Inheritance of Crowns for Ghosts

From ostensibly meaningful annual summaries packaged and delivered by apps and services to ostensibly hallowed ceremonies that eulogize the demonstrably alive by celebrating... celebrity,

we memorialize the trivial and mercenary as though after everything is said and everything is done... what will matter is how we wrought our lives

for colossally meaningless

victories.

Inheritance of Crowns for Ghosts

If the 'prize' of 'good work' is a crown bestowed in the eternal beyond, how likely is such 'prize' motivating good-doing: today?

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If the 'reward' of 'a life lived righteously' is immortal bliss in a life after death, how likely is such 'reward' influencing everybody's conduct: right now?

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If the 'honor' of 'believing doctrines' is salvation from damnation hereafter, how likely is such 'honor' animating a categorical disavowal of lies and liars: really?

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Please.

Dissemblers who wear testified beliefs with self-righteous pride, from head coverings to jewelry to body paint, are plainly: performers.

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Or am I wrong? 

Perhaps this is unfair at best and callous at worst?

Because

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all the benefit of all the doubt, unconditional trust, and every pound of good faith ever exacted,

must be bled as white as marble before a single believer is denied the selfsame generosity and grace, dissemblers and performers deny

anybody - anytime - for any glib or brittle reason whatsoever?

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Speaking of moral panic,

or simply: bogeymen,

invoked to justify disproportionate hostility.

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As if the imperiling of a solitary follower is tantamount to an imminent massacre of every nation everywhere. As if the challenging of a sole belief is analogous to an incipient apocalypse. As if the truth itself is terrifyingly besieged at this very moment.

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Or am I wrong?

Perhaps this is hyperbolic at best and vicious at worst?

Because

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addressing vaporous battles as overwrought pearl-clutching, smears the piety of dissemblers and performers?

Seriously?

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This is: imposture working as intended,

no?

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Where anything and everything is a costume, be it professed good-doing or witnessed faith or triumphs claimed in the name of merit.

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Surely what motivates and influences and animates the kind of performative conceit that would perfume a mercenary and venal interest as a kind of unimpeachable honesty,

must be neither feebly nor gleefully pooh-poohed as a harmlessly ungovernable feature of, gee how lazily exculpatory: being human.

After all,

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our inheritance is what we leave behind, when being demonstrably alive or not neither justifies nor excuses why we are what we are, here and after life.

More

It's laughably outrageous, isn't it? The multitude of indulgent inducements to be good. The extravagant incentivizing, if you will. Notwithstanding, the smug nonsense that anyone believes any of it.

Good-doers know better. (Of course.) Wrong-doers know better. (Duh.) 

So what is it all for?

If not 'acts' that equivalize vanity with merit?

Which is to say, imposture, celebrated

with prizes and rewards and honors, here and after life,

no?

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A Camel, The Sequel

It's ridiculous, isn't it, to twitter and preen like a sequel isn't a sequel? Is anyone, anyone at all, fooled by a re-packaged same old dog or a re-branded same old trick, flittering about like a second act of warmed-over muck and over-cooked twaddle, is a redux to crow about?

Come on.

A Camel, The Sequel

There's an ease in the familiar, a comfortable, that feels rooted in something real, a tangible truth, impervious to

ghosts.

~!@#$%?&~

At least, that's what they say, the people who know so little about

real things. 

Who carve up experiences like butchers, who people say, should be asked for their

knowledge, skill, expertise.

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At least, that's what they say, the people who know all the pocket change in the world, pales in wealth

to their own calloused hands.

Who valorize hard labor, even as they squawk and scrabble for what's

cheap, replaceable, disposable.

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At least, that's what they say, the people who know there's nothing

but what's in front of them.

Who look neither forwards nor backwards for answers, that people say,

is found

in a deity. Or two. Or three.

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At least, that's what they say, the people who know believers are literal armies and beliefs are literal

swords and shields.

Who winnow people into nations, that people say, should stand

alone.

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At least, that's what they say, the people who know so little about

real things.

~!@#$%?&~

There's a sameness to old dogs and old tricks, a slick fix, that feels plucked from the fabric of something known, a telling and re-telling of a

plot.

~!@#$%?&~

Like all things worn smooth by attention, narratives are tumbled through rock grinders until they gleam and shine like found pocket change, priceless and pure.

Though tale telling is hardly... precious.

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Even little children, like bakers who work flour into dough, punch and bend their creations to their

wills.

Neither overpowering a molecular matrix nor breaking a literary structure is... miraculous.

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Plots that feature supernatural foes and mystical vigor are no more extraordinary than ordinary yarn spinning by born liars.

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Reality, in the hands of mortal wordsmiths, is, in the end, as pliable as

magic,

as true as ghosts with no reason to lie, none at all, because revenants are answerable to nothing real and no one alive.

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At least, that's what born chumps say, the people who know the plot that's everything is

the one where it starts with us

and 

it ends with us.

~!@#$%?&~

There's a smooth course, a path worn by being taken and re-taken, a road that defies every effort to break from what is tried and done, because a crooked way made level

is enough.

Because a fairy tale that tells little children: being crooked is the vibe of the one where the villain is never answerable to the people who shrivel under the thumb of inhuman power

is an object lesson in magical reality narratives that serve what people are hungry for, including acts pretending to be as honest as a camel threading through the eye of a needle...

again.

Notes

(i) "warmed-over muck and over-cooked twaddle" is a phrase from Skulkers and Slinkers (July 20, 2024)

(ii) while "redux" derives from reducere (Latin), which is also the unsurprising word origin for reduce (apropos for diminishing sequels, for example), "redux" retains dux (Latin) -- lending "redux" literary complexity

(iii) "There's an ease in the familiar, a comfortable, that feels rooted in something real, a tangible truth, impervious to ghosts" references Ghosts of Christmas (October 12, 2020)

(iv) "the one where" references the naming convention of episodes from a situational comedy (if you know, you know; otherwise and regardless, its use herein is 'cited' herewith)

(v) "There's a smooth course, a path worn by being taken and re-taken, a road that defies every effort to break from what is tried and done, because a crooked way made level is enough" references Isaiah 45:2 etc.

(vi) "being crooked is the vibe of the one where the villain is never answerable to the people who shrivel under the thumb of inhuman power" references, for example, villain-as-main-character magical reality narratives, though not exclusively

(vii) "an object lesson in magical reality narratives that serve what people are hungry for, including acts pretending to be as honest as a camel threading through the eye of a needle... again" references Matthew 19:24 etc. 

etc.

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Imaginary Guardrails

A predictable and unsurprising reality of a people consumed by contests and challenges and competition is an expedient collective leaning into adversarial mindsets, incoherently circular justifications, normalized callousness, etc. Which is to say,

a people who cultivate fights should not be surprised by a people who fight dirty.

Imaginary Guardrails

Relying on guardrails to safeguard what's worth fighting for is like operating under the delusion that people who grip symbols of worship within iron fists -

are saints.

Hah.

I

Contests and challenges and competition do not mint 'fine' individuals.

Or 'resilient' people.

Or 'ingenious' societies.

Much less enshrine a 'good' world.

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I mean, seriously? What drivel! Adversarial mindsets, incoherently circular justifications, normalized callousness, etc. -

are miles and miles and miles from

nobly inspired.

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As though beneficiaries of immunity, for example, donning luxuriously phony 'good faith', earn their make as honestly as 'made families'.

Right.

II

Needless to say, fail-safes

are not what they promise -

'certainties against uncertainty'.

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Promises of 'faithfulness', 'patriotic fervor', and 'solemn oaths affirmed' are not safeguards against fraud, treachery, and imposture.  

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Still, we testify and witness

otherwise.

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Our people, our representatives, our leaders are not only paragons of 'faithfulness', 'patriotic fervor', and 'solemn oaths affirmed' -

but these, let's be honest, purest of driven snow virtues, are why our rationalizations, our justifications, our legitimizations are without a shadow of doubt -

righteous.

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As if what's right or what's wrong is whether we or they

so swear.

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Their people, their representatives, their leaders not only flaunt a contemptible absence of reverence, unapologetic weakness, repellent venality -

but these, let's be honest, imperious character assassinations, are why their rationalizations, their justifications, their legitimizations are absolutely

diabolical.

III

Notwithstanding other

'certainties against uncertainty'.

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Campaigns of 'control' to 'nullify variables', diligent 'indoctrination', ceaseless inducements to shrivel within meek 'fear-based' lives do not insulate tyrannies from right-doers who deliver

freedom and liberty for all.

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Still, we persist;

we proclaim beasts must be reproduced and used up and thrown away,

because that is what individuals and people and societies

are for.

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As if what's right or what's wrong is whether we or they

are victors

chosen to decide the fates of right-doers and wrong-doers like immortals and Gods answerable to no mortal marvel of

justice.

IV

I mean, seriously? With hollow patter whirled like candy floss at a county fair - we the people consent to omnipresent policing, glorifying groveling submission, intimidating condemnation of right-doing, etc.

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As though this fever dream is

divinely inspired. As in

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frothed winners' champagne is for soaking

pretty pennies and pocket lint. 

Sure. And

anybody can be a pretty thing shining with disposable currency, at the mercy of deep pockets that generously amass fluff,

destined to be baptized by fire.

 

Annotation

A thorough addressal of imaginary guardrails could be fascinating

and lengthy.

Hence

neither above nor below

are exhaustive.

Fullstop.

M

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(i) The corrosive consequences of "a people consumed by contests and challenges and competition" are plain and real.

From athletic matches to televised asks 'to vote' for 'winners' to fictions pretending to be 'real non-fiction' - we are frothed to care about what doesn't matter at the expense of bandwidth and wherewithal to care about what does.

Invariably "contests and challenges and competition" of measurable relevance to real life - from fighting for limits to health-care-industry-profiteering to gainsaying the 'fairness' of tip-wage-pay-offering to denouncing medical-care-denials on the basis of 'conscience' as unconscionable, etc. - become absurdly distorted by what's trifling and what's really consequential be damned.

(ii) Case in point: "a people who fight dirty".

Outright lies do not 'inform' people 'doing their own research'. Outright lies deceitfully alter the reality, the lived experiences, of people who demand to be addressed as 

people who 'can handle the truth'. It goes without saying, real world consequences of such imposture include wins by ruse, etc.

As in: 

every 'pitch' that confidently pretends that exempting 'wages earned by tips' from wages that are taxed will not result in a shortfall that will be paid for from the reduction of or elimination of services or benefits that people, tip-wage-paid and otherwise-paid, value and/or depend on, etc.

(iii) The belief that "contests and challenges and competition" are the foundation or the cornerstone of ambitious, innovative, growth-mindset, etc. "individuals", "people", "societies"

is a quasi-motivational-axiom cultivated by beneficiaries of (i) because beneficiaries of (i) measurably and materially benefit from (ii). Moreover,

beliefs that lie (iii) enrich beneficiaries of (ii) because duh.

(iv) Case in point: "immunity".

That "luxuriously phony 'good faith'" is a feature of a narrative that '"'made families'"' "earn their make" "honestly"

is an example of (ii). Furthermore, "immunity" is not about protecting "good faith" per se;

"immunity" is about protecting wrong-doing while arguing that such protection is constitutionally guaranteed for wrong-doers. Because of course it is.

(v) The "fail-safes" of II (above) would we, people, be pacified by "promises", which is to say, "certainties against uncertainty". As in:

testifying and witnessing "faithfulness" certainly ensures piety, reverence, authentic observance of religious dictates, etc.; "patriotic fervor" certainly ensures honor, valor, transpicuous courage in the face of genuine dangers and serious threats, etc.; "solemn oaths affirmed" certainly ensures demonstrably concrete vows to dutifully obey unwritten and written laws, rules, codes of conduct, part and parcel to an actual commitment to decency, etc. - 

absolutely compel public-servants-to-be to "restore", "save", "venerate", etc. "virtue", "dignity", "pride", etc. (see The Backbone Estate (November 24, 2024) for reference)

Notwithstanding innumerable unmentioned "fail-safes", as in:

testifying and witnessing "contrived" "popular" "momentum" certainly ensures public-servants-to-be are unquestionably for us, real people, rather than for "power, influence, wealth, status plainly improbable without promises, promises, promises", etc. (see The Keys to the Kingdom and Other Nonsense (September 27, 2024) and The Backbone Estate (November 24, 2024) for references)

Because everybody knows 

purity promises issued by public-servants-to-be are fail-safe fail-safes as verifiably trustworthy and rigorously scrupulous as nuclear fail-safes.

(vi) The "fail-safes" of III (above) would states and nations be appeased by "promises", that is, "certainties against uncertainty". As in:

a premise that "campaigns of 'control' to 'nullify variables'" are not only just but necessary to effect control, from broad 'state' sanctioned surveillance especially via personal technology to expansive 'secret' judicial policing to malevolent intolerance of 'independent' media and 'independent' private opinions, etc.;

that "diligent 'indoctrination'" is not only necessary but vital to effect control, from tactical smear campaigns against 'independent' media and 'independent' private opinions to directives that glorify submission to power through 'state' enforced themes couched as 'uplifting' and 'revelatory' to brittle strangleholds on the publication of information and 'content', etc.; 

that "ceaseless inducements to shrivel within meek 'fear-based' lives" are not only vital but inescapable to effect control, from threatening directives to vague sermonizing to soft encouraging haloing to chilling incentives to see or say or do nothing or else, etc.;

etc.

If "guardrails" are imaginary boundaries - that ignore paranoia-based, reign-of-tyranny-based, villainous-main-character-energy-narrative-based tyrants-in-waiting - as mere exercisers of duly and constitutionally secured privilege - then victory is answerable to nothing.

(vii) Though "beasts must be reproduced and used up and thrown away" is self-explanatory, see Beasts Fell and Lawless (October 6, 2024) for reference.

(viii) Beyond (i), the poisonous consequences of "contests and challenges and competition" include "adversarial mindsets, incoherently circular justifications, normalized callousness",

manifestly evident in apologetic and callous "fail-safes" (v, vi) that promise "pretty pennies and pocket lint":

"winning no matter what" or "a lie". (see The Keys to the Kingdom and Other Nonsense (September 27, 2024) for reference)  

etc.

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The fight "to safeguard what's worth fighting for" is rarely as effortless as

leaning on imaginary guardrails to steel the spine of the backbone estate. (see The Backbone Estate (November 24, 2024) for reference)

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