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The song whispers to you that you are powerful,
intelligent and are worthy of devotion and attention and
that others who are not selected for such prominence simply
do not understand your attraction to the song.
The Pied Piper of the song, winks and smiles at you as
you grasp the subtleties of what the song is demanding of
you but yet, you want to be seduced by the song because it
is so enticing to see yourself enveloped in its cocoon of
power, perks and privileges that few other mortals will ever
exercise or know.
You look around and see the few others like you, who
also are starry eyed about their being selected for this
adventure of power and influence by the Pied Piper.
The Pied Piper sees your soul and takes measure of your
character and plays melody after melody that entrances you.
And you justify to yourself that all is well and what you
are about to undertake is worth it all.
You swallow hard and convince yourself that you are
making a rcorrect decision and that one day you will receive
praise, glory and honor for following this Pied Piper…a
Piper you later find out is a collector of lost souls.
But for now, in the moment, you abandon all rational
thought and throw your conscience to the wind and take up
your bed and bowl and follow this Pied Piper.
After all, what could be so damaging than obeying your
instincts and following your destiny of power and glory and
honor?
Others are doing it and they seem to be rational
persons whose resumes are studded with business successes
and academic honors and awards!
Surely such a luminous crowd could not be cajoled into
doing anything which is repugnant or ill-advised or a cause
for shame?
But. The Pied Piper plumbs the depths of your
conscience and morality and senses that you are “ripe” for
the picking and would be a devout follower. That you would
be willing to compromise when necessary and always, without
a doubt, to consistently tell yourself and others that the
song of the Piper is of value and worth; and since you have
hitched your stars to his song, you also are of worth and
value.
The Pied Piper deftly and astutely plays his
mind-numbing melodies and you swoon to their enticing
embrace and as you travel the road of this Piper, you,
without discernment, start to shed values and beliefs that
have guided you all your adult life.
And yet, this Piper with his powers of charisma and
persuasion, transforms you into his liking and image and
you, now somewhat lost and without the sure footings of a
moral compass, nervously smile and say to yourself for the
hundredth time, “It is alright. Every will work out OK.”
But it does not work out. And everything is not fine.
You find yourself beginning to parrot the awkward lines of
the Piper. You begin to think in gray hues and not clear
black and white tones as to what is right and what is wrong.
Situations arise that in your former, “Pre-Pied Piper
Days”, you would assiduously take a stand against. Now you
quibble about what is clearly amoral, unjust or unkind.
Now you let the unkind remark or the bully-like
commentary pass thinking you will address it later in
private with the Pied Piper but time passes and you fail to
do so…just like so many other similar situations that you
allow to sit and fester and rip at your conscience.
The Pied Piper sees this and smirks and laughs at your
moral peccadilloes and tells you to that his facts are true
and everything else is labeled, “FAKE NEWS” or, “those
others” are conducting a witch hunt against him and he is
being victimized.
You flinch and winch at being inculcated with such
gibberish but you see others are also in lock step with the
Piper and you do not want to lose their support and
comraderie; and so you quiet the shouting inner voice that
says, “Say something now!”
You look up and the Pied Piper has spied you out and
the devilish glint in his eyes tells you that he has just
devoured a piece of your honor and integrity and he knows
(and you do too!) that you will not stand up and protest.
You, in quiet anguish and desperation, look around the
table and see that your fellow followers eyes are now
empty of compassion or humanity. They are simply sitting
and staring in soul less wonder at their Piper, Donald
Trump.
At that moment, your memory turns to the Book of Genesis
when Satan in the Garden of Eden, corrupted the Word of God
by telling Eve, that God lied about the tree of good and
evil and she will in fact not die as God told her, if she
eats the apple.
The Piper, still taking stock of your moral discomfort,
laugh and says, “I alone can fix it!”
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
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