V2nd - Chapter 8 - grand unified apologetics...

[Michael Bailey]

yeah, backing away for a minute to do a meta thing (was it Eliot,
Pound, or Kilgore Trout who said a metaphor is a sign of a lazy mind?)

but, okay, why should we not abhor the party in Manhattan like the one
on the veldt?

Becaaaaause...umm, this was so clear in my mind as I sat down with my
chin cantilevered over my lap...

first of all, that party in the veldt hasn't happened in the book yet,
but I guess that's not a great reason...

how about:

the colonial instinct, is just a decky-dance of the evangelistic impulse

Monty Python nailed it in Life of Brian: name one good thing Rome ever
brought Palestine!
wine

well, of course, there's the wine.  but other than the wine?

roads

yes I suppose.  Let's stipulate the roads, but what else?

aqueducts

(etc etc)

(I'm inclined to think the Rubicon is crossed when the evangelist
carries a weapon, to ring a change on the AtD pigrimage/crusade
homily, but your Muscular Christians wouldn't draw the line there!)

(one of the 2 least-favorite sayings of Jesus for me is that one about
not peace but a sword; (the other one is when he curses the fig tree.
What's up with that?) why'd he have to say that?  Did the freakin'
armorers guild buy ad time from him or something.  I guess we can fall
back to His example in not carrying weapons...)


and the difference is that Roonie has come from the provinces (Durham)
to the (cultural) capital and is setting up commerce there, rather
than coming from the 1st world to the 3rd and setting up slavery and
so forth.
Plus he doesn't carry a sjambok.

and although Mafia's tried to exacerbate his redneck prejudice, she's
failed and he's about to sign McClintic Sphere, at least a little
outreach across the color bar.  And in theory the party is open to
anybody hip enough to be there, and nobody has scurvy and well you see
the distinction, it's as good a party as can be thrown under the
circs...

which may in fact also be true of the party in the veldt!


-- 
- "After all, Salaam and Shalom are only slight different spellings of
 a word that means the same thing in Arabic and Hebrew.
Which translated into English means peace be upon you." - Norman Spinrad