5.27.2023 - The Two Faces of Despair

5.27.2023
The Two Faces of Despair

Modern despair wears two faces,
As different as Coke and Pepsi,
In that both contain sugar, shame, and stagnation.
The divide is deep.
The crevasse is wide.
The sides fractured and firm.
We tell ourselves the gulf,
Exists because people can’t agree,
Or because some people are too stupid,
Or evil, wrong, selfish, or naive.
But in truth, they are mirror images,
Two different responses to despair.
As a society,
As a species,
As a disharmonious whole,
We look below us,
To a terrifying and dizzying brink.

To one sort of person,
The coming firestorm is to be embraced.
They double down on self-interest,
And call it enlightenment,
Call it justice,
Call it Darwinian.
Get while the getting is good,
Since everyone else already is.
Let the seas rise and the forests burn,
Let the weak die off,
Let the poor starve,
It’s what they deserve for being at the bottom.
The strong and nobel sit exalted,
Upon the backs of those whose only crime was birth.
They congratulate themselves on their goodness,
For only the worthy rise in a meritocracy.
The free market elects the best,
Just look at them!

On the other hand, lie the uniters,
Believing that what we lack,
Is the will to unity,
To lift each other high,
To cooperate in the common interest.
It’s not their fault no one is listening,
No one is working together,
And no one is helping.
The solution is to demand more.
We must be better individuals,
Rule by example,
Hold all accountable,
For each petty or grand deed,
No matter the stakes.
Our species must do better,
So our standards are always refining,
Perfection is the goal,
And the road toward progress
Narrows further each year,
Stropped finer by the outrage,
Cutting each who seeks to walk it.

So form lines for the current culture war,
Each side blind to the other.
Since one cannot relate to a caricature,
The opposition can’t really be people.|
Their humanity warped,
In the twisted mirror of identity.
Thus it goes each year,
The left eats itself,
The right devours all else,
And the common man,
Inherits the dust.