Paul Rosenberg – Filters off. Today I rant.
Humanity has been progressing steadily over millennia. The terrorist empires of the ancient world are gone. Chattel slavery, a filthy curse upon our species since several thousand years BC, was obliterated in Europe a thousand years ago and remains in only a few barbaric corners. Humanity is healthier and better fed than ever in history, and by a huge margin. We have vast knowledge at our fingertips and technology that would have been considered magic not too long ago.
(People fixated on darkness will object to my itemization of humanity’s progress, but everything I’ve written is indisputably true.)
My point is this, and if I could write it in giant, flaming letters, I would:
Humanity is ready to break out and fly.
“No, we’re not!” scream a hundred objections. “War machines, surveillance, stupidity, terror, obedient sheeple, psychopaths in power!”
And yes, I understand. But fixating on evil gets us nowhere. We have to lift up our eyes, see the path before us, take the millstones off our necks, and move. And that means leaving our precious complaints behind.
If you’d prefer to stand in place and complain, that’s your choice. I’ll probably agree with most of your complaints, but I won’t join in your chorus, because complaining doesn’t move me forward. And I want to move forward. I’m sick of watching a big, rigged game in which the debased triumph and the good stand around moaning.
I’m done with it. I give no consent. I offer zero respect. I’ve turned my back to it.