I
do not allow virtues to pardon vices, and I make no excuses for any shortage of
virtue. There is a Way that Things Must Be, and it is the way that is most
prosperous for ALL human beings, not only MOST. I do not marginalize any one. I
refuse to be marginalized. No one can tell me to get over something that was an
injustice. I will not be taken advantage of; no one shall profit at my expense.
I do not compete; I simply serve the Greatest Good: the highest bidders in
terms of virtue and value. I follow their example; I hold others to their
standards. And I lead in turn accordingly.
I
do not ask what I can do for my country; I ask what my country can do for me.
The country is a machine. I am the human being. And my well-being reflects the
well-being of ALL human beings. If I suffer, so does humanity. I will not be
made to suffer FOR humanity, as though I were not Of This World. For should
that be the example that I set for all others, then the system is permitted to
fail. All others would either suffer accordingly, or they would suffer at my
expense. Neither is permissible to me.
The
good I take for granted; the bad I do not tolerate. So I was raised, and no one
has given me reason to dissuade this. No underachiever has pulled me from my
high horse only to beat me into the mud; they all ways paled before the shining
gurus I encountered in my solitary travels through this lifetime. I cannot be
pummeled with false allegations of laziness or self-interest when I have not been
pulled from my station as a Saviour of Men. Mine is not only a high horse but
the steed of a knight. I belong to a chivalry long ago forgotten but not lost.
That
I have been blessed in ways that you were not proves only this: that you were
dealt a bad hand. I can help you to recover. But not if you settle. Not if you
drag me down with you. Not if you internalize the wrongs done to you and forego
the rights owed to you in like kind. Not if you perpetuate the cycle of abuses
by internalizing them. Not if you imitate Christ by living a “Life” that tries
each day to Kill you. I will not enable you by telling you this is your lot in
Life; I’d sooner feed your addiction directly, only that my charity might so
disturb you that you’ll turn around and buy booze for yourself, only to find
you miss my charity because it was the first thing any one ever did FOR you
that was totally selfless and unconditional. And maybe you’ll quit drinking
then.
All
this proves is what the world owes to you still. It does not dispossess me of
my own entitlement. I’m not entitled to the fruits of any action all ready
forgotten. But I AM entitled to the FLOWER of the Future I’ve not yet seen. And
this Flower I wish to admire, and to become, standing beside my neighbours.
I
do not do this because I Can. I do this BECAUSE I MUST. I have no excuse left
for myself. I have none to spare for others. And that is the extent of my
frugality and miserliness. I will only ever evict the parasite. I will not call
someone of Good Intent a parasite. And I can read Intent in Others as well as a
can read it in my own self. They cannot hide it in pretense. And if ever I do
violence to any man’s needs it is only to unmask a fraud.
Maybe
this was why you started drinking: you settled for less. But I refuse to. I am
much too clever, and my health will not be jeopardized. I will not use drugs to
cope with the evils of the World nor to make them look less evil as a petty whore
is beautified by intoxication. I will fight those evils, and if I do not save
my drink for victory I shall use it to pacify my mind out in the field. It
shall be the salve for my wounds and the elixir for my magick. But it is not a
Spirit that shall be my God.
Dm.A.A.
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