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Blog Thread 5: A New Beginning
de_la_Nae:
(click to show/hide)I'm going to tell you something that few people like to hear. At least I find it rarely plays well. It's not exactly very heartening in its fashion. And it's nothing new. But it is important.
The alt-right, the white supremacists, the evangelical Christians, the billionaires, the TERFs, and all that other assorted dishonorable scum in that loose camp, they believe they are part of a crusade. A war.
And they're not entirely wrong.
They misunderstand, misconstrue, ignore, lie, and twist almost every true part of that idea. They are almost completely wrong about what that war is. Delusional about it, even.
But they are not wrong in sensing that one exists.
We haven't been good about acknowledging its existence. Understanding it as what it is, knowing what it means.
That's part of why things have gotten bad. Because they acknowledged something of the war long before most of us did.
Hard to fight a war you don't recognize.
Thing is, the war isn't with them. Not really. We absolutely have to deal with them, they've embraced a collective delusion that makes them lethally dangerous to themselves and everyone else. But I told you, they don't understand the war either, just that there is one.
The error they make, one of the prime ones at least, about the war is just a reflection of our own.
You see, the war is with our selves.
It is constant. It is unending. It is part of the price of life. For every day that you live, you will fight this war. From now until the end of your consciousness, you will struggle with it. Or you will be surrender to it.
It goes by different names, when we do acknowledge it. Ethics. Morals. Responsibility. Sin. My favorite is to refer to it, to the universe as The Arena of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Because I'm that person.
I do not tell you this to tell you that external things do not matter. They absolutely do. The idea, the lie, that they do not, that is an excuse, a dodge. A way to help escape the terrifying truth of the endless war.
But it is not only external. The war begins at home. Within.
But it is not only internal. That idea, that lie, is an excuse. A dodge. A way to help escape the terrifying truth of the endless war. It is in every where. It is in every thing.
It is in every one.
You can see why people shy away from this.
Truth be told, in many ways, in most ways perhaps, there is nothing truly wrong with... compartmentalizing it some. Breaking it down into chunks that we can wrestle with easier.
But.
There is a great value in recognizing its vastness. A great cost in denying it.
A great cost in recognizing it too, mind you. It is a painful truth. The mind and heart quail at it. A shrieking wail of grief, magnified around 8 billion times.
The soul shudders in agony.
But you must face this. You must see it for what it is. You must know something of both big picture and small. And bigger yet, and smaller yet.
You must because look around you. Look at the cost of not doing so.
And then, having done so,
you have
to get up
and
keep
going
It is not an easy thing I tell you. It is not an easy thing I ask of you.
Being a human is not easy. Living is not easy.
(a lie that it is, an excuse, a dodge to help escape the terrifying truth)
The 'left' fears it, and the work it requires, and turns away, turns to despair and to complacency.
The 'right' fears it, and the work it requires, and turns it into delusions and crusades against scapegoats and victims and the rush of Power.
How will you flee it, I wonder?
pwhodges:
A couple of days ago I went to this concert.
On the way back in the bus I was watching RahXephon on my phone. As we approached Oxford, the two students sitting next to me hesitantly asked what I was watching. When I told them they were duly surprised that I could know about anime, let alone one they themselves didn't know. We went on to have a brief but intense chat which was quite fun.
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 01 Nov 2018, 08:07 ---...When I told them they were duly surprised that I could know about anime, let alone one they themselves didn't know.
--- End quote ---
Why...???
:?
de_la_Nae:
Paul's old. :angel: :angel: :evil: :angel:
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: de_la_Nae on 05 Nov 2018, 02:27 ---Paul's old. :angel: :angel: :evil: :angel:
--- End quote ---
Ahhhh that old chestnut...
Hmmm... Last DeeCon (Dundee Comic Convention) I was at there were the usual people milling around in various costumes etc, and this twelve year old... (Okay, maybe about 19) thought it would be cute to explain to the old man what "CosPlay" was...
I listened to the condescension for about 30 seconds then said "Sweetheart, I was playing Frank 'n' Furter before you were born..."
I'm sure the look on her face was down to being slammed, and NOT the sudden image of this 55 year old dude in full basque and make-up ! :)
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