Imagine
Imagine a world with no dance;
A world of silence
Filled only by prayer,
Where no music stirs the soul.
Conceive a world without fashion
Or cosmetics.
Where women are hidden
Behind the bars
Of a social prison.
Think of a world where history is denied
But which is trapped
Within a medieval system
Of primitive law.
Envisage a world without sport
Or fun.
Where entertainment
Is a sin.
Visualise a world where science
Is denied,
Ruled by superstition
And words written in ages past.
Picture a world where society
Celebrates slavery, martyrdom,
Mutilation and death.
There are those who believe
God demands a drab
And soulless life
Based on mindless recitation
And total acceptance.
I am not one of these.
Opher 16.5.2016
Imagine
Fundamentalism is a contagious disease that is inherited through a vaccination of ignorance, as one generation injects the venom into their children.
Once someone accepts that every word of their holy book is sacred, is the exact word of god, must be taken literally and acted upon, they are lost.
It is the end of tolerance and freedom. There is no discussion.
Once a parent believes that they have the right, in fact the imperative, to brainwash their children into the same doctrine, they are all lost. There is no doubt or questioning.
Once a person accepts that the only truth is the version they hold and all other ‘truths’ are wrong we are on the road to division, hatred and war.
Once a person believes that women a lesser breed and should be segregated, hidden away, disabused of rights and freedoms, and always hidden from male gaze, we have abuse.
Once someone denies science, entertainment, music, sport and dance we are heading for a totalitarian fascism.
Once we have a regime that accepts mutilation, torture, slavery, arbitrary execution and martyrdom we have a society without human rights.
Fundamentalism is a scourge of insanity that needs opposing in all its forms.
The world I want to live in is alive with fun, beauty, tolerance, variety, fairness, freedom, awe, wonder and justice.