Time to howl

(Nimue)

Sometimes you have to howl, and rage against the state of the world. The things that humans do to each other in the name of ideas, is horrific. Religions, and countries are only real because we’ve agreed they are, and yet these become justifications for murder. Greed is the other driving force towards hideousness as companies and politicians go about destroying life on the planet for the sake of short term profits.

Sometimes howling is all you can do.

Most of us have very little power. We can protest. We can sign petitions and try to live in ways that limit the harm we’re doing. The systems we live in can make it very hard indeed to limit the harm, poverty can push people into unsustainable choices. How do you dismantle murderous capitalism while having no choice but to operate within it?

Howl.

It’s better to feel it, to make room for the rage and grief rather than sliding into numb apathy. When we cannot bear to feel it, when we no longer have the will to care then we are likely to become part of the problem. The temptation grows of thinking that it would all be fine if we could just get rid of those other people. (I tend to think of billionaires, although I would rather remove their wealth and power than see them killed. Mostly.) Suffering invites conflict all too easily.

Push someone beyond what they can bear, and they may strike back. Crush people until they have nothing left to lose and they are likely to choose violence. Threaten people, and they are likely to want to defend themselves. We have deep seated, long standing hostilities in this world, and turning that around would take heroic efforts. It’s not impossible, though. Nothing is impossible if enough people will it, and are willing to do the work, and that’s something to keep aiming for, no matter what happens.