Infuse the past with a vibrant culture of the elites,
Implant a hypothetical universal spirit
Like Hegel did for Europe,
Manu did for India,
Confucius did for China,
Or Nitobe did for Japan and
You get great cultural icons
Like Berlin, Indraprastha, Shanghai, Kyoto,
Towering above the life of ordinary men
Throbbing  with a sacrosanct standard,
Ready to be emulated without question.

You may impregnate these icons
With a Christian moral vision,
An upper caste Sanskrit cosmology,
A Confucian ethical standard,
Or a Japanese bushido spirit,
And then pull around them religious texts,
Inaccessible chants, a rich oral tradition,
Or artifacts of wood and stone
Claiming everything in its immense web
From past, present and future
To peoples, nature and the cosmos.

 © Mukesh Williams

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