Actionsmithing in History

Christmas: When Action is Promised

The holiday season is a period of joy, rest, love...
All in celebration of one man's immaculate birth.

We sing songs, exchange gifts, and dance around pretty lights.

And yet, if this man were born today, guiding as he did in his time, few would accept him.

Such is the structure of humanity.

Unable to accept the very origins of their culture.

A symptom of outsourced meaning, echoing through history.

On this very day, two millennia ago, a Great Actionsmith was born.

Some call him Jesus. Some call him Messiah. Some call him Son of God.

But what we should all see is a human...
One being, acting without permission...
Changing civilization with his purpose.

Human civilization didn't change because of his birth.

It changed because his action crossed a threshold.

That is what an inflection point in history is:
The moment when accumulated tension finally converts into overwhelming action.

Most people misunderstand this.

They think history turns when new ideas appear.
But ideas are cheap. They appear constantly.

History turns when human action exposes the limits of the existing order.

And when that happens, the system must either adapt or crush.

Not because the action is wrong, unjust, or evil.
But because it reveals the system's fragility.

They understood enough.

Sloth: When Action Has Outsourced Meaning

The problem is humans are born into ossified systems.

• Educational systems

• Economic systems

• Moral systems

• Legal systems

Each one promises the same thing:

But meaning doesn't work that way.

Meaning is not delivered.
It's generated through agency.

When meaning is outsourced, action becomes meaningless.

What replaces it is compliance, optimization, and quiet despair.

This is why so many people feel like they're...

• Comfortable, yet restless.

• Informed, yet confused.

• Free, yet enslaved.

They are living inside structures built to preserve past meaning.
Structures that no longer require their agency. Only their participation.

This is institutional decay.
This is human indolence.
And it's nothing new.

Christ: When Action Was Born

Jesus entered Galilee.

Why is this significant?

Because he didn't enter Rome. Nor did his journey start in Jerusalem.

No. This story begins in the middle of nowhere.

Galilee was peripheral.
Economically modest.
Far from the Temple.
Far from Rome.
Irrelevant...

Which is precisely why action could still breathe there.

Institutions concentrate power at the center.
Human action emerges at the edges.

And Jesus was very much against concentrated Earthly power.

He didn't address senates, courts, or elites.
He spoke in fields, homes, shorelines, and marketplaces.
His teaching was situational, responding to what was right in front of him.

Yet people have mistaken his teachings for doctrine.

Biblical scholar Norman Perrin notes that Jesus’ teaching functioned not as a belief system, but as a lived orientation—a way of acting in the world that re-ordered values before it explained them; guidelines for how to act under uncertainty
(Perrin, Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus).

This distinction is essential.

Belief can be stored and followed blindly as dogma.
Orientation must be enacted independently.

"Follow me" is an imperative. A call to action.

Jesus: When Action Needs No Permission

While Jesus was still constrained by the context of his time.
His action preceded any authority given to him by the systems.

He did follow the Law of Moses, traditions, and even the teachings of the Pharisees. He was still somewhat constrained by the prophesy and the systems of his time. Yet, when the moment demanded his action, he acted without pause.

Jesus did not ask for permission to teach.

While his followers demanded Christ be from the line of David…
Jesus denied the need of such lineage.
(Mark 12:35—37)

He didn't petition the Temple.
He didn't align with Rome.
He needed no authority.

He acted.

And there's much we can learn from his example.

The Bible's parables themselves resist abstraction. They're simulations. They force the listener to place themselves inside an action, not assent to a statement.

Jesus consistently refused to clarify when pressed for rigid interpretation.

When asked for authority, he redirected attention to outcomes.
When asked for rules, he pointed to consequences.
When asked for proof, he acted.

As historian E. P. Sanders notes, Jesus’ message was inseparable from his behavior. The meaning of his teaching lay not in systematic theology, but in how it reoriented daily life.
(E. P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus)

In his time, meaning traveled not through text, but through example.

Wrath: When Action Becomes Threat

Institutions will tolerate your belief.
But act without permission, and they fear you.

Why?

Because belief can be manipulated.
But agency cannot be controlled.

That's intolerable.

The fear is that impulsive action welcomes destruction.

But impulse, scaled with deliberation, leads to freedom.

And that is even more fearsome...

When people begin acting without permission, three things happen:

1. Authority becomes optional

2. Meaning becomes portable

3. Legacy escapes control

This is the moment when independent leaders emerge.
When action turns from harmless ideas into systematic threat.

Max Weber later named this pattern charismatic authority—a force that arises outside systems and must eventually be either absorbed or destroyed by bureaucracy.

With purposeful action, a new King of the Jews had risen.

And the system could not tolerate him.

So the system's wrath followed.

As did the brutal reaction.

Cycles: When Action Peaks

This line is not theological.

It's Pontius Pilate's political reality.

It marks the moment when structure chooses survival over truth.

The truth that another sovereign ruler exists within those same borders.

What you may miss is that sovereignty doesn't mean the ability to lead others.

It's the ability to act purposefully, independently, and impactfully upon reality.

Jesus represented a form of sovereignty that could not be taxed, licensed, or controlled.

That is intolerable to any system of power.
Punishment, then, is mere instruction.
It teaches the population:

• Where everyone's action ends

• Where permission begins

• What freedom costs

And as we'll see in a moment...

This cycle in the life of Jesus is not unique.

It's an early, clear example of a pattern.

Whenever action hits an inflection point in history...
And the oscillation of the wave of action peaks...
A Great Actionsmith leaves their mark in time.

This is the cycle of societal legacy.

1. Action creates meaning

2. Meaning attracts followers

3. Followers build structures

4. Structure replaces action

5. Action returns as threat

Apathy: When Action is Forgotten

By the eighth century, Western Europe didn't quite qualify as civilized.

Rome’s administrative skeleton had decayed for hundreds of years.

Violence and coercion became a personal reality.
Code of law fragmented into local custom.
Culture and literacy vanished.

Pax Romana was no more.

Power and systems existed, but in a disorganized form.

Warlords.
Tribes.
Clans.

Meaning survived, but without coordination.
Belief endured, but without orientation.
What remained was memory...

A false memory, detached from the action that gave it life.

Christianity survived this collapse. It spread.
But became uneven and contradictory.
An echo of its original meaning.

Monasteries preserved texts.
Bishops preserved ritual.
People preserved faith.

But the blind decadence was obvious.

The past teachings had decayed.

They had fallen to entropy.

And this left a vacuum.

Not of meaning.
Not of power.
But of action.

The world demanded a new sovereign.

Charlemagne: When Action is United

In the Post-Roman vacuum, a new Great Actionsmith emerged.

However, he did so differently. With new constraints.
He arrived with inheritance, with lineage, with expectations.
He emerged inside the system, rather than outside, opposed to it.

His grandfather, Charles Martel, seized power and legitimacy through force. His father, Pepin the Short, was elected and crowned King by Papal decree. And the long-haired Merovingian kings no longer had meaningful power.

Charles was born into a world that demanded him to be Great.

He didn't have to invent meaning, power, or even action.

He just had to assume his role, and do what he must.

And... he wouldn't have been great if he didn't.

What he started with was already impressive:

• An expansive territory

• The support of the Church

• The mightiest military machine

And, while some of those before him acted with great purpose...
He had something the Western world had not seen in centuries:

Scale.

More resources.
More ambition.
More soldiers.

This was no longer the action of a man.
Or a band of warriors led by a warlord.
This was the great action of Europe.

Coercion: When Action Meets Institutions

Charles acted early and swiftly.

He removed bishops who resisted him.
Installed loyal administrators in their place.
Turned theological pedigree into political reliability.

He became the embodiment of agency—sustained iteration under constraint.

If he wished to achieve his greatness... The meaning inherited by the land needed to be replaced. Or else his own purpose, and the meaning behind it, would have failed.

For that he needed the Church's help.
And not just the clergy's support.
He needed its infrastructure.

Taking over the monastic system provided:

• Literate personnel

• Record-keeping

• Moral authority

And allowed him to expand his reach across the continent.

Charles took what existed and bent them to his will with his own hands.

He led campaigns personally.
Moved across territories season after season.
Imposed law, tribute, and allegiance through his very presence.

Action washed across the continent.

While Charles embraced Chaos and established his own Order.

On his path to greatness, he wielded a Frankish Hammer of Force and Coercion.

Conquest: When Action Brings Clarity

To succeed, Charles conquered. And he conquered more than just land.
He conquered meaning. Both Roman and Christian.

He gave himself permission to enforce his purpose.

While conquering the Saxons, their beliefs became meaningless.
He decided what they would have to believe.

Their shrines were chopped.
Their villages were burned.
Their heads were lopped.

Baptism became mandatory.
Customs became capital punishment.
Even breaking Lent became a reason for brutality.

But this wasn't accidental, vengeful, reckless brutality.
Charles' strategy was deliberate, intended, political.

He had forgotten that Faith emerged by example.
For him, it needed to be imposed by force.

The Christian rulers of Europe had forgotten. The system demanded them to.

Because once action scales, uncertainty becomes intolerable.

And anything can be sacrificed for triumph.

Conviction must always prevail.

Alcuin: When Action Faces Doubt

As Charles' conquests continued, so did the war with the Saxons.
For decades, the bloodshed dragged on...
And it uncovered a contradiction.

In the context of his time, Charles was justified in his action.
As inheritor of Roman might, he acted in a Roman way.
As inheritor of King David, he acted in a Biblical way.

Yet, the conquered would not stay down.

And his conscience could not reconcile.

Was his action worthy of a Christian?

Alcuin of York thought not...

He mirrored the doubt that crept into Charles' action.

Alcuin was a scholar, a teacher, and a man steeped in Augustine and Paul.
Charles demanded him as his mentor, and Alcuin was pivotal to his journey.
Most importantly, when faced with doubt, Alcuin's words brought forth clarity:

Alcuin's words revealed a limit to Charles' might.
His sword could conquer land, capitals, and courts...
But it could not conquer minds and souls to convert them.

With this realization, action would need to change form.

But, while he relaxed his treatment of the pagans in response...
Fully adhering to Christ's teachings would take much more than one letter.

And as doubt and conviction both steered Europe's action...
Charles acted not as a mere Christian King, but as an arbiter of Christendom itself.

Pride: When Action Claims Authority

Unfortunately for his enemies, Charles' conviction was quite twisted.

South of the Alps, Lombardy still posed a threat. Both militarily and dynastically.

His brother, Carloman (who mysteriously died of a nose bleed) had left a pair of claimants...

This could not be tolerated.

Unmet claims invite division and instability.

The pope refused to crown the pretenders, but Charles couldn't shake off the worry.

When they sought refuge under the protection of the Lombard King, Desiderius, Charles responded not as an uncle, but as a sovereign.

He demanded his nephews be returned under his control. When Desiderius refused, he crossed the mountains, dismantled Lombard resistance, and annexed their kingdom. The nephews disappeared from history.

At the same time, this transgression could not be forgiven.

His pride and the kingdom demanded repudiation.

Charles severed his marriage to the Lombard princess, Desiderata. A religious bond proving to have been only a political one. Honor, alliance, and obligation yielded to consolidation.

Power demanded clarity. Action provided it.

What's more, with Frankish expansion into Italy, and closer ties to the Papacy...
The Roman Empire in the East could not sit idly by.

Frankish bishops were not invited to the Second Council of Nicaea. And the sacred vow between Charles' daughter Rotrude and Emperor Constantine VI broke.

As tensions grew, another war was looming...
And every ruler's legitimacy was at stake.

The East.
The West...
And the Pope in the middle.

But the Pope had already picked his horse. And his name was Carolus.

Again, Alcuin's words revealed a great burden. The would-be Emperor also had a tremendous duty to God, to do what was right by the Christian people.

By sword, by law, and by calculation, Charles was placing himself at the center of legitimacy. He didn't wait for authority to be granted. He aligned kingship, faith, and inheritance into a single will. And the course of action was mapped.

Order no longer answered to Christ alone.

It answered through him.

To Charles.

Caesar: When Action is Anointed

On the same day that celebrated the Anointed One's birth.

A new Emperor of the Romans was crowned.

Not with a crown of thorns.

But with authority.

The Pope literally anointed him.
The people acclaimed him.
God Himself willed it.

For the first time since Rome fell, there was an Emperor in the West.

Carolus Magnus. Charles the Great. Charles le Magne.

Another inflection point in history was crossed.

Action and permission were fused.

According to his biographer Einhard, Charlemagne was "surprised" by the coronation.
He claimed he would not have entered the church had he known the Pope's plan.
That's because a most pious emperor is expected to receive power, not seize it.
(Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni)

That, however, is all political theater.

All was going according to plan.

• His military conquests gave him de facto authority

• His protection of the Pope gave him leverage

• His bloodline gave him dynastic legitimacy

The anointment was merely a formality.

Charlemagne's action had already given new meaning to Europe.

A new line of Roman Emperors had been enshrined.

A new imperial structure had been formed.

On the Christmas day of year 800 AD...

The cycle continues.

Church: When Action Becomes Institution

In his final days, Charlemagne retained his devotion.
He fasted, he prayed, he studied, until his health failed him at the age of 65.

He was emperor for 13 years. Unlucky. The decline started soon after.
The structure no longer had a Great Actionsmith to reign it in...
So it did what was natural: it crashed under its own weight.

That's what ossified systems do.

The dynastic institutions demanded the crown be split.
Authority dissolved. Kingdoms separated. Sons fought.
This is the paradox of institutionalized action...

The more meaning is consolidated...
The less agency remains to renew it.

Ironically, the Empire ended up in the hands of a Saxon ruler...
A Great Actionsmith in his own right. Otto of Saxony, or Otto the Great.
His achievements echo Charlemagne's quite well, but that's a story for another time.

One important commonality is in their cultural legacy.

Two fathers of Europe, one French, one German, each ushering in their own Medieval Renaissances, well before the Italian Renaissance so-famously-known.

Their Empires' scholastic achievements are not to be understated.

While Charlemagne's dynastic legacy was short-lived...

His cultural legacy echoes to this day.

Through the process of correctio—restoring order across the fragmented empire, Charlemagne's actions had successfully created a common European culture, and a common Christianity.

His empire was one peppered with countless churches.

He sponsored scholars.
Reformed education.
He clarified texts.

Alcuin practically invented The Bible as we know it today.
He innovated and iterated on communication itself.
And helped consolidate monastic meaning.

This was a great investment, and it definitely worked...

Within a few centuries Europe had:

• A common Christian language

• A common moral framework

• A common ritual education

And Charlemagne's institutions can still be seen.

The subjects we study, the classics we read, the words they're written in...

Even music, money, and of course, modern politics are influenced by his great action.

The Christian Church continued to propagate from his momentum.

Yet his purposeful, deliberate action died with him.

Arrogance: When Action Forgets Power

By the seventeenth century, the Church had drastically transformed.
Engulfed in the chaos of the Reformation, it no longer feared it.
What threatened Christianity now... was embarrassment.

Its authority was no longer grounded in action, but in continuity.
In the appearance of unbroken legitimacy.
In councils and procedures.

The institutions of Charlemagne and Otto had become bureaucracy.
And a new kind of war washed over Europe.
A religious war. A culture war.

On the periphery of the Christian Empire, new actionsmiths emerged...
But this time, it wasn't a matter of survival and truth.
It was a matter of power and control.

And within the Empire's structure...
A new kind of actionsmith emerged.

His name was Galileo Galilei.

An extraordinary polymath.
Another inflection point.

He advanced natural philosophy into what we consider science today.
He moved the study of the Universe towards measurement and mathematics.
And he graduated us from the reliance on classic authority to modern empiricism.

But he did not rise as a rebel.
He did not forge ahead as a conqueror.
He merely arrived, as a loyal son of the Church.

He attended Mass.
Quoted Scripture.
Sought approval.

When it was time to act, he asked for permission.
And his piety and loyalty were rewarded.
With patronage and influence.

People believe Galileo was imprisoned, tortured, and "treated with remorseless severity" because "he dared to use science to defy the teachings of Christ."

Except... that's not exactly true.

He was loyal to the system he was part of to a fault.

After Cardinal Bellarmine instructed him to stay away from heliocentrism...
He obeyed. When he was met with a burning critique he sat on it for eight years.

And when he published his book a decade later...
He submitted his manuscripts for review.
He followed the procedures.

And he received approval.

Twice.

Galileo’s mistake was not defiance.
It was trusting in borrowed permission.

He believed that obedience to formal rules was sufficient.
That reason would be welcomed if presented correctly.
That truth, carefully framed, would speak for itself.

But institutions don't operate on reason alone.

They operate on status, face, and authority.

Galileo’s observations were not hypothetical curiosities.
They were acts of influence and judgment.

They judged that the heavens were not fixed.
And that important people were foolish.
While he had no authority to do so.

Galileo obeyed the letter of authority.
But he ignored its reputation.

That was arrogance.

The Church may have accepted the truth, but the Pope could not accept the man, nor the method in which the truth was presented. And so action met its newest constraint...

House arrest in a cozy villa called "The Jewel," at home, in Florence.

Christmas: When Action is Delivered

And to this day, the cycle continues.

• Action creates meaning.

• Meaning gets enshrined.

• Structure replaces action.

1989 marked another point when action returned...

New vision. New purpose. New meaning.

Across Europe, in an ossified system.

This year marked the Fall of Communism, brought forth by a wave of collective action. Young, individual actionsmiths, rising up and fighting for their freedom.

Among them was Pope John Paul II, originally Karol Józef Wojtyła.

A scholar, an artist, and a literal actor... He was one of the youngest, and first non-Italian Pope to be elected since before Galileo was born.

His words and support of the Polish anti-communist resistance were pivotal to the Fall of Communism.

Historian John Lewis Gaddis writes that "When John Paul II kissed the ground at the Warsaw airport on June 2, 1979, he began the process by which communism in Poland—and ultimately everywhere—would come to an end."

10 years after his first visit as Pope in Poland, in June 1989, free elections were finally allowed. A new senate was formed, and 100 seats were made available by vote.

To the Soviets' surprise, they lost. The rival resistance party, Solidarity, won 99 out of the 100 seats, as well as all 161 seats contestable in the lower house.

This sparked a cascade of liberation across Eastern Europe nobody could stop.

In August, 2 million people held hands in The Baltic Way. A 675km long, uninterrupted Chain of Freedom, crossing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Austria and Hungary removed their border fence in September.

In October, over 300,000 marched in Leipzig and Germany.

In November, the Iron Curtain physically fell in Berlin.

And, on Christmas Day, 25th of December 1989...

Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife were executed.

By frightened soldiers in a collapsing system.
After the military laid down their arms.
And tried the couple in a few hours.

The execution was televised and is broadcast every Christmas to this day.

The Communist system had lost its meaning.
The fear was replaced with courage.
Apathy was replaced with Action.

And, as the cycle continues...
Action returned as a threat.

Only this time, it didn't let the permission crush it.
It didn't let itself get absorbed and incorporated.

No.

For nearly a century, the system ruled through force.

Surveillance. Committees. Decrees.
Permission without legitimacy.
Authority without agency.

The ossified system endured, until it didn't.

Individual action across millions of individuals.
Collective action across every nation.
The system could not resist.

This wasn't an act of justice, but natural consequence.

Action revoked permission from the system.

And the cycle completed once more.

→ Action created meaning.
→ Meaning attracted followers.
→ The followers built structures.
→ The structure replaced action.
→ Action returned as threat.

The question now is...

What is the meaning of today's action?

It's up to the Actionsmiths of today to find out.

Merry Christmas!