The Ballot on the Coffee Table
B. de los Arcos, Palestina Libre, CC0 (public domain dedication)
What bleakness lurks in a piece of folded paper! And the ink in my pen feels so heavy, so sticky, like oil. Here it is, in black and white on the sheet of paper. We’ve arrived at the logical conclusion of lesser-evil politics, when the purported lesser evil backs a military authority capable of opening fire on a hospital courtyard, leaving people burning alive in their beds. Every hour in Gaza, 15 people are killed. Some weights, my soul just can’t carry.
We could be different. We could be humanity. One tribe among many living communities on a planet with that special something: Life.
The trauma we create in each other corresponds with the trauma we inflict on other living communities. The body mass of mammals on Earth is now “overwhelmingly dominated” by human beings and the animals we purpose-breed. As we take more land to extract more resources and make more money, free beings and untamed habitats barely stand a chance.
We could be so different.
Human Animals
Yoav Gallant called Gazans human animals who must be forced to starve or to leave. Owen Jones reports that retired general Giora Eiland, who advises Gallant, welcomes epidemics because they “will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.”
A UN commission categorizes the Israeli assault on Palestinians as the crime against humanity of extermination, Jones notes. Meanwhile, Israel has forced well over a million Lebanese people to flee their homes, causing the UN to warn that Lebanon is losing a generation. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris says Israel needs resources to defend itself, even as Israeli jets pummel apartments in suburban Beirut.
“As commander-in-chief,” Kamala Harris tells us, “I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” And as humanity continues to press the earth’s systems past their breaking points, we’ll see how the “most lethal” approach plays out. As human relations stand now, we can expect climate crisis to accelerate a pattern in which well-off people benefit, while those outside their boundaries of moral concern do not.
There But for Fortune
I’d assume most people who read this piece are part of some diaspora. For my ancestors, the impetus was forced starvation in Ireland. We ought to remember that stuff and its implications. We ought to acknowledge that caring for the well-being of anyone alive on Earth supports our collective well-being.
And as for the future? As forests falter, as homes and fields flood and burn, the U.S. administration crows about the low price of oil, and the high price of stocks. And so it continues. Millionaires and billionaires retain the right to profit until humanity’s safe operating space is exhausted. That’s been taken as a given for far too long. It must stop.
New generations are studying and questioning colonialism and its everyday extension, capitalism. Social media provides a window to the agony of those who are deemed expendable. People are using social accounts to stand up to disinformation and political bullying. In significant numbers, the people are speaking and won’t be silenced. They’re serious about breaking free of lesser-evil politics to collaborate on a new story.
A story of humanity. One tribe, among many living communities, on a planet with that special something.
With thanks to Patricia Fairey, and to Lydia Grossov and Mauro Reis.
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