A Touch of Mirrim

Behind one thousand mile thick walls it remained night. Futility was a fly pinned to the work table observing an ended eternity. Eternity shall stand, too. The fly watched Mirrim ready her leather apron and gloves so not to get fly-blood on her. With a world of stone outside, no one to hear screams or right injustice, just like real life, the fly had no hope left to lose.

"We were talking," said Mirrim, "I think, about the worthlessness of compassion. It is not the same as empathy, to be sure." Mirrim places a tool box on the table and began to clean her tools. "Be certain that we've never lived in an independent world. There are lives we touch, want it or don't. We are like bubbles of reality colliding into one another and the inevitable encounter changes us and each other. Empathy is important. Empathy is survival. Compassion is weakness."

As Mirrim finished cleaning, she chose a hammer and systematically broke each of the fly's joints. "It's no wonder the sociopath's run the country. I don't mean just this one. They understand the difference. They guard not their earnings, but their winnings by ensuring complacent silence; A stratagem that has proved so effective in this nation that not only is it acceptable for the kings to deceive, it is expected of them. You've heard the saying 'When does a politician lie? When his mouth is open.' That is how you define 'zeitgeist.'"

Next, the saw. "It never ceases to amaze me, human stupidity. Each individual judges another how they would judge them self, which of course is folly. If you look to a homeless man to think, 'How can I help?' or, more likely 'Someone should do something.' you would expect the kings and queens to think the same way. If I had a sense of humor this farce would be most pleasing. The punchline is that people think this over and over despite evidence to the contrary, like refusing to see the roundness of the planet or ignoring the direction of gravity."

"The failure of kings is the faith in their compassion. And the 'backfire effect' is the failure of citizens." Mirrim looked down at her work and saw that it was good.

[Today's segment brought to you by Change (in the house of flies) by the Deftones]