the IRS Commissioner matters not.  Sovereignty requires not belief - only obedience.

Friday, June 13, 2014

סייג לחכמה, שתיקה

Communication for its own sake is, of course, vanity.

Nothing of ultimate consequence is communicable, least of all the meaning of life, which is at best understood.

More precisely, one experiences the meaning of life insofar as he acts well.

Στη στιγμή της δράσης θυμηθείτε την αξία της σιωπής και της τάξης

Thucydides was close to the mark, but talk is cheap, plans are trifling, and action is inevitable.  This, then, is the mark:

סייג לחכמה, שתיקה

Saturday, June 7, 2014

The Mortal's Expectation

Man desires unity; he yearns, lusts, craves.

Man wants unity.  With everything.

He yearns for unity with his Creator and experiences the divine symptom of unity: intuition.

He lusts for unity with another and experiences the carnal symptom of unity: pleasure.

He craves for unity with the infinite void and experiences the transient symptom of unity: time.

To the mortal, intuition is timeless, pleasure is fleeting, and time is quite literally everything.

Man’s desires are sufficiently intense to warp his understanding of reality. 

Man is a creature of habit.  He assumes that the foregoing will continue and he is often correct.  But when man’s expectation is violated, he must remind himself of his own mortality, for recognizing, understanding, and actually believing in one’s mortality is a sufficiently mighty impetus for action to render any disappointment not worthy of deliberating upon.

Man’s desire for the next moment is so fundamental, so essential to his contentedness that the realization that it will not transpire is perhaps literally inconceivable.

The expectation of death not only quells the grief – no matter how grave - born of misplaced expectation but also inspires disciplined, rightful, productive action.

Doing the best thing requires expecting that the inconceivable may really actually happen next, which is impossible.  So do the next best thing, tender reader.  Try.

Discretion

To communicate - as the word is used in the common vernacular – generally entails the intentional transmission of information for reasons including the apparent sake of doing so, but this is only explicit communication - a category of action.  Properly understood, though, communication is not so much a category as it is an aspect of action.

Man by necessity acts across time.  In initiating action man communicates – at the very least his passing preoccupation.  Man by volition explicitly communicates to his fellow.  In initiating explicit communication man implies – at the very least his apparent intention.

Action communicates; communication implies.

How one acts is always in an ultimate sense communicated.  Why one acts is always in an ultimate sense implied.

Assuming he does not think he lacks even an infinitesimal degree of free will – perhaps an impossible thing to genuinely believe - man likely acts in an orderly manner insofar as he does not perceive his actions to be initiated, for all man’s actions are continuous – and only perceived to be discrete. Assuming he does not believe he is entirely incapable of explicit communication – perhaps an impossible thing to actually think – man likely acts in an orderly manner insofar as he does not perceive his communication to be explicit, for all man’s communications are implicit – and only perceived to be explicit.

To communicate only by the implied meaning of action is an unintended consequence of acting in an entirely orderly manner, which is impossible for a mere man, since to do so requires the capacity to satisfy one's desires entirely or at least to satisfy his desires regardless of the actions of others, but he that could do either would not only eschew communication deliberately but be immortal and, therefore, incapable of communicating in the human sense at all.

How the man of Eden acts is exactly why he acts, for his only preoccupation is exactly his only intention: his very being. 

Notwithstanding appearances to the contrary, how man lives is ultimately why he does; and so, the why and how of all human action are essentially synonymous.  The mortal must strive to recognize that great truth; insofar as he does, he likely will act in an orderly manner and, as a consequence, explicitly communicate less.  To communicate only by implication is to align with a divine mandate of social order: discretion.