Magic, Ignorance, General Strike

What is to be done to replace the departing religion? As the worker believes no longer in miracles, can he perhaps be induced to believe in lies? And so learned economists, academicians, merchants, and financiers have contrived to introduce into science the bold proposition that property and prosperity are always the reward of labour! It would be scarcely decent to discuss such an assertion. When they pretend that labour is the origin of fortune, economists know perfectly well that they are not speaking the truth. They know as well as the Socialists that wealth is not the product of personal labour, but of the labour of others: they are not ignorant that the runs of luck on the Exchange and the speculations which create great fortunes have no more connection with labour than the exploits of brigands in the forests; they dare not pretend that the individual who has five thousand pounds a day, just what is required to support one hundred thousand persons like himself, is distinguished from other men by an intelligence one hundred thousand times above the average. It would be scandalous to discuss this sham origin of social inequality. It would be to be a dupe, almost an accomplice, to waste time over such hypocritical reasoning. 

... If capital retains force on its side, we shall all be the slaves of its machinery, mere bands connecting iron cogs with steel and iron shafts. If new spoils, managed by partners only responsible to their cash books, are ceaselessly added to the savings already amassed in bankers' coffers, then it will be vain to cry for pity, no one will hear your complaints. The tiger may renounce his victim, but bankers' books pronounce judgments without appeal. (Reclus, 1895, Evolution and Revolution)

Since the revolutionary overthrow of religion by the enlightenment, truth has come to be known as that which is determined rather than that which is given. That which is determined is that which is calculated. The last casualty was the truism, "might makes right". It is now "right makes might", only now it is from the left side of things, in contradistinction to its position six months ago. We forget that determinism refers to a cause-effect relation (the former must precede the latter before the collision can occur which sinks the eight-ball) and as well the application of force, hence, "he turneth the screw with a much determined grimace". There was a circle, but we went no where but further in. Bound and determined, might and right still dance together, they've only exchanged leads.

Some will conclude there is, thus, no escape from religion, and Mab was only just another queen, but in her time, there was at least gifting all around, and a circle refered to a group with no sides, a coven (a 'coming together'). Time maybe to think of a 'circle of interest' as an elipse, where there be no center at all? Without a center, both might and right disappear like a flash in the pan at sunset, and no one is necessarily on the same page except the flat earth society.

The greatest weapon we hold is our ignorance – to ignore advice from perverse imps and go our own way brought an end for Queen Mab. According to legend, one little general strike and she up and disapeared. Perhaps it could bring her back in time? Not likely. At least not immediately, but to thwack the impossibilists blocking our paths, we may need to practice a bit more, our own kind of magic.