Striving For Light in a World of Darkness (intro)
The human story is one wrought with toil. It’s pages depict the depressions and elations which compound this corporeal condition which we are all bound, it’s spread, although painted with love and kinship, is ineffably stained with blood, rape and malevolence and such can not be overlooked. We are indeed a species capable of the utmost compassion and altruism however precedent depicts a dark side of us that craves war, power and destruction with little consideration for our neighbours nor the Earth which harbours us. It is not for lack of care for the ‘positive’ facets of the human condition that I choose to focus on it’s antithesis, but rather that the potential for absolute destruction which the dark side wields is so great that I believe consideration on its tendencies and how they are manifest in this modern world is essential to help thwart such cataclysms from one day arising as they have so often in the past.
The issues which confront us today are analogous to those which confronted us in times gone by, not much has changed in that regard. Varying demographics within society remain in conflict, huge swathes of the global population remain dispossessed and are forced to exist without the proper means whilst an elite with an insatiable appetite for material horde the world of resource, the same minority use our brothers and sisters as dispensable pieces within their games of war and plunder in a grotesque rejection of our common human value. Such occurrences have appeared to repeat themselves since time immemorial, the seat of power seems to always sway towards oppression as its interface with the people — no matter how egalitarian those who occupy it may once have been- ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’[1]. To be concise, the overarching and primary issue which has always confronted humanity is the oppression of the weak at the hands of the strong. Even in so-called democratic nations, where the people are supposed to be sovereign, the very highest stratum of society are at the helm dictating the fate of the many.
[1] Lord Acton — British historian
This paradigm has existed long before the dark days of this year 2020 AD. Most would argue that, since the ideas conception millennia ago, there has never been an example of true democracy- a system whereby the votes of all societies members carry real weight and have the potential to alter the framework of the society they compound. All ‘democracy’ hitherto played out has been merely a façade, a trick which veils the eyes of the many from the evils of the few. One singular vote every four to five years within an election in which there are only two potential winners (who differ only in form not in nature, and do nothing to right the true ills of society) is not true democracy. Any state which allows corporate biases to sway elections is not truly democratic. The deliberate push of misinformation and false narratives by the media to avert the public from the attainment of the truth is not a trait of true democracy (the sovereign body needs to be well equipped with reliable and unadulterated information to ensure sound policy making is maintained). A truly democratic state would be one that gave her people, all her people, an active role in the management and governance of the local and wider community as well as their systems. Citizens and communities would have-unless they requested otherwise-more sovereignty to decide upon the customs, laws and practices of their jurisdictions and a holistic and comprehensive education with which they can make informed decisions on such matters.
One such ideal state could not simply declare war on another without rigorous debate and subsequent majority consent in the popular vote, nor could it enact laws which restrict essential and irrevocable civil or commercial freedoms without the same scrutiny and agreement by the people. Simply, government would be of the people, by the people and never used as a weapon against them, if any such eventuality did arise whereby the state began to oppress the nation then rebellion- political, industrial or physical depending on the severity of the domination- would not only be permissible but encouraged, so to extinguish any chance of the state turning tyrannical and endangering the public wellbeing .
We live in one such oppressive state now. This perilous year has accelerated humanity to its predetermined fate- that of a descension into totalitarian rule. I say predetermined as it appears we have been on course for such a disturbing transformation for generations (that is, if you believe we have ever existed in anything but an authoritarian system). This transformation can be detected in many political regressions in recent history: the slow but sure erosion of personal privacy through data harvesting and surveillance, definite frontal assaults on freedom of speech with censorship and de-platforming, Persistent and ruthless attacks on any who speak out against the hegemonic narratives which dominate socio-political discourse and now, through the all too convenient guise of COVID legislation, overt fascistic restrictions on movement and commerce- the likes of which are hitherto unseen- as well as mandatory ( or quasi-mandatory) impositions of face masks and vaccines.
Such a set of affairs should not be as readily accepted as it has been by the majority of the national and global populations, it is as if man has forgotten the innate liberty which defines him, the liberty to choose his own fate, the liberty to pursue his own ends with an absence of arbitrary domination. I do not know how dire the state of affairs must become before we insist upon resistance, but I fear we must endure a cold and dark night of subjugation before that mighty day of opposition arises. When that Sun does finally rise over that dark and wretched world, one can only hope that ,through its illumination, we will be able to see a path to a finer future, one founded on the sanctity of the liberty which characterises our condition and the safeguarding thereof, and the knowledge that all people are created equal and that all should be treated as such, both by society, its institutions and the members that compound them.
