The Judge

The Warrior :

Time Lords of Gallifrey, 

Daleks of Skaro, 

I serve notice on you all. 

Too long I have stayed my hand. 

No More. 

"I was reading about Socrates today, and I was reading about Socrates’ trial. 

He was tried by the Athenians for failing to worship the correct Gods, and [ like Ozzy Osbourne ] for corrupting The Youth of Athens by teaching them stuff and asking them questions -

 Which is a great way to corrupt people.  

So he knew The Trial was coming, and Athens wasn’t a very big place. 

It only had about 25,000 people. 

Everybody knew everybody, and everybody knew who the powerful guys were. 

Everybody, including Socrates, knew that the trial was a warning to get out of town.  

‘We’re going to put you on trial in six months, 

and the potential penalty is death. 

Got that?’

So Socrates had a chat with his compatriots. 

They were contemplating Fair means and Foul to set up a defense for him, or to leave, so that he could not be Tried and put to death. 

He decided that he wasn’t going to do that. 

He also decided that he wasn’t going to even think about his defense. 

He said why, and this is quite an interesting thing. 

He told one of his friends that he had this voice in his head

—a daemon, a spirit, or something like that—

that he always listened to, and that it was one of the reasons that he was different from other people. 

He always listened to this thing. 

It didn’t tell him what to do, but it told him what not to do. 

It always told him what not to do. 

And if it told him not to do something, then he didn’t do it.

If he was speaking and the little voice came up and said, ‘no,’ 

then he shut up and tried to say something else.

He was very emphatic about this. 

He said that, when he tried to plan to evade the trial

—or even to mount his own defense—

the voice came up and said, 

‘No, don’t bother with it.’ 

He thought, 

‘What the hell do you mean by that? 

There’s a trial coming, and I’m going to be put to death.’

Well, he eventually concluded that he was an old guy.

He was in his 70s, perhaps, and the next 10 years weren’t going to be that great for him. 

Maybe The Gods were giving him a chance to bow out, to put his affairs in order, to say goodbye to everyone, to avoid that last descent into catastrophe, which might have been particularly painful for a philosopher, and to walk off the world on his own terms. 

Something like that. 

The point I’m making with that is that Socrates attended to this internal voice, that at least told him

what not to do, 

and then  

he didn’t do it. 

Of course, Socrates was a very remarkable man, and we still hear about him today. 

We know that he existed, and all of those things.

Back to the Walking with God idea. 

You create a Judge at the same time as you elevate your aim. 

The new ideal

—which is an ideal you, even if it’s just an ideal position that you might occupy, even if it’s still conceptualized in that concrete way—

becomes a judge, because it’s above you. You’re terrified of it, maybe. 

That’s why you might be afraid when you go start a new job, right? 

This thing is above you, and you’re terrified of it, and it judges you. 

That’s useful because The Judge that you’re creating by formulating the ideal tells you what’s useless about yourself, 

and then you can dispense with it. 

 You want to keep doing that, and then every time you make a Judge that’s more elevated, then 

There’s more useless you that has to be dispensed with. 

And then, if you create an Ultimate Judge, which is what the archetypal imagination of humankind has done, say, with  

The Figure of Christ

  

—because if Christ is nothing else, he is at least the archetypal Perfect Man, and therefore The Judge—

You have a Judge that says, 

‘Get rid of everything about yourself that isn’t perfect.’ 

Of course, that’s also what God tells Abraham. 

He says to Be Perfect—

to pick an ideal that’s high enough. 

You can do this.

The thing that’s interesting about this, I think, is that you can do it more or less on your own terms. 

You have to have some collaboration from other people, but you don’t have to pick an external idea.

 You can pick an ideal that fulfills the role of idea for you: you can say, 

‘Ok, well, if things could be set up for me the way I need them to be, and if I could be who I needed to be, what would that look like?’ 

 You can figure that out for yourself, and then, instantly, you have a Judge. 

I also think that’s part of the reason that people don’t do it. 

Why don’t people look up and move ahead? 

The Answer is, well, you start formulating an ideal, and you formulate a Judge. 

It’s pretty easy to feel intimidated in the face of your own ideal. 

That’s what happens to Cain versus Abel, for example. 

Then it’s really easy to destroy the ideal instead of trying to pursue it, because then you get rid of The Judge. 

But it’s way better to lower the damn Judge if it’s too much. 

If your current ambition is crushing you, then maybe you’re playing the tyrant to yourself, and you should tap down the conditions—

Not get rid of them, by any stretch of imagination, but at least put them more reasonably within your grasp. 

You don’t have to leap from point one to point 50 in one leap, right? 

You can do it incrementally.

I really like this idea. 

I think it’s a profound idea—

That the process of recapitulating yourself continually is also a phoenix-like process. 

You’re shedding all those elements of you that are no longer worthy of the pursuits that you’re valuing. 

And then I would say, the idea, here, is that as you do that, you shape yourself evermore precisely into something that can withstand the Tragedy of Life, 

and that can act as a beacon to The World. 

That’s the right way of thinking about it—maybe first to your friends, and then to your family. 

It’s a hell of a fine ambition, and there’s no reason that it can’t happen. 

Every one of you knows people who are really bloody useful in a crisis, and people that you admire, right? 

You could think of all those people that you admire as partial incarnations of the archetypal messiah. 

That’s Exactly Right. 

The more that manifests itself in any given person, then the more generally useful and admirable that person is in a multitude of situations. 

We don’t know the limit to that, but people can be unbelievably good for things. 

It’s really something to behold. 

So that’s what God tells Abraham. "

The Warrior :

Time Lords of Gallifrey, 

Daleks of Skaro, 

I serve notice on you all. 

Too long I have stayed my hand. No more. 

Today you leave me no choice. 

Today, this war will end. 

No More. No More. 

Perfect-10 :

What we do today is not out of fear or hatred. 

It is done because there is no other way. 

The Chin: 

And it is done in the name of the many live we are failing to save. 

(He looks at Clara, who shakes her head.) 

The Chin : 

What? What is it? What? 

Clara Oswald,

"I'm His Carer." - Cares About All Those Things He is Unable to Fully and Completely Care About, in Order to Be a Doctor : 

Nothing. 

The Chin: 

No, it's something. Tell me. 

Clara Oswald,

"I'm His Carer." - Cares About All Those Things He is Unable to Fully and Completely Care About, in Order to Be a Doctor : 

You told me you wiped out your own people. 

I just — I never pictured you doing it, that's all. 

I Resign.

I Resign.

You can't resign — it's physically and ontologically not-possible.

The lonelier you are, the more you're joined together with 

everything else. "

 

 
"...that idea of The Far-Off Man, way, way out there,  but what does The Hermit tell us...?
 
If you try this get as lonely as you can get, you become visibly aware which you can't get away from it, because when you get very lonely very fast you become extremely thin and everything that goes on is or now ordinarily unnoticed cum spiritum 
 

First of all, you will find that there is a  Community of Insects.
And they are tremendously interested in You, and not necessarily hostile, in maybe some cases they are so.

But alone in The Forest, when you get really quiet, you'll notice little creatures will come and inspect you look you all over an
they'll go away and tell their friends and they'll come and look to see what it is and you become aware of every single sound and you realize that alone you're in the midst of a vast burning crowd 

- it may not be human but it's everything else - 

so that the the point of being, The Discipline leads you to understand that   

You can't Resign

The lonelier you are, the more you're joined together with everything else. "

" Look at it - from another point of view, supposing I say everybody's playing the game Me First  - now, I'm going to play the game You First, to use the phrase of Bonhoeffer who called Jesus The Man for Others - now, let's see if we could play that game instead of 
Me First, 

You First 

Or,

"I'm the one see who's so generous I'm the one who's so loving so self-effacing and all you insolent brats ...."  

- Alan Watts

" This controversial play follows the declining fortunes of a man of extravagant contradictions.  

The fabulously rich Timon believes all his friends to be as open-hearted and generous as himself. When his wealth suddenly evaporates, however, he discovers the truth and his altruism turns to a bitter hatred of mankind. Stirred up by the cynical Apemantus, Timon retreats to the woods where he plots the destruction of Athens, the city that had formerly seemed to embody everything pleasurable and civilized. The cosmic scope of his hatred is communicated in a series of powerful and disturbing dramatic tableaux. 

The Curse :

SCENE I. Without the walls of Athens.

Enter TIMON

TIMON

Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall, That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools, Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench, And minister in their steads! to general filths Convert o' the instant, green virginity, Do 't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; Rather than render back, out with your knives, And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed; Thy mistress is o' the brothel! Son of sixteen, pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire, With it beat out his brains! Piety, and fear, Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood, Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, Decline to your confounding contraries, And let confusion live! Plagues, incident to men, Your potent and infectious fevers heap On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica, Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt As lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath, at their society, as their friendship, may merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee, But nakedness, thou detestable town! Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! Timon will to the woods; where he shall find The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound--hear me, you good gods all-- The Athenians both within and out that wall! And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.

Exit

Colonel: (Graham Chapman) Now, I've noticed a tendency for this program to get rather silly. Now I do my best to keep things moving along, but I'm not having things getting silly. Those last two sketches I did got very silly indeed. And that last one about the beds was even sillier. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do, except perhaps my wife and some of her friends. Oh yes, and Captain Johnson. Come to think of it, most people like a good laugh more than I do, but that's beside the point. Now, let's have a good, clean, healthy outdoor sketch. Get some air into your lungs. Ten, nine, eight and all that...

(Cut to two hermits on a hillside.)

Colonel: Ahhh yes, that's better. Now let's hope this doesn't get silly.

First Hermit: (Michael Palin) Hello, are you a hermit by any chance?

Second Hermit: (Eric Idle) Yes that's right. Are you a hermit?

First Hermit: Yes, I certainly am.

Second Hermit: Well I never. What are you getting away from?

First Hermit: Oh you know, the usual - people, chat, gossip, you know.

Second Hermit: Oh I certainly do, it was the same with me. I mean there comes a time when you realize there's no good frittering your life away in idleness and trivial chit-chat. Where's your cave?

First Hermit: Oh, up the goat track, first on the left.

Second Hermit: Oh they're very nice up there, aren't they?

First Hermit: Yes they are, I've got a beauty.

Second Hermit: A bit drafty though, aren't they?

First Hermit: No, we've had ours insulated.

Second Hermit: Oh yes?

First Hermit: Yes, I used birds nests, moss and oak leaves round the outside.

Second Hermit: Oh, sounds marvellous.

First Hermit: Oh it's a treat, it really is, 'cause otherwise those stone caves can be so grim.

Second Hermit: Yes they really can be, can't they? They really can.

First Hermit: Oh yes.

(Third hermit passes by.)

Third Hermit: Morning Frank.

Second Hermit: Morning Norman. Talking of moss, er you know Mr. Robinson?

First Hermit: With the, er, green loin cloth?

Second Hermit: Er no, that's Mr. Seagrave. Mr. Robinson's the hermit who lodges with Mr. Seagrave.

First Hermit: Oh I see, yes.

Second Hermit: Yes well he's put me onto wattles.

First Hermit: Really?

Second Hermit: Yes. Swears by them. Yes.

(Fourth hermit passes)

Fourth Hermit: Morning Frank.

Second Hermit: Morning Lionel. Well he says that moss tends to fall off the cave walls during cold weather. You know you might get a really bad spell and half the moss drops off the cave wall, leaving you cold.

First Hermit: Oh well, Mr. Robinson's cave's never been exactly nirvana has it?

Second Hermit: Well, quite, that's what I mean. Anyway, Mr. Rogers, he's the, er, hermit...

First Hermit: ... on the end.

Second Hermit: . .. up at the top, yes. Well he tried wattles and he came out in a rash.

First Hemit: Really?

Second Hermit: Yes, and there's me with half a wall wattled, I mean what'll I do?

First Hermit: Well why don't you try birds nests like I've done? Or else, dead bracken.

Fifth Hermit: (calling from a distance) Frank!

Second Hermit: Yes Han?

Fifth Hermit: Can I borrow your goat?

Second Hermit: Er, yes that'll be all right. Oh leave me a pint for breakfast will you? (to first hermit) You see, you know that is the trouble with living half way up a cliff, you feel so cut off. You know it takes me two hours every morning to get out onto the moors, collect my berries, chastise myself, and two hours back in the evening.

First Hermit: Still there's one thing about being a hermit, at least you meet people.

Second Hermit: Oh yes, I wouldn't go back to public relations.

First Hemit: Oh well, bye for now Frank, must toddle.

Colonel: Right, you two hermits, stop that sketch. I think it's silly.

Second Hermit: What?

Colonel: It's silly.

Second Hermit What do you mean, you can't stop it - it's on film.

Colonel: That doesn't make any difference to the viewer at home, does it? Come on, get out. Out. Come on out, all of you. Get off, go on, all of you. Go on, move, move. Go on, get out. Come on, get out, move, move.

(He shoos them and the film crew off the hillside.)

I've 

Resigned.

I Will Not Be Pushed, 

Stamped, 

Filed, 

Indexed, 

Briefed, 

De-Briefed, 

OR 

NUMBERED!!

My Life is My Own.

[ Oh, No it Isn't, Chum.... ]

Zarathustra went down the mountain alone, no one meeting him. 

When he entered the forest, however, there suddenly stood before him an old man, who had left his holy cot to seek roots. 

And thus spake the old man to Zarathustra: “No stranger to me is this wanderer: many years ago passed he by. Zarathustra he was called; but he hath altered. Then thou carriedst thine ashes into the mountains: wilt thou now carry thy fire into the valleys? Fearest thou not the incendiary’s doom? Yea, I recognise Zarathustra. Pure is his eye, and no loathing lurketh about his mouth. Goeth he not along like a dancer? Altered is Zarathustra; a child hath Zarathustra become; an awakened one is Zarathustra: what wilt thou do in the land of the sleepers? As in the sea hast thou lived in solitude, and it hath borne thee up. Alas, wilt thou now go ashore? Alas, wilt thou again drag thy body thyself?” 

Zarathustra answered: “I love mankind.” 

“Why,” said the saint, “did I go into the forest and the desert? Was it not because I loved men far too well? Now I love God: men, I do not love. Man is a thing too imperfect for me. Love to man would be fatal to me.” 

Zarathustra answered: “What spake I of love! I am bringing gifts unto men.” 

“Give them nothing,” said the saint. “Take rather part of their load, and carry it along with them—that will be most agreeable unto them: if only it be agreeable unto thee! If, however, thou wilt give unto them, give them no more than an alms, and let them also beg for it!” 

“No,” replied Zarathustra, “I give no alms. I am not poor enough for that.”

 The saint laughed at Zarathustra, and spake thus: “Then see to it that they accept thy treasures! They are distrustful of anchorites, and do not believe that we come with gifts. The fall of our footsteps ringeth too hollow through their streets. And just as at night, when they are in bed and hear a man abroad long before sunrise, so they ask themselves concerning us: Where goeth the thief? Go not to men, but stay in the forest! Go rather to the animals! Why not be like me—a bear amongst bears, a bird amongst birds?” 

“And what doeth the saint in the forest?” asked Zarathustra. 

The saint answered: “I make hymns and sing them; and in making hymns I laugh and weep and mumble: thus do I praise God. With singing, weeping, laughing, and mumbling do I praise the God who is my God. But what dost thou bring us as a gift?” 

When Zarathustra had heard these words, he bowed to the saint and said: “What should I have to give thee! Let me rather hurry hence lest I take aught away from thee!”

—And thus they parted from one another, the old man and Zarathustra, laughing like schoolboys. 

When Zarathustra was alone, however, he said to his heart: “Could it be possible! This old saint in the forest hath not yet heard of it, that GOD IS DEAD!”

The Princess - She Who Hopes