The Red Badge of Cowardice

How was your All Saints Day? You know, the day after Halloween. That is, the Hallow in Halloween.

I get it.

It's a day that means nothing to many of you. After all, no one's a saint is the motto of the human who wears not being a nice guy like a red badge of courage.

Except: some ones are.

And the day after Hallow Eve is for remembering: there are humans who wrong and there are humans who good.

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Notwithstanding, every human who wrongs, pronounces their wrong: good; as if the power to make wrong, good is the power to speak.

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Of course to speak is power.

To say: Will you do me a favor? is power. And to say: Yes, yes! is power.

And to say: Are you loyal to me? is power. And to say: I am, I am! is power.

Never mind the carrot stuffed with cash that dangles from the string of favor and loyal and me. Never mind the stick that looms should a grovel whisper instead of clap like a wind-up mechanical monkey. (Ingratitude is the worst, right?)

Because why speak, if not to make wrong, good?

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And every day, Hallow Day withal, is a day in a time of War. And in a time of War, to not speak, is to not stand. Whether the stand is speech or symbol.

As in Flag Waving.

Because Flag Waving is speaking. It's saying: Patriot! And Hero! And Proud! Even if by proud you mean self-righteous meritless self-praise. And by hero you mean the purchase and the display of decorations on the theme of pretending to be something you're not. And by patriot you mean false valor.

Even on Hallow Eve.

Because what is said without words, including stands that are symbolic, are as spoken as stands that are speech.

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I hear you.

No one's a saint is a mantra as compelling as what happens in you-know-where, stays in you-know-where. A siren song that excuses rule-breaking. Rules are meant to be broken, right? Forgives sin. Sin is fun, right?

Normalizes wrong. You're human, right?

But: no one's a saint isn't true.

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Is it worth it?

To be human? To sin for fun? To break the rules?

Is it worth it to live by no one's a saint? Is it worth it to live by a lie?

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Yes, yes!

After all, your Hallow Eve is pretending to be something you're not. And your Hallow Day is the exchange of one face for an other. There's: I'm one of you. And Best! Better than you! And I'm the same different as you. And Winning! Boss! Whatever that means.

In other words, pretending to be someone and something you're not is a costume. Whether you wear it on Hallow Eve or Hallow Day or a day in a time of War.

As in Party.

I mean, what's a carousel of faces to wear, without a Clan or Tribe or Nation or, better yet, Party to carouse with?

No man is an island, right? And you don't want to be an island, do you? That's what thinking for yourself gets you. (So true, right?)

You join a Party where thinking for yourself is no, no you don't. And parrot the Catechism. And duly submit to a pat on the head and a crumb. In exchange for your Voice and your Vote.

Unlike vampires and werewolves, the no man is an island costume is all-in human. So what's not to love? You're human, right? 

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I see it.

The all-in human costume. It speaks without speaking. It says: I'm not alone. And Validation. And Legitimacy. And Right.

Even if by speaking without speaking, you're saying: persuasion that wears the face of friend and neighbor and brother and one of you; and force of nature more powerful than moral compass; is peer pressure that makes the unwilling, the willing.

Our Party doesn't force you to do anything. Buuut. If you don't do what you're told, you're a traitor. Aaand. You're not a traitor, are you?

Look away, knowing that not seeing is unworthy of validation and legitimacy. Bury your doubts deeper than your secrets.

Because this costume's piece of resistance is a straw brain and a tin heart and the courage of a stuffed plush. (The better to get up and get out with, right?)

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Of course there's a reward; because, duh.

A reward that makes boot-licking for table scraps worth your while. A reward that makes attaboys, crowns of Glory. A reward that makes -

Um. Not to mince words. But. What the fuck?

If the price of not being an island is to be a spineless coattail-clinging coward, is this worth your Voice and your Vote?

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Surely there's a story, a cautionary tale, that says to you who believe your Voice worth so little:

trading your Voice for a pat on the head and a crumb won't spare you from paying the price.

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Humans speak because they can. Even when humans are not speaking, they're speaking without speaking. 

Amidst all the noise are reminders:

there's more to power than what it can get you; there's more to live by, than lies; and there's more to being human, than being the least you can be.

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To humans who wear the red badge of cowardice to say: wreck-it-righters deserve medals and in the spirit of the horror of the Allhallowtide season,

says the Lord,

no more shall you or your descendants sit upon thrones; your corpses shall be meat for the beasts of heaven and for the beasts of earth; and that which you have built by unrighteousness and injustice shall become annihilations;

for you say: I will not listen.

Further Reading

The End (Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket)

Jeremiah 22 (at Biblehub)

M

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Notes

(i) it goes without saying that the red badge of cowardice is a reference to The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane);

(ii) the omission of the possessive Saints in All Saints Day is deliberate; also the omission of the possessive Hallow in Hallow Eve and Hallow Day;

also the use of the singular Hallow in Hallow Eve and Hallow Day is deliberate;

(iii) I'm aware of the "positions" passionately held fast regarding what Halloween is and isn't; nevertheless, I say:

celebrate or observe; for secular frivolity or religious solemnity; but to dismiss a some or a whole of Allhallowtide based on your ownership of the rules is to forget: you don't own the rules;

in other words:

so-called "rules" that protect and serve you and yours to the exclusion of others, are nothing to do with what is and isn't right and everything to do with what is and isn't wreck-it-right;

(iv) while Will you do me a favor? and Are you loyal to me? are references to a specific inquiry of misconduct to impeach a President of the United States, they also represent the language of the powerful and the influential and wannabes across political borders and epochs who wrong with impunity;

after all, a President of the United States is not an inventor of a con as old as a history of humankind; to whom that honor belongs, has long since been forgotten;

(v) what happens in you-know-where, stays in you-know-where refers to a tourism slogan;

(vi) no man is an island is a reference to Meditation XVII from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (John Donne), that includes: "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee";

(vii) duly submit to a pat on the head and a crumb refers to (i) the reenactment of a "rite" at the Last Supper called the Eucharist or Communion; (ii) to the miserly distribution of rights and goods by the powerful and the influential and wannabes across political borders and epochs; (iii) to the intangible and tangible rewards for coattail riding that are realized (versus promised); (iv) to the casual, thoughtless, and indifferent manner by which animals employed by humankind, i.e. milk cows, pack mules, hunting dogs, are paid for their loyalty and service (which is not so different than humans employed by humankind);

(viii) a straw brain and a tin heart and the courage of a stuffed plush is a reference to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum), wherein a Scarecrow wants a brain, a Tin Woodman wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion wants courage;

(ix) the story, the cautionary tale is a reference to "The Little Mermaid" (Hans Christian Anderson);

notwithstanding the temptation to mishear self-serving as selflessness throughout this story, this cautionary tale, if the reward of an "immortal soul" for the little mermaid is achieved only upon "selfless" acts and unceasing suffering while alive and 300 years of "good deeds" while dead, what does it say about humankind that the reward of an "immortal soul" is achieved upon nothing more than "being human";

(x) wreck-it-righters deserve medals is a reference to Wreck-It-Ralph (Disney);

(xi) says the Lord etc. is a reference to and is modified from Jeremiah 22;

etc.

M

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Author's Note

I know, I know. Enough. You get it. You see it. Blah, blah, blah.

But that's it, isn't it?

It's not enough to get it; it's not enough to see it; it's not enough to do nothing as if doing nothing changes everything.

Do something. Because while you are doing nothing, Clans and Tribes and Nations and Parties are making a real world, a wrong world, dedicated to the proposition that humans who wrong are right, for

Wrong is the One True Eternal Right.

Wrong bless you and Happy Rightmas.

M