Editing Suspended Enthusiasm (section)

=== The Economist ===
[[File:Khomeini.jpg|thumb]]
"Abolish the economy and banish the economists. There is nothing playful about Islam." The Ayatollah had gathered his council, watching their bowed heads from behind a black gauze screen. "Economists are adolescent, petty, hateful creatures, lounging at desks, concocting pervert fantasies they call "models" to which all reality, even God's law, must conform. Absolutely vulgar." He gently poured a cup of tea from a copper pot, raising it with expert poise to a near half meter above the cup without spilling a drop. "Abolish the economy immediately. These boys are playing too much. They neglect prayer. They spit on God with their arrogance, the arrogance of children talking back to their teacher. Who told them they know anything at all?" The Council sat, intently listening, sweat pooling about their chests and arms, dripping from the head, their bodies shaking gently. The Ayatollah continued: "They have these certificates, I am told, and these certificates, ornate paper from ornate institutions, wrapped in gold, what is this but an idol? No, we must banish these children. They must go back to school." The walls of the chamber were bare, unattractive, modest. The men knelt, trembling in the intensity of the heat. The Ayatollah's voice was burning with volatility beneath a superficial affected calm. "They must pray, five times a day, they cannot be allowed to put their silly certificates ahead of the word of God." One in the audience took minutes for the meeting in beautiful ornate calligraphy. He was never told to do this, and some of the other councillors thought he was trying too hard, but they couldn't deny the beauty of his strokes. "We must burn down the universities at once" said the wise man, never in all his years had the fire been extinguished, "here must be an order to salt the earth of these places so nothing may grow there. No, if a university has existed anywhere at all the land it once wrested on shall never be touched again. It must be returned to God absolutely in every way. No one can go to these places anymore. One thousand years or more they shall not be touched. God willing they will be struck down." He took a brief pause to sip his tea, as hot as the chamber and absolutely without fragrance. "These boys were never disciplined. They were never told 'no'. They learned rules and deceitful spirits entered their mouths and so we're supposed to surrender ourselves to their wicked tongues. The vanity of rebels. Has there ever been any greater evidence of the necessity for strict discipline?" Now, without a noticeable change in demeanour, the room seemed to embody active hostility. The consistency with which he spoke somehow still permitted the rise and fall of tension, an ethereal transformation of atmosphere. "These are boys who never felt the righteous hand of a father. Find out who fathered these boys and have them arrested immediately. We must find out what is going on here. God willing they shall perish from the earth." The meeting ended at the exact instant of Isha, and the council prepared to pray.