Then one of the angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings of the Earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on Earth have become drunk."
And he carried me away in spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication, and on her forehead was written a name of great mystery: "Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots and of Earth's Abominations."
And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
2 comments:
So we get to the Great Harlot of Babylon. Who/what is she? first of all she's not a prostitute in ten literal sense. She clad in purple and jewels -- far too pricey a get up for a street trollop. And purple -- made from the glands of slaughtered Mediterranean shellfish -- is the colour of Emperors. The picture is complete when she is labeled Babylon the Great.
The threat of Empire is not in its armies of occupation, not in the violence, the murder rape and pillage, not in the rows of resistance fighters crucified along the highway. The true threat is the threat of seduction: pay me tribute, pay lip service to the God-Emperor -- and we can have a pleasant little time together.
Well, those other things sound threatening enough. But yeah, we're probably considering those aspect of empire that offer to suck one in. The working girls out front here are sometimes funny-looking, and they aren't wearing purple & jewels... but as an enticement to a little fun & a lot of trouble, this is what an empire looks like, baby!
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