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Act 2 Scene 2 Broadway Monkey’s

In F# - Just had a flash - And an intuition... This should be reprised at the end of The Debate.. as the crowd degenerates into a mob

That gives the following Séance poignancy as Wallace apologizes, explaining to Darwin that apart from the biology involved and the science before our eyes, some men require a belief, a mythology, a dream

Clearly defined roles, some for the less evolved/conscious if you will, and even those highly refined people that need reassurance and sustenance for their souls whatever form that might be…

Preacher:

Statesmen:

Scientist:


Conditions on the ground…Tell us once again
you can spiral up or spiral down…

God in his infinite wisdom created our society
upon clearly defined roles
king and courtiors, ladies in waiting
soldiers, shop-keepers, sailors and thieves
peasants and proles

  what the culture thought of evolution
told from the point of view of the upper class
Chaos anarchy etc.
Including the more liberal views of slavery bad but work houses and child labour good

And the view of the masses
Potential for democracy – a better social and economic life not constrained by arbitrary privilege and position…  class and race if you will…

 

Evolution associated with socialism and anarchy           vignettes of hostility and envy
Fear of disrupting orderly society                                  vignettes of fear and intolerance
Vestiges – pop science
There is a man among us who won't give out his name
but has written an influential book all the same
called Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
While compelling reading as journalism
it is Darwin unwilling to privately much less publicly
Espouse his theory
Used the younger Hooker for source material

 

(To a variation of patch in heaven called new4-15stoic.cwp)

William IV 1830-37
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
W/ Prince Albert 1840-1861
In seclusion from his death till 1887

Preacher:

Gentlemen,

I ask you to consider what has happened across the channel on the continent

Talk of equality and liberty for all
A ridiculous notion if you ask me
Based on the absurd supposition that we have evolved

Nonsense and hysteria have taken hold and you should be alarmed
For these atheistic rabble would replace God in his heaven, and the king on his throne, with the unity of all life
good and evil, heaven and hell - with the unity of life here on earth...

What about our sacred souls
What about our noble history
What about the divine right of kings
And nobility…

Power and priviledge are at stake
Comfort and congeniality
Manners and decorum are all in the balance

Long live England
The king on his throne and God in his heaven
This alone is eternal

 

 

This is not the warm and fuzzy topic of taxidermy
Neatly catalogued and affixed with pins and killing jars
Stuffing the ballots into the body politic
as thick as maggots on our corpse...

Statesmen:

This island is small and swarming
With a surplus population
We too many mouths to feed and not enough land to provide for our progeny...

Overflowing with rabble and criminals. we do what we can

So we send them to the far reaches of the globe
Like Army ants in the guise of men...
To police and to promote our superior way of life in the dark regions of the world
Send our criminals to Australia and our best and brightest to India
Ring the world with the finest Navy on Earth
And the sun will never set on our Empire
It is better to send them off to wars and ship them to the colonies
then to have them plot against our way of life here at home...

 

 

Exposition to the tune Broadway Monkeys 4/9/2007

I ask you to consider for a moment
Politely and with all due respect                        ‘Gradually less so
Chaos, Anarchy, Socialism
Where is the order in that                                 The crowd response nonsense and lies
from those that control our lives

Rabble in the street                                                       ‘ but you’ve got to know the territory
The great unwashed masses rising up
With out moral compass
Code or order
With out leadership or example
They will destroy the state


Gentlemen, mark my words
A flood tide is at our gates
Treason, Sedition, Populism

Evolution,
They might as well be Broadway monkeys indeed

God, in His wisdom
Created all things in heaven and on earth

It is rubbish to suppose
Life self created and unleashed
Probabilistic nonsense at best

CM, C7, C-7, C%, Cdim
God has placed everyone
exactly where they stand
in the great and glorious plan of creation...

My dear friends, my good people, look at the world surrounding us
listen to the news from accross the channel
have you heard the news from across the sea
Liberty Equality Fraternity
if you ask me
Chaos Squalor Fratricide
the breakdown of order
the wisdom of a mob
we should be vigilent
and stop the coming tyranny of the scientific dilletante
before it takes hold of the popular imagination of the lower classes
How do we do that?

This pernicious nonsense of evolution
makes a man dissatisfied with his God Given
place in the grander scheme of things
It is right and just that the lion                                     ‘image of barrister being set upon by pick pockets
is king of all that  he surveys
we can’t have mere rabbits
filing their teeth in revolutionary rage

and God in His infinite love and mercy
has a plan for you and me
we can freely choose belief and devotion
or burn for all of eternity

believe they’ll grow carnivorous,

to challenge these heavenly ways

toppling the natural order

God would not stand for that

believing they can grow teeth
and upset the natural order

You Sir Be careful what you say,
the authorities will come take you away
for unreasonably raising the expectations of the poor and the meek
this is the world as I know it

Listen here, What do you think you are doing
Upsetting these good people needlessly
they have nothing in this life and
nothing to hope for short of eternity
it is cruel to kick that prop out from under their lives

Say Brother,
can you spare a paradigm
a simple truth - some logic - a lie
perhaps some reason and rhyme...

\\
Spencer  Absurd, Meaningless, Inconceivable

Unknowable / Untenable

Order, Piety, Stability                          ‘Privilege
Manners, Decorum, Institutions

Perception / Conception
B&W   and grays / grace

Attack of the Broadway Monkeys
Like Ionesco’s Rhinoceros
The rabble in the crowd – turning into monkeys
As they dance and sing            the imperative of empire
an imperial world view
unsustainable growth / extermination
obsession with dynasty - where we come from

Taxidermy - stuffing the body politic

lineage divine right of kings - property and politics
the fossil record - the forged links of a predetermined chain
destiny - are we our biology
evolution of the species/ the marketplace/ the soul
Intermission

 

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Thomas Scott Nelson ©
last modified September 5, 2020