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Chapter 9 The Crook-ed Game
Suddenly, a large man came out from between the trees; he wore an outfit with the word LIBERAL on it. He was followed by what appeared to be three of his assistants who then helped him into another outfit with the word CONSERVATIVE on it.
Then the three took out sheets of paper and appeared to cross out and alter text already on the sheets. Alix thought this a very curious thing, and he went up near to watch them, and just as he came up to them he heard the big one say, "Pay attention, writer Two! Don't go splashing all that liberal talk all over my speech. Remember, that today I'm a Conservative." "I couldn't help it," said writer Two in a sulky voice, "I've been trained by liberal professors all my life." On which writer One looked up and said, "That's right, Two! Always lay the blame on others!" "Well, blaming others is the very core of the liberal philosophy." "Well," said the large man, "this will make is easier for you all: remember that a Conservative never blames others, except if the other is a liberal and then he blames everything on him. So today sublimate all your blaming habits towards all liberals." Then Alix asked the big man, "Would you tell me, please, why you are changing your colors today?" "Well, it seems that the other side is winning the game and turning many of the spectators unto their side. We are now coming to a bunch of spectators and we must make sure we get as many cheers from them as possible." "Why do you want that?" "Why, you don't know much of this game." "Apparently, I don't." "Well, the person with the most cheers wins the game and gets to play the game again." "And then what happens?" "Well, we play again and try to get more cheers." "Seems kinda circular and pointless." "Yes, perhaps circular, but not pointless, for we get points for our cheers. And there are other perks." "Oh, I would like some perks. Well, how do you play?" "First take a bow," and a bow at the end of a hand stuck out from between the trees and Alix took it. The big man already had his own bow and quiver which he picked up from a nearby tree where it was leaning. And it certainly was a-quiver for the entire contents of the quiver were quivering, for inside was a quiver full of snakes. Then the big man continued, "Then take a quiver," and like the bow a quiver appeared at the end of a hand and Alix snatched it. "But I don't appear to have any arrows." "Well, that's your problem. There are plenty of snakes lying around here. Go round some up." "Oh, dear me," exclaimed Alix, "I really don't want to handle any slimy snakes. Whatever can I do?" "If you are that way, you can gather up branches that lie abundantly on the floor. There's a knife in the quiver to hone them into arrows." And Alix did this and he picked up many branches and honed them into arrows. Then the big man and his entourage walked on a spell and then stopped but it didn't seem like a good spot for archery for it was just as dense and dark as the other parts of the forest. Alix said, "Whatever target can be around here for us to shoot at?" "Look over there." And Alix looked and at that moment a tree bent out of the way to reveal a target and then bent back into his original position blocking the target again. "However can I hit that target if that tree is in the way?" "If you had some slimy bendy snakes in your service then you would be able to do it." "That's not fair." "Who said this game was fair. The point is to get the cheers any which way you can." "And talking about cheers," Alix replied, "I really don't see where all the people are who are supposed to cheer." "They are all the little people of the land and they are here and there, everywhere about this forest," and at that the big man yelled out, "Down with all those liberals out to destroy civilization." After that, loud cheers rang out from the entire woods all about them. "There must be a lot of little people out there." "Yes, all the pawns playing the game like us." "They play too!" "They must, but most of the time they simply watch or are moved to another place to watch elsewhere until they are soon out of the game." "Until they disappear," replied Alix. "Oh, nobody really disappears; they only move to another plane of existence. Well, enough of philosophy. On with the game." And with that the big white man took a snake from out of his quiver which stiffened as soon as he touched it and placed it in his bow and shot it.
It zoomed straight for a while and then bent when it reached the blocking tree until it was out of sight. A few seconds later a wild throng of applause and cheers burst forth. As this continued, the blocking tree bent as before to reveal the big man's snake-arrow dead center in the target. Then Alix replied, "How will I ever hit the target. Maybe if I move a bit. O ya, I see the target from here." And with that Alix shot his arrow, but when it neared the target, a branch from the blocking tree snatched it from mid-air before it ever reached the target.
"Now, that's really not fair," but just as Alix finished speaking this he realized he was alone and that the big man had moved off, apparently to revel in the cheers of the crowd nearer the target. He tried to follow, but soon found himself at the edge of the wood in the bright sunlight. Then Alix noticed that the rain storm that hit the Mad Talk Show had finally reached here and it was raining green gloop just like back then, but for now it was only a small shower. Alix was getting very irritated by all this, when he noticed a curious appearance in the air; it puzzled him very much at first, but after watching it a minute or two he made it out to be a grin, and he said to himself, "It's the Treasure Cat; now I will have somebody to complain to." "How are you getting on?" said the Cat, as soon there was mouth enough for it to speak. Alix waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. "It's no use speaking to it," he thought, 'till its ears have come, or at least one of them." In another minute the whole head appeared, and then Alix put down his bow and arrows and began an account of the game, feeling very glad he had someone to complain to. The Constitution seemed to think that there was enough of it in sight, and no more appeared. "I don't think they play at all fairly," Alix began in a complaining tone, "and they don't seem to have any rules in particular; at least if there is, nobody attends to them -- and you have no idea how confusing it is all these things being alive and all on one side it seems." "Well, there is not much I can do?" "There isn't, but you are the guardian of Liberty around here. How is this possible?" "You want the specific answers or the general answers first." "Well, we might as well start with the specific answers." "First, I have no specific powers to counteract anyone doing the following in the cheering game: switching colors, altering speeches, making use of slimy bendy snakes as arrows or conspiring with trees to win at the game." "And in general?" "In general, I allow all big players whatever free reign in the areas of free speech and the press; in accord with that, I allow the small people free reign in choosing which big players to watch and cheer: let the small people beware." "But you must do something. It's all unfair." "I can only do so much. Watch as I try to juggle all the demands placed on me," and at that, objects started to appear about the cat in increasing numbers.
The cat tried to juggle all of them but soon couldn’t manage it all and as he fell all the objects fell too, but fortunately, as usual, the objects and the cat disappeared all at once in the blink of an eye and soon the cat reappeared in it usual casual posture. "See." "I see, but can't anything be done?" "Well, my Father, who has a much bigger mandate, could help, but he has been driven off from the dark woods." "Who is your father?" "He is called Catlan and he can, if the land wills, enforce some more far ranging laws than there are at present." "How ever can that help with liberty when he wants to simply add more and more constricting laws?" "You yourself said you wanted more rules for the cheering game; and you even said a while back more rules were needed to prevent the Mad Chatter and Dr. Split Hare from obstructing Mr. Loremouse's rights of free speech." "Yes, I did, but it all seems a little bewildering and paradoxical." "Yes, it does seem that way, but I will now quote a bit from a book my Father read to me a while back:
'Very briefly it may be said that an individual enjoys social liberty when he is able to obey and to use the laws and powers of his true nature, and that a community enjoys it when all its members are able to do so without interfering unduly one with the other. The more complete is this ability, the more perfect is Liberty.
'A remarkable paradox at once presents itself--that Liberty can only be secured by Laws. Where there are no laws, or too few, to secure it, slavery immediately appears, no less surely than when there are too many; for the stronger individuals are, by the absence of law, enabled to tyrannize over the weaker. Even the vast and complex legislation of our own days is designed to increase and not fetter liberty, and its greater complexity is necessitated by the greater complexity...of modern society. Laws, of course, may be unwise or excessively minute or deliberately enslaving; yet this does not affect the point that for all that Laws are necessary to the preservation of Liberty. Merchants, women and children, and citizens generally can only enjoy rightful liberty if they are protected by laws. Only that man is free, then, who is most carefully guarded?' " 1
"So how are we to decide which laws are needed?" Alix asked, "Surely this can only be done through the will of the majority." "'The Will of the Majority!' That phrase has been a thorn in my paw a long time. First, I will give you a statement--by our Congressman Ron Paul-- that shows that our system is not based on the Will of the Majority:
'The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. Our founding fathers clearly understood this, as evidenced not only by our republican constitutional system, but also by their writings in the Federalist Papers and elsewhere. James Madison cautioned that under a democratic government, “There is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual.” John Adams argued that democracies merely grant revocable rights to citizens depending on the whims of the masses, while a republic exists to secure and protect pre-existing rights. Yet how many Americans know that the word “democracy” is found neither in the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence, our very founding documents?' 8
"However, Jefferson--and Madison as well in similar statements--did say that Governments derive sovereignity (their just power) from the consent of the governed. Even though this does not mean what people think of as democracy or Will of the Majority, it is somewhat equivocal and can be easily misunderstood--and lets in the principal of the Will of the Majority to come in through the back door--for from time immemorial, men have truly regarded sovereignty as coming ONLY from God. To amplify on this topic, I will paraphrase from another book my Father read to me, which in fact talks about my very self:
'Madison, rightly regarded as the Father of the Constitution, stated that sovereignty (the source of authority) should rest in the people. Thomas Jefferson had made the same point in the Declaration of Independence: "Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed." ... [However] if Power were not exercised in harmony with God's laws, it was not legitimate, no matter how many people consented to it. But God is not mentioned in the Constitution. By placing sovereignty in the people, rather than in God and Divine law, the framers of the Constitution left the door open for any evil, as long it was justified by majority rule. In Christian societies, the Church was the ultimate check on any would be tyrant. But this check does not exist in the United States...In a governmental system where rulers are chosen by elections, the rulers will reflect the moral values of the people or of those among them who can exert the most pressure on the electoral process. If the morals of the people decline, then so will the values of their rulers. They will always find ways to subvert--or they will simply ignore--the checks and balances of their constitution in order to impose the kind of government they want...We...should not pretend that there is anything within the Constitution itself that will guarantee wisdom and morality in government...Many people have put too much faith in the Constitution, so that almost anything could be justified if declared "constitutional." Because the U.S. Supreme Court is the interpreter of the Constitution, that body would inevitably grow in power...Any system is only good as the people who live under it...If our Constitution has failed in any way...it is the fault of those who ask, "Is it Constitutional?" instead of asking, "Is it in harmony with natural law and with the law of God ' " 2
"So," Alix conjectured, "We don't necessarily have to make more governmental laws--although that is not totally out of the equation--but it is more germane to the question to be in harmony with the natural law and the Law of God, either by acknowledgement of implicit divine laws or by more explicit and written ones in some kind of concrete covenant or religion." "Yes," said the Cat. "But," complained Alix, "must we then depend on the Church to make sure all is in harmony with God's laws. Personally, I would accept living within 'Christian' laws in general, but will non-Christians or even secularist put up with this?" "Well, first, what can my Father say about secularists who will not accept any Eternal Law? If they wish to wallow in the mud of a materialist world be my guest, but let us not allow their worldview to bring down the common man, the very common man who does in fact believe in the Eternal Law. So let us simply eliminate these secularists (as they seem to want to eliminate us, ha.) "So that only leaves 'Christians' and other 'peoples that believe in the Eternal Law' which, together, make up most of mankind. "My Father, Catlan, does think that the Christians have, indeed, progressed the furthest in the Eternal Law, but that doesn't mean that other cultures haven't been aware of it. I will let my Father's best spokesman talk about the issue. He is none other than C.S. Lewis. Here are his thoughts on the Eternal Law which he calls 'The Way' or the 'Tao,' but before Lewis speaks, I will present some definitions of the Tao by a Catholic philosopher--Catholic only in his personal beliefs and not in the philosophy presented below--definitions which everyone could, and in fact does, acknowledge as the truth:
'It [the natural law] may be defined as...the disposition of things as known by reason to which man must conform himself if he is to realize his end...' 3
'...He [man] is given the power of reason by which he discerns the over-all order of things to which he should conform himself. The over-all order of things is the law of the universe, the law by which God regulates all creation...This is...man's rational and free participation in the over-all order established by God...The natural law is not made by man but based on the structure of reality itself. It is, therefore, the same for all men and all times, an unchanging rule or pattern which is there for us to discover, and by means of which we can rationally guide ourselves to our goal...Man has a connatural knowledge of the natural law...long before he makes it explicit in codes and formulas...' 3
'It [connatural] is the knowledge which follows on the lived experience of the truth, the living contact of the intellect with reality itself, a knowledge that is not always given expression in concepts...and is overlaid with elements from the affective or feeling side of man's nature..."I would rather feel compunction than know how to define it." says Thomas a Kempis in "The Imitation of Christ."... ' 4
'When people make appeal to fair play, demand square treatment, apply the golden rule, they are spontaneously invoking the natural law...Man's reflection on his own conduct gives rise to the explicit formulation of the concepts of the natural law...Because man can know and co-operate in the attainment of his own proper end, man has a duty to do those things which lead him to his goals...[Therefore] he has the right to demand those things which are the necessary means to his final end.' 3
"These are our natural rights and from our natural rights flow our civil rights.
'Our civil rights (our right to vote, jury trial, and so on, that my job) are related to the natural law as flowing from it. So deep is this dependence of [civil] law on natural law that a law of the state that goes against the natural law is not binding on the citizen.' 3
"In other words, my father, Catlan, the master of the Natural Law, has precedence over me, the civil law.
'...In the words of St. Augustine, "an unjust law is no law." ' " 3
"So in a nutshell," Alix started singing to the tune of the X-bone Is Connected To The Y-bone song, "The Eternal Law gives rise to the Natural law, the Natural Law gives rise to the duty of man, the duty of man gives rise to the natural rights of man, the rights of man gives rise to the civil rights of man, and the civil rights of man gives rise to the Constitution, which in the end all returns to Thou." "Yes, correct in a nutshell," said a grinning Constitution, "but you must understand that the point of this discussion is not on me and my origin, but on the greater context you must place me in before anything effective can be done in the battle against the Crook-ed players." "I see." "Now I will quote Lewis on this issue. Here, he contrasts the Eternal Natural Law (or Tao) to the secularist's game of Crook-ed:
'It [The Tao] is the source of all value judgments. If it is rejected, all value is rejected. If any value is retained, it is retained...There has never been, and never will be, a radical new judgment of value in the history of the world. What purports to be new systems or "ideologies", all consists of fragments from the Tao itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao and to it alone such validity as they possess...The rebellion of the new ideologies against the Tao is the rebellion of the branches against the tree...The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary color, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to move in.' 5
"And Lewis here states that the natural law is universal and does not necessarily always equate with Christianity or Theism:
'In order to avoid misunderstanding, I may add that though I am a Theist, and indeed a Christian, I am not here attempting any indirect argument for Theism. I am simply arguing that if we are to have values at all we must accept the ultimate platitudes of Practical Reason as having absolute validity: that any attempt, having become skeptical about these, to reintroduce value lower down on some more supposedly more "realistic" basis, is doomed. Whether this position implies a supernatural origin for the Tao is a question I am not here concerned with?' " 6
"Now Lewis makes a final comment on how tyranny can be avoided:
'Either we are rational spirit obliged for ever to obey the absolute values of the Tao, or else we are mere nature to be kneaded and cut into new shapes for the pleasures of masters who must, by hypothesis, have no motive but their own 'natural' impulses. Only the Tao provides a common human law of action that can over-arch rulers and ruled alike. A dogmatic belief in objective value (i.e.. The Natural Law) is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery...This process which, if not checked will abolish Man, goes apace among Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists.' " 7
"Yes!" Alix exclaimed, "In order to battle tyranny, we must certainly return to the Natural Law of God and live in harmony with it. But how? Perhaps some can do it on a individual basis, but how can we return to it on a societal level?" "By everyone conforming to the Tao?" "But how is that to be done?" asked Alix." I could see many believing in an implicit and everlasting unchangeable set of natural laws, but is even this small action enough. The main question is how we can turn this belief into concrete action to prevent tyranny. Must we then do something more organized and explicit; must we then all become part of some sort of church with written and explicit laws. On top of all this, must we then create new public laws, perhaps a new way of government?" "I don't know...not necessarily a new way of government...perhaps a bit of all. Well, all in all, these are big and hard questions to answer, but I have heard that my Father, Catlan, is on the move and may be coming here very soon." "Oh, that's wonderful. I would very like to meet him." "Don't ask for that favor so very lightly; he's an awesome and fearful Cat. You must be brave." "I will. At least I hope I will." "Humility will go a long way to helping you meet him." "I hope I will be humble." said Alix rather meekly. "How do you like the White King?" asked the Cat. "I have as yet not met him, although I have an invite to see him, but I do not know for what reason." "Well, what to think about him from what you heard?" "Not much at all. I think he is the best Crook-ed player around." Just then he noticed that the White King was close behind him listening--for he had inadvertently stepped back into the dark woods--so he went on, "He is so likely to win the game that it is hardly worth finishing it." "Ah, Alix," said the White King in a friendly soothing voice, "it so very good to meet you at last. I've heard a lot about you. Who are you taking to?" "It's a friend of mine--a Treasure Cat, the Constitution," said Alix, "allow me to introduce it." "I don't like the look of it at all," said the White King, "however it may kiss my hand if it likes." "I'd rather not," the Cat remarked. "Don't be impertinent," said the White King, "and don't look at me like that!" He got behind Alix as he spoke. "The Constitution may scrutinize a King," said Alix, "I've read that in some book, but I don't remember where." "Well, it must be removed," said the White King very decidedly and he called to some of his White-wigged Knaves who were passing by at the moment, "My men, I wish you would have this Cat removed!" These Knaves had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. "Off with its head!" they said without even looking around. "I'll fetch the executioner myself," said one of Knaves eagerly, and he hurried off. The Knave was quite quick and fetched the executioner in no time. When the executioner came, there was quite a large crowd around the Constitution. There was a dispute going on between the executioner, the King and the Knaves, who were all talking at once, while all the rest were quite silent and looked very uncomfortable. As Alix approached the scene, he noticed that the gloop shower had increased in power and was now raining hogs and dogs, for the very drops of gloop seemed to have teeth and tails to them and in the end it turned out to be a very biting rain. Alix also noticed that the King and his entourage had umbrellas or special armor or auras to keep the gloop away. "Why are they special and get to be immune from this gloop?" Alix thought. The moment Alix approached the King and his group he was appealed to by all three to settle the question, and they repeated their arguments to him, though, as they all spoke at once, he found it very hard to make out exactly what they said. The executioner's argument was that you couldn't cut off a head unless there was a body to cut it off from (that is you couldn't destroy the spirit unless you destroyed the words); the White-wigged Knaves argument was that anything that had a head can be beheaded (that is anything that has a spirit can be killed); The White King's argument was that if something wasn't done about it in less than no time, he'd have everybody placed in detention all around. (It was this last remark that had made the whole party look so grave and anxious.) Alix could think of nothing to say but, "It belongs to Catlan's family and you'd better ask him about it." "Who mentions that subversive, Catlan, around here," cried the White King. Just as the White King finished that last remark, a large, earth-shaking roar emanated from above, bowling them to the ground and knocking them all out. Slowly everybody woke up holding their heads as if experiencing a very bad headache and on top of that everyone was covered from top to bottom with red gloop; yes, red gloop and not green gloop. The White King was the first to speak, "Who dares to blare into the face of the White King and to strike terror into the land for look somebody has impregnated this very land with that awful red gloop from over the seas. And who is the culprit that inflicted us with this disaster: it could be none other than El Toro Bravo and his mighty bullhorns. He is a terrorist and must be placed on trial. Arrest him." And the White King's knaves did just that, handcuffing Alix and holding him tightly before the White King.
Footnotes: 1. Pages 101-102, 'Paradoxes of Catholicism,' by Robert Hugh Benson, Roman Catholic Books, Fort Collins, CO. 2. Pages 128-129, Chapter 9: The Birth of the American Government, 'Christ and the Americas,' by Anne W. Carroll, TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC. , Rockford, Illinois 61105, 1997. 3. Excerpts from pages 140-143, Chapter 18: THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS, 'An Introduction to Philosophy,' by Daniel J. Sullivan, The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1957, reprinted by TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC., Rockford, Illinois 61105, 1992. 4. Ibid., Excerpts from page 77. 5. Page 415; 'Selected Books; By C.S. Lewis; (from the book 'Abolition of Man, Oxford University Press, 1943); Published by HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 2002. 6. Ibid., page 417. 7. Ibid., page 426. 8. http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2005/070205notfreedom.htm
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