Filed for the record. Not for debate.
I. Statement of Record
The SWANK Canon exists because authority has a habit of continuing long after its justification has expired.
This is not an unusual failure.
It is a common one.
Across modern institutions, power routinely persists by momentum rather than legitimacy, by repetition rather than consent, and by time rather than justification.
This document records that failure.
II. What This Canon Is
The SWANK Canon is a doctrinal body of positions concerning the operation, failure, harm, repair, and termination of authority.
It is:
not a memoir
not a case study
not a complaint
not an appeal
It functions as a constraint, not a request.
Each Position Page stands independently as a statement of principle.
Together, they form a closed ethical system.
The Canon is intentionally non-reactive.
It does not litigate personalities.
It does not speculate about motive.
It examines structures — because structures are what persist when individuals rotate out and harm continues.
III. The Question Authority Avoids
Every arc in the Canon resolves the same question:
When must authority stop?
Not recalibrate.
Not explain itself again.
Not escalate more carefully.
Stop.
Any authority unable to answer that question has already exceeded its mandate.
IV. Structure (For Those Who Require One)
The Canon is organized into 27 Arcs, each addressing a distinct point of institutional failure, including but not limited to:
loss of legitimacy
care misused as control
time deployed as coercion
records weaponized against truth
children experiencing authority as trauma
repair attempted without acknowledgment
harm made permanent through refusal to withdraw
The progression is deliberate:
failure
responsibility
repair
withdrawal
autonomy
The Canon ends where authority must end.
V. What This Is Not
For avoidance of doubt:
The SWANK Canon is not:
a policy manual
a legal submission
a therapeutic framework
a reform proposal
It does not rely on emotion.
It does not rely on persuasion.
It does not rely on goodwill.
It relies on:
logic
ethical consistency
observable institutional behavior
outcomes over intent
Institutions uncomfortable with this methodology are generally those it describes.
VI. Canonical Position (Non-Negotiable)
The Canon proceeds on the following settled principles:
Authority exists only while legitimacy is maintained
Care increases responsibility, not immunity
Harm is defined by impact, not intention
Temporary power must decay, not entrench
Children experience authority as force
Truth is a form of repair
Repair must be visible
Withdrawal is an ethical act
Autonomy is the final boundary
When these conditions fail, authority forfeits its right to continue.
No additional process is required.
VII. Closing Entry
The SWANK Canon does not seek reform.
It seeks containment.
It exists to make it more difficult for power to pretend it has no endpoint.
The most ethical act authority can perform
is not improvement,
not persistence,
not justification.
It is to stop.
This entry is archived as doctrine, not commentary.
It will not be softened for readability.
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