Idealism


Samson Corwell

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The whole A is A thing appeals to me, always has.

Identity is fundamental to an investigation. I used to do it because no one else did. The cops were totally useless in our very remote gringo enclave. So I did some investigation, pecking away at suspicious deaths, stolen corporation books, and sexual predators. I made unhappy findings in a couple of cases and turned a blind eye. We successfully identified and ran off the beach predator, but there was always more crime than my partner and I could manage. That's an additional example of reality-oriented A is A. Hired guns aren't unicorns, they're human. There's a limit to how much one or two men can do, for how long without food or sleep.

Guns were valuable and useful. The whole law enforcement thing, whether private or public, has to be backed by lethal force to make an impression on the bad guys and to assure others that evidence and confidential information will be in safe hands. No one does this perfectly. That's not the question. Guns are lethal weapons. Knowing how to use them matters, if you go poking around in serious shit like home invasion, armed robbery, murder.

Those terms each have specific definitions. They are possessed of very specific identity, and murder never means anything less than murder, if you see what I mean. People can argue all day every day about metaphysical and epistemological aspects of reality. Doesn't matter to those who sift and identify evidence, interview witnesses, detect who's fibbing and why.

In that way, we're all detectives, no matter what age or sex or qualification to investigate the business of living on earth. Kids have it tough, sorting out all the hooey they're fed in school and at home. Men tell women lies. Rumors are notoriously wrong. And a circus of Hollywood product complicates our ability to think straight about practical reality, the real deal. Keeping a squeaky clean mental house is hard work, requires lots of careful identification. Most of us need a break now and then. I prefer Dewar's on ice and leave the bottle. Even that has a very specific identity. Not bourbon, not single malt, not Johnnie Walker Blue or Pinch or Chivas, although they're all mighty fine drinks. I like Dewar's, middle shelf, with ice. If you poured a glass with each one, I can taste which is which blindfolded. Identification matters to me.

Maybe it matters to you, too. Some people dislike the way I write. Others dislike the way I think. No quarrel about that -- it's every man's job to find his way in the world, seek his most important value and define it in practical terms, so he'll recognize it when he sees it. We all make existential errors, attributing A to B by mistake. Go forth and detect value, as sternly as a private eye who knows there are bad guys in the neighborhood who don't play fair. The purpose of perception and thought is to figure out good and evil, identify them privately.

Bishop Berkley can't help you do that.

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