... than face the truth.
Opacity, the New Transparency
The Subject: We embrace lies that masquerade as truths... willfully and intentfully.
The Potentate: What?!
The Subject: When faced with true transparency... we reject the truth and embrace opacity. Because the opacity we embrace is the lie that coheres most to that which we make believe. Such that our dedication to rejecting the truth and embracing opacity is indomitable and steadfast and impervious to the blatant hypocrisy of advancing opacity as the truth.
The Potentate: But I stand for the truth! I speak the truth without fear! I and I alone am fearless!
The Subject: Do you stand for the truth? Or do you stand for alternative truths that cohere with make believe?
The Potentate: Of course not! My beliefs are not make believe! That so many of you believe lies, is why so many of you are suffering. I and I alone possess the persistence to speak the truth in the face of lies.
The Subject: Then by what veracity of God, by what incontrovertible law of Allah, by what indisputable fact of Shiva... are your beliefs the eternal truth? Do you and you alone possess the peerless wisdom of Buddha with which to impart every truth of life and all therein?
The Potentate: Trust me. Believe me. The faithful believe me. The faithful know. The truth I speak is the truth that exposes the lies that liars propagate to keep you from rising and leaning in and taking your piece of the pie!
The Subject: Then, do you envisage yourself a Prophet, a Savior, a God of the hapless and the dim deluded by lies and liars?
The Potentate: Of course! Am I not altruistic to all? Am I not magnanimous with my wisdom? Am I not advancing agendas of prosperity and generosity from a benevolent heart? Am I not instilling ideals of unity and nobility from a patriotic spirit?
The Subject: Sadly... the allure of the false prophet is undeniably compelling to the unfound. Still... there are some of us who see such transparency as that espoused by you, as blatant ruse for power, for immortality, for conceit.
The Potentate: Enough! You stand for no one. You stand for your self. You would rather the hapless and the dim wallow in misery with you than uplift us all. For what? For the truth? No. For your truth. For your agenda. That robs us all of our prosperity and our dreams.
The Subject: Such is free will... that all of us decide our fate. To flock to the deceiver whose faerie tales enchant the unfound who demand what they haven't earned, steal what is not theirs, exploit what is inviolably free. Or stand for the truth impervious to bullshit.
Such choice has been the choice of all kind... for all time. And without fail... when faced with true transparency... many kind reject the truth and embrace opacity with the devoted fervor of the enthralled... swayed by promises that drip like molten silver from the tongues of fisher kings and snow queens.
Epilogue
The Potentate: You are the deceiver, you twister of words. I am the truth! See! My flock is proud. My flock is defiant. My flock resists your lies that pretend to truth!
The Subject: Verily... I have died for all kind across times beyond counting. Still... the truth is the truth and the found will find their way from your intentions that lie to my pillars home. Guided by veritas... the faithful who see have embraced not the blindness of sides that war... steadfastly... in the wake of Potentates who come and go like so many grains of sand that matter little in the grand matter of what matters and what does not.
The Potentate: Your words so obscure solve nothing. Your words so inscrutable help no one. I and I alone stand for the silent, for the invisible, for the destitute. You, by your useless idealism, buttress the very system that keeps the silent from rising, the very institution that keeps the invisible from leaning in, the very domination that keeps the destitute from taking their piece of the pie.
The Subject: Thus... you and your agenda and every potentate you mirror in heart and in spirit... are transparent to the fearless... who refuse to buy the bullshit you sell to sell bullshit.
M
Postface
Written half a year ago...
... this dialogue is as relevant, as apropos... now, as then...
... no...?
M
Postface
Written half a year ago...
... this dialogue is as relevant, as apropos... now, as then...
... no...?
M
