The Pageless Book

Above Photo by Ibrahim Iujaz. Gun Photo by Jaqian. Ruins Photo by David Ohmer.

The last two verses of the first chapter of The Gated Emptiness refer to a kind of Apocalypse, called cryptically as “the day all eyes close.” I have to be honest and say that these are probably my least favorite passages in the whole text. Having been raised Christian, I am all too familiar with the story of Revelations and its negative impact on the Christian dogma. Religion that relies on fear of punishment as motivation for good is disingenuous at best and psychologically scarring at worst.

However, I do not believe that these passages are hinting at some punishment, but are rather offering a warning. Let me break down what these verses are talking about; they read:

The day on which all eyes close is ever upon us. Where faith falters, hope falls. Where reason replaces emotion, compassion becomes a rule of etiquette. Where love is abandoned for convenience, strange children conceive of dust for limbs and teeth for tongues. To see completely like a yearning beast, to understand with the seat of your soul, is to turn back that day.

On the day which all eyes shall close, there will be no prophets, no artist, no seers. The gardens shall fold, the wisest shall die in crowds of writhing idiots, and all angels shall pull away taking with them every newborn. No sacrifice shall be great enough, no prayer loud enough, no cause of significant enough to hold the tide of the hollowing back.

The first thing we are told is that the day “is ever upon us.” That is to say, that the day on which all eyes close could occur at any time. Where faith - or trust in something greater than ourselves - falters, hope - or the feeling that everything will turn out for the best - falls. When we have little faith in something greater than ourselves, whether that thing is humanity or God or something else, it becomes harder to face life’s challenges. If logic were to completely replace emotion, compassion and mercy towards one another would become meaningless. All of this is fine and well, but what exactly are these verses getting at?

“Strange children” hint at the problem being discussed. “Love abandoned for convenience” is a euphemism for broken or dysfunctional families. Children from dysfunctional families are more likely to be dysfunctional themselves. When these children inherit their parent’s society, the society becomes dysfunctional. A dysfunctional society will eventually fall - that is the day on which all eyes close.

The Gated Emptiness is issuing our society a warning. It isn’t a warning of some cosmic event in which the world in which we live will be destroyed, the good rewarded, and the evil punished. This is a warning about something that has happened to societies in the past and is happening to Western Culture right now. We are becoming a shallow people, arrogant, and short sighted. The Roman Empire fell not because of the outside pressures of barbarians, but because the foolishness of their society bred weakness into every level of their culture. The same is happening again, right now, in every English speaking country.

Are we doomed? Of course not. We are each given choices, yet most of us choose not to exercise those choices, effectively choosing to allow our society to decay. However, if we were to each choose to pay attention to the choices life affords us, and exercise that right to make up our own mind, we help rebuild the fabric of our society. But are we too late? No, we are not too late. The Gated Emptiness describes the death-throws of a society; art and spirituality are discarded, truth is ignored, and the freedom of choice becomes further limited by our inability to see or unwillingness to exercise those choices.

All we are asked to do is open our eyes…