22.
   “This toad never goes away. It just gets more and more poisonous with age.”, said the other dog, shaking its head. “It’s responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands and the oppression of millions yet it has been elevated to avatar, to a great and mysterious Sphinx that gazes down on a bloody reign of tyranny. It is more aging, withered spider than Sphinx. It squats on its mountaintop waiting for the princes of Empire to climb up and pay homage. When they come, the frigid plutocrats are sucked even drier until they drift to the spider’s feet like dead leaves.” He waved at a carved inscription below the Sphinx. “Here’s a proud quote from decades ago when it first crawled onto the stage: ‘Who controls the food supply controls people, who controls the energy can control whole continents, who controls money can control the world.’ You see, this megalomania is not new at all. Whether it is a valley with a couple of tribes, a transcontinental empire, or one little blue world, someone always and everywhere wants to control it, twist it, squeeze it rape it into an agonized ecstasy of domination and death.”

   Suddenly the huge pile of stones began to quiver and come alive right in front of us. It raised itself up and glared down at us. A growl emanated from its throat. Its claws scraped the sand at our feet. The lesson was cut short.