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Statement to the Press
Apr. 8th, 2017 05:56 pm"I resent these repeated accusations that I am a ghoul. It's a slur; it's an insidious insinuation. As if I would haunt graveyards. As if I crave the flesh of the dead.
"We all understand what it means to accuse someone of ghoulishness, yes? My opponents would have you believe that I am some macabre scavenger that grows fat off slaughter, slavering at the mouth, eager to pick through the aftermath of wars. As if I am shepherding your children off to die and to be rendered into meat. My opponents would have you believe that there is something morbid, something fundamentally inhuman and antithetical to life about my policies, merely because of the death toll associated with them. I assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.
"I want you to note the absurdity of this accusation - as if a ghoul creates corpses instead of consuming them. It would be as if wolves, hungry for mutton, midwife young lambs into existence, delicately tending to them until they are old enough to be devoured! Nothing of the sort! The act of creating corpses, my dear friends, far from being ghoulish, signifies a living, bloody, voracious appetite. From the smallest mite to the noblest beast, nothing can survive without predation. Is it ghoulish, my friends, when a hunter corners its prey, tears apart its throat and partakes of its flesh? Of course not! It is perfectly natural and vibrant and healthy. To kill is the most natural thing in the world.
"Will people die due to my policies? Of course. They will die in the thousands. But this is part and parcel of the metabolisms of a nation. Was Sahib Qiran a ghoul when he stacked the skulls of his foes into minarets? When white-skinned Quetzalcoatl donned flesh and began the conquest of the fifth world, was he ghoulish in his slaughter? Was Conotocaurious a ghoul as he devoured villages whole? Are nations little more than a banquet table built upon a charnel house?
"No, no, and a thousand times no. These were great men, generals, murderers. And yet rather than recognize the greatness of what we have accomplished, my opponents would have you believe that my policies are little more than the self-serving plot of a ghoul. The cowards who dare to defame me seek to exploit your natural horror of death. They tell you thousands will die, and they would have you believe that this is unnatural, despicable, immoral. They tell you only a ghoul would desire such a thing. And yet they fail to see the utter hypocrisy in their actions. They are the ones who feed upon the dead, are they not? They are the ones who haunt graveyards. My opponents cling to the dead and wail for sympathy, they pick among the remains and seek out the choice bits, constantly worrying the scraps of bone between their teeth. Just listen to them, to the false compassion in their voices, shrieking and hooting over every new corpse that is buried, eager to uncover it.
"A predator, my friends, is no ghoul. A ghoul accomplishes nothing, neither hunts nor kills. A ghoul, a true ghoul, feeds on stagnancy and inaction, wallows in past mistakes and sorrows. A ghoul can only sustain itself upon the corpses created by those more dedicated to the pursuit of life. Myself, I have nothing but distaste for the dead. I shudder at the thought of corpse-eating. The dead are dead, they are buried and sealed away and rotting, far from the sight of all good and civilized people.
"I assure you, my friends, I have only ever fed upon the living."
"We all understand what it means to accuse someone of ghoulishness, yes? My opponents would have you believe that I am some macabre scavenger that grows fat off slaughter, slavering at the mouth, eager to pick through the aftermath of wars. As if I am shepherding your children off to die and to be rendered into meat. My opponents would have you believe that there is something morbid, something fundamentally inhuman and antithetical to life about my policies, merely because of the death toll associated with them. I assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.
"I want you to note the absurdity of this accusation - as if a ghoul creates corpses instead of consuming them. It would be as if wolves, hungry for mutton, midwife young lambs into existence, delicately tending to them until they are old enough to be devoured! Nothing of the sort! The act of creating corpses, my dear friends, far from being ghoulish, signifies a living, bloody, voracious appetite. From the smallest mite to the noblest beast, nothing can survive without predation. Is it ghoulish, my friends, when a hunter corners its prey, tears apart its throat and partakes of its flesh? Of course not! It is perfectly natural and vibrant and healthy. To kill is the most natural thing in the world.
"Will people die due to my policies? Of course. They will die in the thousands. But this is part and parcel of the metabolisms of a nation. Was Sahib Qiran a ghoul when he stacked the skulls of his foes into minarets? When white-skinned Quetzalcoatl donned flesh and began the conquest of the fifth world, was he ghoulish in his slaughter? Was Conotocaurious a ghoul as he devoured villages whole? Are nations little more than a banquet table built upon a charnel house?
"No, no, and a thousand times no. These were great men, generals, murderers. And yet rather than recognize the greatness of what we have accomplished, my opponents would have you believe that my policies are little more than the self-serving plot of a ghoul. The cowards who dare to defame me seek to exploit your natural horror of death. They tell you thousands will die, and they would have you believe that this is unnatural, despicable, immoral. They tell you only a ghoul would desire such a thing. And yet they fail to see the utter hypocrisy in their actions. They are the ones who feed upon the dead, are they not? They are the ones who haunt graveyards. My opponents cling to the dead and wail for sympathy, they pick among the remains and seek out the choice bits, constantly worrying the scraps of bone between their teeth. Just listen to them, to the false compassion in their voices, shrieking and hooting over every new corpse that is buried, eager to uncover it.
"A predator, my friends, is no ghoul. A ghoul accomplishes nothing, neither hunts nor kills. A ghoul, a true ghoul, feeds on stagnancy and inaction, wallows in past mistakes and sorrows. A ghoul can only sustain itself upon the corpses created by those more dedicated to the pursuit of life. Myself, I have nothing but distaste for the dead. I shudder at the thought of corpse-eating. The dead are dead, they are buried and sealed away and rotting, far from the sight of all good and civilized people.
"I assure you, my friends, I have only ever fed upon the living."
