We, the Barbarians

WE ARE BARBARIANS, SAVAGES. we, the human beings of the year 2012, are barbarians, though we prefer to believe that we are not, and our descendants, if there are any, will surely recognize us as such.

nevermind our constant warfare, environmental destruction, and our allowing the vast majority of our brothers and sisters to languish in poverty and illness.

we lock human beings up in cages like wild animals. we are barbarians when we lock wild animals in cages, and when we do this to our kind, we are no better, indeed worse.

at any given time roughly fifteen thousand people are locked in windowless concrete cages the size of a king sized bed, twenty three hours a day. it would be more civilized of us to simply kill them. they often try, and succeed, in killing themselves.

this is in america, the barbaric land of incarceration, where we locked up martha stewart. and where we lock up a higher percentage of our population than any other country on earth.

according to thomas jefferson, himself a barbarian: "if the people become inattentive to the affairs of government, the legislators and magistrates will divide society into two classes; wolves, and sheep." 

and this is what we have done. on the outside we divide into wolves and sheep, and in our prison system, we turn some of the sheep into caged animals.

we imprison people for self medicating with substances we arbitrarily outlaw, and for crimes of financial fraud.

release the drug dealers, and let them self medicate, and if they choose, let them deal drugs to whomever they please. strip martha stewart and others like her of financial wealth and investment opportunity, but not of fundamental human dignity. by so doing, we will know that, at least, we have become slightly less barbaric.

I make friends with people, and i wear a derby
on my head, as others do. i say:
"they are strangely stinking animals", and i say
"no matter, i am too"                       --- bertolt brecht

into a time capsule einstein placed a message, saying: "if you have not become more civilized, more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you."

the devil has arrived.

Bb

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