To Know and Be Known:

The Justification Machine

It is time for a fairly brief recap and explanation. Since my focus is on the justification machine, I intend to focus on the episodes that mention it and are good examples of how it is used. This lets me jump around the story a bit, however that may include spoilers. I will do my best to warn you beforehand, but such is life.

If I miss it, then send me a message and I can check if I wanna add one in, however do not get too mad if I do not implement your suggestion, please tell me how I am wrong on your own personal Worlds Beyond Number blog and I would love to give it a read. Don’t let me stop you

This blog post covers The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One Episode 21 “Taboo of Passage.” I will be referencing both the fireside chat (the talk-back where members of the cast talk about the episode from a meta perspective) and the episode itself.

What does it mean to justify something?

An old clock face with a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 1.

Brennan Lee Mulligan “You see Imperium skyships. You see no wizards flying towards those ships. You see no one firing on them. And you see that the ships that are moving throughout Haverword, searching for something. If you stay at the edge of Malacanth's platform on your way back to Suvi's tower, you look down and see some shapes of people being dragged off by Imperium soldiers out of Haverword, towards the skyships.

Ame (Erika)‘Is this—is this normal, Suvi? Is this just part of the Empire's thing? This is normal, right?’

Suvi (Aabria) ’No! No, no, of course not.’

Brennan Lee Mulligan As you look to me, Aabria, to ask, ‘Is this normal?’ I have to ask what you mean by normal? Are you asking, has this happened before?” (“The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 21 “The Taboo of Passage””, p. 2)

“Is this normal”?

Let me take you back to a time in my life, where normal had become something alien to me.

In the Army, I worked in Communications. I worked heavily with both the enlisted and the officers. I got to know both the "grunt" work and the (seemingly) brainy upper echelons. For those who do not know, the Army has 3 different kinds of ranking systems.

Officers are the highest of the three. They are college-educated people who used the Army to pay for college, and now they are in leadership roles. They are a thousand times more snooty and snobbish then almost any scholar you can reasonably imagine.

The next category are known as Warrant Officers, and they occupy a sort of middle ground. Not quite leadership, but still held high in rank. Their expertise does not come from giving orders, but in being experts in their field.

Then you have Enlisted, who are sometimes known as Joes, and are considered grunts since they likely do not have any post high school education (although, very many people do also come in with a Bachelors, and many leave the Army with a degree they didn’t come into it with). Enlisted are the bottom tier.

The differences between giving an order and for people to have to live out the consequences of those orders is vast. Still, the line can thin. I was in communications, and so working with administrative people, officers. I started to pick up on the lingo and the sorts of frameworks/mindsets they operate on. It got me complacent. I started to distance myself from the "grunts" when I was in the pocket of the Officer club. I lost track of the hell I was in, after being so close with an officer. Then, I was reminded.

The normal that I grew accustomed to was suddenly hoisted into the scorching desert, once again reminded that I was only Enlisted. Even if Communications work with some big britches guy, a soldier is a soldier.

When we see or experience things that genuinely frighten, confuse, or hurt us, a new normal is born. This newly created normal helps our minds shield us from the injustice of it all. It is certainly tempting to believe in a world where fairness is just assumed and prebaked into our everyday lives. Thus, we take this new version of reality and try to make it mundane. This horrifying world could not be as cruel or confusing as I just saw, could it?

For you veterans, you know that this is not a big deal, however you must forgive me. I feel the need to let everyone in on our little secrets and idiosyncrasies! It'll be worth the effort, just stick with me here.

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 2.

Aabria Iyengar “Is this an occurrence that has happened with enough frequency that Suvi would not be aghast at being close to it?’

Brennan Lee Mulligan ‘Once again, towards the end of one of our arcs, you are asking me what you can accommodate and reconcile with what you have seen before. The Citadel is a part of the Empire, and these are Empire soldiers. And... To make it through the glass of the Irian, they followed Steel's ship here. And you see that a number of the skyships here are Citadel ships as well. Their balloons, red and blue, brighter colors indicate, perhaps, the wizard who actually owns that ship, and oversees its crew.’

Brennan Lee ‘Empire soldiers come to the Citadel. Ministers of the Crown walk Malacanth Court from time to time. They do not busy themselves greatly, it's easier for the wizards of the Citadel to visit the Crown itself than vice versa, and the Crown tends to like the wizards of the Citadel coming to them, rather than the other way around.’

Brennan Lee Mulligan ‘But you've seen arrests before. Haverword has a police force. That police force is of the Empire, in the same way that in a town totally dominated by a university, the police force would still theoretically answer to the state, even if the university had tremendous sway and power and providence over how and where they were policed.’

Aabria Iyengar ‘Mm.’

Brennan Lee Mulligan “This is not normal. This is very much not normal. This is a HUGE deviation from the norm. But if you are asking yourself what in principle is different here, then once again, the word principle goes to work in your mind. You've seen arrests before. You've seen Empire soldiers before. Those Empire soldiers often arrive here by skyship. What is happening now, other than Empire soldiers arriving, at a place of and within the Empire, on skyships that they use to travel? And a voice in your head is able to talk you down from the horror you are seeing.” (“The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 21 “The Taboo of Passage””, p. 3)

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 3.

Adorno “One can speak of the claustrophobia of humanity in the administered world, of a feeling of being incarcerated in a thoroughly societalized, closely woven, netlike environment. The denser the weave, the more one wants to escape it, whereas it is precisely its close weave that prevents any escape. This intensifies the fury against civilization. The revolt against it is violent and irrational.” (Adorno, 2005, p. 193)

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 4.

The Citadel, the Tower, The Irian. The fact that there are so often hidden facets, constant raids. It is hard to escape the Citadel, not only because of its security, but it is quite literally in the desert. A desert that its war efforts itself had scorched. It manufactures solutions for problems it causes which can cause its citizens to rely exclusively on a single source and narrative.

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 5.

Adorno “The pressure exerted by the prevailing universal upon everything particular, upon the individual people and the individual institutions, has a tendency to destroy the particular and the individual together with their power of resistance.” (Adorno, 2005, p. 193)

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 6.

When people discuss the current moments in history, many events are framed as normal or not normal. However, I would like to remind people that normal is subjective. The United States government kidnapping people and either deporting people or sending them to detention camps is not new to U.S. history. It is, in fact, baked into U.S foreign policy. The only difference being, it is out in the public eye.

As Brennan said, what in principle is different here? We have all heard of arrests before. We have seen National Guardsman and police committing acts of violence for the “public good.” The only difference being, that many populations, academics and White people in particular, now realize that this subjugation can quickly be turned on us as well. It is not surprising that people are so quickly able to normalize higher and higher escalations of fascism considering that each step is obfuscated or introduced gradually.

Many of us must ask what we are able to accommodate and reconcile.

By claiming the universal truth, people’s individual experiences and knowledge become devalued. There is an inherent misconception of reality in claiming universal truth. It is a herculean task to bring together all of existence in one cohesive set of laws or rules. When we move from larger physical interactions in physics, objects act with a number of generally understood rules. However, when looked at the atomic level, these rules do not seem to quite fit. My argument then, is that Universal Truth is a byproduct of empires.

Systems of power benefit if the world has only a specific set of rules. If there are multiple different, sometimes conflicting truths, then narratives around the nature of the world become much less easily controllable.

So, then, what does it mean to justify something?

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 7.

Individual lives, including those who are not human, have a vast array of knowledge and experience that may or may not conflict with that of another living beings. That is not a flaw. That is a gift.

One thing that Adorno is attempting to describe that the claim for universal truth flattens the intellectual playing field, which may require violence to enforce. Science (as an institution and not necessarily a practice) has in the past devalued Indigenous knowledges, because they do not follow the same path towards truth. This is despite the fact that many pieces of knowledge within a community can be honed or crafted over the matter of millenia, defining that community’s survival and thriving livelihood. Not to say, there cannot be flaws in knowledge. I would like to point out that scientists must often revise their knowledge, much blood has been spilled from assumptions or misinterpreted information. All knowledge is fallible, but I argue that all knowledge IS useful.

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 8.

Aabria Iyengar “So I think, yeah, there is that initial burst of panic and confusion on Suvi's face as this happens, and then, yeah, the justification machine goes into effect. This is a raid. Of course, that would be, like—Haverward would be where the raid takes place. It's just a weird coincidence that we happen to be this close. And whatever is happening needed to happen, has been signed off on by people I respect and trust, Steel at the literal forefront, and it's a little gauche but fine, is where she lands, like, oop!” (“The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 21 “The Taboo of Passage””, p. 4)

This is, I believe, the first time that the justification machine is explicitly mentioned! And what an astounding way to begin our journey! This is, as a reminder, is the first true step into the thesis of this series, To Know and Be Known! All the pieces have been put into place, now it is time for us to play along.

This quote is a perfect example of this term, which thus far has only been hinted at. The justification machine is something reliant on steps toward a specific goal. One must have a goal for the justification machine to come into play. These goals may be grand or mundane, but most often, they align themselves with systems of power or their ideals.

~Truly functioning like a machine towards an end purpose, the machine cogs turn. The sound of it ticking like a clock resounds with each move.

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 9.

Identify that this is a raid, something not completely uncommon in the Empire (tick)

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 10.

Haverward, a place on the lower echelons of The Citadel, suspicion of this place is reasonable (tick).

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 11.

This is just a coincidence that we are so close (tick)

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points to the number 12.

Suvi lands with her resolve steady like the hands of a clock striking twelve, she is "right."~

We are on to the next quote from Erika Ishii reflecting on the normality discussion from earlier. I believe it has even more insight to give us into how we can explore our own lives.

Erika Ishii “The thing that really, really jumped out at me from this episode was the exchange of, Ame asking, ‘is this normal?’

‘And then it's so fascinating to me of Aabria and Brennan sort of having this dialog in the world building itself, where Aabria says, ‘Ah, the justification machine goes into effect.’ ’

‘Which is the most chilling thing I have ever heard, because it means somebody is aware of the—that they need to justify something. And it's insane because in a podcast and in a live play show, as opposed to a movie or a book or something, you can see the self-awareness of the author and see the moves that they are making for this unaware character. And it’s that—if you're important, you'll be safe.’

‘You're important. Pat, pat, pat. And, oh, this soldier knew who I was and didn't have any extra info for me, so I'm okay. And then immediately saying, oh, shit, it's the right message. This is how we are.”(“Fireside Chat: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 21 - Taboo of Passage”, p. 6)

It is easy to lose track of oneself when made to feel important. If a system rewards you, I believe any of us is more likely to attempt to justify that system. It is part of its allure. If you are important, then you have more value, and thus more important needs than those around you.

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points back to the number 1.

This is a farce because your needs will not likely get met despite the fanfare of your ego that institutions love to fluff. The soldier in this scene illustrates how often sidetracked scholars and people in general can get when faced with distressing material.

The ability to hear master storytellers stretch and play and frolic with their friends in a world of their making is an aspect of Worlds Beyond Number that I wholeheartedly appreciate. The opportunity to hear an author discuss and elaborate as they craft a story together is remarkable. And with four expert storytellers working together? Well, that’s what brought me into making this blog isn’t it? What can we learn from a podcast? Could telling stories with friends really positively influence the world around us? I certainly fucking hope so! I have planned my entire career around this, so if it doesn’t work I am kind of out of luck. Well, we’ll just have to not think about that. Safer to work toward a better world and have it fail, than to never see it at all anyway

Adorno “With the loss of their identity and power of resistance, people also forfeit those qualities by virtue of which they are able to pit themselves against what at some moment might lure them again to commit atrocity.” (Adorno, 2005, p. 193)

What does it mean to justify?

An old, seemingly burned brass clock. Its face has a faded skull behind it and hand-written numbers. There is only a single hand on it that seems warped between the colors red and blue. The hand points back to the number 2.

Even while faced against the things that make an empire truly atrocious, by being trapped within imperial framing and narratives, almost any action, no matter how desperately cruel, can feel either justified or in effort towards a just cause. One thing that is often lost in this process, is the ability to reflect on context.

Context is going to be a core theme throughout To Know And Be Known. It is how we are going to be breaking down the things that keep us distracted from the horrors of the world. Worlds Beyond Number shows us that the path forward past fascism is through curiosity and the wisdom of context. It is about understanding our own position in relation to the world around us. But what world do we live in?

We will learn that humans are not logical creatures, but first we must address my approach to our own reality. This is a key tenet of mine. Whether or not anyone agrees with me, or I change my mind in the future. I only speak of my perspective here. Who knows, I may come back and edit this blog once again

Just World Fallacy. We do not live in a Just World. I personally believe that we live in a world that exists. Regardless of morality, we must act like the world itself exists.

It is a good baseline to getting to know and become more invested in the world around you. If we are no longer bothered by whether the world exists. Particularly bothered by assuming a world that has some prescribed moral or logical throughline rather than an ecosystem of different beliefs and ways of life. By treating the world as an open field of knowledge and kinship, it becomes easier to be curious. Curiosity, I believe, is the baseline of what we now seek.

I will address the tone of my writing throughout this series. I am quite casual about it. I believe conversation is the basis for all communication. I want to write how I talk and relate to the people around me. I want to be as welcome as possible. This is not a one-way communication space. Tell me your thoughts. Tell me how I am wrong. I may or may not listen. But that’s the excitement of it right? With other people, some things we say or do may or may not affect the other person. But that makes every genuine spark and interest that much more valuable. I will do my best to delve into every thought or reflection you all have, but I am of course, only human.

I also hope to have this blog work as a kind of conversation. That’s why I always ask for your comments, emails, questions, and just general inquiries at the end of each post. I do genuinely believe in stirring up conversations, and I think more knowledge producers (which includes everyone) should feel entitled to a seat at the intellectual table. Share your life and its wisdom so that we may better understand and cherish existence together. A diploma does not make me smarter than any one of you. We just have different types of knowledge, and that is what I am always in search of.

We will go into more details of Aabria Iyengar’s own response to Erika Ishii’s observations and appreciation in the next blog post. Thank you all for reading. A-hoo-hoo. Crackle, Crackle.

References:

Adorno, Theodor W. Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords. Columbia University Press, 2005. European Perspectives.

The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 21 “The Taboo of Passage.” Hosted by Aabria Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Erika Ishii, and Lou Wilson

Fireside Chat: The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 21 “The Taboo of Passage.” Hosted by Aabria Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Erika Ishii, and Lou Wilson