Friday, April 23, 2010

In the Next Life, Canto I, stanzas 145-148

They’ll desecrate the relics of our time
so they can use the parts contained therein.
Though history might see this as a crime,
the Bible doesn’t list it as a sin.

The owners will be dead, so they won’t mind.
No legatees will try to claim the stuff.
They’ve left it for the carriers to find.
Your think there’s something wrong with that? Well, tough.

Applying standards of our time and place
to situations not so here and now
is useful only if all people face
a universal rule of why and how.

The humans who will dodge J-1’s stark fist
will have no use for junk like history.
Their struggle to continue to exist
will outweigh all concern for nicety.

©2010 Louis A. Merrimac

Universal rule: An obvious case of moral relativism, right? Actually, the accused has pled not guilty to the charge. His defense is that unlike relativists, who believe that all moral systems are equally good, all moral systems are equally neutral in his estimation. That most people wouldn’t consider this a lesser offense apparently bothers him in the least. He maintains that only someone completely bereft of bias can fully comprehend what creates such bias. That still leaves open the question of whether it is desirable to attain such an understanding.
Stark fist: Subgenius literature has references to a ‘Stark Fist of Removal’

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