34916Y186 myDiStorytellers are There: Then And Now

Q&@
WHILE PHARAOH
SAT IN HIS CAPITAL CITY OF MEMPHIS,
EATING GRAPES IN HIS PALACE AND DALLYING WITH HIS WIVES AND MISTRESSES,
PHARAOH'S OFFICIALS CRISS-CROSSED THE KINGDOM FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORE
TO THE NUBIAN DESERT. THE BUREAUCRATS CALCULATED THE TAXES EACH VILLAGE HAD TO PAY,
RECORDED THEM ON LONG PAPYRUS SCROLLS AND SEND THEM TO MEMPHIS. When a written order
came from Memphis to recruit soldiers to the army or labourers for some construction project,
officials gathered the necessary men. They computed how much wheat the Royal Granaries contained,
how many work days were required to clean the canals & reservoirs, & how many ducks & pigs to send
to Memphis so that pharaoh's harem could dine well! Even when the living deity died, & his body was
embalmed & borne in an extravagant funerary procession to the Royal Necropolis outside Memphis,
the bureaucracy kept going. Officials kept writing scrolls, collecting taxes, sending orders & oiling the
gears of the pharaonic machine... If the Sumerian gods remind us of present-day company brands, só
the Living-God pharaoh can be compared to modern personal brands such as Elvis Presley, Madonna or
Justin Bieber! Just like pharaoh, Elvis too had a biological body, complete with biological needs, desires &
emotions. Elvis ate, drank & slept. Yet Elvis was much more than just a biological body. Like pharaoh, El-
vis was a story, a myth, a brand - & that brand was far more important than the biological body! During
Elvis's lifetime this brand earned millions of dollars selling records, tickets, posters & rights, but only a
very small fraction of the necessary work wàs performed by Elvis in person?!! Instead, most of it was ac-
complished by a small army of agents, lawyers, producers & secretaries. Consequently when the biological
Elvis died, for the brand it was business as usual. So even today fans still buy the King's posters & albums,
radio stations go on paying royalties, & more than half a million pilgrims flock each year to Graceland, the
King's necropolis in Memphis, Tennessee?! Thus we still have our Trumps, Oranges, Putins, Macrons,
Mays, Erdogans, Pingpongs, Young Kim Uns, Merkels, Urbans, Abes, Moris, Topguns
& Masters of Old like Messianic Messiness à la Hamdulillah
Inshallah, God Almighty, Elohim, CEO's,
Businessmen & all kinds
of 'underlings' to
keep 'going
steady'?

22 jun 2019 - bewerkt op 24 jun 2019 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 78 jaar
   
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