"I never make any conditions, except one: if you accept the preliminary drawings of the house, it is to be built as I designed it, without any alterations of any kind." - Howard Roark, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.
The illusion of peace drafts Man into the army of the strongest dream.
The consequences of introducing conditions reveal the position of the requester and the recipient in their response to acquiesce, resist, or negotiate. If Man is anything, stubborn is He.
Each passing moment a Man negotiates, either in mind, spirit, or action; every calorie burnt in response to His effort, and every calorie stored through the inaction of Him. Satisfied is He to operate without argument with another, to will dreams into action through only His own effort. Alas it is not that simple.
Each layer of action Man undertakes is filtered through the standards of His time, place, and circumstance. Man does not need Permission to walk outside without a shirt, though some places He needs to or is forbidden from - No Shirt No Shoes No Service. How far off of His porch does this rule apply, and of what circumstance is He forgiven for His shirtlessness? Mowing His lawn shirtless is alright on a hot day, but is the same grace given on a cool Sunday in September?
To spare the rabbit hole, Permission is a topic often approached through offense. In our time, place, and circumstance, Permission is withheld by default on matters of theft, graffiti, trespassing, or bodily or emotional harm. Permission, however, is a grey area for the Common Man on addressing such trespasses, lest Vigilantism starts to creep in. While there is no Permission granted for trespassing, by what Permission is He granted to apprehend the trespasser, to immediately correct a violation He is witness of? To address graffiti with a fresh coat of paint, without Permission of the building's owner? To fix a pothole on the road He commutes to work on, without a permit from the Town or City?
The argument thus far is the exploration of Permission through the defined agreements of effort. To grant Permission is to grant Man caloric responsibility, to burn or store His own energy for the purpose of the arrangement. In Roark's condition to Mr. Gail Wynand in the Fountainhead, Roark demands Wynand not use any calories to interfere with the design of Roark's work, while Wynand at the same time gives Roark Permission to expend whatever necessary to produce the work agreed upon. Roark gives Wynand Permission to work through no action, while Wynand gives Roark Permission to work with action, thus defining whose energy is to be expended.
This gamble, or command, by Roark is courting his own torment, as there are many moments throughout the novel that Roark's command led to His own ruin and displacement. Restating Rand's ideals is not the purpose of this piece, though it is rare today to find literature that demands, of the characters, of the reader, to respond to an order. To question not oneself, but to see an argument play out in real time, knowing consequences were the purpose of the command itself.
How bereft of preparation are we today to operate in that environment? Work today may as well be defined as "doing a few things every day for someone so you can do the things you want to do when you're not working." There is a great schism today between effort and reward, between the demand for His calories and what is actually promised in return. The great marketplace of calories is a Permission-based exchange floor. Who can tell whom what to do and why, with compensation or retaliation traded based on the Permissions outlined in the agreement. It is how relationships foster or wilt, ascend or be damned, how one understands their value in relation to another's dream.
I deliberately invoke calories in this argument to align Man's efforts with chemistry, to make clear that effort is not conceptual or trapped behind aspersions of mental toil, but to define effort with the real world, with the body. There is reason to argue that the complexities by which calories expended are proper when discussing work, but I argue that molding caloric expenditure as the metric by which work is happening is my dream of work realized. Work is energy intensive or restrictive. Work requires Man to move or lie still, to make real of His dreams or another's, to make quiet of His protest or address the grievances of His outcry. Many a Man works by not lifting a finger, at the Permission of those who move mountains.
As I shape my writing and my own ideals, I wish to give myself Permission to express these thoughts, with the public, for those who wish to criticize or amplify. I hold sacred our right to expression and welcome those reading, if any, to do the same. Much is to be said of Permission, of what work we are allowed to do or not do, but in the absence of definitive Permission around self-expression, may my work be my own. The No Man's Land of someone else's dreams is the reality of most, and the whistles blow to remind us of the reality of Permission.
The illusion of peace drafts Man into the army of the strongest dream.
The consequences of introducing conditions reveal the position of the requester and the recipient in their response to acquiesce, resist, or negotiate. If Man is anything, stubborn is He.
Each passing moment a Man negotiates, either in mind, spirit, or action; every calorie burnt in response to His effort, and every calorie stored through the inaction of Him. Satisfied is He to operate without argument with another, to will dreams into action through only His own effort. Alas it is not that simple.
Each layer of action Man undertakes is filtered through the standards of His time, place, and circumstance. Man does not need Permission to walk outside without a shirt, though some places He needs to or is forbidden from - No Shirt No Shoes No Service. How far off of His porch does this rule apply, and of what circumstance is He forgiven for His shirtlessness? Mowing His lawn shirtless is alright on a hot day, but is the same grace given on a cool Sunday in September?
To spare the rabbit hole, Permission is a topic often approached through offense. In our time, place, and circumstance, Permission is withheld by default on matters of theft, graffiti, trespassing, or bodily or emotional harm. Permission, however, is a grey area for the Common Man on addressing such trespasses, lest Vigilantism starts to creep in. While there is no Permission granted for trespassing, by what Permission is He granted to apprehend the trespasser, to immediately correct a violation He is witness of? To address graffiti with a fresh coat of paint, without Permission of the building's owner? To fix a pothole on the road He commutes to work on, without a permit from the Town or City?
The argument thus far is the exploration of Permission through the defined agreements of effort. To grant Permission is to grant Man caloric responsibility, to burn or store His own energy for the purpose of the arrangement. In Roark's condition to Mr. Gail Wynand in the Fountainhead, Roark demands Wynand not use any calories to interfere with the design of Roark's work, while Wynand at the same time gives Roark Permission to expend whatever necessary to produce the work agreed upon. Roark gives Wynand Permission to work through no action, while Wynand gives Roark Permission to work with action, thus defining whose energy is to be expended.
This gamble, or command, by Roark is courting his own torment, as there are many moments throughout the novel that Roark's command led to His own ruin and displacement. Restating Rand's ideals is not the purpose of this piece, though it is rare today to find literature that demands, of the characters, of the reader, to respond to an order. To question not oneself, but to see an argument play out in real time, knowing consequences were the purpose of the command itself.
How bereft of preparation are we today to operate in that environment? Work today may as well be defined as "doing a few things every day for someone so you can do the things you want to do when you're not working." There is a great schism today between effort and reward, between the demand for His calories and what is actually promised in return. The great marketplace of calories is a Permission-based exchange floor. Who can tell whom what to do and why, with compensation or retaliation traded based on the Permissions outlined in the agreement. It is how relationships foster or wilt, ascend or be damned, how one understands their value in relation to another's dream.
I deliberately invoke calories in this argument to align Man's efforts with chemistry, to make clear that effort is not conceptual or trapped behind aspersions of mental toil, but to define effort with the real world, with the body. There is reason to argue that the complexities by which calories expended are proper when discussing work, but I argue that molding caloric expenditure as the metric by which work is happening is my dream of work realized. Work is energy intensive or restrictive. Work requires Man to move or lie still, to make real of His dreams or another's, to make quiet of His protest or address the grievances of His outcry. Many a Man works by not lifting a finger, at the Permission of those who move mountains.
As I shape my writing and my own ideals, I wish to give myself Permission to express these thoughts, with the public, for those who wish to criticize or amplify. I hold sacred our right to expression and welcome those reading, if any, to do the same. Much is to be said of Permission, of what work we are allowed to do or not do, but in the absence of definitive Permission around self-expression, may my work be my own. The No Man's Land of someone else's dreams is the reality of most, and the whistles blow to remind us of the reality of Permission.