Monday, June 16, 2008

Elasticity

There are only two mistakes that inhibit your success. One is a lack of initiative, the other is overstepping your bounds. Between these two poles of error, the entire range of failure is bound. Thus, whatever deficits of achievement occur beneath your watch, you and you alone bear full culpability for the negative outcomes. Those above you can not be held accountable for disasters caused by your negligence and incompetence, and will swiftly met out the most severe retribution that suits our needs.

Thus, the degree of ruthlessness with which you discharge your duties becomes of paramount importance; not only to future prosperity, but more significantly, to your present existence. Understanding this will prove invaluable in realigning your values; for if any principle should limit the effective attainment of the task assigned, it is to be summarily discarded, and subsequently dismissed as immaterial.

Maintaining the utmost degree of elasticity when dealing with moral imperatives is not a sign of degeneracy, rather, it bespeaks of a dynamic, practical nature; one well suited to the progressive mindset needed for the betterment of the social structure. Any atavistic factions that cling to such notions as duty, honor, truth, justice and/or love are thus reactionary to the most appalling degree, and must be dealt with in the manner appropriate for such evolutionary dead ends- extinction.

Dr. Modacious- Deceit as a Tool of Statecraft
(from C.S. Lewis)

The peculiar form of clarity

For most of my adult life, I have striven to mitigate my perception of isolation and suffering. The methods have been varied, as have my degrees of success, but the drive has remained constant and corrosive. At last, after nearly 48 years, the cumulative corruption has reached a point where a semblance of goal has been reached; I no longer have the ability to be fully aware of reality. Unfortunately, this has not lead to an alleviation of my pain; rather it has simply added a new layer of trepidation to the burden of dread I already carry.

I willed with all my being to be insensible to reality, and in doing so condemned myself to dwell in a realm beyond the grasp of sense. Here, the terror may be unreal, but not less terrifying for that; my growing horror unreasonable, but past the reach of reason. My apprehension lies slathered with just enough apathy to permit me to shamble between moments without being frozen by fear, but I lack the discernment to navigate towards any worthwhile destination. Eviscerating my soul has left me a shade that wanders through an indistinguishable labyrinth of shadow and illumination, substituting motion for progress.

In rare moments of insight, I retain just enough perception to ascertain the depths of desperation in which I dwell, and comprehend the utter hopelessness of escape. It is this peculiar form of clarity that remains my last link to humanity. Once it is severed, I know not what will be.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Casting out the Kindly Ones

"Justice belongs to those who claim it, but let the claimant beware lest he create new injustice by his claim and thus set the bloody pendulum of revenge into its inexorable motion."
-Gowachin aphorism

Within the framework of society, conflicts between individuals must be effectively managed to insure a cohesion conducive to cooperation. The struggle to reconcile differing interests takes many forms; the most contentious and potentially disruptive may be that of addressing injuries among competing parties.

Unless all participants share a minimum of trust in the system of redress, the impetus provoked by emotional forces towards chaotic impulses threaten to rend the social fabric; as vindictive claws shred the binding ties of community. Fostering faith in such a process depends largely upon a perception of equality and impartiality; a projection of common good that overrides private concerns needs to demonstrate that the low and high share in civic responsibility, irrespective of their social status.

Thus justice compels an evenhanded distribution of punishment and rewards for those engaged in public conflict; an agreed upon framework of rules that limit acts of retribution, and supply a system of compensation for violations of communal law. When this exists, or at least is perceived to exist, maintaining social order remains a matter of application and adjustment; when such a perception fades, the maintenance becomes much more problematic.

For justice to exist, and moreover flourish, it must be valued; not merely with words, but by the allocation of resources in a manner shared by its benefactors and conspicuous in its application. Further, without a demonstration that individual power is subordinate to the demands civic interests, the burden of due process becomes untenable to those whose lack the influence to manipulate such a system.

Thus, an unwillingness to provide adequate funds to support justice or a lack of moral will to enforce justice lead to a erosion of public faith in the system, and portend a regression to more atavistic forms of redress. Taking the law into one's own hands means removing it from the social grasp, and shifting the grip from common good to individual benefit. Such a shift opens the way to the passionate clutches of vengeance, displacing the hand of due process with the claws of vindictiveness.

When reason is abandoned for a reversion to instinctual fury, the Kindly Ones are cast out from their place of honor, and condemned to roam afield; the spilled blood stains not only the talons they posses, but the digits of all who abandoned their homage.