“The ideal legislator is cooler than you, smarter than you, and very good-looking; obviously you have to do whatever he tells you to do.” —Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (my translation)
Citizens of [NAME OF TOWN GOES HERE]! The newborn community, after achieving a workable order, must see to its health. Communal health is arrived at by nothing short of the unanimous consent of the community members. Certain methods and signs of health may be relative to the needs of the society and the character of its citizens, but they are only achievable after the applying the universal remedy to persistent social ills. Foremost among those ills is communication by speech.
Speech was overvalued in societies now fallen and threatens to impede if not altogether obliterate the thriving of their replacements. To the extent that spoken or written language have a role in this context, it is to discourage their perpetuation beyond what is needed. But a system must be in place, demanding direct popular participation, to bring about the end of the need. Citizens will act first under the direction of three citizens of proven moral character, the custodians.
The Cleaning Crew
The first custodian is the critic. They will demonstrate the hazards of words in past ages, the ruin they wrought about their predecessors, the deficiencies of verbal people, and the decadence of verbal culture.
The second custodian is the censor. The censor, like the critic, condemns the spread of language; only the criticisms of the censor bear more directly upon the community. They will impose clear standards upon the citizens and reprimand those who fail or refuse to meet them. With the ability to discern between failure and refusal, the censor will arbitrate the severity of the reprimand.
The third custodian is the exemplar. They are the first to adopt the views of the critic and to obey the directives of the censor. They convey the design of the speechless life through lived experience, in real time. Though subservient to the above two custodians, and carrying no special authority in the community, the role of the exemplar demands the most of those who accept the role. Language is alien to the point of acute uneasiness in the mind and nerves of the exemplar.
After it is determined that the impression of these three is beyond reversal, the custodians will be dissolved and succeeded by a single figurehead. That moment is reached by adopting the following resolutions.
The Speechless Resolutions
Resolved! That verbal signage will be removed. Verbal directives, reliant only on the good faith of the obedient, were easy to circumvent or ignore altogether. And often obedience was compelled by personal advantage. This will cease in favor of coded behaviors and a system of manners, replicated through the entire citizenry and made habitual rather than strictly learned. The implementation will be complete when attempts to resist them will be met with psychological and physical distress.
Resolved! That education will be demonstrative at all levels rather than articulated. Existing textbooks will be removed; no new ones will be published. Abstraction or theoretical lessons will be grounds for disqualification. The relevance of some subjects—like physical education—will increase, while others—foreign languages, literature—will disappear. Civics and the sciences will be altered or reduced. Mathematics will be carried on with scrutiny. Mathematical talents must prove their commitment to putting numerics in the service of speechlessness rather than to numerics alone.
Resolved! That libraries will be emptied and put to a purpose determined by the custodians.
Resolved! That lyric-dependent music—as well as musical drama and opera—will be forbidden; that a speechless culture will foster the speechless arts: symphonies, regional folk music, ambient, post-rock, musique concrète, John Cage, Philip Glass, and EDM.
Resolved! That narrative film and television, reality and talk shows, documentaries, the remaining non-musical stage drama, and broadcast news will be modified or discontinued. Pornography, horror, and Samuel Beckett are unaffected.
Resolved! That new cultural standards of the non-verbal society will arise from the new strictures of daily communication. These will be uniquely private and uniquely public. Citizens will form and cultivate intimate signatures with a mind toward fostering a rich, communicative household. This will prevent the dissonance that resulted from the imposition of a unified linguistic standard in private and public spaces, wherein households were comprised of individuals rather than families and a public life in which individuals spoke as a monotone choir.
Resolved! That a unified, wholly separate public language be officiated. This society has no logical basis to allow for the continuation of sign language. It must find a means that is at once new and familiar to all, that commands reverence and resists ambiguity. And only fire meets every requirement.
The Flammable Sovereign
The sovereign’s total authority rests upon their mastery of the public language; their passion and their sincerity being as crucial as their skill and discipline. Neither the critic, the censor, nor the exemplar, individually or combined, possess those traits relative to the arsonist to whom they will ultimately defer.
The fallen society’s aversion to fire was the exact inverse to its reliance on speech. For the arsonist to govern effectively, they must raise the expressive pitch of the former so as to eclipse the latter. The arsonist must be equipped to convey fire’s variety as well as its simplicity. Its vivid eloquence will shape the public discourse. Its severe economy will guide public administration.
The arsonist is the first and final judge on means and methods of communication. Which accelerant conveys what intention? Which delivery device offers the most clarity, and in what context? And they are tasked with formalizing its grammar and diction. Assessing the damage of a partially or totally burnt house, for example, cannot begin until the message behind the fire’s burning that house to that extent can be confidently interpreted.
With compassion, firmness, and patience, the citizens under the arsonist’s governance will come to understand the language and revere its power in the arsonist’s terms.
A Hopeful Oblivion
Speech was a tool meant to make the voice an instrument of accuracy. But once accuracy was perfected, no one fell silent; the voice became an instrument of anxiety. Endlessly contoured by speakers against the contours of other speakers, spoken language became entangled and unintelligible.
Pyrolingualism rejects language’s malleability, applying itself instead toward language’s ability to mold. A community that adopts pyrolingualism sets aside concerns for accuracy to embrace the pursuit of purity. Standardized arson is the conduit for moral order and lasting peace. Peace is possible only after the loss of voice. A world lit even sufficiently by fire is a world where this very document can be consigned, with not thought whatever, to the nearest flame.