Panum & Otium or the Hefty Lessons of Governance of Self and the Inner Empires

 Panum & Otium or the

Hefty Lessons of Governance of Self and the Inner Empires

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A wise king doesn't drink too early, it is said in Lemuel . It's now 10:44 AM . Monday. Day of the Moon so just on the fringe, the limit of the acceptable . So some golden silk of velvety wine to unwind. Bob Marley "Running away" (from what exactly : ascribed purpose? Perhaps) is playing in the background, in the beautiful city of PARIS. Paris , the Muse of so many brilliant artists and minds.

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 The intimate knowledge that something has shifted. What exactly ? For the sake of sacred mystery best quiet it . No qualm. 

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All is well . The Golden disc is a shining free design of power . Forget the strikes and provocations. A wise man puts his honor in forgetting offenses the wise King of Proverbs advises. Rough lessons of leadership. The One Man Army and Garrison . Sometimes, most of the time:  a rough game.

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The human condition , its tightly knit conundrums : 8 billions of human beings having a particular experience both similar and dissembling . Play the game. Of Life and to some extent false pretense . Be patient.  Exert grace to self and others. Reflections of self somehow.

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It's sunny . Frolicking Frolichkeit . Jupiter's loft . The glorious state. Time to burn , better;  time to invest. Thus this essay. 

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What motivates the average man ? I thought about security ? I was contradicted.  I recently found pointless danger , subconsciously justified by some yearning to be noticed, recognized and to affirm : "I also exist". I know,  I saw you l, I see you . You don't need to yell,  you don't need all the shenanigans and all that circumvoluted jazz, circus and mind games

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What does the People want : the roman emperors of old replied : Panum et circenses.  Panum & otium Bread and games. I.e Food & pleasure/ entertainment  .

It is also well known by wisdom untimely that a king without the aid of entertainment is full of misery 

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 Why?

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The crushing and ghoulish weight of the everyday obligations

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Without the breather that entertainment brings it would seem he is but doomed to endless and ungrateful tasks  

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The Great leader is the one who knows there is a a Damocles spear hanging over his head ready to drop at the slightest mistake or strategic misstep but whom has trained himself to be comfortable under what neophytes into matters of governance or leadership would feel as duress. 

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For instance , the Wise MAN of Ecclesiastes seems so fed up yet he is one fine ruler, arguably one of the very finest. Another example is the Immense stoic EMPEROR Marcus Aurelius who in his Thoughts for himself often exhorts himself to Fortitude.  

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 It's not a pleasant game. Rough game in which one knows being savvy on human affairs and its psychological ramifications that wherein there is power there is also powerlessness, hopelessness, intrigues, plots, power struggles, snarky Gnashing of teeth, the human comedy with its jaundiced syntax of hypocrisy. 

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Without entertainment how could one survive the furnace , the test of days as ruler or as ruled ?

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Great question 

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So entertainment is key

What else?

Dignity 

Self Determination 

A unifying purpose that assembles. Disparate strengths other wise squandered

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To be acknowledged, to be seen ? OK but at what price ?

It is a general rule that the more overachiever one is the less one tends to want to be seen or acknowledged, the work being receipt per se, in itself 

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So the more one wants to be obsessively acknowledged we can deduce that the less one is actually producing TRUE ADDED VALUE.

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The contradictions of the human condition . A laughable tragicomedy  

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But One digresses

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Tough lessons those of life and Self governance 

To rule mightily over a kingdom the Blueprint from which the leader molds is but found in himself. 

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King Salomon was such a brilliant leader because he first sought to lead well himself , the same with Marcus Aurelius , idem ibidem with Caesar or other great Pharaohs

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Read thyself : Golden key.

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If all needs were met : food , pleasure, well deserved recognition, freedom and Self Determination what would man still want? 

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Considering Maslow's pyramidal structure of needs? Self exaltation? 

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Cult of personality... ?

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Me, I , Sovereign etc.....the known vanity and hefty pomp ... the trap, the slippery slope  The beginning of the downfall of the TITAN.

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Man is fueled and torn by desire , endless desire , the more he has the more he needs: attention, prestige, wealth, power, freedom, etc.

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So could one say : “I have when despite all I have I never have enough????”

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Unquenchable thirst for more, not necessarily for better forgetting that sometimes less is more.

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I will pause here and take some sips of my liquid velvet. 

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Sidenote

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To be more reasonable I stretched the timeline . It's now 11:22 AM. I would not be such a careless king after all.  Responsible , hedonistic, epicurean and stoic all at once embodied. Anon . 

Selah.  Entertainment.  Wine as sacred ointment of the Gods. Liquid fire of Faith and sacrifice we herein honor thee.

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Slight return 

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The wine was delightful. A little something for us aestheticians . Rosey, Silvery, punchy, fruity and high life . Some would say modest as it presents itself (itself too modest) : Les petites arcanes.

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Pleasure ... a little bit; great for the soul. Too much a killer,  a poison,  a hindering stumbling block . We remember the wisdom of the great Bard of Albion : The roads of excess lead to the palaces of wisdom. 

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The goal is to be a dweller of the palaces without the tricky paths of excess . Achieving that is in itself personal excellence  ...

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So what about personal excellence? To each his own ...but contrary to popular and received opinion : the quest to those heights though laudable is rarely easy handed.

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 The path is full of Turns and Twists, treacherous obstacles, giants one must consistently slay so though unconsciously a given in the untold desires of the human design very few truly embrace that road to themselves....to discover what? 

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The God, the Mysterious Self, the Indescribable, the Magnificent yet the Awe inspiring, a certain hybris for the Straight thinker etc. It takes Grit, mettle, assassination of the ego times and times again and herculean perseverance. 

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Most prefer the comfy shores of easy thrills. This Golden path full of hurdles is for the Royal Eagles....who stretch the limits of their possibilities and doing so expand thoroughly the range of their capacities at the very edge of accepted pain that shall be soon transformed into power.  

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Power Envied. Of course. Alas . You who envy : did you partake in the loot of the last war ? Did you partake in the last rites of passage? On the edges of agony, insanity, self denial and excruciating pain?

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Silence

Selah 

So it is

So it stays 

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Monday April 22nd 2024

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