Relief. Relief. So weird, didn’t expect that. I guess when someone you love has lived with an abuser for so long, you learn to live with the tension, the self-control of wanting the best for your friend but always knowing there’s this ongoing rumble of abuse.
So when the abuser is gone (even temporarily), I guess we should expect the relief, but it’s always a surprise, and what a joy! What a celebration!!
Anyway, as you may know, I live in the UK; we currently have the worst death rate of any nation in the world. And it’s not for lack of money, or lack of science, or understanding, or even discipline. It’s thanks to ridiculously, almost purposefully mismanaged leadership. It’s due to very, very clear corruption and U-turns and a decade of the systematic selling-off of the NHS, bringing our basic free healthcare to its knees. The selling of contracts to private firms that have supported the government with bribes. Contracts which never go anywhere near tender, contracts which let the companies take the money and fold, or deliver nothing but ask for more cash, more time, easier targets. Mates contracts. Decisions made too late. Promises broken, hands wrung, tactics proved wrong. Corruption. Death. The worst death rate in the world. The worst.
And it makes me fucking angry, but then I look at America, and it gives me a little hope. Perhaps we can remember our deep story of liberty after all. Redistribution of wealth towards the very few is always framed by the corrupt as ‘freedom’, but if it means the enshacklement of vast swathes of society, then that’s not freedom, it’s called oppression. But it can be fought; we’ve seen that fascism, white supremacy, hard-right media agendas can be voted out, and abusers can be told to absolutely get in the sea, and then fuck off, and then fuck off some more. The French have a fairly clear history on this one, hence the device called the guillotine being used as a rather terminal response to the anti-human “Let them eat cake” voice of the ignorant oppressor. If you drive people to poverty and don’t give a shit, you tend to lose your head, which makes it difficult to eat cake or anything else.
It seems that to really defend free speech, we have this paradox of having to prevent those who would remove free speech from having a voice. Those who want to silence everyone must themselves be silenced, in order that free speech work at all. And very few people understand this paradox, which makes it rather difficult to explain when people are fed a much simpler rhetoric of “Your hate makes you strong!” and “Words aren’t important! We can say what we want!”, and “Antifa want to burn your homes and make you Muslim! Do you want that?!?!!”. It’s much easier to talk and explain pure bullshit than it is to choose the path of truth. Which makes it rather easy for ‘opinion’ radio to drum up support for fascists, because they can talk total bollocks and get angry people to be their army. Even to the extent of storming the very place that represents the democratic rule of law that’s the only thing defending the people from all-out totalitarian power bases. Ahh, awkward. Democracy is a delicate thing, indeed.
And I wish I didn’t have to hold the hands of the people dying, the people who can’t feed themselves, the real people whose lives are wrecked by some businessman’s desire for a bigger Audi. But I do, and I will, and the world will turn and people will get lessons on the path of hate over and over and over again, and as the poet says, all we can really do is be the light that we want to see. No matter the extent of the corruption, the dark is always driven out by the light, and what light! What light we are! So we can have hope, and that’s kind of amazingly brilliant!
You know what else is brilliant? Here’s an image of an evil jacuzzi in the making! Hooray!
That’s right, the next comic is Lithium #8 after all, and I’m halfway through. It’s funny, this one, oooh yes siree, lockdown’s good for the creative juices, it turns out. Hooooeeee!
Rejoice!
Rejoice, you beautiful bastards!
It’s gonna see some action, this jacuzzi.
