ICONOCLAST, n. A breaker of idols, the worshipers whereof are imperfectly gratified by the performance, and most strenuously protest that he unbuildeth but doth not reedify, that he pulleth down but pileth not up. For the poor things would have other idols in place of those he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth. But the iconoclast saith: "Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not; and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depress the head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it."
-- Ambrose Bierce

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Just Law: Laxative & the Purge of Laxity

Fit the 1

Don't laugh. There was a time "just" and "law" were two ways of saying the same thing, or nearly so: Just is generally more generic than Lex, a ligature which is a more mere law (not to be confused with Rex, an employment agency for most hangmen). For the lax or loosely lawless, justice amounted to a yoke juxtaposed in the region of the jugular. The first law was "No standing around on the job", from that earliest chapter in the first book of legal text forebearing all loosed nooses (and running noses in Scotland) but forbearing no loose hands or idle pleasures on a dung heap. The seeming contradiction is only a contextual error or misplaced space: freed movement was the original transgression once justice had been delivered to the territories and sullied their air. Some gift from the mountain! (should you prefer a rolling avalanche to a flowing river): the etymology is fairly clear on this affair.
 

Feat the 2

Note the difference between tomato and tomàto:

a- when not an article of ambiguity, a prefix of absense, ambivalence or anymosity.
1. < OE an – > on, as in 'atop' is 'on top';
2. < Latin "without", as in an-ceil, 'no ceiling' [upper limit: a level above which something such as an ancillary rent, wage, bread or servant is not allowed to rise].

Only an anarchist would protest the distinction, often seen riding atop rule-ers with much kicking and biting. But such is how modern speakers mistranslated the practice of patience and tolerance for the old folks and their ways with forebearance, a sacrificial offering to the dead, a performance renowned by the Latin aristocracy in propitiating gods and by stock brokers waging all-or-nothing on a throw of the die. The former, when practiced by the not-so civilised, is called "ancestor worship", "magical thinking", "superstition". The latter, seen among the wealthy, is called a sound (practical) investment.

But such also is how anarchy (the divestment of authority) is confused with the anti-authoritarian (against authorities), a mere pose setting up a permanent and intractable, if not-too-violent contestation. The former may share the motivation of the latter, but has sufficient inertia to carry it through. The difference is a matter of relish. If considered another word for aesthetics, that could make all the difference in the world.

 
Part the Last

A righteous job? Fie! Such fuss!
ergo ergot esta rye dust
henceforth's the stoppage of tripping a must.

For conscripting – bar (none) for a fee,
or to excrete, expel, the loose & free,
we must mustard the muster tree!

– see Death to Plain-speak Brigade

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