part 5

Hello. I suppose we may as well get started, this won’t take very long. I’d like you all to keep in mind this isn’t an ordinary press conference. I don’t hold any public office so I’m not accountable in the same way elected officials are. Today I have a few comments to make and that will be it. If this seems a bit capricious it is. As one of you recently pointed out, I’m drunk with power. Later I’ll order some executions and award myself a bunch of big, shiny medals . . . . Now I’d like to clear up some misconceptions that may exist since my interview with Russ Derickson. None of my positions have changed. I don’t believe in magic. There is nothing supernatural going on here. Some extra-terrestrial entity or entities have taken an interest in human affairs. I have elected to refer to this party with a singular, male, personal pronoun for reasons that are obvious. A sizable chunk of this planet’s population is Christian, Muslim, or non-believers from the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the correspondence of this entity’s activity to that of the old testament Jehovah is so comprehensive that it’s hard to resist the temptation to call him God. Whoever or whatever he is, he remains inaccessible. His agent on Earth is a robot emissary of death. I have had no direct communication with either of them that I am aware of and I have no special insights into their motives or goals. Any comments I make about the activities of the Avatar are my own opinions, nothing more. These activities to date have consisted almost entirely of the systematic execution of people engaged in tribal and sectarian violence of one kind or another. By tribalism I mean any artificially constructed social organization be it ethnic, political, or otherwise, and on any scale from your nation to your neighborhood, although I need to pay special attention to religious zealotry. I’ve read scripture of various flavors and if you throw out the freaking hatred and voodoo they look very much the same to me, all you have to do is look for it. You disregard the common essence of universal themes at your peril. It’s time to grow up and start finding the things we can agree on and use that as a basis for an understanding that we’re all in this together and we need to take care of one another. The following comments are directed primarily at the people who embrace interpretations of their ideology that permit them to commit crimes against their fellow humans but there are implications for all of us beyond the judgments the Avatar makes. Listen carefully. God does not demand devotion. God does not require worship or sacrifices. God can not be bought off by groveling or sucking up. There are no chosen people. God’s favor is not a birthright, it must be earned. This does not require a leap of faith. The activities of God’s agent have made his expectations clear and unambiguous. The Avatar does not discriminate nor does he offer absolution. He decides based on conduct, not ideology, and he doesn’t give a shit where you send your prayers. The time has come to find an effective moral compass and let it inform your life because the Avatar does not render deferred judgement. To ignore this clarion call is to invite having your brain smashed through your skull by the Hammer of God. That’s all I have for today, gentlemen.