The Invisible Sign

My First Fairy Tale

It’s been a long, long time since I heard my first one, but to the best of my recollection, it was about “The Tooth Fairy.”

That tooth was so loose that my mother feared I might swallow it in my sleep. So, rather than bribe me outright, or wrestle me onto the sofa and yank it, she told me that if she pulled it out and put it beneath my pillow, the tooth fairy would take it and give me money for it.

The catch to this entire bribery thing is that I had no bloody idea what a fairy was, let alone a tooth fairy. (Was it a tooth that could ambulate? Or some gay dude that collects teeth? These things should be explained to children before telling them these stories.)

So now I not only had the fear of having my tooth yanked from my head, but of some strange creature snatching it from beneath my pillow while I was sleeping!

The price per tooth: ten cents!

It was my first lesson in selling body parts!

“How much for an eye, Mom?”

Grown-Up Fairytales

Those are the real fairytales! The half-truths and often outright lies that encourage patriotism and “true citizenship,” all forms of statolatry!

All around the world are slogans like:

• United States: “The American Dream” — Anyone can succeed through hard work.
• Canada: “The world’s most welcoming multicultural society.“
• United Kingdom: “Fair play and class doesn’t matter anymore“
• France: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
• China: “National rejuvenation through unity and hard work.”
• Russia: “Russia is uniquely destined to protect traditional civilization.”
• Japan: “Harmony and lifelong dedication benefit everyone.”
• Australia: “Everyone gets a fair go.”

“You can be ANYTHING you want to be! You can have it all — and a bag of chips! All you have to do is try.”

“The Old Lie”

Too many times have men and women learned the truth behind the Latin maxim that Wilfred Owen referred to as The Old Lie: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.“

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. (Wilfred Own-about war)

The origin is found in Odes, Book III, Ode 2, written around 23 BC; Horace encouraged the Roman virtues of courage, military service, and devotion to the state, reflecting the Roman belief that courage and sacrifice for the state were virtues honored by the gods.

In my opinion, to coin such a phrase requires a statolatry that gives one a peculiarly bent and particularly obtuse perspective of life.

An Honorable Death?

The past five decades (50 years) alone reveal a modest estimate of 15-20 million deaths due to armed conflicts.

• Vietnam War (ending 1975): ~1–3 million
• Cambodian genocide and associated conflicts: ~1.7–2.2 million
• Soviet-Afghan War: ~1–2 million
• Iran-Iraq War: ~500,000–1 million
• Second Congo War and aftermath: ~5 million or more (mostly indirect deaths)
• Sudanese civil wars: several million combined
• Syrian Civil War: ~600,000+
• Tigray War: estimates range from several hundred thousand to around one million
• Yemen War: several hundred thousand, with many deaths due to famine and disease
• Ukraine War: hundreds of thousands of deaths, with estimates continuing to evolve.

Do you? Does any sane person count this number as “honorable”? Or is it not rather tragic, given the reasons for which they died, and the outcomes that it led to?

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

There is a very simple answer to that question:

“Because we don’t want to!”

Humanity does not merely tolerate war—we prepare for it, fund it, celebrate it, and teach each generation why its enemies deserve to die.

Born with the flag wrapped around our heads, we are taught to revere our heroes, decorate those who can kill the most, raise accolades to those who are “brave” enough to kill and smart enough not to be killed.

“In 2025 alone, UCDP recorded 65 state-based armed conflicts, the highest annual number since its post-1945 records began. Thirteen met its definition of a war by causing at least 1,000 battle deaths during the year.”

Since February 24, 2022, more than one million people have been killed directly in wars and organized armed conflicts around the world. The complete war-related death toll, including indirect deaths, pushes that number substantially higher. Possibly as high as two million!

Around the world, people are murdering one another in the streets because of ideology and politics. Increasing numbers of our children have taken to murdering their classmates and teachers!

The Expendables

Does it not appear that certain numbers of people are expendable, and certain numbers of deaths are expected and acceptable to our leaders?

According to the CDC:

• Over a 10-year period, there were roughly 370,000–400,000 deaths from motor vehicle crashes. Should the government ban driving?
• Every month, smoking kills about as many Americans as an entire year’s worth of traffic fatalities. Should the government ban tobacco?
• Annually, deaths resulting from homicide and other violent crimes range between 20 to 21 thousand. About three quarters of those are gun related. Has the government banned guns?

Do you honestly believe that the government can bring the changes needed to curb just those numbers, alone? Not to mention the other ways we find to kill ourselves, and one another.

Will Governments and Religions Ever Change People? Will They Ever Bring People Together?

What a ridiculous question! Of course they will. They bring people together all the time…and have them murder one another for the very reasons mentioned above!

Deuteronomy 32:5 speaks to us, all of humanity, in what is called “The Song of Moses.”

“They are the ones who have acted ruinously. THEY ARE NOT HIS CHILDREN, the defect is their own. They are a crooked and twisted generation!”

If we want the world to be a better place, then we have to be better persons!

National borders, political parties, divided party lines, personal and political ideologies, religions, sects, schisms, the total moral degradation on display worldwide, etc. ALL OF THESE ARE MAN-MADE DIVISIONS: Selfish behaviour caused by mundane and selfish reasoning.

And we ask, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

The answer is simple:

Because We Believe In Fairytales!