GRAMMATICAL DECEPTION - That Is Not Your Name

Songs created from Bible Studies

Grammatical Deception http://www.thinkoutsidethebeast.com/grammatical-deception/

GRAMMATICAL DECEPTION – That Is Not Your Name by Bro H

[Cold Open — fluorescent hum, typewriter, distant gavel] [Clerk— spoken, cold female contralto, dry and emotionless] “JOHN PAUL SMITH!” [Man— spoken, weathered male tenor-baritone, firm] That is not my name. [Clerk— spoken, cold female contralto, dry and emotionless] The record says it is. [Man— spoken, weathered male tenor-baritone, firm] The record is not the life it records. [Verse 1 —MAN, controlled rhythmic singing] A living child is born of flesh, Given breath beneath the sun. His birth is an event in life; The paper only says it happened. But they register the record, Give the record its own number, Open an estate and an account, Then treat the copy as the one. The child was born upon the land; A vessel is what they berth. One entered through his mother’s travail, One was entered through the clerk. A birth certificate is evidence That a living birth occurred— It is not the child, it is not the man, It is a record made afterward. [Pre-Chorus] Your Christian, given name identifies you; Your family names the house you came from. But the surname in the legal construction Is made the serf-name of the account— The surety expected to answer, The debtor expected to pay. They join the living name to their office, Then call the joinder by your name. [Chorus— MAN with low male tribunal responses] That is not your name— It is the mask, the office and the claim. You were born alive upon the land; They berthed a debtor in the same. The record is not the man, The image is not the life; When you answer as the person on the paper, You step inside the lie. [Verse 2 — MAN, controlled rhythmic singing, precise diction, growing urgency] “Person” comes through persona, The mask an actor wore, A character through which another voice Could speak upon the stage. In law it is a role or office, An artificial legal form; The living man can act for it, But the man is not the form. They print the name in rigid capitals, A glossa, symbol, sign— DOG LATIN made to look like English, Though it serves another design. Two forms are placed before you, And presumption makes them one: The natural name of a living man, And the account the State has drawn. When you answer for that character As though the character were you, You accept the debtor’s office And the duties fastened to it too. The one who brought the life and labor Falls from creditor to surety; The administrator rises over him And claims dominion through the plea. [Verse 3 — MAN, darker measured singing, machinery intensifying underneath] Justinian gathered Roman law In the sixth century of Rome; His jurists built the Corpus Juris, A body where the dead belong. Corpus means the body; Juris marks the rule of law. The living man is drawn into the corpus When he answers to its call. The glossers bent the language, The courts preserved the form; The Vatican carried Rome’s dominion Without soldiers at the door. [Verse 4 — MAN, solemn melodic delivery over a heavy maritime pulse] In fifteen-forty came the trust; In sixteen-sixty-six, The Cestui Que Vie Act addressed Those absent beyond the seas. When no proof showed they were living, Seven years raised death’s presumption; The estate remained in other hands Until the living one returned. The system calls the person absent, Lost at sea and legally dead; The trust continues holding title While the living man supplies the bread. The name remains upon the register After flesh returns to dust— A record may survive the man, But paper never lives in trust. [Bridge — MAN, tense half-spoken courtroom testimony, building in force] An envelope arrives—a presentment: A claim presented to your sight, A bill or note demanding payment, A legal matter dressed as right. A presumption lets the court assume A claim is true until opposed; If no fact rebuts the allegation, What was merely claimed is treated so. A summons calls the person forward, Calls the legal dead to court. When the living man appears as that name, He gives the fiction his support. The trap is not the ink alone; It is the office you embrace— The moment that you join yourself To the mask that bears your face. [Final Chorus — MAN, powerful melodic lead with low male tribunal responses] That is not your name— It is the mask, the office and the claim. You were born alive upon the land; They berthed a debtor in the same. Know the record from the event, Know the title from the right, Know the man from the manufactured person, Know the language you recite. That is not your name— Do not confuse the holder with the held. A paper estate may serve the system; It cannot breathe or speak itself. No phrase will break presumption If you never learned the game: Know who created the office— And who answers to the name. [Outro — machinery stops abruptly, fluorescent hum remains] [CLERK — cold female contralto, spoken from a distance] “JOHN PAUL SMITH!” [MAN — close, calm male voice, spoken with final authority] The living man is present. The dead account may remain silent.