“Once upon a time* . . . a frightened people created a new machine. They made this machine to feel safe. You see, just before, while they were sleeping, bad things came creeping in the night. One even bit many people and took them away.
The machine would protect the people. It would never sleep, never tire, never stop looking at the bad things. The peoples’ warriors with it on the walls and lawgivers would always keep the machine working.
So the people went back to sleep.
After a while their dreams turned scary. Some of them woke up. And they saw why. The machine had grown very big. It no longer stayed on the walls. Some trusted warriors and lawgivers in secret added many links to the machine’s leash. Some did this hoping the growing machine would not attack them. Others wanted to tame the machine for their own plans. And when the machine got hungry, they all closed their eyes. At night the machine would crawl inside. And eat some of the sleeping people.
Those people who woke up and saw all this cried out in fear. Many of their friends and neighbors still slept.
So the small group of people built and gathered around two campfires. To decide what to do. The machine frightened them. The betrayal by the warriors and lawgivers angered them. But some of them also remembered the bad things still outside.
They asked the warriors and lawgivers to sit in the lights. Why did they do this? Some told their story. Some were ashamed and lied. And some were happy with the new machine. They knew the machine got hungry. But they claimed the bad things outside were even bigger than before.
The people around the campfires saw that they were few. So many, many more of their friends still slept. And the machine still prowled around them in the darkness.
A debate lasted all night until the campfires burned out. The people still awake got strength from the new morning sun. They decided to make a new chain. This new chain would be shorter. The machine would stay. They could not unmake it now. But back on the walls. It would not eat sleeping people again. But just in case, because bad things were out there, too, the new chain could be made longer. But only if the lawgivers and warriors asked and got permission. Only then would they get the new chain’s extra links. The machine bowed its head, closed its eyes and let the people put on the new chain. It slowly returned to the wall.
Then the people went back to sleep. And soon came again the scary dreams.
Our friend Comment asks us about a recent item in Salon reporting on potential investigations of ‘abuse of executive power’ by Congress in 2009. Our reaction is threefold.
First, if once is tragedy, second is farce, the third is decadent. The fourth time is without doubt just an NBC prime time reality show.
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* In the mythic sense