Why do the mighty enrich themselves and their own, never mind the suffering they inflict as defenders of "might makes right"? Why do self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" extol denying and prohibiting generosity and empathy towards sufferers? Why do howlers and roarers proclaim enforced conformity evidence of unity and this unity evidence of solidarity and this solidarity evidence of consent to be dominated? Why do the inheritors of eternal flames lionize abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people?
Why are blueprints of dead and gone polities in our DNA still?
Tests of Faith that Aren't
The mighty love...
tests of faith
for you - not for them - because duh.
After all, tests of faith are how the mighty...
stress test loyalty
under 100-year-heat-storms that scorch hides like slabs of meat on spits, as tears threaten to leak loose from eyes stupefied by scars seared like railroad ties, knee-deep in receipts as unfathomable and leaden as anvils - not candy floss narratives spun for campaign pitches flung at voters like cheap carnival prizes - because come on.
*
You see...
tests of faith
ask you to feel what no one should feel, see what no one should see, experience what no one should experience -
notwithstanding to walk through lives so charmed as to not know what I mean by "tests of faith" is a kind of privilege that is not what I... know (iykyk) -
neither out of some kind of indifferent thoughtlessness because you don't matter nor out of some kind of sadistic carelessness that abandons you to misery;
for
tests of faith
challenge you to trust the hands that cradle you as you fight for survival under 100-year-floods of pitiless realities are neither neglectful nor cruel, but rather
the hands that reward the just, damn the wicked, and anoint believers with eternal grace and salvation.
*
Such that
I have to ask:
without self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames to tell you that 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods are tests of faith...
what are these putative "tests of faith"
if not evidence?
of (i) shamelessly grandiose ambition - not to humbly serve as servants of the people - but to unapologetically enrich, empower, and deify the mighty and "the meritorious"? (ii) never mind the capacious spigot of taxpayer funds - unrestricted and unregulated like a prodigious firehose - that gleefully serves unscrupulously personal, vain, and trifling "interests"? (iii) as if being elected and appointed and confirmed to serve as servants of the people is a "lawful" license to "might makes right" from coast to coast, pole to pole, ad mortem?
I mean, if such grievous abuses of power and trust and people are not plain proofs of acts of wrongdoing by the hands of wrongdoers,
what are they...?
Such that
I have to ask:
what if these putative "tests of faith" are invitations
genially extended to self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames
to do nothing but trust that power does not corrupt?
for the mighty and "the meritorious" are "the faithful" and so are self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" and howlers and roarers and inheritors of eternal flames and everybody knows
"the faithful" are sinners and love the sinners and blah blah blah and so what anyways?
Such that
I have to ask:
do you see
how... an opportunity like that
does not go... to waste? I mean, an opportunity to get away with it, shall not go to waste... shall it? so long as shamelessly grandiose ambition, not to humbly serve as servants of the people, but to unapologetically enrich, empower, and deify the mighty and "the meritorious"... flowers like Babylonian blooms within the prosperous bosoms of the jubilantly sinful?
Such that
I have to ask:
do you see
how "the faithful"... let the mighty and "the meritorious" be
who they are?
without unflinching scrutiny? without cogent criticism? without fearlessly questioning whether fast and furious pressure to blindly obey, be uncompromisingly loyal, joyously believe without pause
is a moment seized to get away with a callous repudiation of the public good and its stewardship and its governance? in broad daylight? a vicious disavowal of a nation of many peoples and more laws? which is to say, a moment seized to get away with
murder?
*
The mighty wax rapturously
on putative "tests of faith",
because there's no bolder swing than the smug swagger that unrepentantly proclaims: evidence of grievous abuses of power and trust and people are not plain proofs of acts of wrongdoing by the hands of wrongdoers;
for
everybody knows
fighting for survival under 100-year-floods of pitiless realities is how "true believers" win their tests of faith that aren't
because "the faithful" never mind 100-year-heat-storms that scorch hides like slabs of meat on spits, as tears threaten to leak loose from eyes stupefied by scars seared like railroad ties, knee-deep in receipts as unfathomable and leaden as anvils - because amen.
More
When people tell you "to trust the process", that 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods are "tests of faith", that "they know what they're doing" and "what they're doing" is "good for you and God and party and country", that "now is not the time to waver" because "this moment demands unprecedented loyalty",
I know "true believers" lean into belief and "the faithful" lean into faith -
but I?
I've felt what no one should feel, seen what no one should see, experienced what no one should experience, and I don't believe first and ask questions later -
because come on.
I ask:
why do the mighty enrich themselves and their own, never mind the suffering they inflict as defenders of "might makes right"? why do self-proclaimed "patriots" and "guardians of liberty" extol denying and prohibiting generosity and empathy towards sufferers? why do howlers and roarers proclaim enforced conformity evidence of unity and this unity evidence of solidarity and this solidarity evidence of consent to be dominated? why do the inheritors of eternal flames lionize abusers of power and abusers of trust and abusers of people?
why are blueprints of dead and gone polities in our DNA still?
because their getting away with murder shall be as frictionless as let them?
I have to say
to wit:
if being "true believers" in belief and "the faithful" in faith means you do not know what I mean by putative "tests of faith" that aren't...
then when the hands that scorch and the hands that drown are the hands of the mighty and "the meritorious"... what are you?
I mean, is standing behind, with, and for the jubilantly sinful a kind of privilege that is not what I... know? because what I... know is the hands that anoint believers with eternal grace and salvation are not the hands that
not-see enrichers who never mind the suffering they unapologetically inflict; or not-hear extollers whose denials and prohibitions of generosity and empathy are indifferently thoughtless and sadistically careless; or not-speak as dominators promote falsehoods and disinformation as "truths" for you and "God" and "party" and "country"; or sanctify unconscionable apologetics of abuse and vile lionization of abusers as "the faithful" and "true believers".
Surely
you and I and everybody knows
blueprints of dead and gone polities, of their let them murder, were no more our predestined past than they are our preordained future - because duh
and amen.
M
