Hail
Caesar,
I
have this idea, about the notion of consensus reality. It feels like
there is very little consensus in my own era. The level of
discussion, argument and flat out fighting over definitions,
boundaries and ideologies seems to hum at a constant pitch just short
of piercing. I find very little to rely upon as absolute truth.
Working on the farm is about as good as it gets for me. I drive the
shovel into the soil, I pluck the fruit from the tree, I trim the
edges of the hedge, I plant the seeds. I cannot dispute the reality
of cause and effect in the world of my work. It is very reassuring.
I
say all this as a way to introduce the concept of consensus reality.
What are the agreed upon facts of the situation? The whole story of
you, of Julius Caesar, is wrapped up in a discussion about what we
can accept as the truth.
You,
Caesar, give us your version of reality, and after two thousand years
we still rely upon it. We still discuss it, dispute it, debate and
laugh about it. By writing this book, you defined the centre of the
consensus. You walked in the middle of your own story, and by
writing it down you continue, in immortality, to define the history
of these events. We piece it together with others writing, we cross
reference and disprove and prove, but through all of that what we are
doing is learning the lessons you wanted to teach us.
Caesar,
this book is what you wanted us to know about the Civil War. It's
what you wanted everyone around you to know, and to believe to be
true. This book is of course, a masterful piece of
military/political propaganda, but it is also the thoughts and
beliefs of one Julius Caesar, telling a story about the reality of
your life. You made the consensus we now orbit. Amidst the lack of
agreement, division, disagreement and war of your own era, you laid
down the centre-path of your own reality. You sold it, worked it,
promoted it and lived it to the bloody end.
Your
book is a version of the truth that we, your readers, can agree or
disagree with. By comparing your version of the story, with
Cicero's, I find that if neither perspective can be said to be
absolute truth, the middle ground, the space in dispute between your
two perspectives, can be said to be the territory where the truth
rests. I like to imagine truth to be an invisible space existing
between the boundaries of many perspectives. I cannot ever really
see it, but I can describe its edges.
Part
2. 5 “From the camp of Gaius Trebonius and from all the high
ground it was easy to look into the city and to see how all the men
of military age who had remained in the town, all the older men, and
the wives and children, were stretching their hands to heaven in the
public squares or at the look-out points or on the wall, or were
going to the temples of the immortal gods and prostrating themselves
in front of the statues of the gods and begging for victory.”
Did
you really see this at the siege of Masillia? I can see it in my
mind. You have a strange way of describing your enemies, Caesar.
You never insult them. You might say hard or harsh things, but you
never stoop to insults. You tend to the reverse, making note of your
enemies valour, courage and ferocity. It is a good trait, I will
admit, it makes me like you more.
“My aim is
to outdo others in justice and equity, as I have previously striven
to outdo them in achievement.”
The
cynic would argue that this statement too is only a piece of
political showmanship, a way to cover the realpolitik of your
goal to achieve dictatorship. War is a savage and prolonged series
of public slaughters, and you were the lord of war. War is also a
massive complex collision of maths, geography, and psychology. A
good commander must be able to understand the motivations of his own
soldiers, and that of the enemy. A good commander would know
exactly what to write, and exactly to whom he was writing – this is
military marketing at its best.
However,
the legends of the Civil War, as you tell them, can only fall short
of the truth. The discussion then, is really about how far from the
truth your story is.
So,
I will end my letter here, Caesar, (though the discussion is far from
over...). I have just read chapter 3, of part 3: 'Trouble in Italy'.
This chapter is only two pages long, but I think that I will need a
whole letter to discuss the massive events you describe therein.
With
Gratitude and Respect.
Morgan.
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