clinking of their golden riches that they hear...or the last falling bones of some wretch, his flesh feeding the wind, behind a forgotten wall between themselves and the street called Want...
It does not matter, we know now that all men fear, all men have walls, all men are brutal. That fear, walls and brutality are all the same thing. That property, as it is walls, is Cruelty as it is Fear, Brutality. That men with property do not have less brutality than savages just better formed fists.
It becomes the assumption then that cruelty and possession of property are inherently the same...though I do not say only cruel men own property, I say all men are cruel...some own property and some not...just as all men have hunger but not all men have a thinness...
Big Nose: “I shall not even dignify such spittle with a glance...it is all, of course, as one would expect a beggar to carry in his purse. What I wish to know is where is the path to punishment and penalty in all this?”
Beggar: “ The Law seemingly concerns itself much about the “persons” of men, that is their safety amongst each other; murder, assault, mayhem but the reality is that 90 percent of the law is about property. Men’s wall against man’s Will. That is what property is. That is what Law is. And Punishment is not to prevent Crime...for without Crime there would be no Law, no Walls, no City, no Punishment.
Punishment, like walls, is a pleasure. A pleasure for the Brute. A pleasure much like wine, drugs, sex...men use Punishment to commit pleasure...indeed, Punishment is the sociological acceptance of violence...the Enabler of Violence...the Sanctifier... Sanctified by Walls, by City, by Men just as murder is condemned till the City needs murder. Then one or hundreds die and all still feel safe.
So Punishment is a violence sanctified by the collective man , the men, not for an end but as solely a means on to itself, for itself, for the pleasure of itself.
It is a pleasure to the men who commit it, to the men who watch it, to the men who sanctify it...
The soldier, the City Guard buries pleasure in the same emotional disconnections as his fear of injury or death or his previous moral judgement...his ‘pleasures’ of killing, however, remain at the end of war or duty and he becomes as a drunkard without wine; all the symptoms are the same.
So , too, the ‘punisher’. Are judge, jury, executioner... an audience or participator?
We become normalized to suffering esp if we create that suffering ourselves..indeed that abhorrence converts to ‘pleasure’ and that ‘pleasure’ demands more ‘pleasure’ ...again like a drunkard’s wine..higher, longer ‘pleasures’..thus we increase suffering around us..wether by participation or casual acceptance..
Most find pleasure in the suffering of others...wether because of the degree in which they themselves do not suffer...or in the actual ‘giving’ of the suffering...by violence, perversion or deprivation.
All suffer in some way but those who do not suffer in front of those who do...suffer least at that moment.
That is not so profound, is it? Those who do not suffer, suffer least.
But, remember, they do not suffer least of all. Those who give suffering, suffer least of all. Even as they themselves suffer.
For violence as we have said is a wine, a pleasure, an entertainment, a drug. The soul of men feasts upon it. you see it is not that to see suffering then men suffer less knowing that is themselves not suffering,...it is that men get pleasure from causing, witnessing suffering and that in itself causes them not to feel their own suffering.
Men are all drunk on violence. And remember violence is everything that is...men. Not just physical torture or attack. Property is violence. The City is violence. Want, gluttony, avarice is violence.
We look upon a wealthy man and get our own pleasure from witnessing the abuses and perversions of his own violence of possession. One need not experience the pleasure of causing suffer to have that pleasure...simply , as men, to be in the vicinity of that excess, that violence, that suffering is enough.
If we remain reluctant to admit that property rights are greater than human life, how would we then build a city? At least this kind of city? For we must build some men’s riches upon the backs of others as is that not a punishment? For being less of a men than some men? Is that not then a violence? Of exclusion of property; of burdensome labour? One man will have much of one thing and thus must wrench that from another’s hands. Into those hands go slavery. can you think of a greater violence than the slavery of poverty?
It becomes knowledge than that cruelty and possession of property are inherently the same....
Big Nose: “ You exchange violence and suffering, possession and abuse as if all the same thing. Many suffer, say ill health from old age but that is not a violence from men.”
The Beggar: “ Men always point to nature to mirror their evil. Violence. Disease. Predatation. Starvation. Mishap. Accident. But I tell you this. Nature has no Will. No Will to Impose.
Yes, the very nature that gives a man living takes away that living, but there is no malice in this. That which is given for a time is taken away in a time. that is the nature of Nature. The time between is for a man’s own use. As a man...or as men.
Punishment, like all Violence, hides behind a Wall called Necessity...but like any violence or horror or perversion, it has an acquired taste. Like all pleasures and perversions it can be defined and limited by social acceptance but the boundaries are vague and easily ‘stretched’...
Punishment is controlled, sanctioned violence just as war is controlled sanctioned violence. It is not that punishment is necessary; it is that violence is necessary. Both necessary and desired. Much as wine and opium become both desired by all and the necessity of the drunkard.
Big Nose: “ Who, then, in your twisted logics desires this violence of punishment... and why?”
Beggar: “Remember, my learned friend, punishment does not differ in some large way from other kinds of violence. Punishment is the name for the same things. Just as water appears as rain, tears, flood, sea, river, mist, wine. Violence appears as punishment, or war, or mob, or beating, or a bully, or deprivation, or excess, or gluttony, or entertainment, or ridicule, or laughter.
All the same, wether sanctioned by the Collective Men or not... yet, even that is a lie, since all Men create violence...therefore no ‘men’ can be too violent...only a solitary man...
This is because...not that the man is too violent for Society, but that the man’s violence is not sanctioned...for Sanction is Control...and that is Violence.
All things must be controlled... therefore...all things must suffer...must be punished.
The mind of men is a rebellious thing...in itself seemingly chaotic, but in reality, rebelling against rebellion against chaos. For chaos cannot explain life and death, only Order, some invented order out of the mouth of gods.
The gods, the minds of the Men, these do not bring the fates of compassion and natural aggression... they bring instead their songs of perverse predation, unnatural hunger and parasitical control.
There is inside each men a willingness to control and be controlled in order to give the chaotic universe of life and death a ‘re-painting’ as Order and ...what?...Purpose?, Evolution?, Soul?, God?, Cause and Mean?, Direction?...
It does not matter what we call what we look for that is not there...the first order of men’s business is Order.
Hence like a violent socio-pathic drunkard seeking happiness with friends, violence is used to create Order, but, of course, destroys Order in order to create an illusion of Order.
Violence is simply the suppression of Will. All men are addicted to this Suppression, BOTH WITHIN THEMSELVES AND WITHIN OTHERS.
It is called Pecking Order. All men ‘peck’ in this Order, or at least, most men. Even the organized state, is in itself, a ‘pecker’, a ‘punisher’, a punisher of individuals, dissenters, minorities, other states in its sphere of control. All things must be controlled..therefore ...all things must suffer...must be punished.
Big Nose: “ Wh
ere is your religion in all this? Where are the gods? If you deny Nature in men’s nature than it must be the gods who ordain all this? Cannot the gods intervene in compassion?”
Beggar: “ Fate, destiny; these conflicts as soul, god, men, man create the ‘voice’ of men’s nature. Evil becomes the directing voice of god controlling a man’s nature. Compassion is the voice of man directing a man’s nature.
It is not the gods, the fates which bring compassion ..they bring instead their songs of predation, hunger and control. I say the gods, but I err; for there are no gods, at least, no gods in this...in punishment and violence and suffering in this City...there are only men. We must look to the Man in men for change, for salvation.
Where there is no cure, what becomes needed is a sure prevention. And one cannot prevent what one cannot see. Blind men make poor lookouts in the army.
Blind men call upon violence to yield peace. Call for punishment to yield redemption. Deny poverty and call it Prosperity. Say suffering leads to compassion. None of this works. The MEANS is the ENDS...there is no separation of this in the flow of man or men.
Suffering, violence continues because blind men walk with habit.
If a crime can be punished then this is done because it can be done. Not to eradicate pecking order but to continuously re-affirm it.
Men impose, this is the nature of their violence. And their suffering.
We spoke earlier of Virtue, Nature and Will.
Nature does not ‘impose’. We spoke earlier of Wills. Nature has a Free Will , as a man has a free will. In Nature, however, there is no Imposed-Will.”
Big Nose: “ Absurd. The lion killing the gazelle has certainly an imposition of Will upon it.”
Beggar: “ Again, Nature takes abuse for what is Use. The strong do overtake the weak and in that brief time there is suffering and death. It is, however, a Free Will of chance, of selection. Nature has no Will for true suffering...the suffering of Control, forced Will. It kills the body for Use but does not suffocate the spirit for Control. You will see something different in men...you would not call it...Free Will.
Big Nose:” Free Will of a man is an illusion, a premise to run amok in the streets of men as a beast. Frolicking in its own wanton desires and murders, without consequence or reprisal to society itself.
Such a ‘thing’ is only caged in the mass and in the common one man by punishment and returned destruction.
Yes, there are those who control themselves by logic or reason; some by higher religious or ethic moral but most, Beggar, are better governed by fear.”
Beggar: “Fear is City’s answer for its own leprosy of fear.”
Big Nose: “ Society should be afraid for where is all the proof found of each man’s nature but in blood in every ditch, avarice in every street, mayhem and sin in every dark corner.
Beggar: “ One man kills another and to grant safety to all City and State kill thousands.
We accept the state killings because we inherently believe the State to be moral, formed of reason. The best of all men. We expect the sum of All to be greater than the least of All. Thus the punishments and killings of State are judged reasonable...or not judged at all.
The singular killing of a man by a man is seen as Random, insane, chaotic...an emotional, illogical thing...or worse, calculated for profit. But does the State, the City kill, essentially for fear and profit...even onto fearing loss of its profits?
Big Nose: “The State executes for stability...stability for all.”
Beggar: “Stability for itself as a City State and what is that but the profit of men. The State seeks something else first, however, profits. Not really first, however. Everything is the same word again. Stability. Property. Men. Power. Will. The same for man of men as it is for men of City. The murderer for profit of his Will; so does the City.
They are the same.
Men, as City, but choose the collective as a victor; not because it is safer, indeed it is less so to side with the Powerful but because it seems more orderly.
Most men will risk drowning in the low country against the terror of lightening in the high.
The City, society as men, punishes not the murderer but those who murder without its sanctity. Society has no patience with virtue or sin existing outside itself.
It is not a struggle of murders and thefts; it is not a struggle of virtues and sins.
Punishment is nothing. Justice by men is nothing.
It is Wills. Simply that. There are only two wills, Free and Imposed.
You beat these buys for the violence of pleasure. A violence allowed by the imposed Will of men. Against their Free Will.
The ‘pleasure’ you have comes from the Imposition of your own Will. Imposed-Will. That Will is simply a ‘flow’ of all Imposed-Will. A man has Free Will...men...society...city...state have only Imposed-Will. For control. The pleasure of ‘controlled’ violence is but a condition of men...like the ‘safety’ they feel behind these city walls. It is illusion, yes, no one is safe here...only the City itself...the collective.
Control is Sin, Sin is not found in lack of control. It is the Will which is Imposed upon Man by men which is sin; which creates sin.
You ‘punish’ these boys not to dissipate their own violence but to Impose Will. Which is the ultimate violence. That violence imposed upon their wills becomes their own violence. When they act that violence, they simply express again the City’s Will...a violence of Control and Imposed Will.
Only a truly free man... a man of Free Will can have no violence since he is neither Imposing his Will nor having a violent Will imposed upon him.
There is no other Virtue but Free Will. There is no other sin but Imposed-Will. There is no peace or hope or compassion in violence. Nor is there in its Master...Imposed Will.
Free Will is in itself: Virtue. Virtue since it is immune to Imposed-Will. Virtue because it ‘acts’ independent of control, of violence, of Imposed-Will. Men may easily judge and condemn it wrong again and again but Free Will as Virtue will still ‘act’ as the Man sees truth. You will easily know Free Will. It has a Force in it but does not seek control or power. Only control or power over the one man. The bearer of that Free Will.
Imposed-Will remains the first sin. The Anti-Virtue. Evil because it seeks to dominate, control...it is anti-Life since life itself is the beginning and end of a man’s Free Will.
Repression of a Will is the greatest evil. Indeed, it is the only evil. All violence and punishments done to the body of Man are not done solely to the body. The body is only the ‘instrument’ of suffering. The soul of men, that is the Ends. That is the reason for suffering. To control. In the End, all men seek to control all men. The act of Imposed-Will, the violence, gives pleasure because men are accustomed to being ‘full’ of hate and perversion. The soul of men needs that just as the body of men needs food and water. This violence to all, this suffering of all, men have learned to do because their consciousness of death and god and life is distorted by their awareness of death and what they perceive to be Chaos. Men want Order to avoid Death. So they suffer for it. If men can cause suffering, if men can control, if men can kill, surely some day they will find out how to make Death suffer, how to kill Death; how to ‘murder’ the Great Murderer!
That is all it is about, my learned friend. We punish all to punish Death. How absurd! How anti-Life itself!
When a man is born, he begins to breath and that first breath is Free Will. In his last breath is his own Free Will. In between is a battle of Good and Evil.The Evil of Imposed-Will in a mad illusion of controlling everything, death, world, gods, universe, all, all, all...against...what? What is Good? What is Virtue then? Have we not seen its face again and again in this dust of schoolings? It is Free Will. The Will of a man to be a man leads to the profound acceptance of his own Death and that leads to the value of his living and that leads to all compassions and courage and love.
A man chooses his own destiny by his own free will. saying ‘to hell with
heaven or hell with fate. This is not the destiny of generals or kings or other such men, or any men; Free Will is the destiny of a Will to be Free. I say again to you that the sole and soul destiny of a Free Will is simply to be free! Once free there is no need to ‘go anywhere’. Virtue is reached, is known. This is what other men look up to or try to look down upon while cringing on each other’s backs.
Fates, the games of men and gods, will play hideous and cruel with him but his Free Will shall endure. Virtue remains stronger than the Imposed Will of fates.
Everything is Wind, men are dust...only Free Will is the sea. Upon it, a man can walk anywhere..and for that freedom he is punished by men.
I can tell you don’t believe me, sir. I have said it wrong. Or too long. Or not long enough. For I speak against lifetimes, nay lifetimes upon lifetimes of denial of Man amongst only men. Or were they even lifetimes? Few men live. I would not say I was one of them but I once knew a Man who had Free Will. Truly Free Will. A man’s Will. I was the son of that Will, for a time.
He did not run and hide as I have done. He walked amongst men. And out of those men, those crowds, he drew out time after time, a man. How long each man remained so I don’t know. Many became again men, even those who remained near him a long time.
No violence imposed him, though much violence was done upon him. Often he was condemned, judged, ridiculed, denied. But it was not those things of men which made him a man. He was a man and thus those things came upon him. The Lion draws to itself either courage or fear; either heels or spears. Few men could remain long around him, though he condemned no one. Only a man could bear his Free-Will for long. But his Free-Will was never imposed upon them. He taught me that.
It is impossible for Free-Will of a man, as a man to Impose. Free-Will he told me only goes inward...to the heart of a man...to the soul...and then raises him up from the dirt. No man goes any higher than dust by the actions of men...only by the actions of his own Free-Will can he become more than men...a man.
Many men, many people loved this man because of that raising of their own Will. Many men, many people hated this man because...men could not stand near him. The cursedness of their Imposing and Imposed Wills tore at them...something in their hearts was screaming for escape, for release. Something that when this man was near begged at them to come forth.
I saw it in their faces many many times. the anguish, the self-loathing, the bitterness at being...only...men. He saw it more, much more than I and never condemned, never ridiculed...he would only have compassion, as if he had lived every inch of their terrible inner lives...he would reach out to them...and most times, received only spittle upon his face.
As soon as they spit at him, their faces would become men again. His face would be covered for a
The Seven Days of Wander Page 32
