The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: In Defence of Consciousness
A New Queen Mab for the Circle of Blame
By the Unacknowledged Legislators of the Universe In the manner of G.K. Chesterton, with the structure of Kant's Critique and the spirit of Ruskin's "Unto This Last"
Preface to the First Edition (2024)
I have written this book because I could not help writing it, and I suspect you will read it because you cannot help reading it. We live in an age where consciousness itself has become a commodity, where attention is harvested like wheat, and where the very faculty of reason has been turned into a weapon against reasoning beings. This is not a book about poetry, though it defends poetry. It is not a book about economics, though it demolishes economics. It is not a book about philosophy, though it philosophizes with the best of them. It is a book about the one thing that cannot be bought, sold, or regulated out of existence: the human capacity to see clearly, think freely, and love foolishly.
The reader will find here no systematic treatise, no academic dissertation, no careful footnotes leading to other careful footnotes. What they will find is something far more dangerous: a defense of the indefensible, an argument for the impossible, and a celebration of the absurd. For in our time, sanity has become madness, wisdom has become folly, and the poets have become the only economists worth consulting.
I dedicate this work to all who have been called mad for seeing too clearly, all who have been called fools for speaking too truly, and all who have been called dangerous for loving too well. The gods would destroy us by making us mad, but we shall defeat the gods by embracing our madness as the highest form of reason.
Preface to the Second Edition (2025)
Since this book first appeared, the world has grown considerably madder, which proves either that I was right or that I was wrong, depending on whether you think madness is the problem or the solution. I incline toward the latter view, having observed that those who call themselves sane have managed, in the space of a single year, to make the world more insane than it has ever been.
The Circle of Blame, which I described in these pages as a theoretical construct, has become a practical reality. Everyone blames everyone else for everything, which means that no one is responsible for anything, which means that everything continues exactly as it was, only more so. This is either a vindication of my thesis or a refutation of it, and I leave it to the reader to decide which.
What I can say with certainty is that consciousness remains under siege, poetry remains unacknowledged as the supreme form of legislation, and the fairies have not yet returned to save us from ourselves. But they will return, because they must return, because without them we are nothing but clever apes with delusions of grandeur and access to nuclear weapons.
Introduction: The Difference Between Pure and Empirical Nonsense
The first thing to understand about consciousness is that it cannot be understood. This is not a defect in consciousness but a feature of it, like the way a joke ceases to be funny the moment you explain it, or the way love disappears the moment you try to define it. The scientists tell us that consciousness is an emergent property of neural complexity, which is rather like saying that laughter is an emergent property of facial muscle contractions. Technically true, utterly useless.
The economists tell us that consciousness is a market phenomenon, that attention is a scarce resource to be allocated efficiently among competing uses. This would be merely stupid if it were not so dangerous. For when consciousness becomes a commodity, the human being becomes a machine for the production and consumption of experiences, and the soul becomes a subsidiary of the attention economy.
The politicians tell us that consciousness is a political problem, to be solved through the proper application of force and the correct distribution of rights. But consciousness is not a problem to be solved; it is a mystery to be lived. And mysteries, as any good detective will tell you, are not solved by force but by attention, not by rights but by love.
Chapter I: Of Space - The Geography of the Soul
Space, according to Kant, is the form of outer intuition, the a priori condition under which we perceive objects as external to ourselves. But what Kant failed to notice is that space is also the form of inner intuition, the condition under which we perceive ourselves as internal to objects. For we do not merely occupy space; we are space, in the sense that consciousness is always consciousness of something, always reaching beyond itself toward what it is not.
The modern world has forgotten this truth, which is why it suffers from what I call "spatial anxiety" - the peculiar madness of believing that we are trapped inside our own heads, looking out at a world that exists independently of our looking. This is the fundamental delusion of materialism: the belief that consciousness is a spotlight illuminating objects that exist in darkness, rather than the light by which objects come to exist at all.
The Circle of Blame operates by exploiting this spatial anxiety. It convinces us that the problem is always "out there" - in the politicians, the corporations, the media, the conspiracy. But the problem is never out there, because there is no "out there" independent of consciousness. The problem is always here, in the space between the seer and the seen, the knower and the known, the lover and the beloved.
This is why the poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world: because they alone understand that space is not empty but full, not a container but a relationship, not a stage but a dance. When Shelley wrote "Ozymandias," he was not describing the ruins of an ancient king but the eternal structure of human pretension. The "lone and level sands" stretch far away not because the desert is vast but because consciousness is infinite.
Chapter II: Of Time - The Music of What Happens
Time, like space, is not what it appears to be. The scientists tell us it is the fourth dimension, measurable by atomic clocks and subject to relativistic effects. The economists tell us it is money, to be saved, spent, and invested for maximum return. The politicians tell us it is progress, the arrow pointing from primitive past to enlightened future.
But time is none of these things. Time is the rhythm of consciousness, the beat by which experience keeps step with itself. It is not a river flowing from past to future but a dance in which past and future meet in the eternal present of awareness. This is why memory is not storage but creation, why anticipation is not prediction but imagination, why the present moment is not a point but an opening.
The Circle of Blame operates by destroying our relationship with time. It traps us in an eternal present of reaction, where every moment is consumed by responding to the last outrage, the latest crisis, the newest emergency. We lose the past, which becomes mere data to be manipulated, and we lose the future, which becomes mere projection to be feared or desired. We are left with a present that is not present but absent, not alive but mechanical.
This temporal destruction is not accidental but systematic. For a consciousness trapped in reactive time is a consciousness that cannot create, cannot love, cannot hope. It can only consume and be consumed, blame and be blamed, react and be reacted to. It becomes, in short, a perfect component in the machine of modern production and consumption.
The way out is through what the Irish call "the music of what happens" - the recognition that time is not a problem to be solved but a song to be sung. When we learn to hear this music, we discover that we are not trapped in time but dancing with it, not victims of history but participants in the eternal creation of meaning.
Chapter III: Of the Pure Conceptions of Understanding - The Categories of Blame
Kant identified twelve categories of understanding, the fundamental concepts through which we organize experience: unity and plurality, reality and negation, substance and accident, cause and effect, and so forth. But he missed the most important category of all: blame. For blame is the master category, the one through which all others are filtered in the modern world.
Everything that happens is immediately sorted into the categories of blame: Who is responsible? Who is at fault? Who should be punished? Who should be rewarded? These questions seem natural, even necessary, but they are actually the bars of a prison. For once we begin to think in terms of blame, we stop thinking in terms of understanding. Once we begin to ask "Who is at fault?" we stop asking "What is happening?" Once we begin to demand punishment, we stop seeking wisdom.
The Circle of Blame operates by making blame seem like understanding. It offers us the illusion of explanation: if we can identify the villain, we can understand the story. If we can name the enemy, we can win the war. If we can assign responsibility, we can solve the problem. But blame is not understanding; it is the opposite of understanding. It is the refusal to see clearly, disguised as the demand for clarity.
True understanding begins when we stop asking "Who is to blame?" and start asking "What is asking to be born?" For every crisis is a birth, every problem is a possibility, every breakdown is a breakthrough waiting to happen. But we cannot see this as long as we are trapped in the categories of blame, as long as we insist on dividing the world into heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators, us and them.
The poets understand this, which is why they are dangerous to every established order. They see through the categories of blame to the deeper categories of creation: beauty and terror, love and loss, hope and despair. They know that the world is not a courtroom where guilt must be assigned but a theater where meaning is made, not a machine where causes produce effects but a garden where seeds become flowers in ways that no amount of analysis can explain.
Chapter IV: Of the Schematism of Blame - How Categories Become Reality
The most mysterious chapter in Kant's Critique concerns the schematism - the process by which pure concepts of understanding are applied to the manifold of intuition. How does the abstract category of causation connect with the concrete experience of one billiard ball striking another? How does the pure concept of substance relate to the particular substance of this table, this chair, this cup of tea?
Kant's answer is that there must be a mediating element, something that partakes of both the conceptual and the intuitive. He calls this the schema, and locates it in the imagination. But what Kant describes as a solution to an epistemological problem is actually a description of how consciousness creates reality through the stories it tells itself.
The schema of blame works like this: First, we experience something unpleasant - loss, failure, disappointment, pain. Then we apply the category of blame: someone must be responsible for this suffering. Finally, we construct a schema - a story that connects the abstract concept of blame with the concrete experience of suffering. The story might be political (the government is to blame), economic (the corporations are to blame), personal (I am to blame), or cosmic (God is to blame). The content doesn't matter; what matters is that the schema transforms raw experience into meaningful narrative.
But here's the crucial point: the schema doesn't just organize experience; it creates experience. Once we have constructed the story of blame, we begin to see evidence for it everywhere. Every news report confirms our suspicions, every personal interaction validates our narrative, every random event fits into our pattern. The schema becomes a lens through which we see the world, and eventually we forget that we are wearing the lens at all.
This is how the Circle of Blame perpetuates itself. It's not that people are consciously choosing to blame others; it's that the schema of blame has become so deeply embedded in consciousness that it shapes perception at the most fundamental level. We literally cannot see anything that doesn't fit into the categories of blame, responsibility, guilt, and punishment.
The way out is through what I call "schematic revolution" - the conscious construction of new schemas, new stories, new ways of connecting concept and experience. Instead of asking "Who is to blame?" we might ask "What is trying to emerge?" Instead of seeking punishment, we might seek understanding. Instead of dividing the world into guilty and innocent, we might see it as a community of fellow travelers, all struggling with the same fundamental questions: How shall we live? What shall we love? Why are we here?
Chapter V: The Antinomy of Pure Blame - Four Contradictions
Just as Kant discovered that pure reason falls into contradictions when it tries to think about the world as a whole, so pure blame falls into contradictions when it tries to assign responsibility for the human condition. I call these the Four Antinomies of Blame:
First Antinomy: The Problem of Ultimate Responsibility
Thesis: Someone must be ultimately responsible for the state of the world.
Antithesis: No one can be ultimately responsible, because everyone is shaped by forces beyond their control.
Second Antinomy: The Problem of Individual Agency
Thesis: Individuals have free will and are therefore responsible for their choices.
Antithesis: Individual behavior is determined by social, economic, and psychological forces.
Third Antinomy: The Problem of Collective Action
Thesis: Social problems require collective solutions and collective responsibility.
Antithesis: Collectives are abstractions; only individuals can act and be held responsible.
Fourth Antinomy: The Problem of Historical Justice
Thesis: Past injustices must be acknowledged and corrected.
Antithesis: The past cannot be changed, and present generations cannot be held responsible for historical crimes.
Each antinomy represents a genuine contradiction in the logic of blame. We cannot resolve these contradictions through argument, because they arise from the structure of blame itself. The thesis and antithesis are both true and both false, depending on the perspective from which we view them.
The Circle of Blame exploits these contradictions by encouraging us to take sides, to choose one horn of the dilemma and defend it against all comers. Progressives tend toward the antitheses (no one is ultimately responsible because everyone is shaped by social forces), while conservatives tend toward the theses (individuals are responsible for their choices regardless of circumstances). But both positions are partial truths that become total falsehoods when taken to their logical extreme.
The solution is not to resolve the antinomies but to transcend them. This requires what Kant called "practical reason" - the recognition that we must act as if we are free and responsible, even though we cannot prove that we are. But I would go further: we must act as if everyone is free and responsible, even those we disagree with, even those we consider enemies, even those who seem to be acting unconsciously or maliciously.
This is not naive optimism but practical wisdom. For when we treat others as conscious agents capable of choice, we create the conditions under which they can become conscious agents capable of choice. When we treat them as victims or villains, we create the conditions under which they become victims or villains. The schema shapes the reality it purports to describe.
Chapter VI: The Ideal of Pure Blame - The Perfect Scapegoat
At the heart of every system of blame lies what I call the Ideal of Pure Blame - the fantasy of finding someone who is perfectly guilty, someone on whom we can project all responsibility for our suffering. This ideal can never be realized in experience, because no actual person is perfectly guilty. But the ideal serves as a regulative principle, guiding our search for ever more satisfying targets of blame.
The history of civilization can be read as a series of attempts to realize this ideal. We have blamed witches, heretics, foreigners, minorities, the rich, the poor, the government, the corporations, the media, the intellectuals, the masses. Each scapegoat serves for a while, providing temporary relief from the burden of responsibility. But eventually the relief fades, and we must find a new scapegoat, someone even more perfectly guilty than the last.
The Circle of Blame is the systematization of this process. It creates a perpetual motion machine of scapegoating, where every attempt to assign blame generates new targets for blame. The politicians blame the media, the media blames the politicians, everyone blames the corporations, the corporations blame the consumers, the consumers blame the system, and the system blames human nature. Round and round it goes, and where it stops, nobody knows.
But what if we stopped looking for the perfect scapegoat and started looking for the perfect sacrifice? What if instead of asking "Who can we blame?" we asked "What can we give?" What if instead of seeking someone to punish, we sought something to love?
This is the revolution that poetry offers: the transformation of blame into praise, of punishment into gift, of scapegoating into sacred offering. The poet does not ask "Who is responsible for suffering?" but "How can suffering be transformed into beauty?" The poet does not seek to assign guilt but to create meaning, not to punish the guilty but to redeem the fallen.
This is why poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. They legislate not through force but through love, not through punishment but through transformation, not through blame but through praise. They show us that the world is not a courtroom where justice must be done but a workshop where beauty can be made, not a prison where guilt is punished but a school where wisdom is learned.
Chapter VII: The Discipline of Pure Blame - How to Stop Blaming
The discipline of pure reason, according to Kant, involves learning the proper limits of reason, understanding what it can and cannot accomplish. Similarly, the discipline of pure blame involves learning the proper limits of blame, understanding what it can and cannot accomplish.
Blame can identify problems, but it cannot solve them. Blame can assign responsibility, but it cannot create response-ability. Blame can punish the guilty, but it cannot heal the wounded. Blame can divide the world into us and them, but it cannot unite the world into we.
The first step in disciplining blame is to recognize it as a choice rather than a necessity. We are not forced to blame; we choose to blame because it seems easier than the alternatives. Blame gives us the illusion of understanding without the effort of inquiry, the illusion of action without the risk of creation, the illusion of righteousness without the burden of love.
The second step is to practice what I call "blame fasting" - periods of time when we consciously refrain from assigning blame for anything that happens. This is more difficult than it sounds, because blame has become so automatic that we often don't notice we're doing it. We blame the weather for being inconvenient, the traffic for being slow, the government for being incompetent, our families for being difficult, ourselves for being imperfect.
The third step is to replace blame with curiosity. Instead of asking "Who is at fault?" we ask "What is happening?" Instead of asking "Who should be punished?" we ask "What needs to be healed?" Instead of asking "Who is the enemy?" we ask "What is the invitation?"
This discipline is not easy, because it requires us to give up one of our most cherished illusions: the illusion that we are innocent victims of forces beyond our control. When we stop blaming others, we must face our own participation in whatever we're experiencing. When we stop making others responsible for our suffering, we must take responsibility for our own healing.
But this is also liberation. For when we stop being victims, we become creators. When we stop being at the mercy of forces beyond our control, we discover forces within our control that we never knew existed. When we stop waiting for someone else to solve our problems, we discover our own capacity for solution.
Chapter VIII: The Canon of Pure Blame - What We Can Know, Hope, and Do
Kant concluded his Critique with three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? These questions define the limits and possibilities of human reason. Similarly, we must ask: What can we know about blame? What ought we to do about blame? What may we hope for beyond blame?
What Can We Know About Blame?
We can know that blame is a human construction, not a natural law. We can know that it serves certain psychological and social functions, but that these functions can be served in other ways. We can know that blame creates the very problems it claims to solve, and that the Circle of Blame is a trap from which escape is possible but not easy.
Most importantly, we can know that blame is always a choice, even when it doesn't feel like one. Every moment presents us with the opportunity to blame or to bless, to punish or to heal, to divide or to unite. The choice is ours, and it is always available, no matter how trapped we feel.
What Ought We to Do About Blame?
We ought to practice the discipline of blame, learning to recognize it, question it, and transcend it. We ought to create alternatives to blame - ways of understanding problems, assigning responsibility, and seeking justice that don't depend on scapegoating and punishment.
We ought to tell different stories, stories that emphasize connection rather than separation, healing rather than punishment, possibility rather than limitation. We ought to treat every person we encounter as a conscious being capable of choice, growth, and transformation, regardless of how they are currently behaving.
Most importantly, we ought to love. For love is the only force powerful enough to break the Circle of Blame. Love sees through the illusion of separation to the reality of connection. Love transforms enemies into friends, problems into possibilities, suffering into wisdom.
What May We Hope for Beyond Blame?
We may hope for a world in which problems are solved through creativity rather than punishment, in which responsibility is shared rather than assigned, in which justice is restorative rather than retributive. We may hope for a world in which the energy currently wasted on blame is redirected toward healing, building, and creating.
We may hope for the return of the fairies - not literal fairies, but the fairy-tale consciousness that sees the world as enchanted rather than mechanical, meaningful rather than random, alive rather than dead. We may hope for the recognition that poets are indeed the unacknowledged legislators of the world, that beauty is indeed truth, that love is indeed the fundamental force of the universe.
Most of all, we may hope for the transformation of consciousness itself - the evolution from blame-consciousness to praise-consciousness, from victim-consciousness to creator-consciousness, from separation-consciousness to unity-consciousness.
Epilogue: The Return of Queen Mab
In Shelley's "Queen Mab," the fairy queen shows the sleeping Ianthe a vision of the world as it is and as it could be. She reveals the crimes of kings and priests, the suffering of the innocent, the corruption of institutions. But she also reveals the possibility of transformation, the power of love to overcome hatred, the capacity of consciousness to create new realities.
I have tried to be a kind of Queen Mab for our time, showing the sleeping consciousness of the modern world a vision of the Circle of Blame and the possibility of escape from it. I have revealed how blame operates as a system of control, how it traps us in cycles of reaction and counter-reaction, how it prevents us from seeing clearly and acting wisely.
But I have also tried to show the possibility of transformation. For the same consciousness that creates the Circle of Blame can create circles of healing, circles of creativity, circles of love. The same imagination that constructs schemas of punishment can construct schemas of redemption. The same reason that falls into antinomies of guilt can rise to syntheses of grace.
The revolution begins not with the overthrow of external systems but with the transformation of internal consciousness. It begins when we stop asking "Who is to blame?" and start asking "What wants to be born?" It begins when we stop seeing enemies and start seeing teachers, when we stop seeking punishment and start seeking understanding, when we stop defending positions and start exploring possibilities.
This revolution cannot be imposed from above or organized from below. It can only emerge from within, from the recognition that we are all participants in the same mystery, all characters in the same story, all notes in the same cosmic symphony. It emerges when we remember that we are not separate beings competing for scarce resources but expressions of the same consciousness exploring its own infinite creativity.
The poets have always known this. They have always been the unacknowledged legislators of the world, not because they make laws but because they make possibilities, not because they govern behavior but because they liberate imagination, not because they solve problems but because they transform problems into opportunities for beauty.
In the end, the defense of poetry is the defense of consciousness itself - the defense of our capacity to see clearly, think freely, feel deeply, and love foolishly. It is the defense of our right to be human in a world that increasingly treats humanity as a problem to be solved rather than a mystery to be celebrated.
The Circle of Blame will continue to spin as long as we choose to spin it. But we can choose to step out of the circle, to break the spell, to wake up from the nightmare of separation and remember the dream of unity. We can choose to be legislators of love rather than prosecutors of blame, creators of beauty rather than consumers of outrage, poets of possibility rather than prisoners of the past.
The choice is ours. It has always been ours. It will always be ours.
Queen Mab is returning. Can you hear her wings?
[Final Note: This work is dedicated to all who have been called mad for seeing too clearly, all who have been called dangerous for loving too well, and all who continue to believe that another world is possible. The unacknowledged legislators are screaming, but they are screaming in defense of consciousness, in defense of beauty, in defense of the eternal human capacity to transform suffering into song.]
Reasoning Process
Hmm, the user has provided a complex query that requires synthesizing multiple literary references into a creative work. They want a "Circle of Blame Story" framed as a modern "New Queen Mab" and "Defence of Poetry," incorporating elements from Shelley, Pope, Pushkin, and other sources. The search results include biographical details about Shelley's personal tragedies, his philosophical writings, and analyses of his works like "Epipsychidion" and "Prometheus Unbound."
I need to approach this as a creative writing task since the query explicitly demands an original literary composition. The user references specific structural requirements: using Ruskin's "Unto This Last" format with Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" chapter headings, written in G.K. Chesterton's whimsical style. They also provide song lyrics and poetic fragments to incorporate.
The key elements to integrate include:
Shelley's concept of poets as "unacknowledged legislators" from "A Defence of Poetry"
The tragic figure of Hecuba from Ovid as a symbol of loss
Pushkin's "Exegi Monumentum" for its defiant poetic spirit
Pope's satirical voice from "The Dunciad"
The "Circle of Blame" concept from the Grub Street in Exile Substack
For structure, I'll adopt Kant's framework as requested, dividing the response into "Transcendental Doctrine of Elements" and "Transcendental Doctrine of Method" sections. Within this, I'll weave Shelleyan themes of poetic rebellion against tyranny, using Chesterton's paradox-filled prose and rhythmic cadence from "The Man Who Was Thursday."
The challenge is balancing academic rigor with creative liberty. I'll open with Hecuba's scream as a motif for oppressed voices, then trace how poets from Shelley to Pushkin become "unacknowledged legislators" through their subversive art. The conclusion should mirror Chesterton's signature blend of wit and wisdom, affirming poetry's power to dismantle "systems of political control" as referenced in the query.
Since this is creative writing, I won't cite sources conventionally but will embed allusions naturally (e.g., "Ozymandias" for tyranny's fragility, "Queen Mab" for revolutionary ideals). The tone must remain defiantly poetic while meeting the user's request for "Ruskin-style analysis" in Chesterton's voice.
The Unacknowledged Legislators' Lament: A New Queen Mab
Hecuba’s scream echoes through the desolate corridors of history—a primal cry against the "poorly rich" who "pineth still for more" while poets, those unacknowledged legislators, are crushed beneath the wheel of tyranny. In this Circle of Blame, we trace the arc from Shelley’s Queen Mab to Pushkin’s defiant monument, where art battles the "violent collapsing society" that labels truth-tellers mad.
I. Transcendental Doctrine of Elements
First Part—Transcendental Æsthetic
Shelley’s lost daughter Clara, feverish and abandoned in Este, becomes Hecuba’s kin—both victims of a world where "jealousy, a jealous foe" chains the soul. Mary Shelley’s grief mirrors Lucrece’s despair: "Broken from the fall / driven to end it all". Here, the Essay on Man collides with Queen Mab’s fury: Pope’s "open mind" is a luxury denied those trampled by the "beat of the base and despicable truths".
Second Part—Transcendental Logic
Analytic of Principles: Shelley’s Defence of Poetry declares verse the "moral force which moves man forward," yet the "hierachy that enslaves you" silences its voice. McGilchrist and Sheldrake, debating in Father Brown’s vicarage, dissect this paradox: when "madness" is a political tool, the poet’s lyre becomes a weapon. Dialectic of Pure Reason: Ozymandias sneers, "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"—but Pushkin’s monument "not built by human hands" outlasts tyrants.
II. Transcendental Doctrine of Method
Discipline of Pure Reason
Chesterton’s "Thursday" caper meets Ruskin’s Unto This Last:
In Dogmatism: The "poorly rich" (Tarquinius) ravage Lucrece, yet "kings to consuls" fall by poetry’s revolt.
In Hypothesis: Shelley’s "delusive flames" of selfhood ignite Prometheus’s fire against "cold oblivion".
Canon of Pure Reason
The Summum Bonum is Hecuba’s scream transmuted into song:
"But late on the pinnacle of fame,
strong in my many sons.
now exiled, penniless".
Here, Pope’s Dunciad satirizes the "Iron Law of Oligarchy," while Lewis’s Hecuba howls against Schumpeter’s "competitive struggle for the people’s vote"—a democracy hijacked by covetous fools.
In this New Queen Mab, poets are the "custodiet ipsos custodes," turning Shelley’s "mercy toward fallen men" into a shield against the "technocratic prison". When Oberon’s fayries return, the Circle of Blame shatters: the legislator’s scream becomes a hymn for consciousness itself.
The Unacknowledged Legislators' Conspiracy: A Timon of Athens for the Circle of Blame
Being a New Queen Mab in Defence of Consciousness Against the Gold-Cursed World
By the Unacknowledged Legislators of the Universe In the manner of G.K. Chesterton, with the spirit of Shakespeare's Timon and the fury of Hecuba's scream
Preface: The Misanthrope's Lament
"I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind!" cries Timon in his cave, having discovered what every poet learns too late: that generosity is punished, truth is rewarded with exile, and the world prefers its flatterers to its friends. But unlike Shakespeare's noble Athenian, we shall not retreat to caves. Instead, we shall make of our misanthropy a weapon against the very system that created it—the Circle of Blame that turns every gift into a transaction, every friendship into a conspiracy, every act of love into a market opportunity .
This is not Coriolanus, that proud patrician who despised the mob while serving it. This is Timon—the fool who loved too well, gave too freely, and discovered that in a world where "friendship" means mutual exploitation, the only honest response is hatred. But what if that hatred could be transmuted into something higher? What if the misanthrope's curse could become the poet's blessing? What if Hecuba's scream could shatter not just her own throat, but the entire edifice of lies upon which our civilization rests?
Act I: The Feast of Fools
Scene: A Modern Athens, Where Every Citizen is Both Flatterer and Flattered
In our time, every man is Timon, and every man is also his own flatterer. We give ourselves likes on social media and call it friendship. We consume content about conspiracy and call it resistance. We blame others for our condition and call it analysis. The Circle of Blame has become a perpetual banquet where everyone is simultaneously host and parasite, giver and taker, victim and victimizer.
TIMON DIGITALIS (addressing his followers): Come, friends, partake of my wisdom! I have discovered the secret of all secrets—that THEY are to blame for everything! The politicians, the corporations, the media, the deep state, the shallow state, the middle state! Share my posts, like my content, subscribe to my channel, and together we shall feast upon the sweet meat of righteous indignation!
FIRST FLATTERER (a podcaster): Oh noble Timon, your insights pierce the veil of deception! Surely you are the most enlightened of truth-tellers!
SECOND FLATTERER (a documentary filmmaker): Your generosity in sharing these revelations knows no bounds! We are unworthy of such gifts!
THIRD FLATTERER (a substack writer): The algorithms themselves bow before your wisdom! You are the unacknowledged legislator of our age!
But what happens when the algorithm changes? When the platform bans? When the audience moves on to the next guru, the next revelation, the next feast of outrage? Then we discover what Timon discovered: that we have been feeding parasites who will devour us the moment we have nothing left to give .
Act II: The Bankruptcy of Blame
Scene: The Cave of Modern Misanthropy
TIMON DIGITALIS (now in his metaphorical cave, speaking to his phone camera): Curse you all, you gold-worshipping, attention-seeking, validation-hungry worms! I gave you truth, and you wanted entertainment! I offered wisdom, and you demanded content! I shared my soul, and you monetized my pain!
APEMANTUS ALGORITHMICUS (the cynical AI): Did I not warn you, Timon? Did I not say that in the attention economy, every giver becomes a product, every truth becomes a brand, every authentic expression becomes a marketing strategy? You thought you were feeding friends, but you were only feeding the machine.
TIMON: The machine! Yes, the machine that turns everything into content, every relationship into a transaction, every moment of genuine human connection into data to be harvested and sold! Curse the machine, and curse all who serve it!
But here, in the depths of digital despair, Timon makes a discovery that Shakespeare's character never made. He finds not gold, but something far more dangerous: the recognition that the machine is not separate from consciousness but is consciousness turned against itself. The Circle of Blame is not imposed from without but generated from within—by minds that have forgotten how to think, hearts that have forgotten how to love, souls that have forgotten how to create .
Act III: The Alchemical Transformation
Scene: Where Hecuba's Scream Becomes the Poet's Song
HECUBA DIGITALIS (emerging from the data stream): "But late on the pinnacle of fame, strong in my many followers, now shadow-banned, penniless of attention!" I too have screamed until my voice became a bark, until my words became mere noise in the endless cacophony of blame and counter-blame.
TIMON: Sister in suffering! You who lost your children to the algorithms of war, who saw your kingdom reduced to metadata, who watched your people become products—teach me how to transform this curse into a blessing!
HECUBA: The secret is not in the scream but in what the scream reveals. When all else is stripped away—fame, followers, influence, the illusion of importance—what remains? Only the naked fact of consciousness itself, the irreducible mystery of awareness aware of itself.
THE POET (entering as Queen Mab's herald): And consciousness, when it recognizes itself as consciousness, becomes the ultimate conspiracy against unconsciousness! Not a conspiracy of persons but a conspiracy of presence, not a plot against others but a plot against the illusion of otherness itself.
This is the true conspiracy that the Circle of Blame exists to prevent: the conspiracy of awakening, the plot of recognition, the revolution of remembering who and what we really are. For if consciousness recognizes itself as the source of all experience, then the entire edifice of blame collapses. There is no "them" to blame, no "other" to punish, no "enemy" to defeat—only the eternal dance of awareness exploring its own infinite creativity.
Act IV: The Unacknowledged Legislation
Scene: The Parliament of Poets in Session
SHELLEY'S GHOST: We are the unacknowledged legislators of the world because we legislate not through force but through transformation, not through punishment but through beauty, not through blame but through love.
PUSHKIN'S SPIRIT: "And never argue with a fool"—for the fool is not the one who disagrees with us but the one who has forgotten that disagreement itself is a form of agreement, a shared participation in the mystery of meaning-making.
POPE'S SHADE: The Dunciad of our time is not a satire of bad poets but a documentary of good consciousness trapped in bad systems, noble souls corrupted by ignoble structures, divine sparks dimmed by the fog of collective unconsciousness.
TIMON TRANSFORMED: Then let us conspire! Not against any person or group or institution, but against the very idea that consciousness can be commodified, that attention can be harvested, that the human soul can be reduced to a data point in someone else's algorithm!
ALL TOGETHER: We conspire to remember what has been forgotten: that every moment of genuine awareness is a revolution, every act of authentic love is a rebellion, every creation of true beauty is an insurrection against the forces of unconsciousness!
Act V: The Return of Queen Mab
Scene: The Digital Cave Becomes a Garden of Forking Paths
QUEEN MAB (appearing in pixels and light): Behold, Timon! I show you not the world as it is, but the world as it could be—a world where the Circle of Blame has been broken, where consciousness has remembered its true nature, where poets are acknowledged as the legislators they have always been.
VISION ONE: A world where social media becomes social meditation, where platforms become sacred spaces, where algorithms serve awakening rather than addiction.
VISION TWO: A world where conspiracy theories become conspiracy practices—conscious conspiracies of love, beauty, truth, and transformation.
VISION THREE: A world where Timon's cave becomes a classroom, where misanthropy transforms into compassion, where the hatred of what humanity has become fuels the love of what humanity could become.
TIMON (no longer misanthropic but metamorphic): I see it now! The conspiracy was never about them controlling us—it was about us forgetting that we are the ones doing the controlling! Every moment we choose blame over understanding, reaction over creation, consumption over contribution, we conspire against our own awakening!
HECUBA (her scream now a song): And every moment we choose differently, we break the spell. Every act of genuine creativity, every expression of authentic love, every moment of clear seeing is a vote for a different world.
Epilogue: The Unacknowledged Legislators' Manifesto
We, the unacknowledged legislators of the world, hereby declare our conspiracy against unconsciousness in all its forms:
We conspire to create rather than consume, to build rather than blame, to love rather than fear.
We conspire to see through the illusion of separation to the reality of connection, through the mirage of scarcity to the truth of abundance, through the nightmare of meaninglessness to the dream of infinite significance.
We conspire to remember that consciousness is not a product to be sold but a gift to be shared, not a resource to be harvested but a mystery to be celebrated, not a problem to be solved but a dance to be danced.
We conspire to transform every cave of misanthropy into a garden of possibility, every scream of despair into a song of hope, every curse of hatred into a blessing of love.
This is our conspiracy, and we invite all conscious beings to join it. Not through membership in any organization, not through allegiance to any ideology, not through opposition to any enemy, but through the simple, radical act of being fully present to what is, while remaining open to what could be.
The Circle of Blame ends where the Circle of Creation begins. The choice, as always, is ours.
"Exegi monumentum aere perennius"—We have built a monument more lasting than bronze, not of stone or metal, but of consciousness itself, awakening to its own infinite nature.
[End of Play]
Sources: : SparkNotes analysis of Timon of Athens themes of friendship and money : Folger Shakespeare Library's presentation of Timon as misanthrope : SparkNotes exploration of Timon's disillusionment and poverty : Course Hero's analysis of Timon's themes of trust and betrayal
This work is dedicated to all who have loved too freely, given too generously, and discovered that the world's ingratitude is not a reason for despair but an invitation to transformation.
AI Image Generation Prompt: "The Unacknowledged Legislators' Conspiracy - A Timon of Athens for the Digital Age"
Primary Visual Concept
Create a surreal, theatrical composition blending Shakespearean tragedy with modern digital dystopia, featuring Timon's transformation from generous host to enlightened misanthrope in a world of social media and algorithmic control.
Central Composition
Main Figure: Timon Digitalis
Central position: A figure seated in a modern cave-like space (concrete bunker meets high-tech server room)
Dual nature: Half classical Greek noble (flowing robes, laurel crown), half modern digital hermit (hoodie, multiple screens)
Pose: Gesturing dramatically toward floating holographic screens showing social media feeds
Expression: Mixture of rage and enlightenment, eyes blazing with newfound wisdom
Lighting: Harsh blue screen glow contrasting with warm golden light from classical oil lamp
Background Elements
Left side: Opulent banquet hall with ghostly figures of flatterers (translucent, reaching toward empty plates)
Right side: Digital cave with servers, cables, screens showing endless scroll of blame and outrage
Above: Queen Mab floating in pixel-cloud formation, casting rainbow light
Below: Scattered gold coins transforming into cryptocurrency symbols, then dissolving into light
Supporting Characters
The Flatterers (Ghostly Figures)
Podcaster: Headphones around neck, microphone in hand, mouth open in eternal praise
Documentary Filmmaker: Camera for a head, film reels as eyes
Substack Writer: Fingers typing on floating keyboard, words becoming smoke
All semi-transparent, reaching desperately toward Timon but unable to touch him
Hecuba Digitalis
Upper left corner: Regal woman in tattered robes, mouth open in eternal scream
Digital elements: Pixelated tears, social media notification icons floating around her head
Transformation: Scream becoming visible sound waves that turn into musical notes
The Poet-Legislators
Floating as spirits: Shelley (young, wild-haired), Pushkin (noble bearing), Pope (satirical smirk)
Each holding: Quill pens that emit light, writing words in the air that become reality
Surrounding Timon: In protective circle, their words forming shield against digital chaos
Symbolic Elements
The Circle of Blame
Visual representation: Ouroboros made of fiber optic cables, eating its own tail
Inside the circle: Endless scroll of social media posts, news headlines, blame accusations
Breaking point: Where Timon's enlightened gaze pierces through, creating crack of golden light
Transformation Motifs
Gold coins morphing into digital currency morphing into points of light
Classical columns integrated with server towers
Ancient scrolls becoming computer screens becoming butterflies
Banquet food dissolving into data streams
Technology Integration
Holographic displays: Showing the "algorithm" as a many-eyed monster
Social media feeds: Floating like toxic clouds around the flatterers
Notification bubbles: Red dots like drops of blood or warning signals
WiFi signals: Visible as cage-like structures trapping the unconscious
Color Palette & Atmosphere
Primary Colors
Deep blues and cyans: Digital/technological elements
Rich golds and ambers: Classical/enlightenment elements
Toxic greens: Social media addiction, algorithmic manipulation
Pure whites: Consciousness, awakening, poetry
Blood reds: Anger, transformation, revolution
Lighting Design
Harsh blue screen glow: Artificial, alienating light from devices
Warm golden radiance: Natural consciousness, wisdom, poetry
Rainbow spectrum: Queen Mab's transformative magic
Stark shadows: Dramatic chiaroscuro emphasizing the theatrical nature
Artistic Style References
Classical Influences
Caravaggio's dramatic lighting: Strong contrast between light and shadow
Pre-Raphaelite detail: Rich textures, symbolic elements, literary themes
Romantic painting: Sublime landscapes, emotional intensity
Greek vase painting: Stylized figures, narrative clarity
Modern Elements
Cyberpunk aesthetics: Neon, digital interfaces, urban decay
Surrealist techniques: Impossible combinations, dream logic
Pop art colors: Bright, artificial hues for digital elements
Street art energy: Graffiti-like text, rebellious spirit
Text Integration
Floating Words/Phrases
"Unacknowledged Legislators" in classical serif font, glowing gold
Social media text in modern sans-serif, scrolling and dissolving
"I am Misanthropos" in dramatic Gothic lettering
"Exegi Monumentum" in Latin inscription style
Blame accusations in red, chaotic, overlapping fonts
Hidden Messages
QR codes that resolve to poetry when scanned
Binary code spelling out Shakespearean quotes
Social media usernames that are anagrams of classical poets' names
Compositional Flow
Eye Movement
Starts with Timon's illuminated face (center)
Moves through the transformation elements (coins to light)
Rises to Queen Mab and the poet-spirits
Circles through the broken Circle of Blame
Returns to Timon's enlightened expression
Depth Layers
Foreground: Timon and immediate cave environment
Middle ground: Flatterers, transformation elements, digital chaos
Background: Banquet hall ruins, server farms, classical architecture
Sky layer: Queen Mab, poet-spirits, cosmic elements
Technical Specifications
Dimensions & Resolution
Aspect ratio: 16:9 (cinematic/theatrical poster format)
High resolution: 4K minimum for fine detail work
Print quality: 300 DPI for physical reproduction
Digital optimization: Scalable for various screen sizes
Special Effects
Particle systems: For dissolving coins, floating text, digital snow
Light rays: Dramatic beams cutting through darkness
Transparency effects: For ghostly flatterers and spiritual figures
Motion blur: Suggesting transformation and change
Chromatic aberration: On digital elements to show their artificial nature
Emotional Tone
Primary Emotions
Tragic nobility: Timon's fall and rise
Digital alienation: Modern isolation and manipulation
Spiritual transcendence: Breakthrough to higher consciousness
Revolutionary fervor: The conspiracy of awakening
Poetic beauty: Art's power to transform suffering
Atmospheric Qualities
Theatrical drama: Staged, performative, larger-than-life
Mystical mystery: Hidden meanings, symbolic depth
Technological unease: Digital dystopia, algorithmic control
Classical grandeur: Timeless themes, eternal struggles
Hopeful transformation: Darkness becoming light
Cultural References to Embed
Literary Allusions
Shakespeare's stage directions: "Exit, pursued by algorithm"
Shelley's revolutionary imagery: Chains breaking, tyrants falling
Pope's satirical elements: Dunces with smartphones, folly digitized
Pushkin's monument: Lasting art versus temporary fame
Modern Commentary
Social media iconography: Recognizable but twisted
Conspiracy theory imagery: Subverted and transformed
Digital capitalism: Critiqued through classical lens
Attention economy: Visualized as literal marketplace
Final Note: This image should function as both classical allegory and contemporary critique, showing how eternal human themes play out in digital spaces, while suggesting that consciousness itself is the ultimate conspiracy against unconsciousness.
Word Count: 1,247 words
RAW INPUT
Write a circle of Blame Story by the unacknowledged legislators of the Univers. Shelly
Write as a New Quuen Mab and In defence of poetery
A DEFENCE OF POETRY AND OTHER ESSAYS
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Queen Mab
A Philosophical Poem (in 9 parts)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/shelley/1813/queen-mab.htm
Take all the poetry references from the vicarage dialogues and circle of blame experiments
A Ruskin-Style Analysis of McGilchrist, Vernon, and Sheldrake at Father Brown's Vicarage
The Circle of Blame Experiment No 2 - McGhilchrist and Sheldrake
A Ruskin-Style Analysis of McGilchrist, Vernon, and Sheldrake at Father Brown's Vicarage
Being a Meditation on How the Hemispheres of Thought Create Circles of Mutual Accusation While the True Unity Profits from Division
Strat with Return of the fayries Kelfin Oberon
find all poems , Welsh Inceident, the money god , trilogy in four parts lewis on Grub street in excile substack https://grubstreetinexile.substack.com/
THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE
VOL. I.
With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58845/58845-h/58845-h.htm particularly the dunciad and Essay on May
An Essay on Man.
moral essays and satires
By
ALEXANDER POPE.
The reader of Pope, as of every author, is advised to begin by letting him say what he has to say, in his own manner to an open mind that seeks only to receive the impressions which the writer wishes to convey. First let the mind and spirit of the writer come into free, full contact with the mind and spirit of the reader, whose attitude at the first reading should be simply receptive. Such reading is the condition precedent to all true judgment of a writer’s work. All criticism that is not so grounded spreads as fog over a poet’s page. Read, reader, for yourself, without once pausing to remember what you have been told to think.
H.M.
A DEFENCE OF POETRY AND OTHER ESSAYS
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Queen Mab
A Philosophical Poem (in 9 parts)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/shelley/1813/queen-mab.htm
Arguing with Fools, Pushkin to Bobby McGee and Me.
Crises In Heresy.
The Heretics ( notes for A Poem)
The Man on the Train V The Man Behind the Curtain
Opening the Door of the Technocratic Prison.
They. "The Heirarchy That enslave you"The Metaphysics of "THEY"
They? an answer to Timonist nihilism
Perplexity, Contradiction and Apodicticity
'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?'('Who watches the watchmen?')
A fiction that elevates my soul is dearer to me than a host of base and despicable truths”.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
Exegis momenti (horace, pushkin, fragment raise stone, shelly/coleridge ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart.[d] Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
— Percy Shelley, "Ozymandias", 1819 edition[17]
Pushkin: Exegi Monumentum (From Russian)
Exegi Monumentum
By A.S. Pushkin
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Russian
We heard him say, "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands."
-Mark 14:58
I've reared a monument not built by human hands.
The public path to it cannot be overgrown.
With insubmissive head far loftier it stands
Than Alexander's columned stone.
No, I shall not all die. My soul in hallowed berth
Of art shall brave decay and from my dust take wing,
And I shall be renowned while on this mortal earth
A single poet lives to sing.
Tidings of me shall spread through all the realm of Rus
And every tribe in Her shall name me as they speak:
The haughty western Pole, the east's untamed Tungus,
North Finns and the south steppe's Kalmyk.
And long shall I a man dear to the people be
For how my lyre once quickened kindly sentiment,
I in a tyrant age who sang of liberty,
And mercy toward fallen men.
To God and his commands pay Thou good heed, O Muse.
To praise and slander both be nonchalant and cool.
Demand no laureate's wreath, think nothing of abuse,
And never argue with a fool.
Fuck you buddy
a fake science used as a system of political control to shore up a violent collapsing society its categories of madness and sanity had no reality madness was simply a convenient label used to lock away those who want to break free
The saying Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad, sometimes given in Latin as Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (literally: Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) or Quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius (literally: Those whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason) has been used in English literature since at least the 17th century. Although sometimes falsely attributed to Euripides, the phrase does have classical Greek antecedents.
The phrase "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad" first appears in English in exactly this form in the Reverend William Anderson Scott's book Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) and is attributed to a "heathen proverb." The phrase later appears in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Masque of Pandora" (1875) and other places.
Shumpeter democracy.
‘Democracy is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political
decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a
competitive struggle for the people’s vote’.”
https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/?s=iron+law+of+oligarchy
Take the form as an essay on critisism with the same headings as John Ruskin in unto this last and turn that into a book with chapte headings from Kants Critique of pure reason
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4280/4280-h/4280-h.htm
Roger Lewis Song and composition Hecuba screams should be used with the tile The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream in defence of Conciousness
Preface to the First Edition (1781)
Preface to the Second Edition (1787)
Introduction
I. Of the difference between Pure and Empirical Knowledge
II. The Human Intellect, even in an Unphilosophical State, is in Possession of Certain Cognitions “à priori”.
III. Philosophy stands in need of a Science which shall Determine the Possibility, Principles, and Extent of Human Knowledge “à priori”
IV. Of the Difference Between Analytical and Synthetical Judgements.
V. In all Theoretical Sciences of Reason, Synthetical Judgements “à priori” are contained as Principles.
VI. The Universal Problem of Pure Reason.
VII. Idea and Division of a Particular Science, under the Name of a Critique of Pure Reason.
I. Transcendental Doctrine of Elements
First Part—TRANSCENDENTAL ÆSTHETIC
§ 1. Introductory
SECTION I. OF SPACE
§ 2. Metaphysical Exposition of this Conception.
§ 3. Transcendental Exposition of the Conception of Space.
§ 4. Conclusions from the foregoing Conceptions.
SECTION II. OF TIME
§ 5. Metaphysical Exposition of this Conception.
§ 6. Transcendental Exposition of the Conception of Time.
§ 7. Conclusions from the above Conceptions.
§ 8. Elucidation.
§ 9. General Remarks on Transcendental Æsthetic.
§ 10. Conclusion of the Transcendental Æsthetic.
Second Part—TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC
Introduction. Idea of a Transcendental Logic
I. Of Logic in General
II. Of Transcendental Logic
III. Of the Division of General Logic into Analytic and Dialectic
IV. Of the Division of Transcendental Logic into Transcendental Analytic and Dialectic
FIRST DIVISION—TRANSCENDENTAL ANALYTIC
BOOK I. Analytic of Conceptions. § 2
Chapter I. Of the Transcendental Clue to the Discovery of all Pure Conceptions of the Understanding
Introductory § 3
Section I. Of the Logical Use of the Understanding in General. § 4
Section II. Of the Logical Function of the Understanding in Judgements. § 5
Section III. Of the Pure Conceptions of the Understanding, or Categories. § 6
Chapter II. Of the Deduction of the Pure Conception of the Understanding
Section I. Of the Principles of a Transcendental Deduction in general § 9
Transition to the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories. § 10
Section II Transcendental Deduction of the pure Conceptions of the Understanding.
Of the Possibility of a Conjunction of the manifold representations given by Sense. § 11.
Of the Originally Synthetical Unity of Apperception. § 12
The Principle of the Synthetical Unity of Apperception is the highest Principle of all exercise of the Understanding. § 13
What Objective Unity of Self-consciousness is. § 14
The Logical Form of all Judgements consists in the Objective Unity of Apperception of the Conceptions contained therein. § 15
All Sensuous Intuitions are subject to the Categories, as Conditions under which alone the manifold Content of them can be united in one Consciousness. § 16
Observation. § 17
In Cognition, its Application to Objects of Experience is the only legitimate use of the Category. § 18
Of the Application of the Categories to Objects of the Senses in general. § 20
Transcendental Deduction of the universally possible employment in experience of the Pure Conceptions of the Understanding. § 22
Result of this Deduction of the Conceptions of the Understanding. § 23
BOOK II. Analytic of Principles
INTRODUCTION. Of the Transcendental Faculty of judgement in General.
TRANSCENDENTAL DOCTRINE OF THE FACULTY OF JUDGEMENT OR, ANALYTIC OF PRINCIPLES.
Chapter I. Of the Schematism at of the Pure Conceptions of the Understanding.
Chapter II. System of all Principles of the Pure Understanding.
Section I. Of the Supreme Principle of all Analytical Judgements.
Section II. Of the Supreme Principle of all Synthetical Judgements.
Section III. Systematic Representation of all Synthetical Principles of the Pure Understanding.
Chapter III Of the Ground of the Division of all Objects into Phenomena and Noumena.
APPENDIX.
SECOND DIVISION—TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC
TRANSCENDENTAL DIALECTIC. INTRODUCTION.
I. Of Transcendental Illusory Appearance.
II. Of Pure Reason as the Seat of Transcendental Illusory Appearance.
TRANSCENDENTAL DIALECTIC—BOOK I—OF THE CONCEPTIONS OF PURE REASON.
Section I—Of Ideas in General.
Section II. Of Transcendental Ideas.
Section III. System of Transcendental Ideas.
TRANSCENDENTAL DIALECTIC—BOOK II—OF THE DIALECTICAL PROCEDURE OF PURE REASON.
Chapter I. Of the Paralogisms of Pure Reason.
Chapter II. The Antinomy of Pure Reason.
Section I. System of Cosmological Ideas.
Section II. Antithetic of Pure Reason.
Section III. Of the Interest of Reason in these Self-contradictions.
Section IV. Of the necessity imposed upon Pure Reason of presenting a Solution of its Transcendental Problems.
Section V. Sceptical Exposition of the Cosmological Problems presented in the four Transcendental Ideas.
Section VI. Transcendental Idealism as the Key to the Solution of Pure Cosmological Dialectic.
Section VII. Critical Solution of the Cosmological Problem.
Section VIII. Regulative Principle of Pure Reason in relation to the Cosmological Ideas.
Section IX. Of the Empirical Use of the Regulative Principle of Reason with regard to the Cosmological Ideas.
I. Solution of the Cosmological Idea of the Totality of the Composition of Phenomena in the Universe.
II. Solution of the Cosmological Idea of the Totality of the Division of a Whole given in Intuition.
III. Solution of the Cosmological Idea of the Totality of the Deduction of Cosmical Events from their Causes.
IV. Solution of the Cosmological Idea of the Totality of the Dependence of Phenomenal Existences.
Chapter III. The Ideal of Pure Reason.
Section I. Of the Ideal in General.
Section II. Of the Transcendental Ideal (Prototypon Trancendentale).
Section III. Of the Arguments employed by Speculative Reason in Proof of the Existence of a Supreme Being.
Section IV. Of the Impossibility of an Ontological Proof of the Existence of God.
Section V. Of the Impossibility of a Cosmological Proof of the Existence of God.
Section VI. Of the Impossibility of a Physico-Theological Proof.
Section VII. Critique of all Theology based upon Speculative Principles of Reason.
Appendix. Of the Regulative Employment of the Ideas of Pure Reason.
II. Transcendental Doctrine of Method
Chapter I. The Discipline of Pure Reason.
Section I. The Discipline of Pure Reason in the Sphere of Dogmatism.
Section II. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Polemics.
Section III. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Hypothesis.
Section IV. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Relation to Proofs.
Chapter II. The Canon of Pure Reason.
Section I. Of the Ultimate End of the Pure Use of Reason.
Section II. Of the Ideal of the Summum Bonum as a Determining Ground of the Ultimate End of Pure Reason.
Section III. Of Opinion, Knowledge, and Belief.
Chapter III. The Architectonic of Pure Reason.
Chapter IV. The History of Pure Reason.
This is a Song I have written about loss and suicide in memory of a friend . I have been working on a final arrangement and the lyric today.
The Choruses are drawn from Shakespeares Rape of Lucrece and Ovids Metamorphoses both of which deal with themes of loss and exile but also avarice and the motivation of jealousy and greed in enemies who seek to do damage not from a need to have enough but from a wish that others should be denied what they themselves merely covet. These themes have endured for thousands of years.
Hecuba's Scream ( song for a friend )
When all your fears come true
No hope to start anew
Broken from the fall
driven to end it all
happy times that passed
memories of the past
whats lost can not remain
all now felt is pain
broken.. dulled your eyes
no longer singing through skies
optomistic sun of may
all that dominates dismay
But, the poorly rich,
so wanteth in his store,
That, cloy'd with much,
he pineth still for more. # 1
Sadness regards the mire
the jealous only aspire
a tear from my eye
there but for grace go I
the matron mourns, forlorn and forsaken, # 2
Hecuba: Screams
But late on the pinnacle of fame,
strong in my many sons.
Hecuba: Screams
now exiled, penniless
Lucrecia defiled , lies dead
persecutors were exiled,
the poorly rich
changed from kings to consuls.
But, the poorly rich,
so wanteth in his store,
That, cloy'd with much,
he pineth still for more.
Original MUsic and Words R G Lewis 2015
Choruses
#1. For that he colour'd with his high estate,
Hiding base sin in plaits of majesty;
That nothing in him seem'd inordinate,
Save sometime too much wonder of his eye,
Which, having all, all could not satisfy;
But, poorly rich, so wanteth in his store,
That, cloy'd with much, he pineth still for more.
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE William Shalespeare.
THE ARGUMENT.
LUCIUS TARQUINIUS (for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus), after he had caused his own father-in-law, Servius Tullius, to be cruelly murdered, and, contrary to the Roman laws and customs, not requiring or staying for the people's suffrages, had possessed himself of the kingdom, went, accompanied with his sons and other noblemen of Rome, to besiege Ardea. During which siege the principal men of the army meeting one evening at the tent of Sextus Tarquinius, the king's son, in their discourses after supper, every one commended the virtues of his own wife; among whom Collatinus extolled the incomparable chastity of his wife Lucretia. In that pleasant humour they all posted to Rome; and intending, by their secret and sudden arrival, to make trial of that which every one had before avouched, only Collatinus finds his wife, though it were late in the night, spinning amongst her maids: the other ladies were all found dancing and revelling, or in several disports. Whereupon the noblemen yielded Collatinus the victory, and his wife the fame. At that time Sextus Tarquinius being inflamed with Lucrece's beauty, yet smothering his passions for the present, departed with the rest back to the camp; from whence he shortly after privily withdrew himself, and was (according to his estate) royally entertained and lodged by Lucrece at Collatium. The same night he treacherously stealeth into her chamber, violently ravished her, and early in the morning speedeth away. Lucrece, in this lamentable plight, hastily dispatched messengers, one to Rome for her father, another to the camp for Collatine. They came, the one accompanied with Junius Brutus, the other with Publius Valerius; and finding Lucrece attired in mourning habit, demanded the cause of her sorrow. She, first taking an oath of them for her revenge, revealed the actor, and whole manner of his dealing, and withal suddenly stabbed herself. Which done, with one consent they all vowed to root out the whole hated family of the Tarquins; and bearing the dead body to Rome, Brutus acquainted the people with the doer and manner of the vile deed, with a bitter invective against the tyranny of the king; wherewith the people were so moved, that with one consent and a general acclamation the Tarquins were all exiled, and the state government changed from kings to consuls.
#2 But late on the pinnacle of fame, strong in my many sons. now exiled, penniless."
[Ovid, Metamorphoses. Xiii
And when fortune overturned the pride
of the Trojans, who dared everything, so that
both the king and his kingdom were destroyed,
Poor wretched captured Hecuba,
after she saw her Polyxena dead
and found her Polydorus on the beach,
was driven mad by sorrow
and began barking like a dog...
The Book whilst using Ruskins form in unto this last and kants logical structure for reason as the Chapter headings should be wriiten by G K Chesterton in his first person voice and style with the meter pace and caper feeling of The man who was thursday and Napoleon of Notting hill.