Apocalyptic collapse is not a thing to be feared for such people. Openness, equality, diversity—these are the things they fear.
A strong and unquestionable leader.
Hard strength the only strength.
"The weak are meat the strong do eat."
Apocalyptic collapse can provide them all of these things.
They'll do everything they can to steer us there.
They're not being subtle about it.
Denial of our inescapable interconnection.
Denial of the intrinsic nature of human worth.
'They' do bad violence to us. 'We' do good violence to end it. Our violence is good violence. We know it is good, because we do it.
We revere it. There are parades and whatnot.
Denial that the harm we do is even harm.
And our nation's favorite flavor of genocide has always been slavery.
I'll name them.
The embedded self-destruction: Vulnerablilty. When I choose to live in world in which other people do not matter, I choose to live in a world in which I will not matter, either.
The embedded self-destruction. Insecurity. A life spent not on the living, but in a desperate attempt to prove my right to live.
Insisting upon a world in which violence redeems is a world that will inevitably kill me, maybe once, but more probably a thousand times.
As I said, in our country, those aligned toward genocide will take what they can get, but slavery has always been the favorite flavor.
There are people who do not matter, and it is their own fault. It is better if they die, but it is best if they can first be used.
A world in which profitability is the prime measure of human moral virtue is a world in which I am no longer art, but product.
It's nearly inevitable now.
Bemoan the incivility of those who point out the danger of your words.
Start saying that we need to bomb until the sand glows.
Start saying we need to go after the women and children.
Return to a policy of enforcing draconian drug laws in minority populations. Start praising dictators who murder suspected drug users in their own countries.
Start rounding people up. Split up some families. Get people used to that idea.
My, just listen to the cheers.
Round up children and put them in "detention facilities." Argue in court that they don't deserve showers.
Make them drink from the toilet.
Here is the truth: Every single person on earth is a unique and irreplaceable work of art carrying unsurpassable worth, and only barbarians destroy art.
That is the truth.
Tell it everywhere. Use words if you must.
First seek out the places you've let the lies seep into your own thinking—a lifelong task.
Then you'll see it everywhere.
Then start pointing.
Here is the truth: Every single person on earth is a unique and irreplaceable work of art carrying unsurpassable worth, and only barbarians destroy art.
That is the truth.
Tell it everywhere. Use words if you must.