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The Iron Prison
October 11th, 2021 13:08The Iron Prison (also Black Iron Prison, Cold Iron Prison) is a self-perpetuating complex of institutions, sentiments and associations that constantly ensnares our minds and preserves them in a state of unending fear, anger and violence.
It is the duty of every person to do what is in their power to tear down the bars of their own Iron Prison and, whenever they become aware that they may be doing so, to stop acting as a warden of that Prison to others. This duty may override utilitarian concerns, especially if those utilitarian concerns themselves constitute a call to feed the Prison.
Any institution or doctrine, however originally good or well-intended, can be incorporated into the Iron Prison. It may sometimes be necessary to cut oneself off from an institution, no matter how good its works or its origins, when it has been inextricably absorbed into the Iron Prison's works such that the institution's agendas cannot be furthered without also furthering that of the Prison; anything of value and uncorrupted may and ought to be carefully salvaged.
While the Prison itself seeks to force and flatten all personality into fungible lifeless copies of its own image, its actual effect on people - or rather its circumstantial ability to affect people - is unique to every person. One person may be forced, on pain of becoming one with the Prison, to abandon an entire institution that another can work within and adequately resist the corruption of all their life.
Destruction is never the Prison's goal, even if it is a necessary and obvious everyday consequence. It always seeks to preserve, to protect, to put everything into its right place under its control. To conserve.
There is no possibility of an ich/du relationship within the parameters of the Iron Prison. In its ideal form all exchanges must either be forced, or transactional and backed by force.
The Iron Prison is fundamentally an institutional reality. If every person were to disappear from the earth, the Iron Prison would have no existence whatsoever, no matter how dire the material consequences it leaves behind. The material world and the persons formed in it are fundamentally good.
The Prison can thrive wherever there are people and rural traditional life provides no inherent protection (and indeed the isolation of such life can greatly exacerbate it). It is, however, far more difficult to break free of the Prison when more of your supply chains depend on it.
A paradox: the easiest way to let the Prison consume you is to be dependent on its products; the second easiest way to let the Prison consume you is to be consumed by your zeal not to be dependent on anyone else in order to protect yourself from the Prison.
[Decided to get a few thoughts down about certain key elements of my moral outlook. Figured no more would be more fitting than the diegetic anniversary of a work dear to my heart where someone is tempted with the offer to save many people's lives in exchange for directly enabling the Iron Prison at the cost of everything she believes in and loves.]
It is the duty of every person to do what is in their power to tear down the bars of their own Iron Prison and, whenever they become aware that they may be doing so, to stop acting as a warden of that Prison to others. This duty may override utilitarian concerns, especially if those utilitarian concerns themselves constitute a call to feed the Prison.
Any institution or doctrine, however originally good or well-intended, can be incorporated into the Iron Prison. It may sometimes be necessary to cut oneself off from an institution, no matter how good its works or its origins, when it has been inextricably absorbed into the Iron Prison's works such that the institution's agendas cannot be furthered without also furthering that of the Prison; anything of value and uncorrupted may and ought to be carefully salvaged.
While the Prison itself seeks to force and flatten all personality into fungible lifeless copies of its own image, its actual effect on people - or rather its circumstantial ability to affect people - is unique to every person. One person may be forced, on pain of becoming one with the Prison, to abandon an entire institution that another can work within and adequately resist the corruption of all their life.
Destruction is never the Prison's goal, even if it is a necessary and obvious everyday consequence. It always seeks to preserve, to protect, to put everything into its right place under its control. To conserve.
There is no possibility of an ich/du relationship within the parameters of the Iron Prison. In its ideal form all exchanges must either be forced, or transactional and backed by force.
The Iron Prison is fundamentally an institutional reality. If every person were to disappear from the earth, the Iron Prison would have no existence whatsoever, no matter how dire the material consequences it leaves behind. The material world and the persons formed in it are fundamentally good.
The Prison can thrive wherever there are people and rural traditional life provides no inherent protection (and indeed the isolation of such life can greatly exacerbate it). It is, however, far more difficult to break free of the Prison when more of your supply chains depend on it.
A paradox: the easiest way to let the Prison consume you is to be dependent on its products; the second easiest way to let the Prison consume you is to be consumed by your zeal not to be dependent on anyone else in order to protect yourself from the Prison.
[Decided to get a few thoughts down about certain key elements of my moral outlook. Figured no more would be more fitting than the diegetic anniversary of a work dear to my heart where someone is tempted with the offer to save many people's lives in exchange for directly enabling the Iron Prison at the cost of everything she believes in and loves.]