The old cleric's unbelievable story

The year is 2050. Two clerics are sitting in the shade of the mosque. The old cleric is being pestered by the young cleric to tell him about the rise and fall of the Western Empire. The old cleric was a young cleric himself back in 2013 and he had a clear recollection of the times.

“It all started when the great infidel decided to supply weaponry to the rebel army in Syria” mused the old man, “Although the Syrian leader was something of an oppressor, those who opposed his rule were a mixed bunch which included sincere revolutionaries, but also varying groups of radical terrorists who were really just spoiling for a fight against officialdom.

“The westerners meanwhile had an uneasy alliance with the Middle East. They were hugely dependant on petroleum. Although they had the technology at the time to produce fuel cell motors that ran on hydrogen, big business, politics and the oil industry were so inextricably linked they had always put off the giant step to free themselves from their dependence on the combustion engine.

“On the surface America appeared to be very wealthy country, but its government ran current account deficits to the tune of trillions of dollars annually and the nation was morally bankrupt. When the oil ran out, so did their resolve.”

The young cleric wondered about the decline in morals.

“Historians trace it back to a time in the 1950’s when a woman named Madeline Murray O’Hare convinced the United States supreme court that it should ban prayer in schools. Mrs O’Hare was later murdered by one of her associates, but by then moral teachings had been well and truly abandoned.

“Researchers also talk of another guru called Dr Spock who persuaded them not to discipline their children when they misbehaved in case it damaged their self esteem. After Dr Spock’s own son committed suicide he recanted this advice, but by then it was too late.  Whole generations grew up without any self control.

“They decided young girls could have abortions without telling their parents, condom machines were placed in high schools, magazines were printed showing undressed females and young children were placed on the internet in provocative poses. They broadcast music with satanic themes that encouraged rape, drug taking, murder, and suicide. Young people killed strangers, their classmates and themselves. Their film industry distributed films worldwide that were profane, violent and encouraged illicit sex.

“Even one of their presidents set new low standards. A married man, he was found out doing unmentionable things with a young Jewish girl at his place of work, but when some of his colleagues endeavoured to have him thrown out of office the general populace rose up in support saying whatever is done in private was no one else’s business.

“Apparently their God saw only what they did in public.

“One country, New Zealand, was known as “God’s own” and indeed it was a blessed place. A temperate climate meant pastures grew like weeds and they produced an abundance of food, most of which they exported to the world. Yet despite this, many of its citizens had to access food banks to feed their starving families.

“The westerners had an economic grouping they called the OECD which they used to measure their performances against each other. It revealed that New Zealand had the highest rate of juvenile theft, youth suicide and cannabis use.

“In 2003 they legalised prostitution despite the fact that European countries, specifically France, passed laws that very same year, banning it. They had already passed legislation encouraging young people to drink alcohol.”

“But surely,” persisted the young cleric, “The women of this blessed country would have stood firm and demanded that these law changes did not take place.”

“That was the perplexing part,” said the old cleric, “At the time the country was run by women. They had a woman prime minister, a woman governor-general, a woman attorney-general and a woman chief justice.”

“What about their clerics and their ayatollahs?” said the younger of the two,

“Wouldn’t they have protested?”

“Their silence was deafening,” said the older man, “I suspect they were suppressed by their own communion wine. It was known that some of their lot, mercifully only a few, even found solace in young boys.”

The young cleric decided enough was enough and picked up his prayer mat and proceeded into the Mosque to bow to the east and pray to Allah. He passed the huge statue of Osama bin Laden and briefly enjoyed the cool shadow it cast. Arabia was full of such statues and all of them bore the same inscription: “The Power of One.”

He knew the senior cleric was prone to exaggeration and inclined to embellish his stories. Most of what he had just told him, he decided, could not possibly be kosher.

But he loved the old man’s entertaining way with words; perhaps one day he would be told the real truth.

“By our own act we were drained of morality, of volition, of responsibility, like dead leaves in the wind.”                                            -  T. E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom.