When someone says "there's not a lot we can do" - what I hear is "the powerful and the able are doing an awful lot
to not save us" and what I believe is that this is a weak excuse for basic, mindless, 'main characters' to lean into blaming-shifting while
evading a responsibility to be more than fantasists and nihilists and cynics.
You and I and the Truth
It is so easy to be a fantasist or nihilist or cynic, because it has always been so damn comforting to embrace fictions and delusions and the worst. After all,
when the alternative is the truth, lies are the compelling alternative.
*
Case in point: punching down.
The fantasist will tell you a story. Spun of whole cloth. Or wrapped like a precious diaphanous bow around a grain of plausible reality. A narrative that satisfies a hunger to be in on 'the secret'.
For all it takes to sell a tall-tale is a fabulist.
The nihilist will tell you a theory. Scattershot with absurd jargon. Or code-switches that wink and spit. Or thought terminating cliches that gush from pretensions of wit and wisdom. An ideology of permission.
For all it takes to sanction an annihilation is a justification.
The cynic will tell you a belief. Soaked through like a pig pickled in vinegar. Or as unrelentingly brittle as a desiccated hide. An opinion that there is no fairer judge of the truth - than a feeling.
For all it takes to see what isn't there is a false witness.
*
You see: punching down is so easy because it has always been so damn comforting to defend our unreasonable intolerance. After all,
when the alternative is standing with the punched down, the compelling alternative is not only tempting, but shameless.
*
Isn't this why we exhaust each other with 'deep conversations' and 'sweeping investigations' and 'insider revelations'?
To say
defying a call to disavow tall-tales, sanctioned annihilation, and false testimony can be honestly explained! - because fictions and delusions and the worst are so credible! - because fabulists, justifiers, and false witnesses are so appealing! - because look here -
this is plainly normal - everybody who is lead into this temptation is clearly ordinary - how everything about this blithe acceptance of obvious nonsense is understandable and thoroughly unexceptional - ?
Which is to say,
aren't 'deep conversations' and 'sweeping investigations' and 'insider revelations' the sacrosanct fuel by which we 'prove' that standing with the punched down is febrile? whereas the shameless alternative is not only vigorous but muscular and not only muscular but fearless and not only fearless but heroic - ?
*
You see: to be a fantasist or nihilist or cynic demands nothing more ingenious than a lie that is an imposter of the truth and a liar who is an imposter of confidence.
For all it takes for the powerful and the able to do an awful lot to not save us is
us, hearing fantasists and nihilists and cynics declare their victorious right to rule us all, as if basic, mindless, 'main characters' are not only our own, but our only rescue and salvation.
More
You paint the punched down with strokes like a brush clutched between the toes of an elephant.
Without apology.
As if this rendering of 'reality' and 'the truth' is acceptable to the alternative.
And necessary.
Because the alternative is the truth,
the answer to your prayers is not.
*
When a local bakery owner and a leader of a free country say "there's not a lot we can do" -
when an immigration attorney and an entertainer and an elected representative of the people and a corporate citizen say "there's not a lot we can do" -
when you say "there's not a lot we can do" -
do you hear yourself?
leaning into self-censorship or blame-shifting or sugar-coating or numb distractions or self-dealing or entitlement, etc.?
*
When the sacrosanct 'fuel' by which basic, mindless, 'main characters' are 'proven' to be 'vigorous' and 'muscular' and 'heroic'
is
fiction and delusion and the worst -
and
fiction and delusion and the worst are doing an awful lot to not lift all boats -
an awful lot to prioritize fabulists, justifiers, and false witnesses as if tall-tales, sanctioned annihilation, and false testimony are precious realities -
an awful lot to not stand with the punched down -
because stories and narratives! because theories and ideologies! because beliefs and opinions! -
when will the alternative to fantasists and nihilists and cynics be you and I and the truth?
M
