I’d like to rummage around in the entrails of the story “The Jackal“, because what the Jackal in the story “says” is my own turning point, and one which I’ve not yet managed to complete. Any comments on this perspective would be helpful. I’ll leave it here in case it collects some thoughts.

Here is what the jackal in the forest said to the soldier:

He knows now that there are also are demonic forces in the world, but they are weak by themselves, and can only build on what we start. They take sustenance from our energy of resistance, which is always a resistance to a broader perspective, or a truth that undermines a sanctuary of self-enclosed illusion. He notices that every time he speaks to himself in his head – every thought – creates an artificial division in his consciousness, a kind of militarized border within him, which makes an enemy of his own rejected wisdom.

And demonic forces, weak though they are, encourage the formation of stronger and stronger borders within us, strengthening resistance by the perpetual whisper of what might happen, of what needs to be done, or who we need to become – compulsions that are unconscious panic.

And yet, the demonic forces are so weak they can only barely emit a whisper of memory, or a glimpse of imaginary danger. And then we supply the added energy and build the solid structures according to a demonic plan. Eventually, we are even convinced to give these demons a solid form of their own, by lending them our own bodies and dissolving into the whispering minds of the demons themselves.

And he recognizes the whole military chain of command, the whole enflamed world, its systems of government, its economics, even its institutionalized charities, its schooling, the way we make our living, the roads and housing we build, so much of it has been heedlessly and ravenously built by demonic plan, driven by the stolen, hypnotized energy of human beings, who have mistaken themselves for the reflections of their own small demons. These forces have possessed the world through a whisper campaign, which has no power in itself.

But they have whispered for countless generations that we are inherently evil and that nothing can change. And it is this small-minded message which has blinded us to ourselves. They have made a tapestry of small arguments in our minds, which wrap us into confusing patterns of argument and counter-argument. But it is a tapestry of illusion.

Despite its success, it remains utterly powerless to stop any single human being from doing what it could. Anyone, anyone at all – not special people, not geniuses, not experts, but anyone — who sees the illusion as an illusion, and recognizes the weakness of evil, and its ludicrous plans for the world, dissolves this illusion.

A human rebellion from this ancient enslavement to hell amounts to nothing more than walking away from every hand that clutches at your sleeve with appeals to honor, duty and decency. And you will see the fear and suffering, anger and panic in the eyes of the human souls bedeviled into trying to keep you chained.

But these are the last fragmenting strands in the tapestry of illusion. Because it’s the devil’s decency we are preserving, the devil’s duty and honor we are promoting. You feel the devil’s cries of pain and fear that he is losing you. And the poor, betrayed souls of human beings possessed by these demonic values will accuse YOU of betrayal.

Ignore them, ignore them for the sake of life itself, no matter what happens. You can’t save anyone. But in saving yourself, you’re not saving a separate human being. It’s humanity itself that awakens in you. It’s the dissolution of who you thought you were. And your example – though ridiculed and condemned – sends shock waves through the whole ocean of being. It is the only way to save the prisoners themselves. Walk away from prison for their own good, not yours. They won’t thank you, but you are breaking a chain around their necks, which they don’t see.

Leave, and bear the ignominy of desertion. There is no compromise with the devil. Betray this world fully, or humanity itself will remain trapped in hell. Only the dissolved individual, the anonymous human being, can free the world. They will not be known, even to themselves. But they will be an unprecedented agent of rebellion.