Perhaps the choice is a more straightforward “lesser-of-two-evils” scenario than what most of us see. Perhaps the complexity is an invention to make us feel more important, or righteous, or altruistic. Perhaps it simply comes down to who one believes is more deserving of punishment: the pretentious, or the proud. To punish the pretentious, we side with / vote for the proud. To punish the proud, we side with / vote for the pretentious.
I suppose the complexity begins right there because many of the pretentious are certainly proud, and many of the proud are also pretentious; but I believe the differentiation will stand up to scrutiny. And I believe both are deserving of our ire.
It feels like the world, this world, today, should be capable of being fair; and lacking that, should be capable of remedying inequities. Yet justice today is a far-flung sprinkling of magical fairy dust randomly and unevenly touching a tiny portion of those in need. Far more prevalent and impactful is the ever-widening divide separating the fortunate few from the rest of us. And as the gap grows, it becomes more and more difficult to fling that fairy dust far enough.
The fortunate few on the other side of this rupture are made up of both the proud and the pretentious. The pretentious are flinging fairy dust as far and wide as they can, all while maintaining their position on the other side. The proud are targeting constituents, bombarding them with fairy dust propaganda and asking them to believe; all of this also from the other side. The pretentious point to their efforts and occasional lucky flings. The proud point to the efforts of the pretentious and instill fear and loathing amongst those untouched.
Those of us on this side are made up of those pretending to be pretentious, those who are proud and afraid, and those who are wandering randomly and/or aimlessly hoping to come across a fairy dust storm.
Build a damn bridge!
Build lots of damn bridges!
Damn It!
Yeah, I know. I am naïve. It can’t be that simple, right? Because it is complex, right? Made up of all these complexities and things and stuff. It is a process, right? I need to be patient, right? You’ve got this, right? You’ll save me, right? This from the pretentious.
The proud also say I am naïve. They say it is not that simple, then they advocate for simplistic. They say we need to go back to a simpler (meaning more simplistic) time when everyone knew their place, knew to stay there, and knew not to expect justice. They say it is the pretentious who are creating so many complexities and it is the fairy dust recipients who are taking from the more deserving proud. They say I should be proud.
Justice is defined differently by the proud than it is by the pretentious; and justice is doled out differently to the individuals on one side of the divide than it is to the individuals on the other side of the divide; and far more justice is rendered by the proud and the pretentious than by those pretending to be pretentious or by those who are proud and afraid or by those who are wandering randomly and/or aimlessly. Justice today is fairy dust and propaganda.
The pretentious and their constituencies can pat their selves on the back for some progress, yes. And the proud and their constituencies can cite some examples of injustice from justice, amen. But the truth of justice is that Justice as it should be, has never been.
We need bridges to span the gap. We need equal accessibility to the connective hopefulness these links provide. We need to come to an understanding that there is no divide; no difference between one side and the other; no bridges, only level staging and equal footing.
But we have to begin by building a bridge.
No fairy dust. No shouted propaganda. Just a damn bridge…
Just a damn bridge…