The Horror that lies ahead

She said:

It is already the dark ages my friend.

Just because no one has connected the dots,

Doesn't mean we aren't at the end.

I said:

I believe that our POV influences outcomes so I won't go that far.

Hope may be faint but it makes a guiding star.

It's not the dark ages until someone kills me or I fail completely and pass away.

As long as there is one light in the darkness the dark can be kept at bay.

She said:

and that's how it's done Christopher....

making sure people don't believe the canary in the mine

I said:

I didn't say the canary wasn't dead.

Just that the entrance is up ahead.

And the people I'm leading are my responsibility.

We have to get to the entrance,

so we can be free.

She said:

do you think the peasants knew the horror they would face

when the Roman empire collapsed until the hoards burned their town...

or the priests started burning their midwives

I said:

Some of the peasants in ancient Rome,

saw the horror that lay ahead,

as they marched far from home.

While they were fighting far away,

Hannibal was burning their farms,

and carrying their wives away.

They fought Romes wars,

and came home slaves, broken and alone.

While the men who had sent them away.

Danced and drank in far Pompeii.

And who was worse? Hannibal or their own leaders?

What gained the corrupt senators and tribunes, when Vesuvius entombed them in their homes?

What lesson did they learn when their laziness collapsed the world?

They learned nothing! They brought in lions and circuses instead!

And when the corruption made them sick and their slaves turned to another God,

They became the bishops and convened an authoritarian synod.

They burned their own libraries, and poisoned their own great teachers.

Because it was easier to control the masses if they controlled the preachers!

They learned nothing, and they never will.

And when men invaded, some from far away.

They blamed the "barbarians" and blamed their own peasants.

And they married the barbarians, and played the noble game.

Living in dark and cold castles, and hunting peasants for fun.

Until they realized, if they didn't start learning science.

They would be conquered, by men from the Desert far away.

And sadly:

Power and privilege are like wood alcohol, a blinding swill.

It is on us people around them, to learn the lessons of history.

And stand up and teach them, and enforce the lessons of democracy.

For tyranny and dysfunction, are our greatest teachers.

If we but learn to listen with our inner ear,

and analyze the lessons of all the smoke and tears.