Running Forward

  

 

 “Is there anyone left with any integrity? Anyone at all? I ask myself that on an almost daily basis,” she says, despairingly." 

-  Shirley Manson from a Spin review of Garbage's 7th (2021) release: No Gods No Masters. (Note: Louis Auguste Blanqui, a 17th century socialist and anarchist, coined the phrase “ni dieu ni maître”—neither god nor master—in reference to the "world order" he envisioned. After that, it became a slogan used by different groups and individuals throughout history. See: the Wiki entry. )

Another quote from Manson:

"If they ever kill me for anything that I ever say, just know I lived in truth."

 

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The video above - Garbage's No Horses - borrows from Margaret Atwood's harrowing modern classic: The Handmaid's Tale... a novel I deliberately avoided reading at the time because it represented a dark place I'd already visited in my worse nightmares and had no compulsion to revisit. Moreover, it was loosely based on historical truth... and not a pleasant one!

Basically, in the story, a group of patriarchal, Old Testament religious fanatics take over a country (in this case, America), stripping women of many human rights - reading, writing, owning property, handling money (sound familiar?) - and forcing those few (the Handmaids) who remained fertile - apparently some form environmental pollution caused mass sterility - to bear children for the State.

That story.

Another story:

"At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307 - a date sometimes incorrectly linked with the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition - King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested. The arrest warrant started with the words: Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume ("God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom") Claims were made that during Templar admissions ceremonies, recruits were forced to spit on the Cross, deny Christ, and engage in indecent kissing; brethren were also accused of worshiping idols, and the order was said to have encouraged in homosexual practices. These allegations, though, were highly politicized without any real evidence...

... As for the leaders of the order, the elderly Grand Master Jacques de Molay, who had confessed under torture, retracted his confession. Geoffroi de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, also retracted his confession and insisted on his innocence. Both men were declared guilty of being relapsed heretics, and they were sentenced to burn alive at the stake in Paris on 18 March 1314. De Molay reportedly remained defiant to the end, asking to be tied in such a way that he could face the Notre Dame Cathedral and hold his hands together in prayer. According to legend, he called out from the flames that both Pope Clement and King Philip would soon meet him before God. His actual words were recorded on the parchment as follows:

"Dieu sait qui a tort et a péché. Il va bientot arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort"

(God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Soon a calamity will occur to those who have condemned us to death). 

Pope Clement died only a month later, and King Philip died in a hunting accident before the end of the year."

- Via the Wiki entry for the Knights Templar.

 

Happy Friday the 13th!