Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere, Enlightenment author and greatest comic dramatist of all timesJean-Jaques Rousseau, philosopher, novelist, composer, language and music theorist, and single most important Enlightenment writerAct ISCENE 1. Moliere and Rousseau are up in heavenR: Hey Moliere is that you?M: Yes, may I ask your name again?R: Yeah its Rousseau.
M: Ah, its been a long time since Ive seen you. Sorry, my memory doesnt always serve me right anymore.
R: No, youve never met me before. I just remember learning about you back when I was on earth.
M: Oh, youre Rousseau, the Romantic writer, not to mention many other hobbies. Yes Ive heard about you. Speaking of earth, things are really screwed up nowadays. Have you seen what Im talking about?R: Yes indeed. As a matter of fact, I was just going to check out the telescopes.
M: Oh really, I havent been there in a while.
R: Yeah, you want to join me?M: Sure, might as well.
SCENE 2. Moliere and Rousseau at the telescopesR: Theres a couple right over here we can use.
M: What do you want to look at?R: Lets check out this World Masterpiece class where theyre talking about me right now.
M: Sounds good to me.
R: I cant believe that. Out of all of my great literature they picked Confessions to read. That was a piece of crap I wrote just to get a few things off my chest and theyre hailing it as a World Masterpiece?M: Well, at least theyre reading some of your work.
R: Whopptie doo! Why dont they have the students read some of my real masterpieces like The Social Contract or Discourse on Inequality?M: I dont know, why dont they?R: Havent you read any of my works?M: Sorry, after leaving earth and coming to this paradise, I figured it was best to stay away from anymore earthly influence.
R: Well yes, youve got a point there. But my point is that students arent reading my really good literature, like the two I mentioned earlier, for a reason.
M: And what might that be?R: Its simple, the public school systems are set up and funded(poorly) by the government. Trust me they dont want every college student reading The Social Contract or Discourse on Inequality. Theyd have every supposed highly educated person in America trying to overthrow the current and long-standing government.
M: Ah, I see quite clearly now.
R: Do you really?M: Yes of course, the government, while getting paid by these students to for education, is at the same time choosing very wisely what to teach its pupils so as to make them a more ideal citizen and better property of the State.
R: Yes, thats it exactly. And did you know that the whole American public school system was heavily influenced by my teaching philosophies?M: Really, so theyll use your educational ideas but they wont let the kids read your best pieces of work.
R: You catch on quick.
M: Dont get me wrong Rousseau, I may be known for making fun of people, but I can do more than make jokes.
R: Im not doubting you old-timer.
M: Who you calling old timer?R: You came here a hundred and some odd years before I did.
M: True but whats one hundred earth years in heaven.
R: Okay, so youre not that old, but youre still older than me. By the way, how did you get to leave earth in the first place?M: I burst a blood vessel, how about you?R: I dont know really? Natural causes I guess.
M: I died a happy man, despite my somewhat unhappy life. It was right after one of my stage performances. getting caught up in the memory I loved acting.
R: Why was your life unhappy?M: Well it was a few things really. First of all, my marriage to someone half my age was going way down hill, then my beloved son died, and all the while a variety of groups of people I had poked fun at earlier, were starting to make my life a living hell.
R: Sounds horrible.
M: It was rough. I had to block out all the things that were going wrong in my life and just concentrate on the things that I loved.
R: Well, if it makes you feel any better, I started getting paranoid of some secret enemies and had to go into hiding before my sudden unexplained death.
M: No, that doesnt make me feel any better but the past is the past.
R: Oh look, its quiz time. M: Lets see who did their reading last night.
R: Just stop for second and look a higher education these days. Getting an education used to be a privledge to most children in my time, these kids could care less whether or not they made it to class. And thats after its already been paid for.
M: Half these kids in class can hardly keep their eyes open. Hey you in the front row, your not fooling anyone with that hat pulled down over your eyes, wake up!R: Well, at least they have a teacher thats halfway decent.
M: Yeah, I like this guy. He seems very open minded.
R: Yeah, he is. Shoot you have to be when your living in their day and age. He also seems to interpret my writings almost exactly the way I intended.
M: Its just too bad for him he has to smash all those great writings into one semester. You cant teach that much information in so little a time and expect these kids to actually retain some of it.
R: This class isnt half as bad as some of the other classes. Most other teachers stand up in front of the class, spit out a horrendous amount of information, and expect these students cram it all in their heads, regurgitate as much of it as they can on test day, just to forget it when they go home.
M: Theres no thought required in that, just memorization.
R: Well, thats what they call education.
M: That doesnt sound like anything Id enjoy doing.
R: These kids dont want to do it either. But they feel like they have to. They are brain-washed into thinking that the only way to get ahead in society to get this little piece of paper called a diploma which proves that theyve accomplished something and are now ready to be accepted into the real world.
M: The real world?R: Yeah, you know when you actually have to go out and start making a living on your own. M: Oh, I see.
R: But in real reality, all they have done is been put through one of societys biggest scams, and have been force-fed all the information the government feels they need to have to become behaved and productive members of the State.
M: Just makes me that much more happy to be up here.
R: Thats no lie.
M: Well, I guess class is over. Everyone looks like theyre putting their things away but the teacher is still trying to talk. He looks very agitated. R: See, nobody cares anymore. Its just hurrying to go from one thing to another without ever stopping to realize the significance of whats taking place right now. M: But what are they moving towards?R: Who really knows, they dont even know. They just think theres something better out there and theyre in a hurry to get there. The teacher dismisses classM: Wow, look at them go. Leopardi said it best when he said humans are like ants. Theres just no other way to describe them, busy, busy, little ants. Hey, now that class is over, can we check out something else?R: Sure, what do you got in mind?M: I used to be a huge critic of religion and how is was administered to the people. Id like to see if maybe its gotten any better.
R: Well we can look, but be careful, especially with the Catholics. You might find some priest putting the moves on some eight year old boy.
M: What in heavens name are you talking about?R: Well, it was just a rumor I heard but supposedly anytime you hear about religion in the news down on earth, its always about some priest molesting one of his altar boys.
M: I have never of anything so ludicrous. Religion used to be very corrupt in my day, but I never heard of a priest molesting little boys.
R: That doesnt mean it didnt happen.
one of his altar boys.
M: I have never of anything so ludicrous. Religion used to be very corrupt in my day, but I never heard of a priest molesting little boys.
R: That doesnt mean it didnt happen.
M: Back when Europe was in its Enlightenment stage religious corruption was mostly just the church trying to ring every little penny they could out of their followers.
R: Sounds about right.
M: Yes, it was such a huge racket. The church made the people believe that they had to talk to God through a priest. So anytime someone had something to say to God, they had to go see a priest, who tried to make them feel guilty so they would contribute money.
R: How could something thats supposed to be held so sacred be so fraudulent.
M: When and why the church first became corrupt is very debatable, but the fact that it is crooked isnt.
