FRIENDS, ROMANS, UM, AMERICANS,
COUNTRYMEN, LEND ME YOUR EAR
I COME TO BURY
NOT TO PRAISE HIM
For
Is An HONOURABLE Man
Moderates, Liberals and Progressives are supposed to be burying their hopes, gnashing their teeth, tearing out their hair, and rending their garments, right about... NOW. As if WE did something wrong, like rig an election.
As if it were wrong to support equal rights for all. As if insisting on morality in domestic and foreign policy were wrong. As if using discarded human tissue to ease suffering and save lives, like Christopher Reeves', were wrong.
In fact, the ONLY thing John Kerry did wrong was to give up too soon, "for the good of the country." Maybe he was right in that, too: It's not as if we live under the much-bruited-about Rule Of Law, any more. We are ruled by men, now; arbitrary, partisan men. Men who despise our own sacred Constitution, and "antiquated" notions of fair play, right & wrong, human decency; you know, all that American crap, our heritage.
Men like the de facto Chief Justice, Antonin Scalia, and his many extreme right-wing clones salted thoughout the US legal system; with LOTS more coming. All of them are ready to shut down any challenge to their political leader, their appointer, their Fuhrer, Dubya. Good luck there, suing Republican Elections Commissioners in THOSE Courts.
Then there's the Republican Congress; more Republican than ever, also thanks to paperless "voting." Some Democratic Congressmen are trying to get the Government Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, to look into problems in "Battleground States" with our recent, ahem, elections. Good luck with that, too, guys. Nowadays, they only investigate blow-jobs. (V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y.)
Fortunately, we have a True Christian in the White House: A man of Values. High moral ones. He trumpets it. In fact, he's been trying to make "political capital" out of it, and spend it. So, as Chief Executive Officer of the Third Branch of our glorious, two-hundred and thirty year old government, he's BOUND to do something. Right? Good luck with that. Their Brutus had crowned himself before our Julius was even finished bleeding. What's to investigate, from his point of view?
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So, noble Romans, what is to be done? The Republicans already have a plan. A scheme of Empire. I've heard Evangelical ministers (well, one, on NPR today); church ministers, not government ones; comparing us to ancient Rome, and warning against the corruption of morals they imagine was to blame for the Empire's fall. Vote Dubya, and Save The Empire, imply their sermons. Corruption did have something to do with that. But it was corruption of the body politic, and the military, and the endless, ruinous wars, that really did it.
Rome didn't fall because of gay marriage, which even an Emperor indulged in, though long after the Republic was dead, and the Empire ruined. In fact, the Romans outlawed gay marriage; though homosexual behavior, in any other sort of relationship, was hunky-dory with most of the ancient world, not just Rome. Not sure about the Barbarians. They weren't on the 'Net, er, papyrus, at the time. But some of them were led by Amazons.
No, gentle Romans, the Fall Of Rome began with the fall of democracy. When the Republic was unlawfully taken over by ruthlessly ambitious lean and hungry men; and forcibly, fraudulently converted to an empire on a permanent war footing, with barbarians always at the gates, that was the beginning of the end.
Evangelicals are not warning about this eventuality in America, today. They WELCOME it. They jeopardize their tax-exempt status to PREACH for it. They seem to forget that it was the Imperial Romans who persecuted the early Christians, even feeding them to lions for entertainment. Kinda like classical Fear Factor. Only for keeps. (DIBS on the CONCEPT!!!)
They also forget that the Romans created the tyrannical infrastructure of the despised (by Evangelicals) modern Catholic Church, and even the emerging (French) United States of Europe, the EU: A Holy Roman Empire, in opposition to the Barbarians, and then militant Islam, was the dream and the goal of most European leaders, right on up to Hitler and Mussolini, the neo-conservatives of their own times; though the Communists were their infidels. THIS is what the Evangelicals want, now? They used to RAIL against Rome!
Pardon my ignorance, but I thought this country was settled by people trying to escape all that nasty history. I thought our glorious republic was an attempt to return to the early days of Rome, and Athens, and democracy, the voice of the people. Empire is, was, and always will be antithetical to that, as Rome once was the antithesis of Christianity. But, hey, wadda I know?
So, amici Romani mei, let me address the philosophi among you, whose voices are much in the news these dark days: Those who council victorious, but stabbed-in-the-back Kerry supporters to give up opposing the losers, because they cheated. Those who council reconciliation with the assassins of our democratic dreams, because they have gotten away with it; so far. Those who say we should become more like them, to appeal more to them, to win their support.
BOLLOX!!! If we become like them, we ARE them! We DON'T want to be THEM! They are the ENEMY! It's Republic versus Empire; Democracy versus Tyranny. This is a philosophical fight to the finish, and THEY will not compromise or cooperate, until OUR democratic boots are on their Imperial necks. If you naively think otherwise, you need to read some Shakespeare: The Tragedies. The Histories. Aw, heck even a few of the Comedies. Avoid the musicals: They're so GAY! And that's... illegal now. Right?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
(from Julius Caesar 3/2)
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest -
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men -
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Send comments to cosanostradamus AT excite DOT com.
Links:
- ratboy's anvil
- By Beauty Damned
- Shining Light In Dark Corners
- Just A Bump In The Beltway
- georgewbuy
- The American Street
- Eschaton
- americablog
- daily kos
Site Feed
Site Feed
Technorati
Profile
Popdex Citations
TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:
Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!
posted by Cosa Nostradamus @ 11/07/2004 11:56:00 PM
View blog reactions
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home