^by: david-james

fair warning

i may name the bullshit machine in any interaction; this is not insult, abuse, refusal, or theatre; the bullshit machine is the mechanism that replaces what is real with what is written, styled, presumed, registered, licensed, numbered, or performed; Paper Brutality is the method of reduction; when that bullshit mechanism is flagged, i require the matter to be reduced to the man, the deed, the wrong, the evidence, and the remedy sought; if those things are present, there may be a claim; if those things are absent, the machine is running;

what it is

virus: the bullshit machine virus is the pattern of thought and language by which a man treats imagination as reality; i call it a virus because the pattern is carried through communication, repeated by man kind, and passed on without the man needing to see what he passes on;

infection: a man is infected where he no longer separates man from label, deed from record, claim from complaint, remedy from process, or reality from paper; once infected, he substitutes paper for man, and personifies labels, roles, records, offices, concepts, and other products;

transmission: the pattern moves through forms, demands, orders, notices, policies, warrants, files, references, and repeated phrases; the words appear normal inside the paper-world, yet they hide the man who does the deed;

concealment: at law, the result is concealment; a man is hidden behind paper until the deed appears to belong to the paper, not the man;

substitution: the chain is this: a man becomes a name, a name becomes a record, a record becomes a label, a label becomes a role, a role becomes a duty, a duty becomes a demand, a demand becomes a threat, and a threat becomes force; then, when force is done, paper is used to suggest it was not the man who did the deed;

treatment: Paper Brutality is the treatment: reduce the matter to man, deed, wrong, evidence, and remedy; if those things are present, there may be a claim; if those things are absent, the bullshit machine virus is present;

how it moves

the first move is misdescription, where a man is given a label and called something he is not: defendant, taxpayer, driver, keeper, detainee, debtor, claimant; the second move is personification, where that label is treated as if it acts: the defendant failed, the taxpayer owes, the court ordered, the council decided, the law requires; the third move is concealment, where the man who did the deed is hidden behind Crown, court, council, HMRC, CPS, office, policy, warrant, Act, order, or record; the fourth move is compliance, where the hidden man uses paper to interfere with dominion; the fifth move is denial of remedy, because where no man appears to make claim, no remedy can be provided to any man;

Caesar

Caesar may keep Caesar’s things: forms, records, labels, titles, offices, statutes, licences, registers, permissions, numbers, legal persons, surnames, all caps names, postal addresses, corporations, owners, defendants, claimants, taxpayers, citizens, drivers, keepers, and detainees; Caesar may keep every mask used in Caesar’s theatre; but Caesar may not use a mask as if it were i, a record as if it created i, paper as if paper can command i, or fiction as if fiction can make claim; Caesar may not hide the man who does the deed;

the stop

when the bullshit machine appears, i stop the drift; i do not argue with paper, answer the label, debate the role, or ask the fiction for permission; i ask for the man; i require the deed, the wrong, the evidence, and the remedy sought; where a man makes a claim that is true, i provide remedy in private; where no man makes claim, there is nothing for i to remedy;

correction

paper may be evidence, but paper does no deed; writing may communicate, but writing does not command; a record is a record, but a record does not create; a title may describe, but a title does not breathe; an office may be used by a man, but an office does not do a deed; a court may be a place where man kind meet to remove controversy, but a court does not speak; only a man does deeds; only a man may make claim; only a man can testify to what is true; only a man may provide remedy; only a man may be wronged;

the machine

this is the bullshit machine; a label is being used in place of a man; paper is being treated as if it does a deed; no man has stated a claim that i did wrong; therefore i require the matter reduced to man, deed, wrong, evidence, and remedy; if there is a claim, state it plainly, so i may provide remedy for any claim that is true; if there is no claim, leave i in peace;

final reduction

the bullshit machine is not ended by argument; it is ended by reduction; no label, no theatre, no hidden man, no paper pretending to do a deed; only this: who is the man; what deed was done; what wrong is claimed; what remedy is sought; until that is answered, there is no claim before i; where no claim exists, dominion stands, and the matter is at an end;

are you stupid, this is not new

Hans Christian Andersen wrote of this pattern on 7 April 1837 in The Emperor’s New Clothes; the people were told invisible clothes existed, and so they pretended to see them; no man wished to appear foolish, and so imagination replaced reality;

the bullshit machine works the same way; paper is treated as if it acts, labels are treated as if they are man kind, and concepts are treated as if they can claim, command, own, tax, charge, decide, or punish;

stupor means “a disorder characterized by great diminution or entire suspension of sensibility” — OED 1933; the bullshit machine depends upon this stupor, because in stupor a man no longer separates reality from imagination;

in stupor, a man believes AMAZON can pay tax to HMRC, although neither exists; in stupor, a man believes MR T SMITH can exist as a legal person separate and distinct from the man Tom; in stupor, a concept becomes Claimant, a label becomes Defendant, and a record becomes authority;

are you a person, a mask, a character in a play; or are you just stupid, in stupor;

Paper Brutality is the reality check for the interruption of stupor; it is the child pointing at the emperor and saying: there are no clothes;