J. B. Thompson

K. emerged from hiding yesterday, at least audibly. He called the Authorial Rabbit from an unknown number.

“And so it begins.”

“What? Hello? Who is this?”

“K.”

“Okay,” the AR quipped. “What begins?”

“Read Anne Applebaum’s piece in the Atlantic.

I did and phoned K. back. He had given me his number.

“Yes, yes, first, the plague, then the decline.”

“Actually the decline comes first, the plague exposes it.”

“Right.”

“Exitus Acta Probat.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The ends justify the means. The Latin is from Ovid – Heroides. Takes centre stage in Machiavelli’s The Prince.”

“So you’re saying . . . ”

“I’m saying . . . ” The phone connection was not good. Was K. going through a tunnel? Was he holed up in a warehouse or a hermit’s cabin almost out of cell range?

“I’m saying that the means, every action, must be honest, done with integrity. The minute an action is done with bad intent, the decline has begun.”

K. has always been more than a bit of a downer. In person he is the most charming and considerate of men. The example with the child who lost her doll comes to mind. He searched and on not finding the doll wrote a letter from the doll to the child saying she, the doll, had gone on a nice trip and was fine. Was that the kind of action K. meant?

“There is no justification for bad means.”

“Exactly.”

“Bad means means bad ends.”

I slipped into conspiracy mode. “Has the plague come to punish us?”

“No. Nature always acts with integrity. Nature does not hate. If we realize that, we will turn our focus on ourselves. And our focus must always be to act with integrity, which is the same as acting with love.”

“In alignment with Nature?”

“Yes.” K. disconnected.

The Authorial Rabbit has much to meditate upon.