TROUBLED HOUSES ARE FULL OF SECRETS
Pompeii and Herculaneum slept under the indifferent spell of moonlight after Vesuvius and its apocalyptic eruptions subsided; but below the inferno under a deep blanket of ash, those enveloped ruins and the shapes of human bodies remained, and were preserved in a unique way.
All human settlement is precarious in one sense or another. The power from the depths of the Earth can erase the peaceful life and hurl down thousands of tons of burning, pulverized rock and poisonous gas until it shatters the roof, leaving no breath of life underneath it.
The gladiators that filled the Amphitheater in Pompeii have long ago filed past the living, where they pause peacefully in the shadows of these timeless ruins. Another life, another world came into existence across the bay,—where Naples had its counsels draw up and revise emergency plans for a predictable evacuation of citizens,—one which might have two or three day’s warning of a major eruption.
Museum visitors in Pompeii are shocked or perhaps fascinated to peer into displays, behind glass, and look at the dead who had been encapsulated under layers of ash, a material which hardened around them, over time. And when archeologists uncovered these hollow casings; an idea came up of pouring plaster inside the cavity to reproduce the shapes of people as they were in their last moment. It shows the exact posture, situation and agony of their deaths. The moment of the eruption had taken them by surprise, had come so suddenly, and none had understood that Vesuvius was a volcano.
What luck would modern Naples have today, with its six million souls,—not withstanding seismographs and a few days warning? Such is the inheritance of troubled houses, that even the benefit of scientific methods and sensitive instruments can not be sufficient to hold back the predictable calamity. The impediments to mass evacuation of Naples—when people are thrown into panic— are mostly unpredictable; and people will put the reality of Vesuvius aside, until the day when the volcano erupts with unimaginable destruction.
Another world empire, this sad American one, is declining before our eyes. There are examples in ancient history and scripture, but judgment is most conclusive; for as it was before, there never was an empire so great that it could avoid its fall. Decay of power, loss of reputation, corruption, decadence, and depravity all mark its collapse. The state breaks down and sabotages the living standards of its own oppressed population while it becomes ever more addicted to extracting the labor and plundering the resources of any nation it can directly abuse or threaten with violence.
A wisp of black smoke appears above the mountain: this obscured peak of empire shakes the world with dreadful force that the centuries have brought back to life. The deepest pulses and tremors are again felt underfoot; and with awesome speed the mountain collapses on enemies and allies alike. It spits out its fire and havoc. Its full weight heaves against broken democracy, the debris of the laws, with dead and buried souls—collapsed to the level of a Wall Street predator,—playing out its last moment in a militarist death cult.
Pick through centuries of ashes, where the relics of another “indispensable nation” may one day be found—a time capsule unmasking troubled houses,—where all the history is indexed in the tomb. So much wasteland and ruin is gradually reclaimed by nature. After a sufficient period of time, the detritus and pollution of the early 21st Century War Machine will be catalogued; and forensic investigations of the American empire’s assassinations, its murder of weaker societies, its twenty year military occupations, its total pillage and blackmail, will be enough to fill up scientific journals.
Eventually history shows more resistance to a hated world order. Those who are unprepared have been warned and admonished. An empire can repeat its failure, but this slowly breaks down the image it struggles to maintain. What happens when the deception comes and the ground begins to tremble is all up to us. For this is dangerous; the beloved nation may never be seen again, if the people cling to empire and suffer its lurid power and lawless privilege.
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