Sci Fi
Shadows and Light
He grew up in the soft hum of stained glass, where sunlight through colored panes made angels dance on the walls. The church was a fortress, its rituals a rhythm that promised safety. Prayer was a language he learned before he could read, and faith was a comfort as sure as his mother’s hand.
By Sound and Spirit19 days ago in Fiction
Pax Imperialis
Every empire tells a story about itself. It claims to be a reluctant hegemon, a civilising force, a guardian of order in a chaotic world. Edward W. Said captured this imperial self-mythology with ruthless clarity when he wrote: ‘Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate.’ The promise is always peace, stability, progress. Yet behind this language of benevolence stands an apparatus of overwhelming violence. Empires do not rule through persuasion alone. They require an ultimate weapon, a technological embodiment of terror that transforms domination into inevitability and resistance into madness. From the atomic bomb to the Death Star, from clone armies to genetically engineered super-soldiers in The Mandalorian, the logic remains unchanged. Universal peace, or Pax, is purchased through the threat of total annihilation.
By Peter Ayolov19 days ago in Fiction
