169) The despair you are feeling right now: Dead children, bombed hospitals, the lies of tyranny in a dying world, and the crushing hopelessness of “What the hell can I DO about any of this?”
What can we do, in the midst of a genocide? What can we do, in the midst of tyranny that’s been happening, and strengthening, since before we were born? We can we do, in a world that burns its own living flesh, due to the greed of the most-privileged minority who clamour for ever-more wealth and power?
None of us want this.
5) Warning: Angry rant ahead
Is there no place to just speak from the heart? I’m kind of tired of social psychology and its ‘wisdom’. Do we really need to “persuade” people? Is there not some basic “bottom line” past which rational argument actually does work? Is there not some point where the evidence can be compelling enough, and one can say, “holy shit everyone, we’re in trouble”…and that’s enough to get people to act?
I would like to believe that. But no, it’s just not true.
4) Lauryn Hill, Luke Skywalker, and you
I believe in the stories I have absorbed all my life. I believe that when darkness falls, heroes rise. When the Death Star is built, the Rebel Alliance suits up. When Mordor threatens Middle Earth, the Company begins its adventure. When Charles Wallace’s Dad disappears, he goes on a magical journey to rescue him. When HomeTree is destroyed, the Na’vi unite their tribes and fight. When Lord Arawn releases the Cauldron-Born, Assistant Pig-Keeper Taran rallies the people. When Fern Gully is going to be destroyed, the fairies go to war.
Now the story is our story, the darkness is our darkness.