The Question (A Parable from The Apocalypse)

The Question

If you found out the world was going to be thrown into darkness and destruction, and that you were the cause of it, what would you do?

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

A nation once great that is now slowly dying?

Was it all worth fighting for? Was it all your right?

Were you weeping for friends while the missiles were flying?

Now the children are dead, the men have all fled

Echo through the night do the sounds of pure dread

So tell me, does the star-spangled banner still wave?

Are we the land of the free and the home of the brave?

If you knew that what seemed to promise light and goodness and peace was actually what doomed you, what would you do? Would you run in fear from it? Would you stand your ground and stay in your peril? Or would you not care at all?

On the shores of our land, the nations cried out

For justice against those who murdered and killed them

At the end of our guns, a cry for mercy ensued

But no one was list'ning to the cries of their brothers

We killed our children, we killed babies and then

Threw ourselves into the deep, dark devil's den

Do we deserve a star-spangled banner to wave

O'er our land of the free and our home to the brave?

If you knew that millions of children were dying or about to die within your own nation, what would you do? If you knew that your obsession with sex or alcohol or drugs would hurt you, would you try to change? If you knew that your pride and arrogance would cause people to hate you for your actions, would you change them?

And where is the band who spread cheap lies

Or the men in our lives, who so willingly gave in

Hating those who were diff'rent, on all colors and sides

And those who were of the only religion

They are dead in their graves, dead in their shame

Possessions packed high, symbols of poor gain

Why should the star-spangled banner still wave

O'er a land full of greed and now full of shame?

If you knew that your decisions affected those around you, for good or ill, would you be more careful how you made them? If you knew you couldn't take any of your stuff with you when you die, would you still keep your possessions or your money? If you knew that hating anyone, regardless of reason, was a desire to murder, would you still hate others?

Oh, will you not see? We have ruined ourselves

We have walked like blind men into our desolation

Will we finally learn? Will we continue to delve

Into our dark souls and into our degeneration?

America has died, and no one ever tried

To prevent our families being borne on lies

Oh, regardless, Americans will still blame

Others for the death of the land of the free

And the home of the brave...

An apocalypse the likes of which would horrify all those that hear this broadcast, has come. This recording is from the day the world was engulfed in hellfire, hatred, violence and war, borne on the self-righteous minds of a nation three hundred million strong. I've sent this message from the future; the future that you are headed for. I speak from a bunker three miles below the surface of the United States, amidst people who are so petty and blind that they never saw the end coming. Our way of life and our foolish choices caused it, and now that we are living our worst nightmare, everyone around me agrees that we deserve it. Our judgment day, our fall of man, our endgame, has come. And now, we can only imagine that God himself is punishing us, as we will at the end of time. Perhaps the End Times are upon us. And there is nothing we can do now; except wait, pray, and hope that we can start over. The world as we know it has ended. Our ways have poisoned the Earth; our choices have poisoned our souls. An apocalypse has come, one that has nothing to do with who was president or who had the nukes--it is an apocalypse from within, of our own making.

If anyone out there hears this message, I want to ask you a final question. If you knew that your own selfish heart is the ultimate enemy of all that is right, and that your decisions could easily bring about a future like the one I come from. My decisions helped to bring about the doom of our world. I know this... because I am you. I am the person sitting next to you on the bus home from high school. I am that homeless man on the corner. I am the highest ruler; I am the lowest plowboy. I am everyone who was arrogant and corrupt and selfish and a fool. I am you, reader, from the future.

So, younger, more foolish, more arrogant me, what have you learned? What are you going to do to prevent this awful future from ever happening? Will you fall on your knees and pray for forgiveness? Will you change your heart towards others? Will you work to focus on what is truly important, not who's right about Star Wars, or how you look, or what people think of you, or how rich you are? Will you realize that you are not God?

What have you learned, reader?

The End

(Or is it? That is up to you...)

equalitybeforethelaw

SofiTheWriter

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