Yesterday my wife and I saw a production of Verdi's "Falstaff" - great opera. The production notes contained this comment, which got me to thinking.
"Yes Falstaff is a scoundrel and yes, he ultimately gets his comeuppance, but Kazaras {the director} believes - if we're being honest with ourselves - that there is a little Falstaff in all of us. 'The concept behind the prodcution,' he says, 'is to remember that whether it's an audience member, whether it's an orchestra member, or whether it's a stage hand, or singer onstage, everybody is human. We all do the same great and stupid things, and anybody who denies it is a liar.'"
The WTBS, with its endless rules, regulations, JC's, shunning etc is trying to eliminate that basic human condition from within its members. No one is allowed anything less than perfection - even this side of the Big A. The smallest infraction of the rules results in elimination from within the organization. But in an effort to eliminate the negative, they've destroyed the positive. A complete absence of hatred sounds worthy, but not at the simultaneous removal of love. They try to end sorrow and stop joy with the same sweep of rules. Where there is no chance of great failure, neither is there the possibility of great success.
In an effort to make everybody the same, the WTBS has created a grey mass of mediocre sameness, a loss of identity, a destruction of their members God given right to be themselves.
At least when people like Beksbks, and Farkel, and Bizzy Bee, and Burntheships, and Villabolo and I (among many) are throwing rocks at each other over some damn thing or another; we all know everybody's alive.
I don't think the same could be said of a KH.