I don't mean to demonize the snake. Good God, Snakes on the Plane!?! It just seems like useful shorthand. All figures of authority, "the leaders" of the world (Church, State, Corporation) seem to be SNAKES. You know, powerful, slithery, primitive, brutal, single-minded, linear, without conscience (I'm projecting now), dedicated, reationary, deadly, cold-blooded, legless.
When the leaders of the "free world" are in the halls of power debating the merits and demerits of torture, you know the Snakes have dropped all semblence of pretense...
You can't go "head to head" with the snakes...I think you must "out-think" or out-manuever them. We must design a new reality. What are our weapons: amusement, meditation, creativity, love. I think we need to figure out how to be snake-charmers...there is no land, no island where the snakes don't reside. We need golden armour...impenetrable but permeable too...we've left the land of rocks and mud and entered the realm of magic.