You proved torture with your body and then signed documents granting immunity and insuring that torture would continue as a virtuous policy of the American state. Writing this, I feel my acquiescence and lend my complicity to your signature.
It never occurred to me to insist that Fred Avery deal in his memoir more conscientiously with the question of his responsibility for authorizing and overseeing the torture with which the agency he directed was tasked by those who appointed you to head the Office of Legal Counsel, the post you always dreamed of holding. Of course, he attended all the meetings of principals in which torture’s necessity was discussed. His high rhetoric (and boyish laughter)—the devotion of his public service—the stern kindness of his unpretentious command—my complicity—the fellowship of our birth and class—all this prevented it. The stillness surrounding the careful silence of authority is not kind. In the event we decided it was best that the text of his memoir emphasize the intensity of the good faith with which he protected the nation in a time of war. We agreed to stress, with the sound of modest words, his devotion to family and country in the exercise of his disciplined will and fallible moral strength.
I did not question his rhetoric or his narrative. What did you think when you read the passage in his memoirs about lawyers (in a crisis “despite what Hollywood might have you believe, you don’t call in the tough guys; you call in the lawyers”)? Are all the rest (the acts themselves as knowable experience) authorless events from a dead star committed by no one who need be held accountable so long as patriotic motives governed the speech that gave the order? Did it make present the perfection of the violence and the silence we bear so lightly and so drunkenly inside ourselves? Avery’s book sold more copies than any other title in bookstores its first week; it continues to sell well, I’m sure. I am your accomplice in our class’s alchemy of national impunity.
Our force of rule, in every moment, extends beyond all law. This is the secret of all totalitarian government.
I’m not blaming you. I have sworn to do the same as you or worse. Neither of us has ever resigned from anything for reasons of principle.
By historical method I mean every means of examination of conscience, of meditation, of contemplation of vocal and mental speech and other acts by which a person prepares and disposes the self to rid its coherence and integrity of all inordinate attachments to empire, and, after their removal, by which he or she creates reciprocity and joins with others in a society of equal historical selves (SOEHS).
To begin is always hardest. The ending, I hope, will come easily and in good time once we have begun. Things happen only once and in only one way. If this were not the case we would not be listening like this to the just reproach of all the anonymous, historical dead.
My father and his father before him fought, painfully, almost famously, in foreign wars. They both killed many men—women and children too. I never came close to doing anything as brave as you. My father was a gentleman and a scholar who said everyone, in principle, owed the state a life. Is this true? In the event, I told him he lied—that he held that doctrine out of self-interest and not to further emancipative, democratic reason. Was I right to make this claim—this buttressed argument? What appropriate action flows from such aggression?
The choice of a new master narrative and a governing scene with which to refuse empire will come easily only for a few. For most it will come with difficulty.
The First Day’s Exercise is to write on a loose sheet of paper (or on the line provided below, if you prefer) the master narrative you have chosen with which to live the present moment as history. Next, immediately below this, describe in as few words as possible the governing scene with which you will hold your master narrative in mind over a sustained period. The governing scene should be designed so that it can bring your master narrative immediately to consciousness whenever the occasion demands its use.
Master Narrative:
Governing Scene:
Second Day’s Exercise: Now that you have chosen your master narrative and its governing scene, identify the sources you will use in making reasoned arguments to justify your actions in the present. This is the art for which we were trained. (Of course you are welcome, instead of creating a master narrative and governing scene of your own, to adopt mine and adapt them as you wish. Again, the documents upon which the present I am living depend (the longer one was written by you) are both included here at the end. How can we rely upon our words to mean themselves when we meet in person unless we know how our rule is explained as just? The bravery of your action to decide the meaning of words, my vision two years ago, and my daily practice of this method give me hope that we can create the present of another history.
The present, a waiting for justice, takes the form of a love song. It sounds like this:
Every moment forfeit/In a history of absolute loss./I am valuable because she came back./If you see Leda before I do,/Sing her this song/So she does not choose another./I will do the same for you, if,/While you are away, I meet/ Your one true love/And you teach me the words./Refuse empire; create reciprocity.
Third Day’s Exercise: If you do not already have them by heart, memorize now the words of the Declaration of Independence. This will assure that the master narrative of our empire will be brought closer to you, giving you a secure place to begin. If you feel the powers of memory waning, memorize as far as the lines “and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes.” This much will give you a safe and accurate way to proceed. Here are the words again:
When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes;”
Exercises for Days Four through Seven: The rest of this first week will be quite difficult. Do not underestimate the demands its tasks impose upon your concentration, stamina, and intellectual discipline. Devote days four through seven to mastering the rules (by memorizing you will also begin to practice them) by which you both choose and commit yourself to live the present as history.
You will be asked, at first, only to align in contemplation your governing scene with the week’s assigned historical subject. The goal is for both the scene and subject to be revealed through the day’s exercises in their emancipative dimensions. This goal will be framed and eventually brought to completion by inserting yourself into the master narrative you have chosen.
The most difficult task during these days is the following: The rules of this method prescribe precise procedures for converting contemplative juxtapositions (these are designed to strengthen the powers of memory) into the internal mental sound of a single musical note being sung by a human voice. Each note’s timbre, pitch, and duration are fashioned from the application of this method’s logic to your meditations using prescribed elements from the method’s three tables. (This instruction will become second nature to you after a few days’ practice.) You will become intimately acquainted with