07 July 2015

First, They Come For the Weakest...


...and then they come for the others: the dissidents, the different, and the other.

And sometimes, for those who just happen to be where we do not wish them to be.

Once people have been sufficiently desensitized, over time made utterly apathetic to the condition of their fellow human beings, and provided an official rationale in the form of symbols and slogans, for murder, torture, and even the most heinous crimes out of fear and a taste for violence, almost anything is possible.

And in the end, the people are driven mad by their apathy and their complicity.   First they imagine themselves as other than human, as some type of superior being.  But as that illusion falters, and the romantic allure of their symbols and slogans become tattered, they find their otherness merely as beasts.

Great worldly power can at first appear to be awe inspiring, almost beautiful, in its scope.  How can we possibly oppose something so majestic, so shocking, so vast in its scope and reach.  But as we draw closer, we may at times perceive the smell of decay, and corruption, the rot beneath the appearance of the glamour.  And perhaps, drawing close enough, we may even catch a glimpse of the diseased eyes and evil leer behind the mask.  But by then, alas, we are his.

The wounded, the crippled, and the dead are, in this great charade, swiftly carted offstage. They are war's refuse. We do not see them. We do not hear them. They are doomed, like wandering spirits, to float around the edges of our consciousness, ignored, even reviled.”

Chris Hedges