I have twice referred to a gaunt man who shouts of some obscure salvation in Centauri on Avalon in Poul Anderson's The People Of The Wind. That detail resonates with our current experience. An Evangelical propagandist tells me that his deity is transforming him from within. If this is so, then I judge that he himself is currently impeding that transformation by over-confidence and arrogance and by propagating divisive falsehoods, accusing some of his hearers of transgressions of which they are certainly innocent. Some of what is said comes from the Devil - to use that apocalyptic language.
"By their fruits you shall know them."
Poul Anderson conveys the sense of street life in many cities past, present, future and extraterrestrial. Walking through Lancaster, I think of Centauri. Shouted salvation is just one detail.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that gaunt man--a pity we don't know what he was shouting about.
I've been accosted by Mormons in the parking lot of the store I do my weekly shopping at. But when I said I am a Catholic one of them gave me what I considered a "hostile" before another Mormon politely excused themselves. An evangelical Protestant missionary accosted me another time.
However wrong Mormons and evangelical Protestants are in many ways, at least they believe in something; nothing like the squishy mush I see from liberal, "mainstream" Protestants.
Ad astra! Sean
People always think that the times they live in are of overwhelming importance; the problem is that that's usually just because the individuals concerned happen to be immersed in the events of their time.
Some times are more important than others. 1914 comes to mind, a series of disasterous accidents bouncing off each other.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, what you wrote in the first paragraph.
How should we classify our personal times, that "we" are living in? Sometimes I think we are continuing to live in the Chaos which began at Sarajevo in 1914. Or are we living in an era of Warring States which will end when some Power overthrows its rivals and unifies the world? Or has the tremendous advances made by Elon Musk/SpaceX in space technology leading to a true Age of Space analogous to the Age of Discovery initiated by Columbus in 1492?
Ad astra! Sean
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