there are limitations to authority / to control with certainty all that lies within one’s domain / the nature of the authority one attempts to apply creating the specific limitations encountered / thus it was that the iconoclastic government by nature of its desire to exert control over images viewed within its jurisdiction encountered the limits of its ability to oversee everything everywhere all the time / as this remained unattainable the government resigned themselves to pursue a policy of something somewhere some of the time / this incomplete control was held to be more durable than any exercise of absolute power / absolute power seemed even to these zealous government officials to be a nightmare of responsibility / the policy became therefore one of persecution rather than prevention / having failed to protect their garden from weeds necessitated that those weeds be uprooted as soon after they appear as is either necessary or convenient