bull
Paper Brutality, and The Book of Caesar, by Neil Firszt;
bull: falsehood, to befool, mock, cheat; a ludicrous jest; OED 1933;
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
the bullshit machine is the internal system that manages the gap between reality and imagination, then treats imagination as if it were real; at law, it can completely hide a man behind paper until the deed appears to belong to the paper, not the man; it begins with substitution: 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, the paper is used to suggest it was not the man who did the deed;
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 compulsion, 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 comunicate, 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;