day no. 16,756: a mob of masked men

"It is well to walk under universal ensigns; and there is an old tale of a tyrant to whom a walking forest was the witness of doom. That, indeed, is the very intensity of the notion: a masked man is ominous; but who shall face a mob of masks?" — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

If a masked man is a harbinger of bad things to come, what can a mob of masked men mean? If a cover up is a conspiracy, how much more is a conspiracy to cover everyone's faces? Signs are an aid to a society provided they heed them, but what sense can one make when the sign of the times is ignoring the signs? It is as plain as the smirk under their masked faces. Where universal ensigns are ignored, particular sins will be explored. A land that is no longer Christ-haunted will still be haunted. The house can be vacated to be cleaned, but it cannot remain vacant for long.

Luke 11:24-26

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.