The student realised the thinker didn\u2019t understand at all. It was the very pure, bestial freedom that was being eroded and lost every day. Animals act on instinct. The more humans progressed, the more they second-guessed, worried, self-mutilated their minds over simple decisions. Mental self-harm. It was natural to outsource the worry to a higher authority. But that authority was not holy, it was human, with all its flaws and desires. Those who take up the mantle then besiege the confused, panicky population with dark slogans: Life is dread! Every waking moment a peril! Fear the freedom of others to do things to you, fear your own freedom to undo you! Donate your freewill to the higher cause \u2013 and our instructions will lead you to the Holy Grounds!<\/p>\n
His friends seemed to fade into the background and he just let the sentences spill out of his mouth, unguarded and unashamed. \u2018We’ve dragged ourselves out of the swamps and into the bright sunlight of intelligence. But we\u2019re just frightened rabbits, right, in the sun\u2019s headlights and we don\u2019t know what good or evil mean any more, we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re supposed to do at all. All we seem to be really good at doing is finding out more and more and fucking up our brains. The puzzle gets bigger and more complicated. So much information to take on board, the internet drowns us and we scrabble for dry land, anything that can keep us afloat. Faced with the enormous complexity of life, nature, science, art \u2013 fucking everything<\/em> \u2013 we feel like turning back, putting up our hands and resigning. But we can – we should – make our hands into fists and roar at the universe that we don\u2019t give in that easily.\u2019<\/p>\n He stood up, raised a fist at the air itself and shouted: \u2018Fuck you, universe!\u2019<\/p>\n His eyes watered as he hadn\u2019t blinked throughout his little rant against the faulty human system. He glanced across his friends through a gauze of tears, and saw that his fellow anarchists had been stunned into silence. Were they impressed or just shocked? He sighed aloud, for he was still alone after all. There was potential in this group, but would the thinker prove to be an ally or a hindrance in the long-term?<\/p>\n But his girlfriend. She stared at him with an expression that was neither pitiful nor hateful, just intrigued. He didn\u2019t understand why \u2013 did she get it now? Did she understand? The group hadn\u2019t been happy to bring a zealot into their midst without some grooming… but he was hopeful she could be turned around. There was always an elegant consistency to her perspective; if he could puncture some of her views, then she might, just might, re-arrange everything to see things their way.<\/p>\n The athlete broke the silence with a sharp change of subject, saying, \u2018You know, what\u2019s really worrying are the current rumours about the Paladins-\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Holy moley moley!<\/em>\u2019 the musician shouted, who had been playing with her cell.<\/p>\n The thinker shouted, \u2018Good God, enough shouting for this evening! Could everybody please stop shouting!\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018TV, get the TV on right now. Any channel, any channel at all. You are not going to believe this.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Believe what?\u2019 said the thinker.<\/p>\n The musician was lost for words, gasping for something, stuck with just: \u2018TV!\u2019<\/p>\n The student hauled himself up off the floor, wandered over to the TV, switched it on, saw two words in bold, white lettering on its plasma display and felt his jaw drop.<\/p>\n \u2018Get out of the fucking way,\u2019 yelled the poet, \u2018we can\u2019t see a bloody thing!\u2019 The student jumped aside as ordered.<\/p>\n The thinker retorted, \u2018Stop shouting for God’s sakes! Will you please stop the\u2019 \u2013he saw the same two words that had stunned the student\u2013 \u2018oh you gotta be kidding.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The student realised the thinker didn\u2019t understand at all. It was the very pure, bestial freedom that was being eroded and lost every day. Animals act on instinct. The more humans progressed, the more they second-guessed, worried, self-mutilated their minds over simple decisions. Mental self-harm. It was natural to outsource the worry to a higher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}