In the well of understanding

In the well of understanding

Thursday, March 15, 2012

A Short, Short, Short Story




Somewhere in time - certainly not the past, definitely not the present, potentially the future - a country which had come to interact with the rest of the world chiefly through its militaristic hegemony, passed new laws. After many years of the tin-eared drumbeat for warfare to create peace, of promises never realized and iniquitous perjury by the elected officials of the national government organs, the people reclaimed their power and own destiny via a populist referendum. It simply and unerringly dictated that any said officials authorizing new military engagements forthwith forfeited their standing in the body politic and entered as combatants in such police actions.

This chilled the fevered blood, and calmed the clamoring hearts of legislators to such a broad degree that diplomacy was reawakened. Their thoughts ran something like this: I am too old to fight but wise enough to know when to fight. And it was the singular characteristic of the first portion of that thought which henceforth drove their policy of warfare. Needless to state, in the absence of battle-mongering crusades, peace accrued in great measure and real attention turned to the previously obfuscated domestic matters.