Replies from the Temple Oracles

I've spent many years researching Atlantean education. The most useful thing that the Temple of Learning did for me is that they began to put their archives online in 1997. Speeches by the hierarchs, replies in the Chamber of the People, words dispensed to the media, and so on.

But there is a game we researchers play. It's called "Spot the Answer" and it is very hard to play, because you are up against the cryptic oracular (as opposed to vernacular, I suppose) of the Temple of Learning.

What happens is this. Once in a while, a Representative of the People will ask a question about educational statistics. The High Priest of the Temple of Learning, having received the question weeks before, has a response prepared. But it is one that has gone through the oracular system of the junior priests, hierophants, sycophants, whatever phantasmal entities live in the ecosystem below him.

So the question might be: "Were the results of the last examination satisfactory?"

And the response might be: "They were neither better nor worse than those of the year before. Here they are, that you might see for yourself."

Now, one might fault the questioner for asking a question that prompted an irrelevant response (or semi-relevant response). However, sometimes the question too is altered in the interests of not providing an answer in the response.

It is true that the Temples of Atlantis are now more open to the people. But this openness is one akin to that of a large department store, which having more space, decides to put all its stock on display.

There is no new stock, and sometimes there are no directions (although one generally knows what stock is on which floor). The most irritating thing is asking a question like, "Where do I find cotton shirts?" and receiving the response, "Shirts we have many, and cotton we have much, and we will show many things to you, for lo and behold there are indeed many wonderful things and we will list them for you, but cotton-picking is not our forte."

You can imagine my dismay when many asked the question, "When can we withdraw our Completely Protected Funds?" and were told, "As you age, so do you receive. Yet not all that glisters is gold, and not all that is yours is yours. But be happy, O people, that what you thought was yours is given to other people to be theirs and not theirs at the same time."