- the singular human being isn’t -> human being is a title only attributed to a singular _homo sapiens sapiens_ as a member in society with others. Being in society is “the Natural Man”. Being removed from society is “the Unnatural man”
- the Natural Man has three basic needs: Safety, Security, Hope
- the Natural Man constructs tools of provision to satisfy these three needs: Safety => Sovereign; Security => Market; Hope => Church
- these three Artifices together compose civilization. No single Artifice is capable of providing for the totality of need; no single Artifice is civilization
- these three Artifices are engaged in a zero-sum game for Primacy in any given Society of Men
- Societies are interconnected when there are conduits of relations between them; changes in the game of one necessarily affects the game of the other
- Societies depend upon the dependence of their members; control of interconnections is a way of assuring dependence; a Society is endangered when individuals begin to eschew a particular society-as-gateway for another, or begin to connect directly to another Society
- The Sovereign and the Church are inherently qualitative, the Market is inherently qualitative
- qualitative endeavors are intrinsically less fear-inducing than quantitative endeavors; unchecked, this fear will lead to recurring choices of quantitative options over qualitative options
- as the qualitative becomes the quantitative, or vice versa, the Artifice will cease to satisfy the need in proportion
- the Artifices have succinct purposes: Safety => Sovereign => “Protect the weak from the wicked”; Security => Market => “Create profit”; Hope => Church => “Speak truth and disprove lies”
- the proper-ness of an action by any Artifice must be justified by the purpose of the Artifice; the justification must be concentrated on the predication of the purpose: “protect”; “create”; “speak … disprove”
Some other thoughts:
- The Church isn’t simply religiosity, rather it is anything that seeks to explain the unknown or that seeks to be an object of faith => religion; academia; science; mythos; tribal, gang, or ethnic affiliation; ideology; magic, luck, or fate; conspiracy; etc.
- The purpose of the Sovereign is about relationships of inequality that have no defense against the wicked, not wickedness itself. To crusade against wickedness is an inherently quantitative endeavor, as well as being subjective and quixotic. The logos of a given interaction is more important than the righteousness or wickedness of either party with respect to some absolute standard of conduct or ethics; bad men still need protection from even worse men, and the Sovereign must be blind to anything but the immediate context of the relationship when deliberating action.
- There is a rock-paper-scissors relationship between the three Artifices, not a hierarchical one. When an individual is forced to select, this pattern emerges: hope trumps safety, safety trumps security, security trumps hope. This doesn’t mean that the Church ought have primacy over the Sovereign, for example, rather it indicates that resignation and faith can occasionally eclipse fear of death and consequently the need for safety. Without the measurement of the equality of a relationship provided by the Sovereign, the Market becomes a cold, brutal, and vicious environment. Similarly, sufficiency borne by Market profit can so quell fears of the unknown that the Church is made mute to speak and lame to disprove.