Pascal's Wager

The words of one of my favourite poets, Ernest Dowson
 Are quite often with me
 "Non sum qualis eram"
 "I'm... I'm not as I was"
 And though as I know as well as you do
 There is no point in arguing about the actual date
 Or time of departure because I'd like to think there would be no good time
 I hope you'll agree with that
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 Something that I urgently felt I ought to do or say
 And one mustn't repine or give into self-pity about that
 But at this moment I have to say
 I feel very envious of someone who is young
 And actively starting out in this argument
 In the meantime, we have the same job we always had
 To say, as thinking people and as humans
 That there are no final solutions
 There is no absolute truth
 There is no supreme leader
 There is no totalitarian solution
 That says that if you will just give up your freedom of inquiry
 If you will just give up
 If you will simply abandon your critical faculties
 A world of idiotic bliss can be yours
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 But we have to begin by repudiating all such claims
 Grand rabbis
 Chief ayatollahs
 Infallible popes
 The pedlars of surrogate
 And mutant quasi-political religion and worship
 The dear leader
 The great leader, we have no need of any of this
 And looking at them and their record
 And the pathos of their supporters
 I realise that it is they who are the grand impostors
 And my own imposture this evening was mild by comparison
 Thank you very much
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 There is a guilt reserved for that fearful day
 In great denial, I will say no more
 I will reserve that shame for the thieves and whores
 In great denial, I will say no more
 There is a silence that comes eventually
 In great denial, I will say no more
 No longer a reason to laugh
 But what do you have to lose
 When you're pissing into the wind?