The Stand

“Put not your trust in the princes of this world, for they will frig thee up and so shalt their governments, even unto the end of the earth.” 

Frannie’s father makes this humorous comment, not realizing how true it will prove to be over the course of the novel. People put their faith in the government, which was the cause of the plague. Later, Flagg wants to set himself up as a prince of earth and exploits his followers to achieve that ambition. 

“It seemed as if that man was describing everything I dedicated my life to, its hopelessness, its damned nobility. He said that things fall apart. He said the center doesn’t hold.” 

Starkey is referring to a Yeats poem that describes entropy. Civilizations are bound to rise and fall. What Starkey doesn’t realize is that the dark man rises precisely when things get unstable. As the old order passes away, he hopes to set up a new one with himself in charge. 

“He was a clot looking for a place to happen, a splinter of bone hunting a soft organ to puncture, a lonely lunatic cell looking for a mate—they would set up housekeeping and raise themselves a cozy little malignant tumor.” 

Flagg is just waking up to himself in the present moment and is describing his elemental nature. In every time and place where he has incarnated himself, his role is always the same. He finds a situation to exploit and creates destruction.