0270 Chapter 43 opens with a quick synopsis.  By 1902, the American frontier had been replaced by eye-catching progress.  Also, popular novels fictionalize the failure of Protestant America to envision a common identity.

This makes sense, in so far as, in the Protestant movement, every literate person is granted equal disposition_1a to read the Bible_2am, and render his own interpretation_2af.  That interpretation_2af generally falls within established congregations (the Puritans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and so on).  The American Revolution accommodates the various powers_1b by establishing a relatively weak tripartite central (or “federal”) government over strong state governments_1b.  This political arrangement is a practical solution_1b, allowing people of certain faiths_1b the freedom_3b to self-segregate into their own jurisdiction_2b.

0271 Here is a picture of (what I will call) the Virginian’s option.

0273 What is this potential of ‘gun’_1a?

It is easy to understand how the Bible (for Christians) or nature (for Transcendentalists)_2bm unites individuals of like minds_2af.

But how does the ‘gun’_1a potentiate that actuality_2a?

0274 Well, when one is walking_3a with a ‘gun’_1a, one is conveying a meaning_1a, a presence_1b and a message_1c.

The meaning_1a has something to do with the possibility of self-defense_1a, especially in regards to mortal conflict.  A gun_1a cannot help finding water.  A gun_1a can help when a rustler is “guarding” the water hole.

The presence_1b has something to do with the possibility of practical reason_1b.  Practical reason_1b allows the people_2bm to stand for themselves_2bf, in the normal context of freedom_3b.  Practical reason_1b is another label for ‘responsibility’_1b.  Recall that freedom and responsibility constitute a “co-opposition”.  When one is the normal context₃ the other informs the potential₁.  Responsibility associates to faith.  Freedom associates to grace.

0275 The message_1c?

That is a good question, since the perspective level does not even appear in the above figure.

I can say the following from the clues offered in the examination.

0276 Whatever the perspective level is, I must assume its normal context.

In other words, a perspective-level “assume_3c” virtually brings a situation-level identity_3b into relation with the potential of content-level structure_3a.  The logics of thirdness are exclusion, complementarity and alignment.

In the Virginian’s option pictured above, I must assume_3c that situation-level freedom_3b (or grace_3b) situates content-level walking_3a (or ideating reality_3a).

0277 More crucially, I assume_3c the perspective-level actuality_2c.

Of course, the most magnificent assumption_3c pertains to the object that brings all into relation_2cC. That_2cC includes “God”.  And, perhaps I can add, “us”, as participating in this object_2cC. 

According to the twentieth-century German philosopher and historian, Eric Voegelin (1901-1985), Christians come up with the most differentiated expression of the society-tier perspective-level actuality_2cC, sometime between the 600s and 1000s, centuries before the so-called “Reformation”.

0278 Finally, I somehow intuitively grasp the potential_1cC that there can be an object that brings all into relation_2cC.

I wonder whether this is where the gun_1a comes into the picture, as a talisman for consilience_1c in the face of a failure of practical reason_1b.  When practical reason_1b fails, then the people cannot stand for themselves_2b in the illumination of their freedom to assemble_3b, and live_3b, and express themselves_3b. 

0279 Where are we to go when people who live without a sense of guilt_1a actualize attitudes_2af that express the hidden grammar of nihilism_2am in the normal context of their survival_3a?

It is a jungle out there.

0280 Here is a diagram containing that question.

0281 On the situation level, the normal context of criminal expertise (the righteousness of criminals and their lawyers)_3b brings the actuality_2b, {the principles of our subversion_2bm [substantiate] our fitness over our victims_2bf}, into the possibilities inherent in ‘criminal reason, which is opportunistic to the core’_1b.

0282 In Chapter 44, Jones looks at The Virginian, a novel by Oren Wister (1860-1938).

The book is published in 1902.  The movie comes out in 1929.

0283 In Chapters 46 and 49, Jones considers movies starring Clint Eastwood (1930-present).

0285 The student should read Chapters 42 and 45.