The Days Of Our Decay

‘What is the correct and proper way to engage with reality?’ I asked importantly, ‘kindly provide me with the appropriate and valuable information’. I spoke briskly, being full of the easy confidence that always comes with delusion. I spoke out of turn perhaps – maybe even a tad impatiently – but all the same, I meant no harm. Or at least, not too much. I was a sincere seeker – of sorts. I should have seen my doom approaching, even then – it approached with a heavy foot, as befits such a portentious manifestation of an unfortunate destiny. One’s doom doesn’t always approach with heavy feet of course – sometimes it tiptoes lightly, as befits a fate that is due to befall one without any warning. The ways of the world are many and varied and I for one am not prepared to claim that I have all the answers. I have some of them it is true, but the ones I have tend to be red herrings – extraordinarily vivid in colour to be sure, but disappointing when it comes to flavour. ‘What is the right and correct way to approach reality?’ I ask astutely, taking my place amongst those who, like me, wish to remain anonymous. Experts run forward eagerly to offer advice – emissaries of a surreal officialdom that very few of us are prepared to question in this degenerate age of ours. They wear spangled body suits and pork pie hats and they move in unison; they sway sinuously in harmony with an unearthly music, a music that emanates mysteriously from the cracks and crevices of the sullen earth. They have their part to play, and we can all respect that. Great honour is due them for this. Murky figures can be seen moving in the half-light, writing reports and conducting audits. They are beings lost in the mists of antiquity – symbols of an orthodoxy long since vanished from this world. They are the ghosts in the hard drive, they are the undead, denied any rest. They are the joyless slaves of a cruel fate. We were all alive once, although we cannot remember it. We were not always as we are now – once, it is said, we were creatures of Light, denizens of the Real World, denizens of the True World. Lies were not always our staple – our hearts were buoyant once, our vision true. Then came the days of our long decline, of course. Then came the days of our decay, the days of our degeneracy; now we are trapped in a dark and frightful dream we cannot wake from. The past stands over us, its long bony finger held out accusingly, reminding us of our ancient guilt. ‘Will we ever learn?’ you want to know. ‘Will we ever learn?’

 

Image – wallpapersden.com
 

 

 

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