The Light Brigade

by Kameron Hurley

That’s the war I knew. The events as I understood them. That’s how I decided which side of the war to be on. And I was. On the right side, I mean. Nobody ever thinks they chose the wrong side. We all think we’re made of light.

Only one percent of people are psychopaths. The rest of us have to learn.

We kept going. Because that’s what war is. You keep going until it’s over. Or you’re dead.

Did you know those who are mildly depressed see the world more accurately? Yet they don’t live as long as optimists. Aren’t as successful. It turns out that being able to perceive actual reality has very little long-term benefit. It’s those who believe in something larger than themselves who thrive. We all seem to need a little bit of delusion to function in the world.

the choice of the whip or the chain is a false choice.

Reality is a constructed thing. Imagine us all standing in a circle, trying to describe an object to one another, and as we agree on its characteristics, the thing at the center of our circle begins to take form. That’s how we create reality. We agree on its rules. Its shape. Different cultures have created different realities just by all agreeing about the thing they described.

Reality is made up. Reality is what we agree on. Had I agreed to this?

When your choice is to work or to die, that is not a choice.

War was all about the annihilation of truth. Every good dictator and CEO knows that.

But it turns out most of us don’t want truth. We want stories that back up our existing beliefs. Flood the world enough with information, and I will pick out only those bits that uphold the virtue and rightness of whatever corp I’ve been taught to love.

There is no bloodless revolution, only necessary revolution, when a system becomes so deeply broken you can’t affect change from the inside.