Prof Worzel
It was a tactic used during the last days of the Roman Empire. The ruling powers provided free ‘bread and circuses’ to the people to distract them from the harsh reality that resources both moral and physical were running perilously low.
Rome’s once renowned military might was but a shadow of its former glory and barbarians were at the back door ready to attack. The people were fooled for a time but reality cannot be hidden forever and the rest, as they say, is history.
In the global circus that is the world of today, the economy has long been run by a bunch of clowns juggling balls. They seemed to keep on adding balls and to the amazement of the crowd, the juggling continued. You can be certain though that the jugglers will drop the balls sooner or later.
There are many who contend that the tiring clowns were hidden behind a dry ice curtain of smoke called pandemic and the balls have already hit the deck.
Now that so many have begun to suspect that there are shenanigans happening backstage the magicians and the media have wheeled out a new act called ‘Racism, Riots, Looting and Civil Unrest’, a sort of open mike night in the bread and circuses of a falling civilisation.
It is not hard to imagine the circus managers sitting around shadowy candlelight in the Gypsy fortune teller’s tent rehearsing their strategy on how to blame it all on a virus. Then disappearing out the back without paying the performers and trying to avoid being lynched by an angry crowd demanding their money back.
It has already begun. The mis-representation of what is the result of Government shutdowns has come about as I predicted: in the smoke and mirrors of pre-election bluff and bullshit. Blame has been deflected from where it belongs (government, intergovernmental organisations and global financial institutions) and onto the phantom unseen and unseeable demon tagged COVID-19, which to date has not even been proved to exist at all in the form that it is portrayed.
However, demons will do what it is in their nature to do. The fault lies not with the demon but with those who summon it by their conjuring spells and media magic. It is undoubtedly a curse brought down by circus managers reading Tarot and tea leaves in the Gypsy’s tent.
The end I expect will be much like that other famous circus ‘Barnum and Bailey’ with the whole show closing down and going into liquidation. Will the strong man be able to find a job on the railway and what will be the fate of the elephants? Will the lions simply be let loose upon the streets to devour whom they will? Only time will tell.
Outside of three-ring circuses what need can there be for bearded ladies and performing dwarfs? Who will pick up the balancing speculators when the high wire snaps and they fall to the ground? Will the public have lost its taste for being entertained by clowns? I know I have. More importantly though, who will seize the assets that remain? The tents and the trapezes?
What about the Gypsy, will she be held to account? The predicted prosperity through privatisation and incorporation never did come about and what happened to the tall dark stranger? All we got here in New Zealand was John Key and Jacinda. I have never been inclined to cross that particular Gypsy’s palm with silver. No worries though, she has been pilfering funds the whole time. She, at least, was aware of her own false prophecies.
One thing though is certain, no illusion can last. When we exit the hall of mirrors and the dry ice mist blows away we must face a stark reality in the clear daylight of truth. The time of free entertainment is coming to an end because as every circus worker knows, there never really is such a thing as free entertainment or a free lunch for that matter. The piper must be paid and the price of folly is high indeed. Robert Heinlein wrote that we should “never underestimate the power of human stupidity”.
When the same snake oil merchants try and sell the same poison with a different label will the public buy it? Will it be off to the circus again or will everyone start doing some work for a change?
© Worzel 2020
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