The Buddha of Bernicia – Part Five

The Man Who Would be Emperor

 

The buddha reveals each lesson according to the level of attention afforded by the student; or: how the ability to reason through a subject affords relief from many an oppression.

“[…] Man’s vanity may well approach the infinite in capacity but his knowledge remains imperfect and howevermuch he comes to value his judgements ultimately he must submit them before a higher court. Here there can be no special pleading. Here are considerations of equity and rectitude and moral right rendered void and without warrant and here are the views of the litigants despised. Decisions of life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar all question of right. In elections of the magnitudes are all lesser ones subsumed, moral , spiritual, natural.

Tobin shook his head. You’ve a blasphemous tongue, Holden. And in truth I was never a priest only a novitiate to the order.
Journeyman priest or apprentice priest, said the judge. Men of god and men of war have strange affinities.”  Blood Meridian by Conor McCarthy, 1982.

Previous episodes – Part One – If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

Part Two – The Raw Milk Magic Mushroom Assassin

Part Three – What’s the Matter with Bob?

Part Four – Don’t Let the Truth Get in the Way of the Legend

And so we reach the denouement of our salutary tale, a sorry saga characterised by a mirrored reality that was befuddled in the smoke of the eponymous buddha.

In this episode, the author considers the following aspects of the sixteen year old saga,

Airy promises – the Great British Mortgage Swindle (TGBMS) – from nothing comes nothing – Free Beer Tomorrow – Sweet FA – the Good ship UCT – a ghost ship with no cargo and now no crew – a tendency to see others as a reflection of me – trust is to be earned not given – All goes back to the individual – we arrive alone, we exit alone – time reveals – a false friendship will inevitably fall apart – being wary of wishful thinking – a Willing Victim who only heard what he wanted to hear? – the Cult leader – E-coli poisoning – the Grandiosity of a Fictional Assassination Attempt – from UCT to FUCT – a false emperor’s empty vehicle.

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