Winter is Coming

As winter approached, the Great Houses of the States of Westeros-America began a great combat for supremacy and the right of leadership over the Kingdoms. In the beginning, no less than 20 champions vied for the Imperial Crown. Now there remain only three:

Hill-Dani Clin-Targaryen and her dragons

Don-Tyrian Trump-Lannister the Court Jester

Bernie-Jon Sander-Snow of the North

(Utter and sincere apologies to the gorgeous Emilia Clarke, the legendary Peter Dinklage, and the talented Kit Harington–no offense was meant by any of these pairings–although I would certainly admit that if I were any of you, I would probably be offended. Sorry about that. Hopefully the message will make up for the affront.)

This tale is notable for more than those remaining in the contest. Noteworthy are many of the tales of those who fell by the wayside, often suddenly with the finality of execution, and some suffering a lingering death that dragged on for months. Among them:

• It was stunning to see the fall of the Imperial House of Bush-Baratheon. Originally formidable and invincible, the House descended through poor consort and incompetence until the heir-apparent, young Jeb!, simply sniped: ‘I have better things to do’ and walked away.
• Ted Cruz-Mormont and Marco Rubio-Mormont of Bear-Cuba Island were incredibly tenacious. However, they ultimately had to admit that nobody liked anything they had to say, and they slipped unnoticed into the night.
• Other faerie tales depict some of the contestants better, such as: Ben-Sleepy the Doctor; Carly the Little Merwolf; Friar Mike Huck-a-Tuck; and so on. I leave it to you to sort those out.

A further note about winter: Winter is Coming. It’s a much different winter than yours, however. This winter is characterized by stifling heat, dried-up wells, rising seas, and contaminated land and sea alike. Wars rage over resources and ideology, and the poor migrate everywhere and anywhere to escape the violence and establish some quality of life, as governments flail about helplessly. In other words, it strongly resembles what you get when humankind gets stewardship over the Earth in an environment of global warming. Remarkably similar.

Emergency and Disaster Management

Remember emergency and disaster management? This was supposed to be a post about emergency and disaster management. But rather than be tedious about that, let’s get back to our tale. A brief bio of the characters:

Hill-Dani is a seasoned veteran of political battles. She has a large army of dragons at her beck and call, which have served to make her victory seem inevitable. However, she’s been down the ‘inevitability’ road before, and doesn’t want to screw it up again. With regard to the theme of ‘Winter is Coming’–she agrees with the concept, but is hesitant to talk much about it after her recent faux-pas. As she was speaking in the small hamlet of West(eros)-Virginia, she let slip the Truth that Winter is Coming, which is something the villagers didn’t want to hear. So she was promptly driven out of town by Bernie-Jon, who, although he also believes wholeheartedly in the Truth, isn’t careless enough to speak it in the wrong settings.

Don-Tyrian is the Court Jester in this fable. He leads a charmed life, to say the least. Despite repeated efforts to drive his ‘old money’ inheritance into the ground, he hasn’t yet succeeded, due to his innate ability to maneuver and manipulate the (bankruptcy) Laws of the Land. As a true Sheikh, he has a harem unequalled in modern history, and many beautiful children to carry on his legacy. However, apparently on a whim, he decided he wanted to be King. He is, as are his followers and most of those he vanquished, completely unconcerned with the fact that Winter is Coming. In fact, his position in public debate is that Winter doesn’t exist at all. So instead of paying attention to Winter, he largely focuses on whether people are nice to him and on the size of his hands. Some say his hands are small–so small, in fact, that they have been given the nicknames of ‘Twitter’ and ‘Tweet’. This concerns him greatly.

Bernie-Jon has lead a principled life, wherein the concept of public service really means serving the public. However, that puts him at odds with the Dragons of the Great Houses–Hill-Dani’s and others–and so dragons tend to rise against him. Little birds and legions of Minions support him, though, so he soldiers on. He fervently believes that Winter is Coming, and is willing to discuss the existential threat to Westeros-America at great length if asked. However, he’s seldom asked, and so he remains a Voice in the Wilderness.

The Battle and the Decision

Hill-Dani now faces off against Don-Tyrian for leadership of Westeros-America. Battered but not vanquished, Bernie-Jon stands to the side, backed by his legions of enthusiastic Minions. As Hill-Dani and Don-Tyrian face off, Bernie-Jon has his legendary Sword of Populism leveled directly at Hill-Dani. This has required her to muzzle her dragons, since she doesn’t want to harm Bernie-Jon–she will ultimately need his Minions in order to defeat Don-Tyrian. But this means she isn’t free yet to unleash her dragons upon Don-Tyrian–so the issue is complicated.

Hill-Dani will continue to use her legions of dragons to push towards the inevitable result. Don-Tyrian will continue to use Twitter and Tweet to amuse us, while offering nothing of substance. And Bernie-Jon will continue to make the case that public service matters, that Winter is Coming, and that we need to pay attention to what’s going on around us.

The Oracles and Prophets tell us in no uncertain words that Hill-Dani is going to win this contest. That’s not a bad thing, but it leaves unanswered several important questions:

1. Is there room in the political discussion for what the people really want?
2. Do we have the ability to exorcize court jesters from leadership so that they can’t do any harm?
3. Can we ultimately admit as a people that Winter is Coming–and do anything about it?

I don’t have the answer to any of these. How we ultimately answer all of these questions is up to you. I know what I would prefer, but what I would prefer holds little to no sway with anyone, and certainly not with anyone of influence.

So DO become involved in the issue of leadership of Westeros-America. Choose well, and maybe we can thwart the fact that Winter is Coming. Choose not well, and you’ll be able to find me sunning myself on the beach of Bear Island or similar as the world collapses around us.

(epilogue #1: The Doctor landed his Tardis in Cleveland in July, stepped out and took one look around, and went back to his search for Gallifrey)

(epilogue #2: Nick Fury tried to gather the Avengers to battle the dissonance in Westeros-America, but he couldn’t find them. They were all at Burning Man and various comic-cons)