She died of Pride. This is truly a Green Zone story. Having been Born and Raised inside a Green Zone all her life, this was a Woman who had never known hunger. There can be a nasty Haughtiness Streak in the Zoners in the fact that they Live Well as others - Lessers - suffer, and this lady apparently had Rotted Away to the point to where this was all she had left. She had to live Better than others - or she was nothing. Or so she Believed.
Unholiness, she could not accept. When a Black War came to her zone and she was left out on the Wrong Side of it, her Way of Life disappeared forever. Yet she still looked down on the starving Outlanders she now lived among, despising their Hunger and loathing their Dirtiness. Their Wretchedness, she had always told herself, was the result of their own Failings. Her Comforts, on the other hand, were the result of her own Moral Superiority. Or so she Believed.
So she refused the Cramped and Ugly shelters, the food centers with Forced Preachings and disdained the Certainly Immoral handouts offered. So she died keeping up Appearances, clinging to a self-deception of Holiness. Had she chosen to live, her Tragedy in fact would have been a Golden Opportunity for change. But to her, that was Death. Or so she believed.
But maybe we aren't so Different from Her. Maybe this Whole Planet is dying of Pride.
Unholiness, she could not accept. When a Black War came to her zone and she was left out on the Wrong Side of it, her Way of Life disappeared forever. Yet she still looked down on the starving Outlanders she now lived among, despising their Hunger and loathing their Dirtiness. Their Wretchedness, she had always told herself, was the result of their own Failings. Her Comforts, on the other hand, were the result of her own Moral Superiority. Or so she Believed.
So she refused the Cramped and Ugly shelters, the food centers with Forced Preachings and disdained the Certainly Immoral handouts offered. So she died keeping up Appearances, clinging to a self-deception of Holiness. Had she chosen to live, her Tragedy in fact would have been a Golden Opportunity for change. But to her, that was Death. Or so she believed.
But maybe we aren't so Different from Her. Maybe this Whole Planet is dying of Pride.
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