"Thus it happens that those who have force on loan from fate count on it too much and are destroyed. But at the time their own destruction seems impossible to
them. For they do not see that the force in their possession is
only a limited quantity; nor do they see their relations with
other human beings as a kind of balance between unequal
amounts of force.
Since other people do not impose on their
movements that halt, that interval of hesitation, wherein lies
all our consideration for our brothers in humanity, they conclude that destiny has given complete license to them, and
none at all to their inferiors.
And at this point they exceed the
measure of the force that is actually at their disposal. Inevitably they exceed it, since they are not aware that it is
limited. And now we see them committed irretrievably to
chance; suddenly things cease to obey them. Sometimes
chance is kind to them, sometimes cruel. But in any case there
they are, exposed, open to misfortune; gone is the armor of
power that formerly protected their naked souls; nothing, no
shield, stands between them and tears.
This retribution, which has a geometrical rigor, which
operates automatically to penalize the abuse of force, was the
main subject of Greek thought. It is the soul of the epic. Under
the name of Nemesis, it functions as the mainspring of
Aeschylus's tragedies. To the Pythagoreans, to Socrates and
Plato, it was the jumping-off point of speculation upon the
nature of man and the universe.
Wherever Hellenism has
penetrated, we find the idea of it familiar. In Oriental countries which are steeped in Buddhism, it is perhaps this Greek
idea that has lived on under the name of Kharma.
The Occident, however, has lost it, and no longer even has a word to
express it in any of its languages: conceptions of limit, measure, equilibrium, which ought to determine the conduct of
life are, in the West, restricted to a servile function in the
vocabulary of technics. We are only geometricians of matter; the Greeks were, first of all, geometricians in their apprenticeship to virtue."
Simone Weil, The Iliad, or The Poem of Force, 1940 (after the fall of France)
'A true opium of the people is the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.'
Czeslaw Milosz, Discreet Charm of Nihilism
If the elite can kill their conscience, if they can deny their own immortal souls, will they thereby be able to escape judgment for their betrayals, greed, cowardice, and murders?
Don't bother with truth. Just prophesy them illusions.
The Street was not happy with the earnings reports from some of the technocracy last night.
And the disappoint with the economic data this morning seems to have been profound.
Stocks were sold -- hard.
Gold and silver were hammered.
VIX rose.
The Dollar initially rallied sharply, but then finally sold off into the close.
Non-Farm Payrolls tomorrow, isn't it?
Happy Halloween.
Have a pleasant evening.
