The Fire That We Started

We’re at that stage of things where we have to sorta stop and say, oh, yeah, that’s on us. 

Our bad. 

There is something sick in our culture and it’s undeniable. 

We have become a culture standing around our house as it burns, roasting marshmallows. 

Florida thinks it’s a great idea to ‘show the other side’ of climate change in schools, meaning they want deniers to have a pulpit to preach from as the world’s ice caps melt. 

Gosh, it’s natural. 

They tell you. 

We think it’s fine to debase ourselves and chase after free gifts that grifting influencers peddle for clicks and views, never asking if we aren’t better than that. 

We help propel young people into fame over antics we’d never want our own kids to show then act shocked when they burn out, have something tragic happen, or die. 

We shrug as giant corporations swallow everything as they chase a few dollars more for people who don’t need them. 

History? Pfft. 

Service? Ha. 

Reliability? As if. 

We are told – oh gosh, it’s going to make things so much easier and better for you, as they are firing our friends. 

None of this is normal. 

It’s not like it’s new, but like the lie of how noble it is to have more than one job, it’s not true. 

Life is full of bullies. 

It is fully of greed. 

It is full of scoundrels. 

It’s just that we’ve started to make these people into folk heroes. 

For god’s sake, people CARE if two billionaires have a cage fight. 

WHY?

Make them fight the people they fired. 

Then it’d mean something. 

At least we’ve progressed from the ‘bum fights’ of the ‘90s and these two WANT to fight one another. 

Why?

Because they have nothing better to do. 

They are rich, and powerful, and bored. 

That’s where we are. 

We think we’re in on something when we’re being sold the merch and the viewing rights so they can profit off of their silly show and get another one over on us. 

The kids that used to want to be sports heroes and then singers and now influencers. 

It seems like less work and more gain. 

Only it’s a hustle that never ends as you are always performing, always working to keep fading attentions, pushing every boundary you can to make sure your followers keep following. 

We are a culture that loves to place blame but takes none. 

We love to point fingers but not accept our own place in an ecosystem of misconduct. 

We want to make everyone a victim and victor at the same time, doxing everyone that we think deserves it while lauding the heroes who want to see people’s lives shaken up for any slight, large or small. 

It’s the mentality that believes that everything can be abuse but it’s posited against people who see even things like rape as something one can ask for. 

Both sides are wrong and the middle is slipping away. 

We are eunning towards A.I. without even understanding fully what it is. We just know it is a new toy to play with.

A new distraction.

And there are so many.

Covid brought out the worst in us and we have never recovered.

We are crass and crude and nasty.
We proudly wave our hatred like banners of victory.

We hang signs with foul language because our favorite political party, who teaches us to hate everyone different than we are, tells us it’s good.

We preach to save the children, save the unborn, while we run razorwire along entry points so people cannot illegally enter our nation.

We obsess over one another and take joy in each other’s pain.

So many of us are hurt, are lonely, and feel isolated but we’re told to fake it ‘til we make it because those around us don’t want to be burdened or bummed out. 

We think that we have to put on a show on social media to prove we’re loved and cool. 

Or we share too much for attention.
We are broken but uncertain how to heal so we lie about it or make the wound worse. 

This isn’t a lack of religion. 

It’s not that one political party is better than the other. 

It’s that we’ve put up walls to keep one another out but in them, we put huge windows so we can stare at one another. 

We’re voyeurs who crave to be doing what the person next to us is doing, even if that person hates it. 

We avoid self-discovery out of fear of what we’ll find. 

I dunno how you solve it. 

All you can do is keep people who make you feel good about yourself and your life close and shut out those that don’t. 

Embrace the things that you believe in and side with them when you are able. 

Fight against the need for fame and fortune because neither is nourishing if you are emotionally starving – they simply amplify where you are in life. 

This is a moment, a long, scary, hard moment, but hopefully it’s one that passes. 

Influencers can grow up, or they can move on, or many will bottom out – trying to hard to force themselves on us like unwanted dates. 

Every day the craziest conservatives show who they are and what they are and it’s up to us to tell them ‘no’ and to cling to sense and science and the idea that we all deserve the same freedoms, not just those with the right sexuality, skin color, or caliber. 

It will either get better or all go up in flames. 

I am hoping we still have time to heal. 

We should all hope that. 

…c…