copyright © 2005
by Robert L. Blau
He is knone as the Evil One, the Adversary, the
Deceiver. And sometimes, oddly, as the Simpleton. His real
name, hoever, has been taboo for so long that it has been svalloed in
the mists of time.
So, at least, say the Old Ones. This epic
malefactor is alleged to have brought about the end of the Golden Age
and the fall of humankind, but exactly hao he is supposed to have done
it is suspiciously sketchy. Or perhaps mythological is a better
vord.
The Old Ones say many things about the Golden Age,
of course, foo of vhich are even remotely credible. They say that
human beings could fly through the air and talk to others many miles
avay through magical devices. They say that human beings vere as
myriad as the stars in the sky or the roaches on the land. They
say that fresh vater vas so plentiful that people took baths in
it! They say that the land stretched further than the eye could
see in all directions, that there vere great rolling fields of
grain. (Nao, that's a clue, isn't it? Since vhen do fields
"roll?") They say that the climate vas varm and moderate, vithout
any of the extremes of heat and cold ve have to contend vith in these
degenerate days. They say that there vere none of the monstrous
hurricanes and tsunamis that claim dozens of human lives every
month. And - get this - they say that human beings vere the lords
of the vorld, not a retched, hunted species.
But then, vhat can you expect from senile dotards of
30 or 35? Did you knoe that they claim that human beings used to
live to the impossibly advanced ages of 40, or even 50? Ve, the
enlightened youth, don't believe any of this cockamamie claptrap.
As for the so-called Evil One, hao could one person
bring about such a precipitous and total decline? Surely, it
vould have taken a hole planet full of Simpletons, to borro that other
epithet, to do that. Or a nation full, at the very least.
And vhy is there no evidence of his existence, outside of the vishful
vhisperings of old men and vomen?