Absolutes

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Ah there it is

That absolute certainty

That absolute vanity

 

That leads to absolute blindness

And absolute rigidity

 

Everything now is subject

To this bias embraced

 

Deviations are not tolerated

Doubt is not allowed

Diversity is a sin

Deviation from absolute loyalty is betrayal

All resistance is persecution

 

Everything must fit the narrative

That comes from above

 

From Party

From Pulpit

From “the great leader”

 

All must fit into the framework that has been chosen

One must close one’s mind

One’s ears, eyes, and heart

 

To facts

To inconvenient truths

To “the other”

 

One must be right

One must win at all costs

AT ALL COSTS

 

I do not know what to do with this

I do not know how to crack the certainty

Penetrate the cultic bubble

 

How do I respond?

How do I engage with this without being

Sucked into a dark abyss

And becoming what I resist?

 

How do I not entrench in my own certainty?

 

Engaging with this

Extremity

Is like talking to a wall

Being greeted by a person-less voice on the other end of the line

That cannot respond

Outside of its programming

 

I feel anger rise

At the falsehoods that are held as truth

At the fearful lack of faith that has become counterfeit faith

At the cold rigidity

 

But beyond anger

I feel despair

And emptiness

 

A “Meta/Facebook just did something weird” and there is no one to go to

Kind of hopelessness/helplessness

 

I have never felt this powerless before

It is like holding on to something precious

Holding on desperately

Hoping to keep this precious thing from sliding over the edge

To its destruction

 

And feeling the rope slowly slip and slide

Through fingers that cannot stop the inevitable

 

The death of justice

The destruction of equity

The rise of fascism

The slow and painful death of a planet

 

I remember the video clips

Of massive crowds

Fervent salutes

Seig Heils

Blind worship

Idolatry

The dead of all that is good

 

Of the trains, creeping toward Iron Gates

Where smoke rises behind the words

Arbeit macht frei

And the air is filled with the stench of death

 

Are we headed there again?

 

God!

Save us from ourselves

Wake us up!

Open our eyes, and our minds, and our hearts

Do not let us exchange the truth for a lie

 

Keep us standing

Keep us proclaiming love

Keep us speaking the truth

Keep us going

Keep us resisting

Keep us hoping

 

But above all

Keep us on the path of love

When we are angry

When we are despairing

Give us love