The responsibility of the informed citizen.

• Author: Scheffran, Jurgen

I had a DREAM, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was EXTINGUISH'D, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the ICY EARTH Swung blind and blackening in the MOONLESS AIR; Morn came and went - and came, and brought no day, And men forgot their passions in the dread Of this their desolation; and all hearts Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light: The habitations of all things which dwell, Were burnt for beacons; CITIES WERE CONSUM'D, And men were gather'd round their blazing homes To look once more into each other's face; A fearful hope was all the world contain'd; Forests were set on fire - but hour by hour They fell and faded - and the crackling trunks Extinguish'd with a crash - and all was black. The brows of men by the despairing light Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits The flashes fell upon them; some lay down And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd; And others hurried to and fro, AND FED THEIR FUNERAL PILES WITH FUEL, and look'd up With mad disquietude on the dull sky, The PALL OF A PAST WORLD; and then again With curses cast them down upon the dust, And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd; THE WILD BIRDS SHRIEK'D And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, And FLAP THEIR USELESS WINGS; the wildest brutes Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd And twin'd themselves among the multitude, Hissing, but stingless - they were SLAIN FOR FOOD.

And WAR, which for a moment was no more, Did glut himself again: a meal was bought With BLOOD, and each sate sullenly apart Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left

All earth was but one thought - and that was death Immediate and inglorious; and the pang Of famine fed upon all entrails - men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; The meagre by the meagre were DEVOUR'D, Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one, And he was faithful to a corse, and kept The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay, Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, But with a PITEOUS AND PERPETUAL MOAN, And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand Which answer'd not with a caress - he died.

THE WORLD WAS VOID, The _populous and the powerful was a lump, SEASONLESS, HERBLESS, TREELESS, MANLESS, LIFELESS - A lump of death - a CHAOS of hard clay.

The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still, And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths; SHIPS SAILORLESS LAY ROTTING ON THE SEA, And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropp'd They slept on the abyss

WITHOUT A SURGE -

The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before; The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need Of aid from them - She was the Universe.

The nuclear shockwaves from the Rajasthan desert in India and the Chagai Hills in Pakistan have...