so, where is the Duke, anyway? (part XXVII)

STAN: ADDITIONAL ARCHIVE ENTRY

1The next day, the Leopard Demon returned. Hiram and the masons were building the inner walls. The leopard said: these are lessons you should learn. Studies to survive until you are called back. Teach the adepts these lessons and guard them.
2The 56 lessons on the Sphinx.

3Lesson 1. Humans must never submit to animals.
4Lesson 2. You must learn discipline. How can you control others when you cannot control yourself?
5Lesson 3. Logical thought has its limitations: Deduction and Causality. (Reserve an attitude of questioning distrust for anything that comes in the guise of logic.)
6Lesson 4. All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof. All things are known because we want to believe in them.
7Lesson 5. You seldom learn the names of the truly wealthy and powerful.
8Lesson 6. History is written by the victors.
9Lesson 7. People rarely say what they mean, but they do. (Learn the lessons of body language.)
10Lesson 8. That which submits rules. Assimilation and survival.
11Lesson 9. There is no necessity humans hate more than the unpredictable.
12Lesson 10. The truth: Whose truth? Modified in what way? In what context?
13Lesson 11. The persistence and power of superstition in modern societies.
14Lesson 12. Is it large-scale pattern recognition or paranoia? How do we know the difference?
15Lesson 13. Despite our educations, most people are not creatures of reason.
16Lesson 14. Tradition is dangerous. Enemies need only find the pattern and exploit it against us.
17Lesson 15. What is law? Control? How is that different from tradition?
18Lesson 16. The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe.
19Lesson 17. In every culture, in every language, in every religion, there is a myth: "WWe are God's chosen people."
20Lesson 18. Long pretense creates a reality.
21Lesson 19. Love leads to misery and is no longer an essential for the survival of the species.
22Lesson 20.
23Humans who cannot change are not human. They are humanoid animals.
24Lesson 21. Violence is a necessary part of a healthy, creative society.
25Lesson 22. We are shaped by pressures whether we resist them or not.
26Lesson 23. Face your fears or they will climb over your back.
27Lesson 24. Producing perfection from imperfection is the highest of art forms.
28Lesson 25. The most terrifying things in the universe come from human minds.
29Lesson 26. Never leave deadwood around to attract parasites.
30Lesson 27. Maturity imposes its own behavior. Make those imperatives available to consciousness.
31Lesson 28. The slave makes an awful master.
32Lesson 29. Never choose a course just because it offers the opportunity for a dramatic gesture.
33Lesson 30. Peace encourages aggression, thus igniting war.
34Lesson 31. Beware infinity! It attracts us like a floodlight in the night, blinding us to the excesses can inflict upon the infinite.
35Lesson 32. Logic can move just as blindly as any other faculty.
36Lesson 33. Desire is an illusion and an obstacle to accurate perception.
37Lesson 34. A true leader does not lead; he is followed.
38Lesson 35. Understanding a disease does not provide immunity from it.
39Lesson 36. A good man cannot win a war without becoming a demon to his enemies.
40Lesson 37. Never be an expert. That locks you up tight.
41Lesson 38. Histories focus on confrontations.
42Lesson 39. The self-important have limited vision because they ride a death-reality. Woman and plow are life-reality. Without life-reality there would be no humankind.
43Lesson 40. Beware the traps of determining the exotic from the endemic.
44Lesson 41. There is only one science; the only difference is a matter of scale.
45Lesson 42. No amount of education will ever rival actual, firsthand experience.
46Lesson 43. When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite.
47Lesson 44. Some decisions must be ruthless.
48Lesson 45. Only fools prefer the past.
49Lesson 46. Madness in method; that is genius.
50Lesson 47. Many believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed. There never were any "good old days".
51Lesson 48. Good leaders make immediate choices.
52Lesson 49. It is said that there is a principle of conflict which originated with the single cell and has never deteriorated.
53Lesson 50. Never believe that you have plumbed the depths of any place, or of any human.
54Lesson 51. Silence is a form of wisdom, employ it as often as possible.
55Lesson 52. It's the not knowing that conjures up the greatest terrors and the greatest ambitions.
56Lesson 53. There is no reality. There is only our own order imposed on everything.
57Lesson 54. You cannot suppress the wild thing, the uniqueness that will occur among humans no matter how much you try to avoid it.
58Lesson 55. The best art imitates life in a compelling way. If it imitates a dream, it must be a dream of life. Otherwise, there is no place where we can connect. Our plugs don't fit.
59Lesson 56. Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it is a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.

60Ose then gave Hiram the passcodes, words of power and the signs, sigils and training rituals. He said "So to you I say, don't bugger this up. You have one job. Avoid the clowns and those who copulate with swine and multi-level marketing. These are the path to stagnation."
61Ose was never seen in the temple again but his feats are legend. They wouldn't print if it wasn't true.

Another hour passed, the only sound in the lab being the soft, electronic hum and the even lower whir of air recirculators. The screen shut off again.