The Conscience of The King

FADE IN: INT. THE SITUATION ROOM - DAY

Leo and Fitzwallace are sitting across from each other.

LEO

This is always when you say something.

FITZWALLACE

Nah. Have you changed shampoo? 
You have, I can tell.

LEO

I like to look good for you.

FITZWALLACE

Well, I appreciate it. 
Can you tell when its Peacetime and Wartime anymore?

LEO

No.

FITZWALLCE

I don't know who The World's leading expert on warfare is, but any list of The Top 10 has got to include me, and I can't tell when it's Peacetime and Wartime anymore.

LEO

Look, International Law has always recognized certain protected person's who you couldn't attack. 
It's been this way since the Romans.

FITZWALLACE

In peacetime.

LEO

Yes.

FITZWALLACE

At the Battle of Agincourt, this was The French fighting against The British archers, this was like a polo match. 

The battles were observed by heralds 
and they picked the winners.

And if a soldier laid down his arms, he was treated humanely.

LEO

Yeah.

FITZWALLACE

And the International Laws that you're talking about, 
this is when a lot of them were written. 

At a time and in a place, 
where a person could tell between peacetime and wartime.

The idea of targeting one person was ridiculous. 

It wouldn't have occurred to The French 
to try to kill William Pitt.

That is absolute  bollocks, Sorkin, 
because the American Transatlantic Merchant Shipping Lobby did in-actual-fact, have
and I am compelled and 

That all changed after Pearl Harbor.

LEO

I don't like where this conversation's going.

FITZWALLACE

Leo.

LEO

In the Situation Room, Fitz?

FITZWALLACE

We killed Yamamoto. 
We shot down his plane.

LEO

We declared war.

FITZWALLACE

If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been successful...

LEO

And the plot to kill Hitler was an internal rebellion.

FITZWALLACE

...there would've been statues built of an assassin. 
We'd have to explain that to our kids.

LEO

I'm going to get back to the office.

FITZWALLACE

We measure the success of a mission by two things: 
Was it successful? 
and 
How few civilians did we hurt? 

They measure success by how many. 

Pregnant women are delivering bombs. 

You're talking to me about International Laws? 

The Laws of Nature don't even apply here. 

I've been a soldier for 38 years. 
And I found an Enemy I can Kill. 

He can't cancel Shareef's trip, Leo.

You've got to tell him he can't cancel it.

CUT TO: INT. THE PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE STUDY - DAY

Bartlet is in another session with the psychiatrist, Dr. Stanley Keyworth.

BARTLET

It's "The War of the Roses." 
All the Henrys, and all the Richards, for that matter.

STANLEY

In some kind of condensed form?

BARTLET

Yeah.

STANLEY

'Cause you'd be there for weeks, right, if...?

BARTLET

Yeah. 
There's also singing.

STANLEY

Oh, it's a musical?

BARTLET

No, but they're gonna sing from time to time, 
and one of the songs is a song I love. 

I can't think of the name now, 
but it's an Edwardian... 
It always reminds me... 

It makes me think of college, like, I don't know, 
like they should be singing it in the dining 

hall at Christ College at Cambridge. 

The chorus is, 
"And victorious in war shall be made 

glorious in peace."

I was just singing it this morning.

A moment of silence.

STANLEY

How have you been sleeping?

BARTLET

Good. Yeah.
 Let me ask you something. 
Is there a crime, which if it wasn't illegal, you would do?

STANLEY

I'd park anywhere I want.

BARTLET

Right, but you wouldn't rob a bank?

STANLEY

No.

BARTLET

Connecticut had a law prohibiting the use of contraceptives. 
It was written out of rage against adultery. 

But in the age of AIDS, don't Connecticut residents do more for The General Welfare by flagrantly breaking the law?

STANLEY

There was a law against... contraceptives?

BARTLET

Yeah.

STANLEY

Can I ask, sir, how somebody used to get caught?

BARTLET

Stanley...

STANLEY

What's on your mind, Mr. President?

BARTLET

I can't tell you.

STANLEY

Yeah, but you can.

Bartlet pauses, looks away and thinks.

BARTLET

No, I really can't. It's high security. 
To say nothing of... [sighs heavily]

STANLEY

To say nothing of what?

BARTLET

If I tell you I intend to commit a crime, you're required by law to report it. [beat] 

I have a strange meeting coming up. [beat] 

I'm gonna go. It's good seeing you.

Bartlet stands, grabs his jacket, and leaves Stanley inside.

FADE OUT.

END ACT ONE

* * *

This shows the ending sequence of West Wing season 3 finale, Posse Comitatus, where Sorkin's fictional War of the Roses play performs the Patriotic Song (written by composer Stephen Oliver) against the backdrop of the assassination of Abdul Shareef. You will then see the rare version of the song, performed by the RSC, from a 1982 production of the Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. For those fellow West Wing fans/nerds, the actor Roger Rees (who also played Lord John Marbury) leads the cast....

What was the music that the Shakespeare company was singing at the end in "Posse Comitatus"?

Mel Kirby tells us "the song sung by the supposed Shakespeare Company at the end of the segment of the 'Wars of the Roses' being watched on Broadway by Pres. Bartlett is called 'Patriotic Chorus' by Stephen Oliver. 

It was originally composed as the Finale of the mock-Victorian revisionist 'Romeo and Juliet' which closes Part One of the 9 hour-long, 1983 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dickens 'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby' which was an actual hit in London's West End and on Broadway in the early 80's. 

One would assume that the RSC and 'endlessly long', high-brow nature of both plays would have created the intellectual resonance for Sorkin. 

And the originally tongue-in-cheek words and tune, a send-up of typical Victorian xenophobia, have a certain irony as played over the assassination of the Qumari defense minister."

Mel Kirby also sent us the following Lyrics:

"England arise! Join in the chorus!
It is a new made song you should be singing.
See in the skies, flutt'ring before us
what the bright bird of peace is bringing!  

Chorus:
    See upon our smiling land
    where the wealths of nations stand
    where prosperity and industry walk
    ever hand in hand.
    Where so many blessings crowd,
     'tis our duty to be proud.
    Up and answer, English Yeoman,
    sing it joyfully aloud.  

    Evermore upon our country
    God will pour his rich increase,
    And victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace,
    And victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace.

this verse omitted on West Wing

[ See each one do what he can to further God's almighty plan.
The benificence of heaven help the skilfulness of man.
Ev'ry garner fill'd with grain, Ev'ry meadow blest with rain:
Rich and fertile is the golden corn that bear and bears again.]

Where so many blessings crowd,
'Tis our duty to be proud.
Up and answer, fellow Britons,
sing it joyfully aloud.

Evermore upon our country
God will pour his rich increase...etc."p

The Ride, in fact, is Made Up of Denial

"Today, a Young Man on acid realised that :

• All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. 

• That we are all OneConsciousness, experiencing itself subjectively. 

• There is no such thing as 'Death', Life is only a Dream and We're The Imagination of Our Selves." 

"Here's Tom with the weather." 

"Wow! Did you see the fuckin news!" By the way that thing I just did about matter is energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one conssciousness experiencing itself subjectively, and dadada, that thing I just did? 

Einstein proved that...! 

[Cosmic Manic Joker Laugh]

Not Complete, Even Though Correct.

 It's called Quantum Physics. 

Anyway I was tripping one day with Al, which was really weird, 'cos he's dead.

 And I said 'Al do you notice the walls are fuckin breathing right now?'

"Bill I noticed the same thing, I've got to jot some numbers down real quick, I just had a fuckin idea" 

"I saw your head light up like a fuckin bulb Al, this is unbelievable. 

Its called Quantum Physics, 

its called The 20th Century... 

We'll get there one day. "

You've been fantastic and I hope you enjoyed it.

 There is a point - is there a point to all of this...? 

Let's find a point. 

Is there a point to my act? 

I would say there is. 
I have to.

The World is like a Ride at an amusement park. 

And when you choose to go on it, you think that it's Real because that's how powerful our minds are. 

[Audience member shouts 'bollocks'] 

There is a lot denial in this ride, 

The Ride, in fact, is made up of Denial.

"All things work in Goatboys favour". 

The World is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. 

Some people have been on The Ride for a long time and they begin to question, 

"Is this Real, or is this Just a Ride?" 

And Other People have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, 

"Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, 

This is Just a Ride..." 

And We... 

Kill those people. 

Ha ha !!

"Shut him up!" 

"We have a lot invested in this ride! 

Shut him up! 

Look at my furrows of worry. 

Look at my big bank account and my family. 

This just has to be real." 

Just a ride. 

But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok?

Jesus : 

Murdered

Martin Luther King :

Murdered

Malcolm X :

Murdered

Gandhi :

Murdered

John Lennon :

Murdered

Reagan : 

Wounded.

But it doesn't matter because: 

It's Just a Ride. 

And we can change it anytime we want. 

It's only a choice. 

No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. 

A choice, right now, between Fear and Love.

The Eyes of Fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. 

The Eyes of Love, instead, see All of Us as one. 

Here's what we can do to change The World, right now, to a Better Ride :

Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating The Poor of The World, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore Space, together, both inner and outer, Forever, in Peace. 

Thank you very much, you've been great. 

[Applause] 

I hope you enjoyed it. 

London, you were fantastic, thank you, thank you very much. 

[bow] [bow] 

[three shots ring out - Bill crumples to the ground] 

So we then move on you see to another possible response, not repentance, but that of resignation :

"I quit The Game, I won't play it." 

There are all sorts of ways of doing this but basically this is an aristocratic posture, 

"You ordinary mortals with all your Desires, and all your Involvements are deluded - You Get attached to Things.

But there are a certain minority of Us, Who are above it all. 

And since We've resigned We're not going to follow This now. " 

This as I say is an artistocratic, [be aware]  that it may be aristocratic in two ways : There's the aristocracy of the Hindu Sannyasi the people outside and above caste and there's also the aristocracy of the actual aristocrat - I get so mixed up with my British and American pronunciation on this - but 

The Aristocrat who comes on with the position of always being bored, who has complete sangfreud who is imperturbable 

Kaiser Ling's study of this mentality is marvelous in his book of Europe the essay on Hungary portrays the rightly he calls the grand signeur. 

He always identified himself as a type disrobe the grand familia cannot be saved,  who could always be always rise to the occasion under any social circumstances whatsoever, without trying to do so or without apparently trying to do so.

In other words if he goes to the Opera wearing blue jeans he will somehow make it apparent that everybody else is improperly dressed.

This is a very interesting type of person you know there was an essay written by someone whose name I can't remember in the Centennial Review which contrasted the Attitude to Time of the

aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; 

It said The Aristocrat lives in The Past because his ancient forbears have achieved everything and his very by the fact of his birth in his existence he has nothing to strive for and he somehow I never need overdo it - he's always cool.

The Bourgeois on the other hand feels that it's necessary to arrive 

and he's always striving for The Future

Whereas the aristocrat lives in  The Past, on the other hand, 
The Proletarian lives in The Present because he doesn't care about his reputation, and he just lives.

And so of the three bourgeois The Sucker 

because the formula is always cheated because, well, it's going to come someday, see, you're going to get it - even your money when you pull it out of your pocket,  there says on it 

"Promise to Pay" 

- watch out for that!

It's poverty and the bourgeoisie use the news on from the whole the whole economy is the United States being the great bourgeois country is in a state of expectancy of feeling happy, not on what you have but on what is going to come 

The Aristocrat is happy on what has happened, these great achievements of the past mean there's nothing left to do except sort of glory in it.

The Proletarian wants it right now, see and they often get it; 

About the poor bourgeois, my uncle once said 

The Poor have it given them 

The Rich have it anyway so 

The Middle Classes do without

So both the aristocrats and the sannyasi have resigned.

Now, the more interesting of the two types is Acosta Sonia who resigns from The World Game, let me review for you the role of the sannyasin in Indian culture you know there are four castes because the priests or Brahmins the caste of warriors and rulers called Kshatriya the caste of merchants called Vasia and the caste of workers called Shudra 

And to belong to a caste means that you are in  the state called grihastha, which is householder that is to say you are One Who is Involved in The World, you are engaged in what is called loca Sandra and loca means The Well, Sandra, upholding, upholding the going on of The Great Illusion and so you are playing for money for position for status, for success and hoping above all that you could win - You can beat The Game.

But it's supposed in the same culture that every man who attains the age of 45 or so, who has now a grown son to take over his work, will quit the game, will resign and so, when you come to be at age you're supposed to move from the state of grihastha, householder to vanaprastha which means forest dweller.

You give away all your possessions to your son, you change your name, you take off your clothes and go more or less naked, because you have abandoned status.

So in spite of the fact that he has no status, he is however respected in the culture for being an upper outcast, whereas the Aborigines of the Indian Peninsula are Untouchables, the lower outcast and the upper outcast always mimics the lower.

For example Buddha had his disciple wear ochre robes because ochre robes were worn by convicts. 

So in the same way if today, in San Quentin, they all wear blue jeans with special kind pants and a kind of a blue denim jacket and this could well become the uniform of a new kind of sannyasi in the

Western world and to some extent this is happening.

So this guy says 

"The Game is not worth the cap, 
the richer I get, the more miserable I get"

You know how this is, you think that your problems may be monitored and you get more money.

What do you do then we've got enough money, you start worrying about your health and you can never never stop worrying about that 

Or if you're not worried about your health you worry about politics, if somebody's going to take your money away from you, worried about taxes, about Who's Cheating You.

And so a person who goes through all that he's finally 

"I don't think The Game's worth it, I'm going to resign."

And so resignation or renunciation the difference from repentance it hasn't it hasn't got the same kind of passion in the resolve that the repentant person feels he's wrong who made a mistake has committed sin and wants to get better about the renounce first didn't concerns of that country he knows that better progress whether moral or material is an illusion and you have to understand this when you approach for example the study of Buddhism I think one of the most withering remarks I ever heard, from an oriental, he was Japanese he said once he was 

"Never forget that whereas Jesus was the Son of a Carpenter, Buddha was the son of a King" 

You know Wow! Take that! 

And it's choose it is something always about about that this is not the this is easy to see which Christianity historically was the protest of the slave class again if the Roman, establishment Buddhism was different it was the abandonment of position by an aristocracy  - That We've done it We've seen it all we've had it so now we check out and we will be therefore we will resign from all games and if you follow this attitude to an extreme you're going to make because it all goes to the center the same discovery that is made by the person who follows repentance to an extreme.

Just as The Repentant Person discovers that his contrition is phoney the person who tries to resign will discover that he can't, that 

There is no way of not playing games 

Let's go a little bit then into this Game Theory there are a lot of games that we play and not only the game of 
Can I get One Up on The Universe,  of Pretending That I'm me This Ego, With Its

Name and Its Role, The Man, 

but also we have what I call meta-games, for example the game 

My Games Better Than Your Game,

or the game 

"I Won't Play With You Because Your Game is Vulgar, Stupid, Banal, Inferior or Whatever." 

One of the most, therefore, effective games in saying My Game is Better Than Your Game is that 

I'm Not Playing Games At All.

You are now at the lowest level we find that in the form of :

You're Not Sincere, I am sincere 

You are Fooling, I'm not Fooling You and Being Honest with You 

Now, that's a great game and of resignation is a form of it as to say you are children claim with toys and you haven't ever really woken up to the important concerns of life you haven't reached the dimension of ultimate sincerity all, that is to say Ultimate Reality, and in order to reach it you have to 

Resign from Distractions 

You hear a great deal in the literature about meditation of getting rid of distractions wandering for well I you might ask when you think about all that what are wandering for what are wrong for what shouldn't I be doing with my mind, well they all say actually every day you think about this and then you think about that in your thoughts run on in an undisciplined way from one association to another and you can't keep your mind fully on the job or whatever so you see, you're supposed to announce that because that's True Reality all those wandering thoughts they're not about the

importance now what's important what should you keep your mind on well, something just as long as you keep your mind on.

In an instruction one of the Buddhist scriptures says about concentration, when they concentrate on a yellow square on the ground, on the burning tip of an incense stick, on your navel, on the tip of your nose on the, center between the eyes, or anything.

And then the footnote the commentator adds 

"But not on any wicked thing." 

As you know that commentators the world over, they never have any [sense of humour].

So anything will do just so long as you keep your mind on it, and don't wander, stick to it, so wandering is involvement in games,

by this kind of definition, so then you try to get out can you now get out can you stop competing with other human beings 

In ancient Greek society there was a place in the center of the community called the argon AG om and this was a place for contests where they had wrestling matches and other athletic events because all the men were constantly trying to show who was the

better and from this were the agonyax which means these the contest itself held in the argon we get our word agony, the struggle and striving to be superior and a lot of people that you meet among you,  you will recognize this among your friends all the time are not happy unless they are involved in the contest it doesn't matter what it is, so long as they're trying to beat something they're  happy 

And you may say over everything :

"You know can't we just sit around and talk instead of having to play a game, or bet or do something to prove who's the stronger...?" 

I was married to a girl who never was happy unless she was engaged in some kind of combat, when of course I had a game, it didn't look like one,  and so it was a very superior game just because it didn't look like one,  but it was a form of the game, my games that renews so you can't really not-play, you may go through the motions of not playing, but you still are. 

The Psychonauts Field Manual by BlueFluke