The deadliest force in the universe is not the nuclear missile. It is silent, slow, implosive rather than explosive. As a weapon, it is far smarter than nuclear fission — and more destructive.
The nuclear missile has only ever been used twice — by the United States on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The mushroom clouds are long dispersed but the destruction is etched into the collective psyche, a full stop at the end of a turbulent paragraph. Or so we thought.
Subsequent passages have dealt their own hammer blows, threatening to turn that single stop into a parenthesis…
It’s not the shadow of nuclear armageddon that returns but something even more deadly.
Unless it has already deadened you, something should stir inside as you read these words. Something bright, resistant, defiant.
The last 20 months have seen a grand assault on that bright defiance — like a leaden sheet on a candleflame. There have been sparks for sure but the projection is one of smokeless extinction. We feel suffocated, powerless to avoid it.
It is as if we drift towards a black hole. Beyond a certain point - the event horizon - there is no coming back. Not even light escapes. But, as I’ve been saying all this time — between bouts of succumbing — there is a way.
It isn’t peace — not yet. That will come. As the slogan goes: no justice, no peace.
The illlustration shows Orion, the hunter, spiralling towards a black hole. A cataclysm — but not yet.
The brightest part of the image is the circumference of the black hole — the event horizon. What does that say?
There, on the brink of no return, the light is at its fiercest. And with that burned into our psyche, we name our deadly force.
Not evil, not hate. Indifference.
Say it and feel your inner flame sputter. It isn’t fear that assails it but something chronic, drawn-out, grey, an inexorable grinding.
It drags a tired voice from us. The hell with it then, it says.
Above the gates of Danté’s Inferno are the words: All hope abandon, ye who enter here. Hell is a black hole. Not even light escapes.
Perhaps this message from the brink kindles your defiance. Bring the light! you cry. You see? The light is brightest at the brink.
We’re not there yet. But to pretend that there is no brink or that the hole can be unseen is to blow our candle out in advance.
We might mention Lux-i-fer, bringer of light, but this is no Satanic post. It’s a practical one. It aims to inspire sacred rage, sacred fire, the dance of Orion, hunter of darkness and warrior of the brink.
It’s not for me to say what you will do with this fire — save that you must build it up and see what it illuminates, and follow its crackle into action. Brinkmanship, if necessary.
This is where our Magician whispers our quest to the Warrior. What quest, you say? There must be one or else we are indifferent.
What Quest-am-I-on? Breathe and remember!
Indifference is the great curve ball. The Magician sees the trajectory but it is the Warrior who steps up to the plate and knocks it out the park.
SMASH YOUR INDIFFERENCE OUT THE PARK
It’s a deadly force that affects us all. It’s everywhere and highly infectious. And it’s by design.
That’s it. The gauntlet’s thrown.
Cut the crap and join the circle.
→ GO
Great read. I feel my magician needs to hand the baton over...