MATHETΩN

An archived news-report I’ve found offers the conversation that follows (in part) between its newsman and an early Mathetes.

Mathetes: It’s very simple. The first thing our pair does upon entering a neighborhood is tell the truth. They do this in part by penetrating wherever the most people meet: in a religious neighborhood, the churches, in an irreligious one, the community centers or even movie-theaters.

Reporter: And this has gotten you arrested time-and-again. At first, for a few hours; then, when new trespassing laws were passed — largely to make of your people an example, you allege — for months or years.

M: Indeed — and we are very glad. Almost half the population lives in prisons, now, and there is no meaningful way to reach them otherwise.

R: And so your jailed Mathetes will “tell the truth” there too?

M: She will.

R: – and be beaten or killed for his activities, if reports can be believed.

M: Yes. I call the shiv the Mathetai’s great hope in this world nowadays.

R: And that is my next question. The Mathetai have been — you must be aware that the Mathetai have been called by certain experts a “suicide cult”.

M: That would be true, friend, only if a Mathetes could die.