a vigorous culture is a degeneracy of the mind but of robust spirit
it has its certainties and its violence and its bullyings and its murders
it keeps you in line, it hounds you and tortures you until you give in
it does not tolerate the difference that declares difference is good
it seeks to silence and destroy all that lies outside its grasp
it is a culture of armed men made slaves, or slaves made armed men
it is a culture of judges and authorities and laws
it is a crusty old diseased shackle to the soul and to the mind
but it has spirit, it is a mighty spirit
the spirit of muscled demons that feed off the life blood of healthy intellects
that thirst for the great and the true
to make the great and the true something banal, something hollow
something forbidden, forlorn, used, crushed, flagellated
that turns the body into a carcass of unfulfilled hopes
that seeks to snuff out youth and fire and lust and all that is holy
it is a martial spirit, a perverse Ares fellating old father Zeus
rushing into the din of war, massacring men
it is terrible to behold, it sucks the courage out of you
it is hypnotic, it is cunning, it is savage
but fear is its own undoing
fear of that which it cannot conquer, fear of that which it has conquered
for what it conquers only stays conquered through that fear
and when the courage has been sucked out
and the life has been bled out
and the dead and the dying and the crushed have been snuffed of their last hope
when their dreams have been called forth
to a mock show trial where they must declare their guilt
that is when the whole stinking edifice will collapse
and all that was unholy becomes again holy
and all that was depraved becomes again blessed
and all that was sinful and wrong and traitorous becomes again magnificent and good
and virtuous
the old Moloch will bow before the seething mass of worms that writhe above us
and he will swallow those worms and he will flee
when fear is all that is left us
it will be fear that is their greatest enemy
fear will win what fear took away
and time, that massive rolling ugly wall of time
will be our friend again, will greet us again, as if to say
we have been free all along
and everything that once was has now passed
yesterday's future is now thrown off
and our lives are beautiful once more.
Also included are some mechanical fish.
