While I agree with the underlying principles of your essay and perhaps specifically your assertions about pride's necessary destruction (since Jesus used metaphor in His parables), I still understand Babylon to be an actual nation... and I'm living in it. If you look at the world's reaction to the Fall of Babylon, I think you will see the same thing.

The Bible is like a precious gemstone, as

Bible passages have many facets reflecting the light - all those reflections emanating from the one same stone.