“But now, we are witnessing a transformation— a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”
Czesław Miłosz
"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills its prophets, and persecutes God's messengers."
The 'drum major instinct' according to Martin Luther King is the impulse to lead, to be praised, to be the center of attention, to set yourself apart from and above your fellows, and to have more money and power than everyone else.
It can become the destructive impulse to arrogant pride and blind selfishness, and thereby becomes corrosive to society, our relationships, and our personal well being.
And it most certainly can lead politicians and the professional class to dance blithely along the path to their own self-annihilation.
History has proven that.
'But I have been in public service for twenty years! Look what I have done!'
Yes, look around you, and see what you and yours have done.
See the poverty and misery of so many. See your spin, your cynical hypocrisy, and your lawless betrayal of all that you had once believed in, for the pursuit of your own advancement and wealth.
You may have even managed to convince yourself and others that you were doing it for the greater good, while you were becoming a greedy, pathological liar, and everything that you had once despised.
But what does it profit a man...
See what you have done, and the burden that you carry because of it, before it is too late to change it and make amends.
