- Opinion
- 02 Aug 05
Recent events may have caused us to ask ourselves what level of passion, commitment and all-consuming belief does a person need in order to die the horrific death of a suicide bomber. But, Bootboy muses, are they the only people who truly care about anything these days?
When was the last time you believed in anything? Really believed, really knew in your heart and soul that something was true? That sort of truth is not easy to come by. Look around you. In this godless world, no one believes in anything. No one stands for anything. The profit motive – that’s the only thing left that drives people, the relentless drive to possess, to exploit, to control. No one is truly selfless any more. Doesn’t it disgust you? Aren’t you ashamed at how tawdry and plastic the world has become?
It’s nothing to do with you? No?
Think again. You are more powerful than you know. You could change the world. But few people are brave enough to open their minds to that possibility. Few people have the calling.
But, maybe, you might be that rarity, that jewel in the dust. Perhaps, you have that unique spark, deep in your manly heart. Or are you just a boy, like all the others, with your football and your computer games, fighting imaginary battles with cartoon faces, a pretend hero in a pretend world with pretend guns? Are you one of those street kids hanging around corners smoking dope and thinking you’re cool? Where’s the glory in that? Where’s the meaning? You know that is no special life. You know that is not the way to make your dreams come true.
But what dreams have you had? Have you ever wondered, when you die, what part you will have played in the greater scheme of things? What mark you will have made? Will people remember you, or will they have forgotten you after a few months? Will anyone know your name, and know what you stood for? You boys never think about death, faith, or God, what really matters; just about football and sex. But women never give you what you really need, do they? There are always strings, there are always demands, there are always conditions. All their talk about feelings... how they want to limit you! How they want to trap you, to tame you, to change you! Are they interested in your dreams? Can’t they see how special you are? Don’t they recognise the power you have inside you? I bet they laugh at you when you speak of such things: scolding, teasing, mocking, humiliating, making you feel small, no? You are better off keeping them away from you. You know the way they make you feel bad, just for wanting respect, for wanting your natural needs to be met? Forget them. They have nothing for you.
What if you were to follow a different path? A secret path, but not a lonely one. If you are lucky enough to be chosen, you will have to keep something close to your heart; something so powerful, so dangerous, so sacred, that only your brothers can be entrusted with it, a bond of trust more intense than you have ever known before. It will be the deepest connection you will have ever experienced – or could ever experience – a brotherhood so intense, so joyful, it will be beyond your wildest dreams.
You will be blood brothers, on a mission so privileged that you could never reveal its truths and purpose to anyone else, until the day of triumph. You will learn new ways of communicating, of understanding, of following.
It will be so dark, so intense, so risky, that you will have to ring-fence it in your mind to be able to contain it, to hold it, without fear, without doubt. We will teach you how. You will learn how to park it in a place so deep in your head that you won’t dare to shine a light on it – even at night you won’t be able to think about it, because your heart will beat so loud you will not sleep.
But think of the rewards, and you will find calm. You will know peace. You will know trust. You will know devotion. That’s love on a level that few people can ever understand; a love of god, a love of your brothers. A love that matters.
You are no longer ordinary. Every cell in your body that has stored the thousand resentments of not being noticed, every nerve ending that has been stung with rejection, every synapse that has registered a snub – they are all forgotten, erased, wiped clean. Anaesthetise yourself from all emotion, innoculate yourself against caring, and only be aware of a deep and glorious justice. Can you imagine it? Do you dare? You will have a secret so shocking, so taboo, it will transform you, electrify you. You will have access to a deep psychic force, a secret knowledge: if you revealed the truth of your task to anyone, they would react so powerfully, so violently to you, that you would never, ever, feel ignored by them again.
But you will keep this pure truth to yourself, so others will only realise how powerful you’ve always been when you choose to reveal it, when the glorious day arrives. Imagine it. They will never forget you. This is no ordinary journey. Yours is no ordinary life. Yours will be no ordinary death.
Once you believe, once you surrender to your destiny, all that petty small-minded shrewish nagging will never get to you again. You will be rewarded – and this is no joke – by sex beyond your wildest dreams; in paradise, women will offer themselves to you for the first time, in joy and gratitude for accomplishing your mission, again and again and again. Never again will you be made feel cheap or small.
So, what’s it to be? Are you man enough to take this path? Are you selfless enough? Have you the nerves of steel it will take to carry it off?
Do you want to know such power, such trust, such love, such joy?
Can you keep this secret?