Sanctimony Masks

Tell me if you aren't hearing a lot of people say a lot stuff. noise 'passing' as a dialogue that isn't a conversation of equals. babel that exalts faux

martyrs.

Sanctimony Masks

Part I

Believe me! Know everything I say is the truth else God strike me as I speak. Trust me! All that stands between you and the annihilation of everything precious and pious is me.

*

Phew, what heady stuff. When every spoken word is soaked in dramatic melodrama:

what is asked of an audience? to

feel all the feels? to feel nothing at all?

*

There is a disavowal of responsibility to this kind of speech. to words that plainly and unambiguously:

agitate and provoke. shock and exhaust. that

flippantly disregard exaggeration stretched beyond common sense. that

dig deep to mine frothed foam and indifference.

*

Everybody's got an opinion but I know my truth. I speak for myself and I speak for all. of. you. Because if I can be viciously and baselessly assailed, so. can. you. 

*

Oh my stars, right? What are you supposed to think when you hear this?

that:

you are under attack? their. opinions. threaten. you?

*

There is a pattern to this kind of speech. to words that paint a vivid picture of outrageous hostility. that pitch an audience hurtling

beyond civility to grievous offense. to war. like

fistfuls of matches on fire.

*

I will never accept defeat because the Almighty has chosen. I and only I am divinely anointed. All who challenge me are demonic enemies of my God.

* 

Wow if that isn't stunningly disturbing. belied habitually

by dismissals of what is and what passes for religious fervor as:

harmless beliefs. entitled opinions. deeply personal. innocuous

and immune.

*

There is a calculus to this kind of speech. to testimonies of inspired cutthroat religiosity. that shield and sacralize:

justification. apologism. the defense of the indefensible.

*

Part II

When we decide, superiority and partiality and dominion, every inexplicable dictate of an inhuman and immortal power, is

above the law,

above the consensus of a plural people,

above the consent of the self-governed,

tell me if you aren't troubled. 

*

Is this faith. or. is this something else. something mortal?

*

When what is and what passes for fidelity to the laws of an immaterial kingdom dispossesses us of the liberty to live freely without lord or master, without 'belonging' to a deity that imposes its will upon every human life, 

tell me if you aren't uneasy

witness of self-determinism nullified with imperious gracelessness.

*

Is this just. or. is this something else. something wrong?

*

When sanctimony backstops a doctrine that shields and sacralizes a lot of people saying a lot of stuff,

tell me if you aren't sick of masks that 'pass' for sanctitude

hissing hell-broth.

More or Part III

In some ways, sanctimony masks are about the narrative. about spinning the truth into an act, an entertaining performance whose purpose is to say what isn't happening is what's really happening.

Such speech trusts in an audience's suspension of disbelief. and

complicity.

To turn a blind eye to indefensible measures. to aggressively deny what's really happening is what's really happening. to muscularly assail common ground. to declare

the surrender of the truth: a victory for God.

*

As if noise 'passing' as a dialogue that isn't a conversation of equals -

as if babel that exalts faux martyrs -

as if sanctimony masks -

are about exercising the freedom to observe a dogma of superiority and partiality and dominion. or. about something else. something human.

M

*

Note

that hell-broth is a reference to Macbeth (Shakespeare)

M