Instructions

And the death of Empire

more machines (looking at you AI) should come with that label…

Greetings All,

Sometimes I feel like humanity is being sent an incredibly complex machine, one tiny piece at a time, through some kind of inter-dimensional portal. It’s our job to make sure we receive each piece carefully, that we do not bend, fold, or break it, and that we figure out how to put it correctly into place amongst the rest of what we have received before too many new pieces pile up.

This is somehow ALWAYS going on. So believing that the job of it will one day actually be done only sets one up for disappointment and burn out, resentment and despair.

Civilizations seem to be waves of coherence built up around a belief that this job of machine building can actually be finished. Each civilization either re-remembers that it is engaged in this building activity, or else some large piece of the machine is fully constructed and hums to life. Either way, the people wake up and say “hey, this is a worthwhile endeavor!” and press happily onward.

But then, as time passes, they begin to see that there is no end to this building, that the moment of finishing this project is so far off in the future, if it even exists, that they cannot fathom it at all. And they despair and begin destroying ourselves and all that they have built.

Or rather, they first slow, stop, and forget the work, and it is that forgetting which destroys them. They forget to build, the backlog of pieces builds up, and the machine slows or stops working. They may despair and work harder, but that never seems to complete or reach any resolution. Then, they despair even harder, and somewhere in that despair, begin to actively work against the machine’s construction, or begin tearing it (and each other) apart.

Now, I find this is a curious metaphor to explore, because I am not sure what is being pointed to here. It could be describing Empire (capitalism, “civilization,” patriarchy, colonization, extractive consumption, supremacy). And if that is the case, then we are all best served by letting that machine break down, for it is killing us and our place on this planet. Our seeming reliance on it being no different than any other addict’s “reliance” on their drug of choice; ours just happens to be profit and fame and success and control achieved through the “thingifying” tendency of Empire.

But the metaphor could also be pointing to a sacred plan that humanity is meant to enact within this dimension, upon this planet. In which case, we had better start listening to those original instructions, pick up whatever pieces are lying around, and start re-building as soon as possible. We need to urgently try our best to save this whole project; it’s in danger of imminent and critical failure.

The question here is, as we receive an “instructions” in the form of an inner desire, a wish, a plan, a life path, an inspiration…. Is it for the first machine, the one of Empire, or the second, sacred one?

How can we know?

Oftentimes, the true fruits of our labors flourish too far into the future for us to realize them ahead of time, so we cannot immediately be sure that what seem to be good results actually mean we are on a good path, working on the right project.

If the instructions we follow are coming from the Empire-addicted parts in our culture, we might not see it until it is too late. Many who enact Empire upon themselves and upon the world do not know that they are doing so, nor do they know what the results of their labors will be until well after it is too late to undo them.

Yet, if we wish to follow the second set of instructions, we likewise cannot refuse to act out of fear that we might mistakenly be following the first. That too would be to allow Empire to continue, to allow the seeming one power of supremacy to rule over all. It would be to accept defeat without mounting any defense of the sacred, and that, in the end, is also to labor on the side of Empire.

So, what are we to do? Can we act, knowing that we may be mistaken in our intent? Can we start to work while also maintaining enough curiosity and skepticism and humility to notice if (and when) we are getting it wrong? Can we allow space for the advice of higher inspiration, and to course-correct based on that advice?

It is a scary thing, because such work can be slow and fragile at first, while the work of Empire is fast and seems to immediately carry much strength.

But when Empire shows itself to be as vicious and toxic and destructive as our version of it is currently itself to be, then we can only hope that the pain it inflicts opens the eyes of those subsumed in its false glories. And those of us who follow the second instructions, who wish to build something good and true and sacred, must build as we can, cautiously, while both holding a space for joy, as an antipode and antidote to Empire’s increasing despair, and also building a way of understanding, addressing, and healing the wounds that cause people to fall (and stay) under the power of Empire.

After all, no creature of this planet actually wants to suffer through the deadening ways of Empire; they just do not really realize there is an alternative. There is enough suffering already present in life, we do not need to add to it through the alienation of ourselves from ourselves and from life.

I believe those of us who want an alternative to Empire must find a way to celebrate and profit by this naturally occurring suffering. For it is upon the refusal of such organic suffering that the power of Empire rests, offering as it does a tempting (and false) alternative to it.

To accept Empire’s false bargain is to push the debt of that suffering into the future. The second machine of the sacred must be built, and it is built by our intentionally taking up exactly these organic sufferings. Our refusal to do so, our belief that we can avoid them through force or wealth or cunning, is simply to put that payment off to a future date. But it’s been a few centuries and the debt collector is coming…

That second machine will be built, the sacred will be maintained here, either by us or by others who come after us.

Those who refuse to do so will be swept away.

Let’s get to work,
Ian Reclusado
of The Kind Knife

A work of art by Paul Reynard, found via facebook

PS: I’ve have an on-going long-form email conversation with an old friend in the UK that has recently touched on similar topics (Empire, objectivity) and I wanted to share bits from that conversation here.

On Empire:
My response here was to an email that included this quote from Frederick 1st, King of the Germans in the late 1100’s. It is Frederick’s response to a request for aid from Roman rebels:

“Famous indeed have been the fortitude and wisdom of the ancient Romans but ... your strength and freedom have long been exhausted by the Greeks and Franks. Are you desirous of beholding the ancient glory of Rome, the gravity of the senate, the spirit of the knights, the discipline of the camp, the valor of your legions? You will find them in the German republic ... They will be employed in your defense, but they claim your obedience. From its foreign and domestic tyrants the city [Rome] was rescued by Charlemagne and Otho, whose ashes repose in our country: and their dominion was the price of your deliverance.”

I was at a workshop last year, discussing with a fully Filipino man (I’m about 25% Filipino) about Filipino culture and colonization.

He pointed out, from his own experience in the Philippines, that to the colonized, there is often an unconscious (or conscious) belief that the colonizer’s culture is “better” than ones own, since, after all, yours was invaded, beaten, and colonized.

I think the reason for this self-shaming can be found in early mammalian brain structures, and is a fairly obvious way of ensuring the survival of the group when a challenge for leadership/supremacy erupts.

Now it’s interesting that here (in the quote) it’s a German saying this to Romans. Centuries earlier, Caesar had rampaged through the Germanic lands, committing what was basically genocide against the Germanic Celts.

I may be making connections where they don’t exist at this point, but the Empire of Rome was an early and very successful colonizer, whose civilization was considered superior by most of Europe, all of which Rome had pretty much subjugated at some point (following the trend my Filipino friend pointed out). This would likely create an image in the European collective unconscious of “Empire” as archetype, which then could be called forth by future civilizations/nations/groups…

There’s something about the Germans saying “now WE carry the might of Rome!” that feels like someone viciously bullied who finds the tables turned and now they get to be vicious. In both cases, it’s an attempt to make up for the unhealed grief wounds of culture loss. The British did this as well, of course, as did many other European countries. And Germany tried it again for a third time as the Nazis. By then the evil inherent at the heart of Empire had unmasked itself, but we humans still struggle to remember.

When I was in New York, I knew a woman who worked at a major publishing company as an editorial assistant. Editorial assistants are paid very little and put under intense amounts of stress, due to the high demand for that position. She was under so much stress that she started going bald with alopecia in her late 20s. When, later, she was promoted to editor, she would laugh about how much work she would dump on her assistant, reinforcing the “generational” trauma inherent in that industry, just as it is inherent in Empire.

What we do about th

is, I have no idea. But the patterns are pretty obvious…

On “Objectivity”:
What the right calls objective truth is the cardboard-cutout “objectivity” of scientism, the one that claims to be free of emotions while being entirely run by dark and unpleasant emotions that it refuses to acknowledge. While the left’s lack of any ability to find any objectively true ground to stand upon sinks what else it might have to offer.

To admit that true objectivity is far outside our current abilities, and to work together to aim in that direction is, I think, one of the core themes of the human experience.

this was in response to my friend’s email, which said in part:

Today we have the Right saying ‘you can’t argue with objective truth!’ and the Left saying ‘objective truth is malleable!’...

but Rolt seems to be saying “Yes, ‘objective’ truth changes with the seasons, and that’s why the only truth worth having is our shared subjective sense of the transcendent and eternal...”

PPS: I’ll add a final piece to this Kind Knife Dispatch to say that I think any political movement that addresses our shared sense that everyone should have a decent life is going to do quite well, and that this might be our best chance to return to building that project of the sacred, while letting Empire finally die away…