Puck on... Duality

We are at war with ourselves.

Oh, you think you understand, do you? That you’re at war with your very nature, right? Is that what you think?

Don’t misunderstand, that’s not untrue, just inadequate an explanation. Your situation is indeed as schizophrenic as you imagine. You are two minds, two natures. But it’s less Jekyll and Hyde than you would hope. It’s not that you are at war with another mind within you but the same mind. I’m splitting hairs, but I trust you’ll understand why in a moment.

You see it as a civil war of the soul. One side the good, that wants good, that knows good. The other evil, that wars and works against the good. A surprisingly eastern philosophy for a protestant. But it’s not that. There aren’t two, just the one. The traitor is yourself. You, being good, fight and strive for that good. Then you, being bad, tear down and mock the good that you build. You erect battlements and walls to keep temptations, to keep me, out, and then you wonder why they constantly fail and seem to crumble and dismantle themselves. When, of course, you are the one dismantling them. The conspirator, the man within your ranks collaborating with the enemy, is you. You think I’m lying.

We are not our sin.

But are you not a sinner?

Yes.

Doesn’t your sin matter, then? Doesn’t it carry some weight? If not, then what would redemption mean? Would it be necessary?

But we are forgiven. We don’t have to carry that burden anymore.

But you continue to sin, do you not? What of that?

I don’t-

Didn’t one of your greatest say that he had the desire to do good but could not carry it out? “But what I hate, that I do.”

He also said that it was no longer him but the sin living in him.

True. But that means sin lives within you. You want to divorce yourselves from it, so it doesn’t touch you. But it’s there and it means something. Where did you get this idea that you were two different people: the one good, the other bad? Are you not one person? Without excuse? You see, when you believe that you are two, it makes it so easy to not feel guilty for the things you do, because it isn’t you. But it is. A part, a piece, whatever euphemism you use to try and make it seem like it’s not so much you as something or someone else. But you’re wrong. Every sin is a willful act, an act of you. It must be or salvation itself is meaningless.

And who do you suppose would benefit most from that conclusion?

Puck on... Comparison

So what’s the answer?

There is no answer. Only the question. Only the pointing out of a particular flaw in your species’ reasoning.

We say we want individuality but all the while praise conformity.

Not quite, my boy. You have individuality, yet you crave conformity. Individuality is not something you attain it’s something you possess. You are individuals. It’s part of your existence. The fact that you believe you can be human without individuality is the mistake.

The world wants conformity, you want conformity because you are fighting individuality. Though, that is perhaps not the best way of putting it. To be more precise, you are fighting a particular individuality.

Everyone else’s?

Ha-ha! Oh that’s brilliant. But, again, not quite. Sometimes, yes. And how poetic, too. Crafted in the divine image you seek to craft everyone into your own image. But not what I meant. The individuality you are fighting is the individuality that recognizes itself as such and does not seek change. What you are fighting is the contented individuality.

I told you we liked individuality just fine provided it was the kind we liked. Well, the kind that you like is the kind that is not satisfied with itself. The kind that seeks change, what it calls improvement, but is only the placeholder for conformity. And that’s what the world wants. An individuality that wants to be like all others, that is willing to mold itself so, to follow the wheel grooves and not stray. An individuality that hates individuality. And do you know why?

This is about control.

Power. Yes. Because flocks are easier to control that single sheep. A person is smart, don’t they say?

But people are stupid.

Yes. But why? Because they choose to be. Because they have the individuality that is most wanted. You can’t stand any other.

So we try to control each other.

It gets worse than that. It would be easy if it were some vast conspiracy or even a part of human interaction, each will trying to conquer the other. There is something very animalistic about that. But it’s worse. The process doesn’t confine itself to everyone else’s. It’s most brutal attack, like so much else, is the subtlest.

Haven’t you ever woken up and thought you were a failure? Ever looked around at friends, family, complete strangers and thought that they had something you didn’t? Haven’t you ever stood in the sanctuary and known without a doubt that you were not as good or mature or right-minded as the person next to you? In school, you got grades. Little modes of assessment to tell you if you were farther along or not. In life, there are stages, jobs, possessions, financial securities, methods to measure your maturation. Rubrics that you create for yourself or someone created for you. Rules that are never written down, that have no power, yet mean everything. And you’re sure, convinced that everyone’s getting it but you. And even if they aren’t, you are all failing some predetermined standard. Everyday. All the time. It never stops, this judgment, this grading. You live in it; it is your life.

Don’t you see? The subtlest poison is comparison. To others or the standard, it doesn’t matter. Because that’s the secret. The individuality you’re fighting is your own.

Puck on... Individuality

You hate individuality?

Oh, no, we like it just fine. Provided, of course, that it’s the kind of individuality that we want.

Which is conformity.

Well, that’s a rather bland way to say it, isn’t it? It makes it sound so boring. Why not give a nice title? After all, as we’ve discussed, you humans do like nice, catchy names for things.

What would you call it?

Why not: Evolution? After all, it’s all heading towards the same thing, right? The ultimate existence? The paragon animal? And you are just animals, after all, correct? Why, look at the animal kingdom. Oh, yes, diverse, certainly, with your cats and sheep and sharks. But notice the similarities amongst the cats and sheep and sharks themselves. Can you tell them apart? Yes, you have spots on one and stripes on another, but the spots are always spotty and the stripes always stripe-y.

Presumably they can tell each other apart.

Presumably, yes. Though 9 times out of 10 it’s by smell. But look deeper than that. How many existential lions are there, do you suppose? Or erudite mollusks? Any creative giraffes? Or an ape who finds the termites in this particular hill more tasty than another? Aren’t they all very like each other?

I think some people would insist that their pets are quite unique.

Of course, they would. But how much of that do you suppose is their implanting personality into their animals?

You could easily argue that they were drawing it out.

Yes, you could, but that’s through domestication. In the wild, would they not find themselves forced to follow the call of their species or be left to die? That’s what you do, you little individuals, so keen on offering individuality to everything else, potted plants included.

Is that so wrong?

We’re not here to argue that. The point is that of conformity, as you said. Do you not realize that nature asks for conformity? Adapt or die?

Yes.

And yet you would insist that individuality is some kind of virtue, wouldn’t you?

Yes.

How many of your fellow men would agree with that?

I think a lot.

Really? How altruistic. Don’t get me wrong, they would most certainly say that. But what would they actually believe?

I see, you’re saying people celebrate individuality, but really they are only celebrating the aspects that they want or like or need. That they are fine with individuals provided they are their kind of individuals.

Does that seem so surprising?

No. Most of the time when people offer freedom they are really only offering another set of guidelines.

Exactly. Conformity. Oh, you don’t call it that. You call it a million different things. Fitting in. Adapting. Evolving. Communing. Coming out of your shell. Hanging out. Being social. And my personal favorite: growing up.

The world asks for conformity because that is what it needs. Like nature, it has no space for individuals. You fool yourselves, of course. You talk about your uniqueness, of geography or ethnicity, but it’s a cover. You see, there’s a theory that’s been going around a while that you are nothing more than animals. And if you truly believe that arguments can still be made for society and order as the constructs of man’s evolution, but only just so. If you really believe that there’s nothing that would allow you to be individuals or unique at all. Because you would still be products of nature and it does not want but one way. There are no parallel branches on the evolutionary tree, only superior and inferior limbs.

Now, where do you suppose you got that idea?

Puck on... Differences

Ah, but I can tell you still are not fully convinced.

What you say makes sense.

But…

But why me?

Why not? Humble, are we? Oh, come now. Is that what you think? That you aren’t worth it? Not worth the time or effort or skill? That there is just isn’t enough special about you to demand my attention, is that it?

Something like that.

What if I told you: you are absolutely right?

I would ask: why waste the effort?

Well, firstly, it’s my effort to waste, and I do so at my leisure. Secondly, I don’t consider it a waste. Oh, not because of you, specifically, or anything you’ve done or what you could do or might do. No, no, it’s not you.

And yet it is.

You see this is not an issue of you personally or any man. Oh, I know the differences. It’s not as if you all look the same to us. We can tell. We spend a lot of time trying to convince you otherwise because we can tell. In the end, we choose to treat you the same because we want you to be the same. Because to us, you are the same. In the end, at least.

To us, you’re cattle. A good farmer can tell each of his herd apart, undoubtedly. But when you’re leading them up the ramp, they’re all alike, the differences die long before they do.

Then why? Why spend so much time-

On one man? I already told you that. One man is everything. Oh, we have led the masses astray before, all the time. But it’s not as much a culling as you might think. In the end, there’s a hook for every fish. One could certainly wish for a trawl net, but things rarely work out like that. And there’s much less style to it that way. You see, it’s not you personally, it’s you… existentially.

No, I can say with certainty, there’s nothing particularly about you that one might label as “threatening” or “important”, nothing that would make you a special target. But nevertheless, there is something about you that drives us. Not what you’ve done, not your personality or talents, not who you are but what.

Human?

Individuals.

Puck on... Appearances

So, is that all this was? An attempt to… what? Trick me?

You make it sound like such a waste of time.

But why?

You keep using that word. I don’t think you fully understand the implications. But, then again, we need not go into the broad spectrum, the imminent cause will do. Why did I go on for so long just to fool you?

Yes. Why?

Ah, but the question answers itself.

How?

Why did I try to fool you? To fool you, that’s why.

To fool me, specifically?

Yes.

Is that all?

Again, you make it sound so foolish, but really, what could be more important, more demanding of my time that the fate of a single soul? Have you never learned? Or, like so many of your race, do you only view value in the grand scale? Of men, not man, of nations, not homes, of civilizations, not individual lives. Because small things have small significance, don’t they? For surely, they must. Size matters, ha, after all. Goodness knows, important things never come in small packages.

So you’re saying individual lives matter more than the masses.

Don’t you believe that?

I just never thought you would.

How you misjudge me. I know the truth. Individual lives matter more than all of human civilization, my boy. Civilizations come and go, along with governments and nation-states. Compared to the life of one human soul, all of history is a passing fad. We, my kind, see this. The great ruse we play is making sure you don’t. Making you think all of this, this mockery, this painted backdrop that you play out all your drama against, is the “real”, the solid, the meaningful. You give your lives for this, you will take other men’s lives for this, and Hell laughs.

You are of monumental importance, dear child. Every soul is. That’s why we tempt humans, not countries. These are but the furniture that makes up the manor of your souls. Countries cannot be saved, people can. Civilizations cannot be damned, any more than can a table, people can. You see so little. The forest is a blinder for the trees.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Appearances are always deceiving, that’s why they’re called appearances.

Puck on... Politics pt. 13

Oh my, I have gone long haven’t I? Of course, there is, oh, so much to talk about.

So what’s the answer?

Hmm?

What’s the answer? You’ve talked a lot about what’s wrong with Politics.

And you’re asking what’s right with it?

No. But what’s the right answer. We’ve discussed the wrong ideas, so what’s the right one?

And why are you asking me?

You’re the only other one here.

Touché. But what makes you think I know?

I think you know. You know the wrong answers because deep down you know what the right ones are. At some level, you know.

If I know, then why am I what I am?

You rejected it.

Oh, it’s more than that and less. I don’t care. That’s the thing. I don’t care. I don’t give a lick whether you know the right answers. I live for the fact that you have no idea what the right one is and are mired in so many bad ones.  What? Did you think this was for your education?

What was it for then?

Ah, ah, that’s why again. You always want to bring the conversation back there, but you haven’t earned my reason yet.

Then what are we to make of politics?

Good question. In fact, I believe that was my question. What are you to make of it?

I don’t know. I’m not sure there’s anything we can make of it.

Perhaps. But what is certain is what it is making of you.

It divides us.

You do that already. Politics is just another means. Another dimension to categorize yourself. Republican, Democrat, Independent. Just more words and titles and little boxes to put people in. Another thing you want to tell you what you ought to do so you don’t have to decide for yourselves.

It breeds power struggles.

It is power struggles. That’s the bread of butter of politics. Another means for the big to control the small. For those who are in the know to dupe those who are ignorant.

It makes us hypocrites.

Yes. But, then again, what doesn’t have that potential?

It makes us into something we’re not. It ties us to something we shouldn’t be attached to. It makes us less than what we are called to be.

It is earthly. All its coloring is mundane. What could be more fleeting than politics?

Maybe the question isn’t: what do we make of it, but what do we do about it?

What, indeed? Live with it? It’s not going anywhere. Use it? It will tear you apart. Ignore it? Then how are you changing the world?

Maybe we don’t do any of that. Maybe it isn’t about using it as a means to an end, but making an end of it.

Are you being poetic?

A little. Maybe it’s not about harnessing it, like some wild animal that we can’t control. Maybe it’s about conquering it, like every other temptation we are faced with.

And how will you go about that?

I don’t know.

Then what hope is there?

I don’t know. But I believe there is one. I don’t the answer. But I believe one exists.

Bravo, my boy. You know, for a second, I thought I had you.

Puck on... Politics pt. 12

And, of course, it doesn’t stop there. I trust you have realized by now how the whole process is riddled, nay rife with that little concept we talked about earlier.

“Us and Them.”

Yes. We might call it the law of politics so endemic is it to the system itself. Why it’s what the system is built on. After all, what’s the point of striving for power if there’s no one to strive against? That’s where politics gets its power. It implants the idea that one side is salvation and one damnation, then feeds off the fruit of its labors. The backbiting, the empty promises, the general hypocrisy are all symptoms of this, this underlying vein of thought that winds through everything. Reaching across the aisle is even used in this way, with one side insisting that it would be more than willing to do so if only the other side would cooperate, by which it means stop being the other side and agree with them, and the other side is simultaneously saying the exact same thing. Oh, it’s delicious.

It’s getting to the point where it needn’t be hid. Do you know that in this very political season the phrase “lesser of two evils” has actually been used? And not ironically, either. Quite seriously. It’s hardly to be believed. You’re practically doing our job for us. Does it occur to none of you that that statement carries with it so much misunderstanding and simple-minded thinking that the wisest of every generation have regarded it as little more than a joke? Setting aside the sheer idiocy of the idea, “the lesser of two evils” means you are still picking an evil. And that assumes, of course, that the one you are choosing really is the lesser. How can you be sure? Are you really picking him because he is more righteous, or I should less unrighteous, than the other? Or are you simply picking him because he isn’t the other?

Ah, there’s the rub. Us and Them. Such a useful tool. So many applications. Both sides employ it, for it’s what drives them. And the hypocrisy of even those who think they are above it, who think they are superior to the rabble that don’t know how to think for themselves. Even you aren’t above it. How much of your life is dictated by it? Don’t be so demure.

And all those little people who think they are backing the right horse for no other reason than because he is the only other horse to back. Where’s the progress? And see how they judge the others for the same action. How they accuse them of constructing their cult of personality around their man, thinking him their savior. And what are they doing by detesting him? Are they not constructing their own cult of personality around him but simply in the negative? For worship and hatred are two sides of the same coin. They come from the same place. They each give power to the object adored or despised.

Don’t be disappointed. None of this, not an iota, is anything new. “Lesser of two evils” has been around longer than any of you, that’s why it’s so laughable that you would fall prey to it, a trap so many before you have successfully avoided. But it matters little. Politics doesn’t care. Politics wants power and cares not for the means to get it, as we’ve discussed. One side battles another, feeding off the failures of their opponent, even while feeding them from their own. Like two parasites on the same host. They bicker, they battle, but in the end the only one that suffers is the host.

If you, any of you, were smart, you’d stop. But you’re a junky for politics. It’s got you hook, line and sinker. Because when challenged you fall right back into the old philosophies. Don’t you see that as long as you buy into the idea that Them winning means doom things will never change? Why should they? Us will always be there, standing against Them. The only hope. Never mind that they are saying the same things. Never mind that the party of Us is no more righteous. Best to stick with the lesser of evils. “The Devil you know”, right?

Ha! “The Devil you know.” That’s something I would say.