I try my damnedest not to contribute to or advance any persuasion of church or state or industry, because the will should never be invoked upon others unless to save a life, as the will exerted upon others is the one and only source to every problem we are faced with in this life, in this world. There is no “hard decision” made in the taking of a life, rather is the taking of a life always the matter of arrogant unwillingness or ignorant inability to problem-solve anything other than feeding of ego or indulgence of fantasy. Just as gun-owners saving lives is a fantasy that must never be indulged, there must be no more capital punishment, no more arms deals, no more wars. If one declines to consider alternatives in problem-solving which fall short of lethal force, then they do not understand what this world is about, and what this world is about is sacrifice.
Our only options in the human dilemma are to sacrifice for those who want the benefit or to sacrifice for those who need the benefit, but either way we do not make sacrifices of others as that is their decision and their decision alone. Making sacrifices of ourselves must be a personal choice brought forth without entrapment or extortion or exploitation, lest the root to basic human rights, self-determination, does not exist. But for the vast majority to continue only ever seeing or hearing that which esteems the individual ego, be it one’s very own or that of one’s preferred icon, then this life and this world and every torment therein of lying and cheating and stealing continues as is. After all, church and state and industry service no other designs but as platforms for ego to shelter in place underneath. Each and every life is worth more than the measurement of usefulness towards the biggest ego it would meet with, and to anybody who argues to the contrary, I won’t kill you or pardon your killing by others but I will violently disagree with the luxury of entitlement and privilege aghast over the world not existing for your enrichment or pleasure.
The older I get, the less credence I give to the thoughts and feelings of others, because eventually one realizes it all reads like deflections away from the virtues, which is absurdity because virtues are how problems are prevented and resolved. Failure to get what one wants isn’t itself a violation of any rights, especially when what one wants is to infringe upon the civil or basic human rights of others. If there were a political spectrum, it would be the prioritization of life or death needs of others over personal wish-fulfillment vs prioritizing personal wish-fulfillment over the life or death needs of others. What we have in practice is nothing but rightwing ego exertion competing with rightwing ego exertion competing with rightwing ego exertion. Maybe everyone should have a home before anybody welcomes themselves to a second or third or more, and maybe this is unreasonable only for sadistic ne’er-do-wells who don’t quite grasp concepts such as civilization, decency or Marquess of Queensberry Rules.
If we capped maximum earnings for example, we’d never again need to raise the minimums, because when minimum wages are raised then invariably costs of living get inflated higher and higher, as no resources or opportunities and certainly no monies are permitted to exist outside the clutches of those upstream. The only things trickling back down of course, are golden showers and mud baths. But for that class of the most self-serving people in world history, politicians are cheaper than taxes or regulations. And of those faces of church and state and industry who live to be the lapdogs for their fantastical icons, the function of religious leaders is lying, of politicians is cheating and of executives is stealing, all down to their preferring their favorite ego’s immediate gratification over the rest of humanity’s continuance. If a billionaire cannot subsist on a million total in cash and holdings, maybe they should pick themselves up by their bootstraps and learn some gumption. Deprivation by any individual or agency of resource and opportunity necessary to survival makes one an accessory to murder, and an utter twat. As ego fretfully obsesses over who among the populace deserves less than itself, down to life itself, then does ego and its delusions of authority, of power and control, act exclusively toward the detriment of life, for all the many sticky tentacles of authority, of power and control never amount to anything more than mere marketing to someone’s unnecessary benefit. Under no circumstances fathomable are fan clubs, circle jerks or personality cults fundamental to anyone’s non-figurative survival, whether you are the centerpiece or whether you are the human shield.
It clicked for me late in my 20s I think that the 7 deadly sins all boil down to giving in to ego, and their counter in the 7 cardinal virtues held by old-time Catholics all boil down to stifling the ego. I gather parting with the ego is core to most orthodox theologies one way or another, because they need a touch of reality to sell the fantasy, but even without promised salvation the mere act of foregoing or at least battling at every turn our own bias, desire, fetishes and quirks and whims and wishes is itself the prevention of problems for ourselves or for others. Salvation or not, and there is no happy ending while others suffer, this world deals in sacrifice and the thing to be sacrificed is ego. No life anywhere is worth less than anyone else’s pride or comfort. If you disagree, we must be related. If I avoided cashing in on my smarts, it’s because I must be some drunk or druggy or loser up to something nefarious, as opposed to me thinking others could use the opportunity more, or that I’m just not interested in milking hearts and minds for my ease of passage. That if I am not tooting me own horn incessantly, then I must have no accomplishments to speak of, as opposed to my having raised more monies for charities than every living member of my family tree combined. Western societies are broken beyond repair because its people want their share in privilege and entitlement and luxury but never burdens or blame, just as the individual people today are broken beyond repair because they believe they deserve esteem, that the world really is a stage with them as only audience, when this world has always been pretty clear about the one true commodity being your sacrifice.