Christocism - The Seven Laws of Hierarchy

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If the Sacred Subjective is the foundation for Apotelic Kindness, then we must establish a framework by which the inevitable existence of Hierarchy will be dealt with in this philosophy.   Here are Seven Rules that I think best apply:

"All human wisdom is contained in these two words — Wait and hope."

Abbé Faria says this to Dantès near death in the Château d'If. He is dying, Dantès is watching his only friend and teacher go, and this is Faria's final gift — not treasure, not knowledge, but orientation. It is the distillation of everything he taught Dantès about patience as a weapon. 

1) Hierarchies are knives; useful tools that must be watched and kept from children.

2) Just hierarchies remain accountable to their lowest rank, prioritizing individual dignity over collective convenience.

3) Power must continuously prove its value to those at the bottom through demonstrable results, not deception.

4) Perpetual review must engage both experts and masses to protect individual dignity from unnecessary diminishment.

5) Action speaks louder than ideology; all collective entities are accountable for their direct effects, not their stated intentions.

6) Individual rational interests must remain central to society, with coercion minimized to what the vast majority agrees is necessary.

7) If a child cannot understand the morality behind your actions, you're probably deceiving yourself and others.

What does this even mean at a practical level?  These rules cannot prevent the abuse of hierarchy but since, at the end of the day conservatism is the tool of hierarchy and history shows us that this is the primary vector for unkindness or anti kindness, then preventive maintenance in the abuse of it can reduce the risk of an objectively unkind society.   Without it, it will be wielded as a weapon by those who have power but do not deserve it.

It should be understood that all roles are conditional and that no role is an identity.   Just authority is only just so long as the practices of that power are upheld and accountable to those who must suffer under it.   If it is observed that the role is not living up to the standards of those with whom power has been imbued then that power should be instantaneously revoked.

"Moral wounds have this peculiarity — they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched."

The narrator says this about Villefort, the man who buried his own living child to protect his career. His institutional role consumed his humanity so completely that every subsequent act of self-preservation reopened the original wound rather than healing it. 

This applies to:

• Moral roles (leader, judge, protector, healer)
• Intellectual roles (philosopher, strategist, prophet, critic)
• Institutional roles (authority, expert, office-holder)
• Symbolic roles (myth-maker, channel, exemplar)

There should be no permanent authority that is not derived from those put under power; and whenever a child is born into an institution that they are not independently able to rationally join of their own separate recognizance free of influence from those around them, then it is inevitable that an innocent shall be the victim of choices made in the past to serve the needs of those abusing Hierarchy to preserve their own position for its own sake.

"The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates."

The Count says this to Fernand Mondego during his unmasking — the man who sold out Ali Pasha and built a career on betrayal dressed as loyalty.

The absence of authority and power can be just as tyrannical as its overwhelming abuse.   Hierarchy is going to happen; whether it is formal or informal.  The absence of a rules or laws based order is instead going to create an abstract social structure that will simply let the loudest voice in the room grab a mob and burn the heretic.   Anarchism is just as tyrannical for its toxification of a healthy anti Hierarchical movement as a majority libertarian town refusing to pay for taxes to keep Bears and criminals from destroying the town.  Hierarchy is going to happen; the question is whether it is just or unjust; kind or unkind.