Sarcasm Alley

"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

Dark, faceless warrior -
the 21st century human ideal

As a planet dies, so does the social fabric that holds it together. It has forever been man's folly to believe in the power and force of his will. Leni Riefenstahl understood this very clearly in her Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the will". But it's not just Hitler who wanted his will to triumph over the world, there are many who follow in his footsteps to this day in one degree or another. In fact, I'd peg it at three out of every four. But that sort of bravado is short-lived in the time of the universe and at some point will vanish from the earth forever as we become one with said universe.

But the battle of wills is not one between man against man, but rather man against nature - a battle that cannot be won. We love to make defiant speeches and impassioned pleas that rally the crowds against what we perceive as nature's injustices. But that's sort of like leading a rally to make the earth flat. So until we realize our folly, war will be the norm and peace considered the insane. And the longer we war with our nature, the more it consumes us.

The siren of hysteria wails louder as we continue the hopeless struggle, drowning out words of reason - or compassion. It's not the man with the open heart we revere, but the man clad in black armor carrying the sniper's scope - for in him we see true salvation. "What would we do without him?" we ask. "His guns make us safe." Which makes a man of peace an implied threat to us all, one to despise and disdain - and ultimately to shoot. But I ask you, have you ever healed a broken heart with a cold, metallic gun?

Patton, the famous coward -
he'd risk his life but never his love

"For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
"And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire."

Another part of our social fabric disintegrating is that of our daily interdependence on one another. I read the story of a woman suing her university for not providing her with a job after she had completed her courses. It's a ridiculous case but her contention points to a larger issue: we all make a social contract with one another in order to survive. If we fail to honor that contract, then what have we? Any society at all? Are we nothing but bribed savages waiting to show our true faces?

If we say a job must be required for living, then it is incumbent to provide that job. You say I must earn my food, therefore you create a de facto contract to provide food if I'm willing to earn it. But it doesn't work that way. We play a game of musical chairs: we require everyone to have a chair to survive but the number of chairs always comes up short. What sort of insanity is that? We bribed savages look the other way as long as the bribe keeps coming - but we sing a different tune when all the chairs are taken and are left in the lurch. Some plan, that.

As the illusion of an economic social contract ever existing comes to light and we reveal ourselves as the every-man-for-himself savages we are, the more blatant is our disregard for the suffering of our fellow man. We instead turn to the hope of the triumph of the will, that each person can make it on his own, needing no one. This puts all the blame on those who die. But I ask you, does a dog-eat-dog world truly serve the common good?

In a savage world, one's morality
is determined by whether one lives or dies

"In that day I will also make a covenant for them
"With the beasts of the field,
"The birds of the sky
"And the creeping things of the ground.
"And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,
"And will make them lie down in safety."

It's the illusion of love, isn't it? Love is the only true social fabric, all else destined to tear. Let me describe to you a people whose fabric is disappearing: they are increasingly edgy, growing in fear and hate and desperation (and their music sucks). They withdraw from reality into blind bubbles, hoping against hope the truth will never find them. Their hearts and minds become closed and conservative, never trusting in themselves or the life provided to them. Sound like anyone you know?

Though we fight to make the earth flat, a dominion of our will molded as we see fit, the truth of its roundness resides in us still. And though we know the one human overriding desire is love, we fight against that as well, failing to build on the one rock destined to last. I can certainly say - and others will loudly chime in - I have not been one to honor love well. But love is the only game in town, so what choice have I but to make it work? When we were first put on this planet, it was a paradise. That dream still exists as well.

In the end, it's the inevitability of love. The triumph of love. That which is the illusion of love and that which is truly love will be revealed forever, a shining truth no one can hope to deny. Dreams will be admitted for what they are: realities of love yet to be, unforsakable as water to a body. Hope will lie in the joy of knowing we work in mutual cooperation, never ordained but never disdained. And the future will be that of a flower that lives forever, the beauty of growth and self-discovery, unlocking ourselves as the planted seed. I ask you, do you truly have faith in anything which is not love?