America the Dark

As I watch America consistently burn itself upon its own stake, I can’t help but notice my increasing lack of surprise with every unfolding, self inflicted travesty. This country seems firmly set upon the singular resolve of self destruction, and will not cease engaging the most devilish atrocities until it has killed itself. America is a land who lost the will to live centuries ago and, discontent with mere ideation, continue devising ever more sinister poisons to finish itself off. When you see the evils ruling powers are capable of, it is almost too easy to sense America’s burning desire to break apart and sink to depths unknown, an Atlantis of its own devising.

We know the overturning of Roe v Wade- now threatening to overturn Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell- has nothing to do with nobility, best interests, or God. It is a power move, plain and simple. Power. And control. It is such an obvious and profane tactic, that I initially wondered how it could have happened in the first place.

And then my mind rewound the last two decades of thinly veiled entertainment dogma; rearranged the pieces of my grave annoyance at the debilitation of mainstream creativity into a picture which shocked with its clarity. I noted the major companies fighting tooth and nail to strictly control our superhero tales and the representation of our mythologies. I recalled which superheroes are incessantly paraded before us, which ones are benched/sidelined, which boundary pushers stripped of significance. I reflect upon the gaslighting cover story for poor storytelling- “Hey, just appreciate having it.”

What I once perceived as lazy, now appears as stratagem. Like slowly letting the air out of a room, until we are so adrift in our hallucinated delusions we don’t realize we are gasping for our lives. The surety of the knowledge of good and evil has been meticulously vacuumed from the tabernacle of our souls until now, evil can run rampant with no disguise, and win, and we want to uprise, but don’t, but aren’t certain why, all we know is that something critical has gone missing, and we can’t put a finger on where we lost it, or how to get it back.

though morality be a spectrum,

there is still such a thing as good,

and those who pursue it.

though redemption be gift beyond reneging,

there is still a such thing as evil,

and those who consciously feed their addiction to its spoils.

In our desperation for progress, we have permitted ourselves be stripped of nuance.

We have sanitized our villains and depersonalized our heroes; made the swirling sheen of stage lights and pulsing earthquake score the primary attraction over the live theatre performance itself. We have taken much and made minuscule of it; transformed the intimacy of the human experience into profitable spectacle.

We have collectivized the audacity of criminality, saddling the burden of reformation’s success upon the backs of those most oppressed with the least amount of say. We have accepted blame, as if this state of collateral dysfunction was engineered by our own hands; in the absence of clear distinction between heroes and villains, we have internalized villainy, like a muffled sneeze being forced to retreat back into the body.

Police brutality is not the fault of Black lives, yet we endlessly grind ourselves into the dirt trying to fix it.

LGBTQ hate is not the fault of the LGBTQ community, yet they endlessly grind themselves into the dirt trying to fix it.

A woman’s right to exist as a complete, autonomous being shouldn’t even be up for discussion (because that’s a half step away from actual slavery) and it’s not their fault either- yet they protest, and march, and strategize, and organize, and self educate, and go to therapists, and try to move past/be the bigger person/accept whatever wins possible all the same.

We didn’t do this to us.

But we were softened into a problematic compliance; softened by the accursed gift of “normal.” Such a common refrain- wishing to go back to when things were normal. But when, in America, has that ever existed? Much like the invention of whiteness, “normal” is a fabrication created to serve a sinister few.

We didn’t do this to us.

We were softened over time.

Sanitized villains creates a society that only rallies around violent upsets. Critical emergencies. A veiled tragedy, for the thing itself has already happened.

Depersonalized heroes separates us from a deep personal truth; “Chosen One” is the innermost ring on the venn diagram of the human tapestry. All of our stories overlap, which means that each of us are a Chosen One in someone else’s narrative. We’re all super, and understanding that power is a force no opposition can stand against.

There is an ancient Hebrew story about the punishment for knowing good and evil being banishment from paradise. Yahweh held no forgiveness in his heart for the yearning godsouls he himself had designed, made no allowance for their innocence, held no grace for the sharpness with which all new knowings carry in their suddenness. It was only punishment. This story is widely circulated in America, a most devious messaging.

“If you decide to know the difference between good and evil, you will be destroyed, Your paradise made myth.”

We decided to know anyway.

And they persistently destroyed us.

But we kept fighting back.

Started to gain momentum.

We bore the knowledge; we fought the fight.

So they changed tactics.

They didn’t stop actively destroying us.

They took the knowledge away.

Heroes are just problematic people with platforms now.

Villains are “honest good folks just like you” who you have probably misunderstood.

However, I have faith.

Empire is not the only choice; we can establish a Realm. A place of living that centers humanity, justice, hope, and nuance.

I have faith.

In every tale of heroism and fantasy, there is a remnant.

Rebels. People who resist. Persons who believe they can upend the devil system binding them.

Today was a terrible blow.

And we will take our time to grieve it.

but after that,

we will take up our swords,

we will get to work,

for all the myths reveal a critical truth,

empire,

is built to do one thing,

and one thing only,

Fall.

And we will level this Empire until not even a single stone of its infrastructure will be recognizable.

You see because America is just an idea.

A concept without ownership or trademark.

We will take hold of this idea.

We will recreate America.

We will fight for good by any means necessary.

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