A cop out is a cop out, no point watering it down. This is partly a prisoner's dilemma - but that's just apathy, and again a cop out. Do you STOP standing for truth, righteousness and justice because of the corruption you face? Pick any domain, pick any right, and stand, and sure as the sun rises you shall face the heart of the demon. There is no getting around the fact that when you stand, in the face of evil, you must face the evil. There is no particular reason to choose the courts as your forum of action and for your stand, in this world. You may choose any other forum. Choose civil activism, choose a stand within one or another of the churches, choose to stand for righteousness in the face of the "secret societies" (such as the Masons, Fabians, Jesuits, etc) - no matter which forum you stand within, you will face the world, the heart of every problem, and ultimately face yourself. "First and foremost, know thyself." Today it is very easy to retreat into nihilism given the abundance of food, entertainment of every preferred sort, and distractions. Excuses, cop outs, apathy, "it would never work", "there's too much corruption over there/here", "this particular problem is too big for me to solve, so I'll have a look and see about some other problem small enough for me". No thanks. Excuses never end. Every point in space and moment in time is a time worthy of standing. Not fighting. Standing. Not opposing. Standing. Standing in the face of the opposition to your stand. Good luck and create your world, On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 06:57:05PM +0000, Ryan Carboni wrote:
The simple response, and antidote, is "basic human rights"
From Kafka's The Trial:
"You fool yourself in the court," said the priest, "it talks about this self-deceit in the opening paragraphs to the law. In front of the law there is a doorkeeper. A man from the countryside comes up to the door and asks for entry. But the doorkeeper says he can't let him in to the law right now. The man thinks about this, and then he asks if he'll be able to go in later on. 'That's possible,' says the doorkeeper, 'but not now'. The gateway to the law is open as it always is, and the doorkeeper has stepped to one side, so the man bends over to try and see in. When the doorkeeper notices this he laughs and says, 'If you're tempted give it a try, try and go in even though I say you can't. Careful though: I'm powerful. And I'm only the lowliest of all the doormen. But there's a doorkeeper for each of the rooms and each of them is more powerful than the last. It's more than I can stand just to look at the third one.' The man from the country had not expected difficulties like this, the law was supposed to be accessible for anyone at any time, he thinks, but now he looks more closely at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, sees his big hooked nose, his long thin tartar-beard, and he decides it's better to wait until he has permission to enter. The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down to one side of the gate. He sits there for days and years. He tries to be allowed in time and again and tires the doorkeeper with his requests. The doorkeeper often questions him, asking about where he's from and many other things, but these are disinterested questions such as great men ask, and he always ends up by telling him he still can't let him in. The man had come well equipped for his journey, and uses everything, however valuable, to bribe the doorkeeper. He accepts everything, but as he does so he says, 'I'll only accept this so that you don't think there's anything you've failed to do'. Over many years, the man watches the doorkeeper almost without a break. He forgets about the other doormen, and begins to think this one is the only thing stopping him from gaining access to the law. Over the first few years he curses his unhappy condition out loud, but later, as he becomes old, he just grumbles to himself. He becomes senile, and as he has come to know even the fleas in the doorkeeper's fur collar over the years that he has been studying him he even asks them to help him and change the doorkeeper's mind. Finally his eyes grow dim, and he no longer knows whether it's really getting darker or just his eyes that are deceiving him. But he seems now to see an inextinguishable light begin to shine from the darkness behind the door. He doesn't have long to live now. Just before he dies, he brings together all his experience from all this time into one question which he has still never put to the doorkeeper. He beckons to him, as he's no longer able to raise his stiff body. The doorkeeper has to bend over deeply as the difference in their sizes has changed very much to the disadvantage of the man. 'What is it you want to know now?' asks the doorkeeper, 'You're insatiable.' 'Everyone wants access to the law,' says the man, 'how come, over all these years, no- one but me has asked to be let in?' The doorkeeper can see the man's come to his end, his hearing has faded, and so, so that he can be heard, he shouts to him: 'Nobody else could have got in this way, as this entrance was meant only for you. Now I'll go and close it'."
From another part of The Trial:
They're only allowed to deal with that part of the trial which the law allocates them, and they usually know less about the results of their work after it's left them than the defence does, even though the defence will usually stay in contact with the accused until the trial is nearly at its end, so that the court officials can learn many useful things from the defence.