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.

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

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.

The Vengeance Of Silence

All is One.  All else is superfluous.

While the temporal consequences of the spiritual unity that binds His universe are fully grasped by no one, some of us, tender reader, grasp more than our fair share.

Recognition precedes alleviation of all forms of mortal poverty - save one, for to recognize a dearth of wisdom is to acquire it.

Wisdom is man's understanding of the mechanics by which the temporal realm abides.  Ever since the beginning of time temporal phenomena feed themselves by mechanics of unyielding cause and increasingly variable effect, for time itself implies an existence relegated to a realm - outside the bounds, but forever faintly aware, of the unified essence from which it came - that is, in a word, mortal.

Understanding the mechanics of the temporal realm is a result of grasping - by the grace of those eternal, sacred, and absolute yet eroding, manifested, and meager memories man possesses by birth - how it came to be.  All mortal experience is an ongoing consequence of the singular act of disobedience, which irrevocably exiled mankind from divine provenance, severing his ties to his Maker and forging the very realm of time itself.

Distance from the source of wisdom renders poverty thereof; hence, lack of wisdom most distinguishes this age from all those preceding it.  This is as it has always been, as the erosion wrought by time is intrinsic by definition.

Man is dragged, screaming ferociously, pleading desperately through time.  It is only by his unwitting adoption of emotionally soothing and socially congealing platitudes and traditions that his shrieks are muffled to his self.  Seeing not past but into these constructs - and sufficiently so to realize the essential basis upon which their very character must have once been forged - is to understand the source of wisdom: thinking congruently with the symptom of the divine, the cause for which all mortals aspire, and the effect towards which all works strive: order.

Every poor sop, of course, thinks congruently with order - but how much so?

To the skeptic all social distinctions delineate men by degree and not by kind, but man is nothing but a brute except in relation to others.  Divine imperative eventually trumps human observation every time and man - despite what might be the most well informed sort of hope - does possess a spirit and is no brute.  It does not make sense, tender reader, but man cannot rely only on himself.  Any such proposed path to understanding - let alone wisdom! - is doomed to failure by its very articulation.  But time is a sadistic master, for no other path even can be pronounced by mere mortals - but only understood.

In the crude present men must face this particular paradox of life (and there are many others) rather more directly and to act well without (or, more properly put, with less) inherited self-definition requires at once more discipline and daring.

In superior, foregoing ages men more often inherited their identities, knew who in relation to others they were - and they did not need to think about it because they assumed it.  But, again, the effects of time are unkind to its captives.  The further time progresses the less favor pure wisdom can curry in relation to mere worth.

And so the poor's man wisdom is despised.  It is despised, tender reader; it is despised!  This has never been more true - and will only become more so.

I have offered wisdom - truth, even - as a poor man.  I will not provide such charity as a rich man and he who understands why such provision is charity needs no explanation as to why.

סייג לחכמה, שתיקה

Jerusalem