Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000
RAMANAM
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Countrymen,
ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT
Aspire to a very high elevation of character.
Cadet Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Every nation is divided into four orders:
The Brutish
The Selfish
The Un-Selfish
The Self-Sacrificing
The supreme law of a nation — her Constitution or other patent statement of identity, as supported by her resident families and her land itself — regulates relationships between but does not otherwise affect the four orders.
The four orders of a nation are fixed, permanent. Every nation has them, and only them, as her operating constituents.
Relationships between the orders within a nation, however, vary from nation to nation on account of their Constitutions.
There is only one structure of human society: the four orders. However, there are numerous way to regulate relationships between the orders comprising that structure. This distinction is at the base of political philosophy fruitfully — which is to say, happily — pursued.
Earlier political philosophers spoke of lower orders and higher orders of a nation. They referenced The Brutish and The Selfish as lower orders and The Un-Selfish and The Self-Sacrificing as higher orders. They observed these four orders present in every sort of nation or society.
Note three particulars:
1- the four orders are a universal phenomenon of human order per se;
2- within a nation or society the orders and their members belong together because they share a common source and need each other;
3- relationships between the orders can be regulated in more ways and to more ends than one.
The Brutish comprise the majority of any nation or society. Most of these can operate, at least for short periods, in the role of one of the other orders. Some are stuck in The Brutish role altogether, for example, career criminals, those whose minds literally cannot run to thoughts other than criminal ones and relish running to those. Such are few, thankfully, but they are omnipresent in some quantity or other. The Brutish role is impulse-based but also rational in its own terms as well as to ends which fundamentally benefit itself, others, and a nation or society generally.
Think bus drivers, street pavers, airline pilots, quarry workers, programmers, building and grounds maintenance, construction and drilling labor, etc.
The Selfish are the next largest component of any nation or society. Most of these also can operate, at least for short periods, in the role of one of the other orders. Some are stuck in The Selfish role altogether, for example, career politicians and government bureaucrats, those whose minds literally cannot run to thoughts other than manipulation and relish running to those. Such are more than a few, regrettably, and their ambitions enjoy a high fulfillment-success rate. The Selfish role is cunning-based but also rational in its own terms as well as to ends which fundamentally benefit itself, others, and a nation or society generally.
Think merchants, industrialists, lobbyists, corporate management, modernly many lawyers, medical doctors, judges, teachers, and clergy, etc.
The Un-Selfish are a small component of any nation or society and the ones who most directly and efficiently guide its course in history. Most of these can operate for lengthy periods of time in the role of one of the lower orders and often do so to earn a living. For, an irony of life and history is that whereas nations and societies depend absolutely on the ministrations of The Un-Selfish, rarely do nations and societies pay, at least directly, for what they get from them. This is a constant not to be mourned, just faced and flanked. The Un-Selfish are stuck, almost all of them, in that role. A few recidivate to The Selfish or The Brutish, but very few, ever. The Un-Selfish role is generosity-or grace-based. In its own terms it is rational but in the view of lower orders it appears on occasion to be irrational, stupid, insane, and positively, dangerously childish.
Think homemakers, soldiers, and lawyers, medical doctors, judges, teachers, and clergy who properly execute their duties.
The Self-Sacrificing are a very small component of any nation or society and yet are their true, most powerful leaders and governors. These are variously appurtenanced so as to be sometimes recognizable and sometimes not. They go in and out of all the orders’ roles as they find needful. They belong anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere anytime and anywhere. They are as comfortable with a president as with a prostitute. And persons around them feel from them the universal language of love. The Self-Sacrificing role is disappearance-and dispersal-based but also rational in its own terms as well as to ends which fundamentally benefit others and a nation or society generally.
Think homemakers, soldiers, and anyone of any order with whom you would trust your life and around whom you feel the world is safe.
So there is a quick study of the base of political philosophy.
The four orders of a nation may be taken as her Order of Battle. Each element, each order, in the nation’s line of sovereign independence should be strong and plentiful, and especially the higher orders. Each order needs the other three and the nation needs all four. None is superior to another, none is equal to another, none merits approbation or opprobrium directed at it. The gratitude of all is deserved by each. The four orders are a nation’s defense assets, her guarantor of safety, her protection from slavery, and equally so.
The four orders are roles, not statuses. No one deserves more respect than another. No one can take more credit than another. But if blame is to go around, they each and all deserve it and especially so the higher orders, the ones who effectively can guide a nation’s course in history.
Note that the analysis here advanced is role-based or, one could say, spiritual, phenomenological, with attention to how life plays out in the manners of power and meaning.
Oetinger: The end of the ways of God is corporeality.
Commonly, a nation’s elemental components are analyzed against an economic, academic institutional prestige, or political measurement. Actual power and meaning — except fleeting economic or social power and meaning . . . ask Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey what fleeting is — commonly are shunned as measuring means. Thus, while an analytical scheme or measurement protocol using artificial categories such as lower-class, blue-class, middle-class, and upper-class comprises an income/social class referent with a fluid but somewhat reliable political component, it says nothing about who is actually moving history and why.
Income/class analysis, along with preening over academic certification and political polling, are useful to commodity marketers but useless to political philosophers. The one needs to sell ephemera, the other needs to acquire erudition. Ephemera can execute on national defense but only erudition can inspire and guide it to points where it will meet success.
Βασιλεία του Θεού
Kingdom of God
Update 1: Tim Brown: The Treason Trials Begin When You Say They Do, Mr President
AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA
