This reading begins the first chapter of the book by asking a range of questions about contemporary ideas of Being. It also seeks to justify the idea of Being pursued on the book of convenience pursued by violence. It frames the questions used as an inquiry throughout the book: who is enjoying convenience, who can sustain convenience through aggressive action, when did a group retreat from conflict to pursue survival instead and was the price of convenience too big for the exoneration of Fate?

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Or read the book? Being in the Colonies

This episode concludes the reading of the introductory chapter. The exploration of convenience begins. Colonial Tasmania is depicted as a neurotic tussle against Palawa inhabitants who pursued their own idea of convenience and fought effectively for it. Western Australian settlers complained that there was too much red tape involved in the apprehension of Indigenous cattle thieves. Being is likened to membership of a gangster in-crowd. Polite and social until the moment violence is necessary.

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This episode briefly considers the challenge for making a reading of Being as a historical enterprise. Then we make our first assessment of the events after the fall of Singapore as a lesson in Being. It was a triumphal moment for the Japanese Imperial Army and then an excessive one. The question of whether Chinese survival without resistance constitutes Being is raised.

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This episode expands on the qualities of Being evident in a colonial context. It makes a case for a determinist reading of history turning on expected individual ontic force given limits by fate by those who holding presumptive Being. The question motivating the whole book is revealed: can a gross imbalance in the violence done to win Being in an ontic domain actually endanger it by leaving no source of comparison from a fellow striver. Thus, there is a tension. Absolutist acts of will destroy Being when a ruler does not respond to resistance proportionately.

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This episode introduces concepts including Being as a conscious pursuit of (1) convenience through violence at the expense of others, (2) in order to and because I can as modes of action in conscious pursuit of Being and (3) Fate as a roadblock on Being for those who act in the mode of because I can too often. There is brief analysis of Phusis - the unanalysed spontaneity in which Being occurs but which consciousness produces. Being is not ego/super ego/id, Geist, anima, essence, psyche, spirit or soul. Being is a temporary relationship to convenience and freedom within the constraint of Fate. The discussion ends on the true meaning of eigentlichkeit not as authenticity but as properness to an individual.

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