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When we acknowledge that telling lies about what people deserve and what people owe leads to the enforced assignment of some to toil on the behalf of others, and from there to taxonomies and hierarchies, the logical conclusion for many of us has been that we can only ever have that which we can take and defend for ourselves as individuals, and that only the very strongest of us can afford to take care of another person.
But there is a fallacy here, for this too leads to the establishment of hierarchies. In their purest form—the empire of unsheathed blades and hungers—the hierarchy is constantly shifting, and it is impossible to accomplish much of anything, because we are all at war with one another. As a result of this we fall into place behind our leaders, knowing that we are stronger together than apart, and our leaders become warlords.
There is a third way.
The third way is hidden from those who live singly, but obvious to those of us who are voluntarily bound to one another. If you have an amica, or a conjunx, or a former mentor, or a newspark under your guidance, you are already aware that there are many kinds of strength we can draw from each other, and that caring for someone else does not have to be a burden or a drain on our resources. Nobody is forced to care for the people they love; they do it because the other person’s happiness and welfare is essential to their own. This only becomes a weakness if we do not appreciate, respect and nurture in others what we live in ourselves.
It is impossible for us to survive in a world where all bear an equal burden of labour and all must defend themselves at all times, except in an army where we are at the mercy of our leaders. We are not all able to work. We are physically able to work when we come into the world, but we have no discernment and cannot make wise decisions, even if we were fortunate enough to have come online with a complete library of factual information, multilevel emotional processing, and motivators unconstrained by hierarchical coding. It takes a combination of mentoring and life experience for a mechanism to develop the necessary pathways to create robust value equations.
We are not all equally able to fight when we come into the world. We have frames of differing sizes, strengths and abilities, and while form does not dictate function, it is by the developed will that we function outside the constraints of our forms. We do not come into the world with a developed will. It is our right to develop it, but how do we develop it if we are forced to defend ourselves before we are ready to do it?
No-one is owed support or defence, but we give it to those whom we love when it’s needed, and to give it gives us strength. We draw renewed purpose and will from those whom we love. We are cared for by those whom we love. My conjunx makes me energon sweets and brings me things that I want but can’t find. I shield him from the overwhelming world outside when he is tired and make everything smell beautiful. My amica infuriates me, but reminds me that I and I alone are responsible for fulfilling my Will and my Purpose. Some of the people my conjunx has mentored continue to help with his work.
Here is the truth of the world.
We are all supported by a net of connections. This is what I call ‘concordia’. Your conjunx has an amica; your amica has a conjunx; the people who mentored you, if you were so lucky, have colleagues and friends. You have colleagues and friends. If you have creche sibs, or were created with a group of the same or similar models, you have siblings, and they have enduring partners, and they mentor, and you have enduring partnerships, too.
As we go through life, we suffer injuries and infections, losses and adversities. We may be temporarily or permanently rendered unable to defend ourselves, to perform intellectual labour, to perform physical labour. But our lives are not worthless to us, nor do we cease to give affection, purpose, will and strength to those whom we love and are loved by.
It is wrong to say that the young must work for the old. It is wrong to say that the old must give up and pass into darkness for the young. It is wrong to say that those who are injured are not worth repairing unless we can measure their physical contributions to the world. It is also wrong to force others to make these repairs against their will. But it is not necessary.
No-one has the right to make use of our labour or demand our protection without our consent. But we can freely choose to give protection and share what we have. We cannot force anyone else to do this. But the more of us who recognise that we live in a web of connections, the stronger that web will be, and we can help one another voluntarily. Those who refuse to participate cannot demand support and protection from others, but even then, we are still free to give.
Even if no-one has a right to anything they cannot grab for themselves, we can acknowledge the many ways in which people support and protect us, and honour that, rather than demanding that those who are weaker than we are must ingratiate and demean themselves to make it worth our while to help them care for themselves and for us.
The failure of our Cause is rooted in the misunderstanding of the difference between rights and obligations. We all have the right to whatever we need—and to take it, if no-one will give it, provided we can. But none of us exists in isolation. We cannot compel others to care for one another or to contribute to the common good, but in a world that is at peace, those of us who are willing to give, to protect and to help will always outnumber the others. That is concordia. It is not the intimacy of amicitia or conjunxion.
We don’t have to collect taxes by force. We can collect donations, and support those who are willing and able to offer help for the contributions they make. Love is what moves us to care for those who cannot care for themselves, and love is voluntary. It cannot be compelled, nor can it be reliably evoked by any form of relation.
Sexual contact does not create love. Taking a sparkling into your home does not create love. Even spark-merging does not create love, if it is not already there; the merging of sparks without caring is dangerous, and when compelled, is just as much or more destructive than any other form of forced interface.
But love can be transitive, and we can recognise that love is transitive. The foundation of broader social relationships is rooted in uncompelled choices made through the understanding of reciprocal love. My amica owes nothing to my conjunx by virtue of being my amica, but my amica has had to learn that I cannot be happy if my conjunx is in pain. As long as any of us is in pain, we are all a little less happy; those who will not voluntarily share and alleviate pain will experience it anyway, because hunger, disease and cruelty cannot be contained if we permit them to flourish.
Although such words as ‘amiconara’ are not considered proper in the lexicon of Neocybex, people still use them, because they understand that when multiple persons are in relationship with a single person, they move into relationship with one another, and that denying that will lead to misery. Love cannot be compelled, but love of a third party can bring the needs and wishes of two individuals who do not love one another into alignment. We also need to preserve and care for those with whom we work toward common goals.
Therefore, through relationships of amicitia and conjunxion, mentorship and collegiality, we find ourselves connected to persons for whom we care, even to the point of being connected to those we have never met; for if we would ensure our own happiness, and that of those whom we love, we have to acknowledge the mutual interests of many others, and seek to live our lives in an alliance of mutual concord.
Concordia is the reason why we voluntarily choose to support one another, even though we do not permit ourselves to be forced into the support of another. When extended to logical (but absolutely truthful) absurdity, a conscientious person may acknowledge that any person with whom they must interact may either currently or in the future be a person of importance to our own people of importance.
So: understanding the truth of the world makes us unsheathe our blades and take them into our hands. But understanding the truth of people guides us in deciding when the use of the blade is the most appropriate response, and also when extending a hand is more likely to produce the results we desire.
Self-preservation is also transitive. Those who understand this will choose to defend our society as a whole against invasion, unmerited violence, and disease, even if the role we must play in that defence is constrained by the state of our health, abilities, natural and wilful inclinations, and range of tolerable functioning. We protect the loved ones of others, because allowing those people to suffer and die creates resentments that will destroy our society.
Even those who have always lived in disjunction and may never be able to comprehend this sense of connection can be supported and protected by these webs of care and connection, and those who choose to do so are acknowledging that there are many kinds of wounds, it is impossible to heal a wound by force, and that even the rankest villain among us is still a sapient being—and when we fail to acknowledge the basic dignity inherent in sapience, we damage our own collective sense of our dignity. Even when someone must be removed from the world for the good of all others, it can be done in a manner that is personal and dignified and does not compel anyone else to become an executioner.
This is the foundation of rule and justice without compulsion, and the heart of peace without tyranny. Life in Sanctuary requires a commitment to the maintenance of concordia, as well as a commitment to truth and an unwillingness to be deceived.
But there is a fallacy here, for this too leads to the establishment of hierarchies. In their purest form—the empire of unsheathed blades and hungers—the hierarchy is constantly shifting, and it is impossible to accomplish much of anything, because we are all at war with one another. As a result of this we fall into place behind our leaders, knowing that we are stronger together than apart, and our leaders become warlords.
There is a third way.
The third way is hidden from those who live singly, but obvious to those of us who are voluntarily bound to one another. If you have an amica, or a conjunx, or a former mentor, or a newspark under your guidance, you are already aware that there are many kinds of strength we can draw from each other, and that caring for someone else does not have to be a burden or a drain on our resources. Nobody is forced to care for the people they love; they do it because the other person’s happiness and welfare is essential to their own. This only becomes a weakness if we do not appreciate, respect and nurture in others what we live in ourselves.
It is impossible for us to survive in a world where all bear an equal burden of labour and all must defend themselves at all times, except in an army where we are at the mercy of our leaders. We are not all able to work. We are physically able to work when we come into the world, but we have no discernment and cannot make wise decisions, even if we were fortunate enough to have come online with a complete library of factual information, multilevel emotional processing, and motivators unconstrained by hierarchical coding. It takes a combination of mentoring and life experience for a mechanism to develop the necessary pathways to create robust value equations.
We are not all equally able to fight when we come into the world. We have frames of differing sizes, strengths and abilities, and while form does not dictate function, it is by the developed will that we function outside the constraints of our forms. We do not come into the world with a developed will. It is our right to develop it, but how do we develop it if we are forced to defend ourselves before we are ready to do it?
No-one is owed support or defence, but we give it to those whom we love when it’s needed, and to give it gives us strength. We draw renewed purpose and will from those whom we love. We are cared for by those whom we love. My conjunx makes me energon sweets and brings me things that I want but can’t find. I shield him from the overwhelming world outside when he is tired and make everything smell beautiful. My amica infuriates me, but reminds me that I and I alone are responsible for fulfilling my Will and my Purpose. Some of the people my conjunx has mentored continue to help with his work.
Here is the truth of the world.
We are all supported by a net of connections. This is what I call ‘concordia’. Your conjunx has an amica; your amica has a conjunx; the people who mentored you, if you were so lucky, have colleagues and friends. You have colleagues and friends. If you have creche sibs, or were created with a group of the same or similar models, you have siblings, and they have enduring partners, and they mentor, and you have enduring partnerships, too.
As we go through life, we suffer injuries and infections, losses and adversities. We may be temporarily or permanently rendered unable to defend ourselves, to perform intellectual labour, to perform physical labour. But our lives are not worthless to us, nor do we cease to give affection, purpose, will and strength to those whom we love and are loved by.
It is wrong to say that the young must work for the old. It is wrong to say that the old must give up and pass into darkness for the young. It is wrong to say that those who are injured are not worth repairing unless we can measure their physical contributions to the world. It is also wrong to force others to make these repairs against their will. But it is not necessary.
No-one has the right to make use of our labour or demand our protection without our consent. But we can freely choose to give protection and share what we have. We cannot force anyone else to do this. But the more of us who recognise that we live in a web of connections, the stronger that web will be, and we can help one another voluntarily. Those who refuse to participate cannot demand support and protection from others, but even then, we are still free to give.
Even if no-one has a right to anything they cannot grab for themselves, we can acknowledge the many ways in which people support and protect us, and honour that, rather than demanding that those who are weaker than we are must ingratiate and demean themselves to make it worth our while to help them care for themselves and for us.
The failure of our Cause is rooted in the misunderstanding of the difference between rights and obligations. We all have the right to whatever we need—and to take it, if no-one will give it, provided we can. But none of us exists in isolation. We cannot compel others to care for one another or to contribute to the common good, but in a world that is at peace, those of us who are willing to give, to protect and to help will always outnumber the others. That is concordia. It is not the intimacy of amicitia or conjunxion.
We don’t have to collect taxes by force. We can collect donations, and support those who are willing and able to offer help for the contributions they make. Love is what moves us to care for those who cannot care for themselves, and love is voluntary. It cannot be compelled, nor can it be reliably evoked by any form of relation.
Sexual contact does not create love. Taking a sparkling into your home does not create love. Even spark-merging does not create love, if it is not already there; the merging of sparks without caring is dangerous, and when compelled, is just as much or more destructive than any other form of forced interface.
But love can be transitive, and we can recognise that love is transitive. The foundation of broader social relationships is rooted in uncompelled choices made through the understanding of reciprocal love. My amica owes nothing to my conjunx by virtue of being my amica, but my amica has had to learn that I cannot be happy if my conjunx is in pain. As long as any of us is in pain, we are all a little less happy; those who will not voluntarily share and alleviate pain will experience it anyway, because hunger, disease and cruelty cannot be contained if we permit them to flourish.
Although such words as ‘amiconara’ are not considered proper in the lexicon of Neocybex, people still use them, because they understand that when multiple persons are in relationship with a single person, they move into relationship with one another, and that denying that will lead to misery. Love cannot be compelled, but love of a third party can bring the needs and wishes of two individuals who do not love one another into alignment. We also need to preserve and care for those with whom we work toward common goals.
Therefore, through relationships of amicitia and conjunxion, mentorship and collegiality, we find ourselves connected to persons for whom we care, even to the point of being connected to those we have never met; for if we would ensure our own happiness, and that of those whom we love, we have to acknowledge the mutual interests of many others, and seek to live our lives in an alliance of mutual concord.
Concordia is the reason why we voluntarily choose to support one another, even though we do not permit ourselves to be forced into the support of another. When extended to logical (but absolutely truthful) absurdity, a conscientious person may acknowledge that any person with whom they must interact may either currently or in the future be a person of importance to our own people of importance.
So: understanding the truth of the world makes us unsheathe our blades and take them into our hands. But understanding the truth of people guides us in deciding when the use of the blade is the most appropriate response, and also when extending a hand is more likely to produce the results we desire.
Self-preservation is also transitive. Those who understand this will choose to defend our society as a whole against invasion, unmerited violence, and disease, even if the role we must play in that defence is constrained by the state of our health, abilities, natural and wilful inclinations, and range of tolerable functioning. We protect the loved ones of others, because allowing those people to suffer and die creates resentments that will destroy our society.
Even those who have always lived in disjunction and may never be able to comprehend this sense of connection can be supported and protected by these webs of care and connection, and those who choose to do so are acknowledging that there are many kinds of wounds, it is impossible to heal a wound by force, and that even the rankest villain among us is still a sapient being—and when we fail to acknowledge the basic dignity inherent in sapience, we damage our own collective sense of our dignity. Even when someone must be removed from the world for the good of all others, it can be done in a manner that is personal and dignified and does not compel anyone else to become an executioner.
This is the foundation of rule and justice without compulsion, and the heart of peace without tyranny. Life in Sanctuary requires a commitment to the maintenance of concordia, as well as a commitment to truth and an unwillingness to be deceived.
