VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 10
Oversight, Putting That Thought Under the Sunlight, and to Save Him Is to Save Him from Going On Harming People Lawfully
The last section set up those four strengths, cannot, do not want to, need not, dare not. This section brings these four down onto solid methods, one after another, that you can see, can touch, and that ease that breath in you too. The first method, the simplest, and also the most useful, oversight, putting that thought in the hand of the illiterate in the law under the sunlight. And then it undoes the biggest knot in your heart, to save him, is that in the end to let him go on sitting in his position, harming people lawfully? Let me say it dead, to save him is to save him from going on harming people lawfully, and absolutely not to shelter him in his position to go on harming.
One. Why the Illiterate in the Law Dare, That Thought Is in the Dark
Let me point out once more why the illiterate in the law dare to harm people lawfully by the letter. Look back, that whole nest of the illiterate in the law, what they hold pinched in their hands is the core of power, that thought of the power over life and death. They dare use this thought to harm people lawfully by the letter, and why do they dare? Because this thought is in the dark.
Think, that judge brings down the gavel in the courtroom, and when he signs, whether in his own heart he read the letter or the intent, no one knows. That lawmaker sets down a law with his pen, and whether he set it to protect the people or for those ten thousand good reasons, no one sees. That lawyer drills through loopholes for the one who can pay, and how he drills, why he drills, no one keeps an eye on. That low-level official signs and stamps behind his window, and on what grounds he signs, on what grounds he does not, no one checks. That thought in their hands, flowing out from the source, flowing on into harming people lawfully, is all in the dark. It is precisely because it is in the dark that they dare go by the letter, walk the procedure, drill the loopholes, and harm people lawfully.
Two. The Cleanest Way to Break It Is One Word, Light
Then this one thing, how is it broken? The cleanest way to break it is one word, light. Take that thought, out of the dark, and move it under the sunlight, and let everyone watch. This is oversight.
Think over the shady doings in everyday life, not one of them can bear being shown under the broad sun. A thief picks the dark night with no one around to make his move, and you switch on the light, people gather round, and that hand of his draws straight back. A person does harm behind someone's back, and you ask him one question in front of everyone, why are you doing this, and most likely he stammers and cannot go on. Why? Because a thing that cannot face people is, in its bones, afraid of the light, and once it sees the light, that bit of being in the wrong, that bit of uncleanness, is all laid out in the open, and he is too ashamed to go on doing it. That thought of the illiterate in the law harming people lawfully is the same kind of thing. It hides under the letter of the ruling, hides under the flow of the procedure, hides in the dark where no one looks, and only so does it dare make its move. Show it under the light, let everyone measure it with the yardstick of the intent, and those doings of it that cannot face the intent cannot be done, of themselves.
What is oversight? It is putting that thought in the hand of the illiterate in the law, whether he read the letter or the intent, the reasons behind his lawmaking, his rulings, his defenses, his signatures, the intent of every stroke he makes, under the broad light of day, under everyone's eyes. Whether he reads the letter or the intent, whether he protects the people or harms the people, whether the law he set fits the intent or fits those ten thousand good reasons, all plain, all for everyone to see. Once that thought is put under the light, what happens? He himself goes straight.
Three. Once That Thought Sees the Light, He Himself Cannot Press It Through
Think, he dared harm people lawfully by the letter in the first place leaning on that thought being in the dark. Now, before he signs, he has to write it out plain, why I rule this way, whether I read the letter or the intent, whom I protected. Before he sets a law, he has to lay it out plain, whom this law is set to protect, where its intent is, whether it has strayed. Before he defends someone, he has to lay it out plain, whom I am defending, why, what I get, whether I am drilling a loophole. Before he brings down that gavel, he has to lift his head and look, so many pairs of eyes behind him are watching that thought of his.
Does he still dare harm people lawfully by the letter? He dares not. It is not that someone forcibly holds him down and will not let him press it through, it is that he himself, under so many pairs of eyes, cannot press it through. A thing that cannot face the intent, once put under the light of the yardstick of the intent, cannot be done, of itself. You see, this is that dare not from the last section, come down to a solid method. Politics dissolving that set of coercion makes him not dare, law bending that thought makes him unable, and these go together with oversight. That set of coercion dissolved, he has no tool of coercion; that thought put under the light, he has no dark. Only then is he truly unable, and does he truly not dare, to harm people lawfully by the letter again.
Four. Oversight Is Sunlight, Not Informing
And let me have you especially tell one thing apart, of one lineage with the fourth chapter. Oversight is not calling on people to file secret reports, to inform, to denounce the illiterate in the law, that whole nest of them, as individuals. These two are far apart.
Oversight is sunlight, is aboveboard. It puts that thought, that core of the power over life and death in the hand of the illiterate in the law, out onto the open, out before everyone, so that thought can bear the light, can stand up to being measured by the yardstick of the intent. What it is aimed at is that thought, the core of power, you who hold the law have to use the law under the light, act by the intent, not harm people lawfully by the letter in the dark. It is upright and open, it neither steals nor hides. Filing secret reports, informing, denouncing, is dark, is hidden in the shadows. What it is aimed at is people, is fixing on some judge behind his back, exposing some lawyer's private life, hunting for some lawmaker's weak spot. What it breeds is that fear where everyone is on guard, everyone is in danger, everyone denounces the other. And what it is aimed at is exactly not that thought, but people, and this is exactly the striking of people this book has opposed all along. What is wanted here is the former, oversight under the sunlight, aimed at that thought, not the latter, informing in the dark, aimed at people. One is putting the core of power out under the sun, upright and open, bending it to the intent. One is dragging the illiterate in the law, as individuals, into the shadows, on guard against one another, fixing on people by means of coercion. This book, which from beginning to end uses the pen and not the knife, upright and open, wants, of course, that oversight under the sunlight that bends things back to the intent.
Five. That Chain, Blocked at the Source at the First Link
Look back again at that chain of lawfully harming the people. That judge who signed away a family's home, if the reasons for his signature were laid out in the open and measured by that ruler, the intent of the law is to protect the people, could he sign it? He could not. That lawmaker who set the harsh taxes and sundry levies, if the reasons for his lawmaking were laid out in the open and measured against that original promise of providing security for the landowners, could he set it? He could not. That lawyer who drilled through loopholes to get the strong side off, if his defense were laid out in the open and measured by that ruler of protecting the people, protecting those at the bottom, could he drill through? He could not. That low-level official who used broken code to grab money by criminal means, if the reasons for his signature were laid out in the open and measured by that ruler, administration is only to serve the people, could he grab it? He could not.
This one move of oversight manages not only those illiterate in the law at the source, where the law is made, it also manages every hand on the ground that signs, that brings down the gavel, that stamps, all put under the light, measured by the yardstick of the intent. That thought sees the light, and that chain of lawfully harming the people is blocked at the first link. From the source to the far end, every thought sees the light, and every hand on that chain dares not, and cannot, harm people lawfully again. Just how to lay that thought out under the light, how to put the yardstick of the intent in everyone's hands, that is a thing the ones who do the work have to make solid, one item at a time. This book is a lamp, shining out this road; how to walk it is for the reader to walk.
Six. That Knot Pent Up So Long, Is Saving Him Letting Him Go On Harming
With oversight told, let me undo the knot in your heart, the biggest one, pent up from the last section to now. All this road you have been held back, not to strike, to save. You did not say it aloud, but the line in your heart you have probably held pent a long while, save him? To save him, is that to let him go on sitting in that courtroom, that legislature, that law firm, behind that window, harming people lawfully by the letter? Is the saving spoken of here to go easy on that whole nest of the illiterate in the law, coax them with good words, let them stay in their positions, and let those they lawfully harmed to death in the past go without pursuit, this kind of saving?
If it were this kind of saving, then the first to refuse such saving is this book. Let me say it dead, to save him is to save him from going on harming people lawfully. It is absolutely not to shelter him in his position to go on harming people lawfully. These two are worlds apart.
Seven. Going On Harming in His Position Is Watching Him Walk to His Death and Giving Him a Shove
Let me break it down for you. Think first, one illiterate in the law, going on in his position harming people lawfully by the letter, to himself, what is it? It is going on going against his conscience, walking the road to death. That calamity hangs over his head, the calamity that every stroke he signs may send a living person down the road to death, and the more days it hangs, the more days he goes against his conscience. That heart of his, which could still have been saved, the more days it is ground by that lock, the harder by a bit it is to save back. Every day more he goes by the letter in his position, every person more he harms lawfully by procedure, is a day more he walks down that road to death of going against his conscience and destroying himself.
So if you save him, keep him in his position, and let him go on harming people lawfully by the letter, is this saving him? This is you watching him, wide-eyed, walk down that road to death, and giving him a shove besides. This is not called saving, this is called harming. It is called watching a person caught up by a lock, who in his heart is in fact hurting, but who is still harming people lawfully, and not only not pulling him back, but saying let him be, do not touch him, and this is the fiercest harm, wearing the skin of saving. And more important still, every day more he goes by the letter in his position, every signature more he puts to lawfully harming people, is one more living person downstream sent lawfully down the road to death by this thought of his. Sheltering him in his position to go on harming is no saving, not for him, and not for those who are yet to be harmed.
Eight. Swapping Him Down to Be Reforged Is Exactly the Means of Saving Him
So the saving spoken of here is not that at all. The saving spoken of is to take him, out of that position that lets him harm people lawfully by the letter every day, out of that lock that draws him every day to read the letter and not the intent, and pull him out. Why can he not stop harming people lawfully by the letter? Because he sits in that position, bound by that lock, an education that tests only the letter, promotion that looks at cases won, a professional climate where winning is right, and that set of political coercion of law enforcement propping things up so that harming people by the letter can land. One day he is in that position is one day that lock draws him to harm people lawfully by the letter. So to save him, the one and only way, is to take him, out of that position, out of that lock, and let him stop harming people lawfully.
How to pull him out? Swap him down. Ask him to leave that position, go back to that courtyard, the second chapter's school is a prison, read the intent anew, patch his character anew, become anew a person who truly understands the law. So to save him and to swap him down are not in the least at odds, they are the same one thing, swapping him down is exactly the means of saving him. It is not pulling him off the position to punish him, to shame him, it is pulling him out of that situation that lets him harm people lawfully by the letter every day, out of that lock that draws him into going against his conscience. One day he is in that position, harming one more person lawfully by the letter, is one more step on the road to death. Swap him down, send him back to read the intent, to patch his character, and he no longer harms people lawfully by the letter, and he, the person, is saved; and those who were to be sent down the road to death by that thought of his are saved together with him. This, this is truly saving. This is of one lineage with the root of this book all along. Saving the slave, saving the laborer, saving the one who lives on capital, saving the people inside the political system, which of them was keeping a person in the lock and letting him do evil? None. Saving was always pulling a person out of the lock. But that breath of yours has half left un-eased, swapped down, reforged, made a person anew, then those he lawfully harmed to death in the past, is it simply let go? This half, the next section eases to the bottom for you, in the saving there is an iron, hard and unbending.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.