The Orders

A recurring move rather than a single idea: whenever a plurality has to be navigated, put it in order — of loves, goals, responsibilities, intentions, rules, commitments, authorities, systems, communities.

Most difficulty is not about what is good. It is about what is good first. A person who holds a dozen genuine goods and no ordering among them is not free; they are stalled, and will let urgency or pressure do the ordering instead (Prioritizing, Most Important Things, Critical Path).

So the move recurs across the corpus, applied to one plurality after another. Loves, so that nothing good is asked to carry ultimate weight (Ordo Amoris — The Order of Loves). Goals, so that the nearest does not quietly outrank the largest (The Goal, Worthy Goal, Design To The Goal). Responsibilities, so that a duty to the near does not become an excuse against the far (Rights and Responsibilities, Universal Responsibilities). Intentions, rules and commitments, so that when two collide there is already an answer (Intention, The Rules of The Game, Consciously Breaking Commitments, Networks of Commitments). Authorities, so that obedience is not decided by whoever is nearest or loudest (Authority, Subsidiarity Of Authority, Separation Of Power). And systems and communities, so that a body knows which whole it is serving when two make claims on it (Total Nested Holarchy Of Sovereignties, Community of Communities).

The single rule underneath is the one the order of loves establishes: whatever is at the top orders everything beneath it, so getting the top right is not the first question of many but the only one that changes all the others (One Purpose Above All, Commander's Intent, Order, Sacred Order).

And the failure the whole family guards against is the same each time: not choosing wrongly between two goods, but never choosing — leaving the ordering implicit, where it is made by habit, fear, or whoever is in the room (Fear, Drift, A WILL is never inferred).

Also called: the orderings · put it in order Stands on: Order · Prioritizing · Ordo Amoris — The Order of Loves Opens onto: One Purpose Above All · Worthy Goal · Rights and Responsibilities · Authority · Subsidiarity Of Authority · Total Nested Holarchy Of Sovereignties · Sacred Order · Commander's Intent In play: the table — whenever two good things are pulling against each other Sources: Nine chapter titles across The Book of LIØNSBERG chapters 9, 10 and 11 name the move — the orders of loves, goals, responsibilities, intentions, rules, commitments, authorities, systems, and communities. Only the order of loves was opened in the reading behind this page Open: Ore. The general pattern is inferred from nine chapter titles and one body; the other eight were not read, and this page may misdescribe them. · Nothing in the corpus states the move as a move; it is only ever performed. · A second reader should open the remaining chapters before this page is trusted.