And I felt this isolation, this terror, this profound, unspeakable trepidation about the future of our very complex civilization, in the face of all the forces tearing us apart; I felt this is not just my particular malady.
Have we entered the realm of family as voluntary association? In some respects this is an evolution of the concept of individualism, but it is also a reflection of the determined assaults by cultural nihilists upon all the non-coercive, non-violent, voluntary forces which bring us together, which keep us together. Values like honor and loyalty and impartial kindness, and REASON.
Do sanity and connection not feel for many of us like increasingly endangered islands? In that movie, they found a family of sorts, comradery, love. But were they not unanchored, in constant danger and motion?
We feel zombies among us. I see zombie parades all over the country. Why do people want to be zombies? What is the attraction? Does it not allow them to greet and identify and engage with something in their lives that makes them feel unimportant, disengaged, separated?
Does it not allow them to contact forces of rage and violence which they cannot otherwise give voice to? The need to “cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice.”
Why not take “the poison, from the poisoned stream”?
I have, for many years. It’s so easy. It’s much easier than greeting head on horror, confusion, loneliness, doubt, and a sense of futility.
But I don’t quit. For the duration of my life I will offer my soul, sacrifice my being, shake like a leaf, watch horror flow through me like a black river, and work for something better that I can communicate and teach.
There is no other game in town. Failure greets all of us at some time, on some level, but sometimes the task is simply keeping the torch lit, and carrying it as long as you can.