I'm not going to discuss what I think went wrong. You'll have your own thoughts: some of them will be cogent, others less so. Much like my own.

Some people like to 'be positive.' I find that toxic positivity interferes with my objectivity, so no, thank you. Right now, I feel like lots of negativity is called for.

Everyone's going to blame the 'bad guys.' I'm blaming the 'good guys,' too, you know: the ones who had all the right opinions, but didn't care enough to draw conclusions. And who couldn't stand not to get everything they wanted – so they paid no attention to what anyone else needed.

Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;

To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:

Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:

Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.

– Omar Kayyam

According to the Bible, 'my spirit shall not always strive with man.' I take it to mean that the energetic essence that makes meaning in the universe gives up on us eventually – particularly if it becomes obvious that we are refusing to see what's in front of our faces. Which is that we aren't the only ones in the room: other people count, too.

Feed the hungry, Jesus said. Help the refugee. Care about those in prison, the sick, the poor. Don't make excuses not to in order to play that game you like. You know: the one called, 'Whoever dies with the most toys, wins.'

Keep doing that and it's the whole shooting match. The world will collapse on itself. As your mom might have said, there – happy now? Now nobody has anything.

There will be books. People with political science degrees will attempt to explain what went wrong. I recommend ignoring them and reading the book of Jeremiah. Also Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. There's a lot of wisdom in that book, and a lot of anger. Justified anger.

Back to the Bible for a moment. Did you know the first parable in that famous compendium tells about a similar situation to the one a certain country is in right now? Hm, wonder if anybody in that country has ever read those chapters of the book. Probably not.

Backstory: Gideon, the zero-to-hero rescuer of his people from the Midianites, had requested rather a large reward consisting of the gold earrings of the dead enemy soldiers. These amounted to 1700 shekels' weight. Gideon turned them into an ephod – don't get scholars started on what that thing was, but apparently it was some sort of cultic (and very expensive) ouija board and totally bad news. Because the Bible says, '. . . all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.' Then Gideon died, and things got out of hand.
And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver¹ out of the house of Baalberith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.

And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah², and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal [=Gideon], being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.

And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.

And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.

The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.

But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.

But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?

Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.

And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.

And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king. . . then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:

But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

– Excerpted from the Book of Judges, which is around 2600 years old and why doesn't anybody learn anything?

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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