The Fall of the Empire

Prolog (Thomas Jefferson)

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.

Angel Shoot (FR, after a comment by defense secretary Caspar Weinberger)

Shooting angels is a popular pastime in my country. A group of people get together on a hilltop with our guns and a case of beer, and wait for the angels to appear. “Here they come! You can see them on the horizon, coming over the hills: hundreds, thousands even, maybe millions. Wait a minute! Those aren’t angels! They’re demons, like those you see in old museum paintings. Somebody tricked us.”

Monsters (Charles Dickens)

Black are the brooding clouds and troubled the deep waters, when the sea of thought, first heaving, heaving from a calm, gives up its dead. Monsters, uncouth and wild, arise in premature, imperfect resurrection; the several parts and shapes of different things are joined and mixed by chance; and when, and how, and by what wonderful degrees, each separates from each, and every sense and object of the mind resumes its usual form and lives again… no man—though every man is every day the casket of this type of the great mystery—no man can tell.

Three Sons (Mother Goose)

There was an old woman had three sons, Jerry and James and John. Jerry was hanged, James was drowned, John was lost and never found. And there was as end of her three sons, Jerry and James and John.

Global Warming (FR)

Global warming. I don’t give a shit about global warming. I only care about my car. Am I getting what I paid for, or am I getting shit? You can’t trust anybody. I’ll take that back. You can trust some people sometimes. But you don’t know who or when. It happens sometimes, maybe even most of the time. But you can’t count on it.

Letter from Reading Jail (Oscar Wilde) [FR,’91, arr. AO ’16]

We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is o event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments. We have nothing else to think of. Suffering is the means by which we exist, because it is the only means by which we become conscious of existing. We are the zanies of sorrow. We are the clowns whose hearts are broken. We are specially designed to appeal to the sense of humor. The Gods are strange. It is not our vices only…they make instruments to scourge us.

They bring us to ruin through what in us is good, gentle, humane, loving. Love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world. If the world has been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man reach perfection. Far off, like a perfect pearl, one can see the city of God. It is so wonderful that it seems as if a child could reach it in a summer’s day. And so a child could. But with me and such as me it is different. One can realize a thing in a single moment, but one loses it in the long hours that follow with leaden feet. We think in eternity, but we move slowly through time. And how slowly the time goes with us who lie in prison I need not tell again.

Prolog, part 2 (Thomas Jefferson) [arr. AO ‘22]

I contemplate, with sovereign reverence, that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

The Ground (FR)

In the beginning… there was nothing. Then there was something. Why something and not nothing? Something is work. Nothing is easy. We think we’re something. We’re nothing. Everything is like that. When you start something, you never know what’s going to happen, where it’s going to end, in whose back yard. The emperor doesn’t care what you think - his sights are set lower. He cares about oil. And the ground that you are standing on.

Sacrifice (FR, after a remark by commentator Pat Buchanan)

We all have to sacrifice. If every family gives just one child, we can win! But it takes time. Nobody said it was easy. Vienna 1912, Happy Days. Berlin 1942, Things are looking good. Moscow 1985, Finally, some hope. USA 2007. The world at our feet. We’re winning. But: we need to give up our pensions; Forget health care! Give your children – give your health – give your old age – give your soul – to the war on terra – the planet – earth! We’ve turned a page. We’re on course. And now for the final push. The only thing we’ve learned from history is that we don’t learn from history.

Sermon (AO, ’22, after Matthew 5&6) [following FR: Force, ‘86]

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, he opened his mouth, and taught them: Blessed are the poor in information, for theirs is the kingdom of ignorance. Blessed are they who will not be told what to do, for they shall tell others what they may and may not do. Blessed are they that vote, for they shall determine who may vote. Blessed are the gun manufacturers, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the climate deniers, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that value their personal freedom, for they shall be empowered to endanger the lives of others. Blessed are the warmakers, for they shall be called the children of peace. Blessed are they who are persecuted for self-righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom made great again. Blessed are the judgmental, the narrow-minded, the fearful and insecure, those who involve themselves in deeply personal decisions of others, for they shall be made to feel secure, and shall be richly rewarded. Blessed are ye that have slain the Goliath, and shall chase down the Philistines. Verily I say unto you, as you have heard that it was said by them of old times, no individual state has the power to make laws granting or restricting people’s rights and freedoms. Verily verily I say unto you, as you have heard it was said by them of old times, only each state has the power to make laws granting or restricting people’s rights and freedoms. But seek ye first the kingdom of your god and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added only unto you. Beware false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, yet inwardly they are ravening wolves. Beware clueless charlatans, conmen and malevolent buffoons masquerading as your patriotic mentors from pulpits and lecterns and desks and benches. Ye shall know them by their fruits. And it came to pass when he had finished these sayings, the people were astonished. And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew.

Sabbath (Mark Twain)

Sabbath day. As usual, nobody keeping it. Nobody but our family. Multitudes of the wicked swarming everywhere and carousing, drinking, fighting, dancing, gambling, laughing, shouting, singing – men, women, girls, youths, all at it. And at other infamies besides. Infamies not to be set down in words. And the noise! Blowing of horns, banging on pots and kettles, blaring of brazen instruments, boom and clatter of drums – it is enough to burst a person’s ears. These horrible creatures have come in even greater crowds than usual today to look at the ark and prowl over it and make fun of it. They ask questions, and when they are told it is a boat, they laugh and ask where the water is, out here on the dry plain. When we say: the Lord is going to send the water from heaven and drown all the world, they mock again and say: “tell it to the marines!”

The Flood (The Zohar) [FR ’01, arr. AO. ‘21]

When Noah came out of the ark and saw the world around him dead, he fell down and wept, and said: Master of the Universe! Why did you do it? Was it because of us? Then why did you make us? Either stop creating of stop destroying! And the Master of the Universe said: What shouldn’t I do it? I told you I would do it. And I told you to build the ark. And I waited for you to say something—to ask for mercy for the rest of the world. And I waited and I waited; but you just built your ark, and said nothing. If you had only asked me, I might have changed my mind. But you said nothing, and so…