What is the telos - the essence and end purpose - of the
acorn?
We may infer that the answer lays in the set of things which the
acorn does.
Acorns sustain the lives of squirrels, and squirrels plant acorns,
which grow into mature oak trees. The oak trees then shed their
acorns, grow old and hollow, house the squirrel, provide the squirrel
a place to store his acorns, and die.
Who can say which of these outcomes is the acorn's true purpose?
For when the mature oak sheds its acorns, the squirrel will be
sustained. The squirrel anticipates a time when acorns will be in
shortage, so he gathers them. Soon after, he confines himself to the
dying oak which no longer bears fruit. The squirrel can survive in
the tree until he runs out of acorns, but he must come out in the
springtime to reproduce and to plant the seed of the tree that will
sustain himself and his posterity.
The squirrel represents the citizen. The eating and hoarding of the
acorns represents the contemplation of freedom, justice, and reason.
The oak tree represents the party to the political association which
protects the freedom of citizens, administers justice, and hears,
understands, practices, speaks, and teaches reason.
When the party to the political association that protects the safety
of men truly represents and upholds freedom, justice, and reason, the
citizen will remember these things and grow closer to understanding
them every time he is left alone to contemplate what he has
experienced of them, and every time he is able to speak freely and
share his beliefs.
But when the protective party ceases to epitomize freedom, justice,
and reason, the citizen must cease contemplation and invest what
little knowledge he has of these things, as well as his hope for
their continuation and for the survival of himself and his posterity,
in protection by a new party to the political association which has
neither begun to protect, nor yet has it failed to do so.
If man clings to political associations that have become destructive
of these ends, he will not be sustained. Believe though he may that
the association still benefits him, what he believes to be protection
and shelter have become that which oppresses and obscures him. He may
only find freedom, justice, and reason once again when he abandons
his protector and seeks the security of a new, lively, thriving oak
tree producing fresh fruit.
The purposes of the contemplation of freedom, justice, and reason are
to allow our acorn to grow into an ultimate, all-inclusive system of
political associations, to sustain the mind of man through
contemplation, and to utilize the benefits of wisdom, insight, and
logic, in order for men to live better.
Since subjectivity to a political association should be
consensual, divorce of political association should be allowed when
it can be proven that one or both parties has failed to do their duty
for the other.
It's time to find ourselves a new tree.
Written in May 2009
Originally Published 12-30-2010
Re-Published on January 5th, 2014
Re-Published on January 5th, 2014
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