Solidarity

The most basic decency we can have for our fellow humans is to treat them like they inherently have worth. We may not agree with what they believe. We are not required to be civil to people who would deny us our humanity. And the basis of society is this trust, this solidarity, we place in our neighbors-- in humans we have never even met. Without this trust we are, "the house divided which cannot stand." An unhealthy family will tear down the walls, figuratively and sometimes literally, to enforce expectations which are unrealistic, to avoid making commitments or difficult choices. At the end of the day, we are much better off working together as a society of equals before the law. Tim's life isn't more important than Sarah's. Jimbo shouldn't get special treatment that is unavailable to Miranda. And, critically, the Laws by which we accept the Binding Contract of Society must be written in objective reality. We must prioritize the truths we can prove over the philosophies we have developed in response to life. Because the contract of society loses meaning, and it loses value, when it devalues any individual of the group. Society is the sum of the Whole as well as the Quality of each. A Justice system and jails may always be necessary, but the conditions inside these institutions are entirely dependent upon human action: they would not exist without us. We will all die one day. And the human story will be over. But in the meantime, we are the movement of time itself. When the story stops and the universe enters its heat death; perhaps the story will begin again with nuances. Or perhaps there is nothing after death, for us and the universe. Life is like a dream that way...or a nightmare. I hope it shall not come to that. But one can only muster through. Until the end we must find our way forward. Slogging through the mud and the trenches or some irradiated hell land isn't something I'm rather keen on. If we could... somehow... peacefully convince the authoritarians to stop committing acts of violence... how do you cool the kettle that is boiling over? How do you remove hostility from people who seem to crave it with conflict? Can we maintain a stable and peaceful society if it is bursting at the edges to dismantle itself? To reform itself? I'm a socialist, rather vaguely so. I want our government to prioritize people over property. I want citizens to have an equal say, and that no human is left behind. I'm not keen on the idea of a Bronze-Age level of collapse. Billions will die. But geopolitics is a bit like a house of cards, and with so many authoritiarian movements springing up it is... disheartening sometimes. I fear it is inevitable, but human history is not a pattern set in stone. I choose to defy that notion every day. We are better together. Be safe. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍🤎🖤