Sunday, April 08, 2007
Madame Polisztra hears from her godfather
Madame Polisztra was surprised to find a Morse message waiting on her crystal ball this morning. It was from Charles Darwin, her dear Godfather.........
= = = = =
MP: Good morning, good Doctor! I'm humbled and honored to find your face here, along with ... another face.
CD: Good morning indeed, young lady. Many people in your era are taking my name in vain, using my words to support their exact opposite. Herr Marx, who is not up here, is the proper author of egalitarianism. I appreciate those few among you who take my ideas seriously and truly.
The other face is my beloved pet tortoise, Harriet, who joined me up here just a year ago. I believe she is trying to upstage me in your glass; only appropriate since she has carried survival to an heroic extreme!
MP: Can I assume, sir, that you have something specific to offer?
CD: Yes. In any aspect of life, the job of each individual, each family, each tribe, each nation, is to take its own side. Each nation must do its best to preserve its own form of culture and civilization, neither more nor less. Any individual, tribe, or nation that plunders others should be destroyed; any who fails to defend its own side deserves to die.
MP: Yes, go on.
CD: In a fight, the job of the defender is to stop the attacker. Kill it if necessary, but in doing so he is likely to lose his own life. A cheaper method is infinitely preferable. If you can deter the attacker by an impressive display of raised fur and feathers, or an impressive roaring sound, or a pose that sends him squealing toward the horizon, or an impressive display of rockets, forts and soldiers, this is vastly preferable to losing your own fur and feathers, your own soldiers, or your own existence.
MP: Well sir, how about our situation in Iraq? Or Mesopotamia, as you would know it?
CD: Yes, I have been watching Mesopotamia from on high. Your government, if it may be so described, is using up energy for no purpose at all, while paying no attention to the side of survival that Harriet so perfectly symbolizes. Your railways, dams, levees, fortifications and civil water supplies are decaying and even being sold off and abandoned. Your so-called government is destroying and losing those facilities, thus saving the enemy's labor. This is simply insane, if I may be allowed to say so.
MP: I'll certainly allow you to say that. But what about Mesopotamia?
CD: When a war is fought without conscription, you may assume that the people doing the fighting are innately the more belligerent element of the population. This is true of your volunteer Army, and equally true of the informal fighters for the various, ah, denominations, shall we say, of Mohammedans.
MP: So in other words, our enemy is currently using up its own best fighters. When they are used up, the remainder of the population will be genetically and intrinsically more peaceful.
CD: Precisely so.
I would suggest three steps:
1. You should thank the Lord Jehovah that his enemy has decided to destroy its own fighters.
2. You should stand back and allow it to happen, and apply yourselves to restoring your shell of defense.
3. And if possible, covertly supply all sides with an abundant cornucopia of free weapons and ammunition so they may destroy themselves more efficiently.
Now Harriet wishes to have a walk through the Elysian Fields, so I must reluctantly depart.
MP: I have listened carefully, sir, and will attempt to pass along the message. Thank you, good sir.
= = = = =
Technical note: It appears that Madame Polisztra has acquired a lazy eye from the excitement of meeting Darwin. I know how to fix the problem, but it's not worth reworking the animation!
¶ 10:23 PM
= = = = =
MP: Good morning, good Doctor! I'm humbled and honored to find your face here, along with ... another face.
CD: Good morning indeed, young lady. Many people in your era are taking my name in vain, using my words to support their exact opposite. Herr Marx, who is not up here, is the proper author of egalitarianism. I appreciate those few among you who take my ideas seriously and truly.
The other face is my beloved pet tortoise, Harriet, who joined me up here just a year ago. I believe she is trying to upstage me in your glass; only appropriate since she has carried survival to an heroic extreme!
MP: Can I assume, sir, that you have something specific to offer?
CD: Yes. In any aspect of life, the job of each individual, each family, each tribe, each nation, is to take its own side. Each nation must do its best to preserve its own form of culture and civilization, neither more nor less. Any individual, tribe, or nation that plunders others should be destroyed; any who fails to defend its own side deserves to die.
MP: Yes, go on.
CD: In a fight, the job of the defender is to stop the attacker. Kill it if necessary, but in doing so he is likely to lose his own life. A cheaper method is infinitely preferable. If you can deter the attacker by an impressive display of raised fur and feathers, or an impressive roaring sound, or a pose that sends him squealing toward the horizon, or an impressive display of rockets, forts and soldiers, this is vastly preferable to losing your own fur and feathers, your own soldiers, or your own existence.
MP: Well sir, how about our situation in Iraq? Or Mesopotamia, as you would know it?
CD: Yes, I have been watching Mesopotamia from on high. Your government, if it may be so described, is using up energy for no purpose at all, while paying no attention to the side of survival that Harriet so perfectly symbolizes. Your railways, dams, levees, fortifications and civil water supplies are decaying and even being sold off and abandoned. Your so-called government is destroying and losing those facilities, thus saving the enemy's labor. This is simply insane, if I may be allowed to say so.
MP: I'll certainly allow you to say that. But what about Mesopotamia?
CD: When a war is fought without conscription, you may assume that the people doing the fighting are innately the more belligerent element of the population. This is true of your volunteer Army, and equally true of the informal fighters for the various, ah, denominations, shall we say, of Mohammedans.
MP: So in other words, our enemy is currently using up its own best fighters. When they are used up, the remainder of the population will be genetically and intrinsically more peaceful.
CD: Precisely so.
I would suggest three steps:
1. You should thank the Lord Jehovah that his enemy has decided to destroy its own fighters.
2. You should stand back and allow it to happen, and apply yourselves to restoring your shell of defense.
3. And if possible, covertly supply all sides with an abundant cornucopia of free weapons and ammunition so they may destroy themselves more efficiently.
Now Harriet wishes to have a walk through the Elysian Fields, so I must reluctantly depart.
MP: I have listened carefully, sir, and will attempt to pass along the message. Thank you, good sir.
= = = = =
Technical note: It appears that Madame Polisztra has acquired a lazy eye from the excitement of meeting Darwin. I know how to fix the problem, but it's not worth reworking the animation!
¶ 10:23 PM
