A Test for Our Times

Here is something that encapsulates the dilemma outlined in the 'Bard Wars' introduction, written (I think) on New Year's Day, 2003.

It is a multiple choice test.

(a) The trains run, usually within ten minutes of the schedules. People sit and drink in the cafes, and you might hear them laugh, and there are books of poetry published, and columns written in the newspaper where the affairs of the nation are debated, and – of course – there are families picnicking in the parks. And the trains run, usually within ten minutes of the schedules, day and night, somewhere in the background. Out of sight the others are being killed. The subhumans, the class enemies, the race enemies, the poor, the inconvenient.

This is called peace.

(b) The cry of the oppressed reaches up to heaven, and the cities are made into lakes of fire, and those people you saw laughing in the cafes yesterday are roasted alive in shelters beneath the street, or crushed by falling buildings, or will not laugh again.

This is called justice.





(c) I am sorry to report that there is no (c). However, both (a) and (b) become cleaner and more efficient with each moment that passes.