Gloliath Lieth, 'Harassment!'

The Giant Gloliath is not tall; but her armor is. Her armor intimidates the many, and lures in the few to join her ruling syndicate of pirates. She has only appeared tall because of her gigantic powers and unchecked prerogatives. Impunity abetted by her minions has put everyone, including those mindless minions, under her thumb. They are the majority in the Lower House of the Palace Minions; but there is in that Lower Body a significant minority of brave, hardworking souls, who have succeeded in turning what would have been eliminated as real check-and-balance obstacles to her whims into mere inconveniences, mere aberrations in the reign of impunity she had established long ago and blissfully gotten used to for almost a full decade.

Some of these minority solons are hardworking, searching for the Truth under the veils of secrecy, through the holes inadvertently left by the arrogantly overconfident Phillistines. With the Truth in their hand, they muster enough courage to shout it from the mountaintops, risking the ire of the “Giant” Vindictive Bully.

But wait, we now see this heavily-armored bully shedding crocodile tears in a theatrical performance to demonize her foes and win sympathy for herself from the ranks of the unthinking and the intimidated. The empress is also an actress. She could suppress her laughter beyond a full minute after delivering such difficult lines for her to say as “I’m sorry…” Impunity really works!

Gloliath is now crying ‘foul!’ She is saying she has been subjected to harassment by the young shepherd David (who looks a bit like Joan of Arc), who is armed with twin weapons: the Truth in the form of a formidable rock; and Courage in the form of a sling held by a fragile but firm hand. David has dared stand up to face the ever-bullying Gloliath. And the latter is showing signs of worry. The patterns of perjury, impunity and amnesia might not hold this time.

Instead of just watching, the audience may decide to do something else this time to frustrate the
bully’s gameplans. They may rally behind the few heroes and heroines in the legislative and judicial bodies. outside government, in their communities, in the Acedeme, everywhere.

Many people in the audience have been gradually awakening to the imperative of ending their audience role and getting onstage to join the fray, where their own big stakes lie. The electoral circuses won’t be able to distract and stop them. They recall having actually done this before, with an earlier batch of heroes and heroines.

The current suspense is not about this duel between David and Gloliath. It is about what the audience might decide to do.

"readdingz"
01-10-10