No Hope in a World where There is No Respect for Dignity.
You aren’t going to change the minds of those who refuse to see reason. The only solution is to shut them out and disenfranchise them, or remove yourself from the equation and let the whole world burn.
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As I woke to the day, I prepared breakfast and listened the news. By accident, I heard a loudmouthed, obstructionist, intellectually devoid talking-head piss and moan about how freedom was over and how we came to it because we tried too hard to legislate morality, tried to intrude too far into the realm of personal liberty. “The obvious conclusion” I thought to myself, “is that we need laws regulating things related to morality because humans can’t be trusted to act ethically of their own inherent accord.”
I walked out the door to meander to the grocer. I spied a pile of cigarette butts discarded on the ground. I thought to myself “even one lazily discarded butt is one too many.”
As I walked further on, I saw trash everywhere no one else wanted to look. A colorful soda can peeked out at me from the tall grass next to the creek, not six feet from the curb. It reminded me of the old saying that even a polished turd is still a turd. In my mind, I thought “even one lazily discarded soda can is one too many.”
Farther along, the trash turned to flesh and bone as I spied an overly-self-assured prick of a redneck walking along the opposite side; a meek-looking, disheveled woman, probably his wife, walking five feet behind, arms crossed around her belly, head down in what appeared to be shame. I thought to myself, “even one abuse victim is one too many.”
Another piece of trash came upon the intersection in his unjustifiably loud truck, wheels jacked up beyond any sensible notion of utility; dated, anachronistic rock anthems blaring from his unjustifiably loud speakers. He didn’t even heed the stop sign, just sped right though, nearly hitting a mother, burdened with purchases, and her three kids waiting to cross in safety. I thought to myself “even one accident victim as a result of negligent driving and ignorant assumptions is one too many.”