Oratory

"Brothers and sisters! High life and low life! Thank you for your time and attention, for being here tonight. I know that, for some of you, it cannot have been easy. You have come a long way -- not just in miles travelled, but in years of bloody history -- to reach this point, have overcome centuries of prejudice and pride and suspicion to hear what I have to say, and I am humbled by your vision and courage in doing so. You do me -- you do us all -- a great honour.

"I see some of you looking around at your companions tonight and... wondering. Many of you are cheek by jowl with bitter enemies, or with others you consider beneath notice. Perhaps you are risking death or disgrace just by being in this hall. You are here, and that is unprecedented, but you are uneasy, I know -- and rightly so.

"I am not here to ask you to forget your grievances, nor to cast aside your traditions. Your grudges and hatreds are your own. I would never ask you to abandon who you are -- indeed, I would not respect you if you did.

"Nevertheless, we have work to do.

"An opportunity will shortly present itself that is unlike any this city has seen in a thousand years, an opportunity that can and should enrich us all -- but could instead see our great nations languish in darkness forever!

"We cannot let this chance pass by. We must not let it fall to our enemies.

"Our enemies.

"You may think your enemies are in this room -- and in many cases you would be right. I see before me many people with good reason to hate one another, and if any one of you were killed right now at least half the remainder would surely rejoice. These people are your enemies -- but they are not our enemies.

"If we do not grasp the opportunity before us, others will. I shall not speak their names; you all know who I mean. Our enemies.

"I can see you are sceptical. Why should you care about them when the object of your blood curse stands right here before you? Why should you risk empowering people you have sworn to destroy, just because of some vague and abstract threat from a world you barely know?

"It is true. Their world and ours have ignored each other so long that we have almost forgotten they intersect. If we were unwary, we might almost imagine we had struck some kind of truce. We go our way, and they go theirs. There hasn't been so much as a skirmish in most of our lifetimes.

"But we are not unwary. We cannot afford to be. If you think you hate that foe across the room, you are wrong. You don't know the meaning of the word hate. Hate is what they feel for us. It is what defines them. Given the slightest opportunity, they would destroy every one of us in a heartbeat. Not just us, individually, but our families, our tribes, our stories, our songs, our entire world. They would erase us. We would never have existed.

"Of course, such a thing is impossible. Has always been impossible. There is an order to the universe, and they are bound to it as much as we. They are our enemies, and we theirs, and there is no more to it than that, and we have grown complacent in that knowledge.

"All that is about to change.

"The power that should be ours could also be theirs, and then everything will be lost. With that power, they would have their way, and we would be gone. With that power, we can not only enrich ourselves, we can destroy our ancient enemy and be free of that threat forever.

"We stand on the brink of a new era. For too long we have allowed ourselves to be distracted from the bigger picture. We have allowed ourselves to be caught up in our own feuds and battles, forgetting that those very battles are part of a world we cherish, forgetting that we might one day need to fight for that world's survival. We can no longer afford that distraction.

"I am not here to ask you to forget your grievances, nor to cast aside your traditions. I am here to ask you to preserve them. I am here to ask you to defend your grudges and hatreds. Your enemies here are part of the texture of our world. If that world is destroyed, yes, your enemies will die, but what sort of victory will it be with no-one left to sing of it?

"Only when this world is safe will victory taste sweet again. Only when they are no more. And only by working together can we ensure that day will come to pass.

"Working together. I know to some of you that may sound like a betrayal of all you hold dear, but I urge you to understand it is not. If your enmities are to have any meaning, you must stand up for them, you must fight to keep them aflame. In time, you will have your revenge. In time, your debts will be paid. But now is not that time. For now, there is a greater purpose.

"Brothers and sisters. High life and low life. Thank you for your time and attention. You have heard what I have to say. The rest is up to you."
Posted by matt at April 26, 2004 05:12 PM