Hellfire Nation

There's a certain comfort to be had in imagining everyone else is evil.

All them evil folks, evil-doers. Why, there's even an axis of evil. It's them women I tells ya (witches ands women folk in general). No its, those plotters, the Jews or maybe it's them there niggers with thier voodo crap. No, its those fiendish commies..God damn and blast. May the good lawd help me now. I see it clearly now, those girly men and gays, the sodomites..the F o r n i c at o r s, corrupting the morals of our righteous youth. No, no don't hold me back now, it's those towel-head gas guzzling racoons. Jesse, strike them down and let fire and brimstone rain down on them pesky moslems. What? Injuns? Why, those savages don'ts knows what we did for 'em. Gooks? Darn and confoundations. Those yella-belly good-for-nothings. Rattlesnakes, the lot of them. And then there's ...

Why, that leaves only you and a few people in New York.

New York! That den of iniquity and vice, of liberal bleedin' hearts and scroungers. There's a curse on them people. I swear by all that is holy on this earth. The beast reisdeth in their breasts. A hell-hole of brigands, heathens, cheats, and whore-mongerers..the filth and scum of the universe congregates there, son. Why, mercy me, don't you know the Lord spoke when he struck her down.

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What are we waiting for, gathered in the agora?

The barbarians are arriving today.

Why is nothing happening in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit making no laws?

Because the barbarians are arriving today.
What laws can the Senators make now ?
When the barbarians come they will make laws.

Why did our Emperor wake up so early?
and, in the city's grandest gate, sit in the state
on his throne, wearing his crown?

Because the barbarians are arriving today
and the Emperor is waiting to receive
their leader. In fact, he prepared
a parchment to give them ,
where he wrote down many titles and names

Why did our two consuls and the praetors
come out today in their crimson embroided togas;
why did they don bracelets with so many emethysts
and rings resplendent with glittering emeralds;
why do they hold precious staffs today,
beautifully wrought in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are arriving today
and such things dazzle barbarians

Why don't the worthy orators
come around to deliver the speeches and say their peace?

Because the barbarians are arriving today
and they are bored by eloquence and harangues.

Why should this anxiety and confusion
suddenly begin (How serious faces have become)
Why have the streets and squares emptied so quickly?
and why has everyone returned home so pensive?

Because night's fallen and the barbarians haven't arrived
And some people came from the border
and they say the barbarians no longer exist

Now what will become of us without the barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution.

---Cavafy.