The drums beat loudly. The gaudy banners flutter in the gentle breeze blowing across a broad, grass covered plain. Ranks of warriors are formed into two opposing armies. Just fifty meters separates them. Spears glint in the morning sun. Shields are raised. Generals make their way back and forth, calling on their followers to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their people. Priests call on their Deity to bless their enterprise and sow confusion in the ranks of their opponents. How familiar this all sounds? Change the weapons, the location, the pre-text for war, even the planet. It's still the same. Someone has to lose, unless it's a draw - and then both sides have the same problem. But lose or draw, they will have to deal with the question: "Why didn't our Diety deliver us a crushing victory?
Of course, there are numerous ways to square this particular circle. I shall limit myself, here, however, to looking at the imaginative solution the people of Ampora came up with.
Sixty-two years ago, the nation of Ampora was riven by a civil war, lasting six years, as the industrialised West sought to dominate the agricultural East. The East won, leaving the leaders of the West to deal with the burning question - "Where was our Saviour when we needed HIM? I'm talking about religious, rather than political leaders, here, since politicians tend, most often, to accept defeat pragmatically, even gracefully. Typically, their personal investment in such a conflict is always likely to be less than that of their religious brethren, whose power and influence over their flock is 'on the line'. Perhaps it is because, as politicians, they have acquired the ability to change horses, without suffering too much angst - especially if the one they are riding has, to all intents, died beneath them, mid-stream? That was certainly the case, here. Within a few months, the Eastern and Western political leaders had cobbled together a 'Plan of Reconcilliation'. The religious leaders in the East were thumping their pulpits and leading their congregations in prayers of thanksgiving. Their voices shook the rafters as they sang hymns celebrating the triumph of good over bad - of right over wrong.
For their part, the religious leaders in the West were strangely silent. Since both sides shared the same religious beliefs, they were confronted with the awful possibility that HE had not, in fact, been on their side. That meant they had transgressed. That meant they were likely to be damned for all eternity, unless, of course, they could figure out a way to turn defeat into victory. But that meant coming up with an explanation of why the victory the East had achieved was, in fact, a victory in name only. Over time, the answer came to them. In truth, they argued, the East had not won at all, because the West's defeat was HIS way of testing their faith, of bringing them to their senses, spiritually speaking, and that the Eastern army had simply been the agents HE had used to achieve HIS ends. It was a breathtakingly elegant solution, and it found a receptive audience, ready to grasp at any straw, regardless of the logic.
By buying into this explanation, the Western population was spared any need to look at itself critically. Their immediate difficulty overcome, and the population's faith in its religious leadership temporarily, at least, restored, they searched their sacred book, The Gulard, for a text that would provide reinforcement for their claim that this was, indeed, a time of testing, during which unbelievers and sinners would be weeded out and punished. Of course, it was necessary for there to be a plus side to this thinning of the ranks, so it would be useful to mention the fact that everyone who reaffirmed their belief in HIM, provided they were members of the Western Council of Truth, would be blessed with HIS forgiveness (the old stick and carrot routine). And, guess what? They found it in an obscure text, written two thousand years earlier, in a place called Emos. Called the 'Book of Devine Disclosure', it described in great and convoluted detail a period when Emos was under the rule of a ruthless pagan nation - Romnia - led by an equally ruthless tyrant by the name of Domitus. At that time, it was a crime to engage in such seditious acts as openly criticising Domitus for issuing a proclaimation to the effect that he was a GOD, and that his statue, wherever it was erected, should be worshipped as such. Great care was necessary on the part of the author of the text, Apostajon, to couch his criticism in such a way as to make his outrage clear to his intended audience, while making it seem totally innocent to the ever watchful Romnians. He was able to do this by creating the impression that his writings were simply the incoherant ramblings of a madman.
I must assume, since scholars had already decided that this text was the work of a religious anarchist, fighting a brutal, pagan regime, that when the West's religious leaders zeroed in on this text, they deliberately chose to ignore the political and temporal context Apostajon had found himself laboring under, and opted, instead, to transplant the text from its original timeframe to the present day. The text, they decided, was a prophecy, foretelling the imminent end of the world - THE END OF TIMES, in fact.
Fast forward those one hundred and ten years, to the present day. With the full support and encouragement of the Western Council of Truth, the 'Born Again' President of Ampora, Sifi Mailfor, has taken all of his administration's policies straight from The 'Book of Devine Disclosure'. Though supported by less than forty percent of the country - the rest not being of the Western Council of Truth persuasion - the President has stated, without reservation it would seem, that "Pre-emptive wars are sanctioned and blessed if they are against unbelievers". Untold numbers of civilians can be killed, because, let's face it, "We are simply enabling them to be judged, sooner rather than later". Mailfor promotes his cronies to positions in his administration, and changes tax regulations to benefit members of his priviliged class. What else is new? A city inundated by a tidal wave caused by a hurricane was left to decay for months, while its poor inhabitants were left to fend for themselves, or transplanted to other cities. Corporate vultures have seized their opportunity to re-make the city in their own image - without the poor people - and are being awarded open ended contracts at taxpayer expense. Once a beacon of hope and freedom for the rest of the world, Ampora is now a virtual dictatorship: its people spied on by Mailfor's sixteen intelligence agencies, its political and judicial processes reduced to mere rubber stamps for presidential whim. Corruption abounds, scandals break out almost daily, the budget is running a massive deficit, energy costs are soaring, and pension and health funds are being plundered to 'balance the books'. Environmental protection is pointless if the world is about to end, of course, so the planet is being strip mined and polluted by Ampora corporations more interested in elevating their shareholder value and Executive Remuneration Packages than taking care of the world HE created. Odd position, that! Do they not fear HIS retribution? Clearly the 'Book of Devine Disclosure' is not all things to all Amporans.
Ampora has come a long way since the West was defeated. Yet, though it was reconciled politically, the country as a whole failed to address the question I posed at the start. The 'West' was never completely integrated into the Commonwealth of Ampora, because the Federal nature of the country permitted them to run their own affairs, regardless of the manner in which the majority of the population preferred. As a result, the religious leaders there had the freedom to construct their own power base and bide their time - one hundred and ten years, in fact - until a 'reformed' drunk, sociopath and womaniser, who had grown up with an absent father and an overbearing mother, spontaneously fell to his knees, found religion, and then rose over time to lead the nation.
If there's one bright spot to be found on the horizon, it could be that the Western Council of Truth's view of the future, as laid out, supposedly, in the 'Book of Devine Disclosure', runs contrary to HIS wishes. In which case, there will be no wiggle room for interpretation, this time around!
