Lone survivor

We had 7 Billion just about a decade ago. Last week it’s 8 Billion.

Quake, Covid and “surgical” drones only took out a few millions. That leaves us survivors until the next cycle of election. Democratic election, “peaceful” transition of powers, an US diplomatic selling point.

Long ago, it’s the Wild West, where matters were swiftly settled by a draw of a gun. Afterward, it’s the spoils of war: wool, women (widows), children, horses and chicken.

John Wayne played both Wild West and Green Berets (WWII) icon.

Despite his scripted injuries (then swift recovery on screen), the audience rooted for an inflicted hero more than Identification with a Superman (too UFO-like).

Blood-thirsting. Barbarian. Border-line savage. yet we can relate better. Higher abstract notions such as “world order” and “equality and justice for all” somehow are “lost in translation”. Democracy moves and flows , wobbling like a three-legged stool throughout the entire span of population growth: 3, 4, 7 and now 8 Billion.

Will the dominoes fall? Tilted to what side (of the Cold War).

“Tear down that wall”.

“Build that wall”.

Only to see Climate Change broke the dam, collapsed the roofs and tilted buildings.

In a House of Cards our lives are not “like a candle in the wind”, but matches in a match box.

Reptilian brain functions in reptilian body. Nth generation machines 1st generation minds.

Without moral guardrails, conscience and yes, rules of Law, we default into Barbarian Life.

It’s easier that way: no shopping , no shaving, no supply chain.

Life expectancy? perhaps low 40’s (Earth’s 3 Billion at best).

Live it up, live it out. Conquer and conquest. War spoils and Peace but with guns at the ready.

NRA, NRB etc… As long as we employ loaded words (with loaded guns as back-ups) like Patriots, National, Crusading, Conquest and – I hate to say this – Kill them all. Settle the matter. Quickly and with deniability. International tribunals, hunting of the perpetrators etc… that’s for the noose of justice to tighten as time goes on.

Meanwhile, like a Dylan’s song goes, “you might be an Ambassador….taking bribes on the side”.

We all serve somebody, some “causes”. It maybe the Lord, it maybe the Devil…

Where is justice, when millions tons of bombs, spent cases of M-16’s ….descended upon the people whose “hearts and minds” we seek to win over against the advance of Communism. Let them have all the Polish sausages. Just keep the rice. Even then, we can’t even handle the truth.

Per Nixon, our railroad switchman Rusty (Calley) got off with 3 years house arrest. If Rusty were to be casted in a Western, Hollywood would have found the right role for him to match with ethos of the times. You’ve got to serve somebody. But “You can’t handle the Truth”. Again, take 2.

That’s a get out of jail free card, in sending the whole train of 504 into an equivalent of Nazi’s death camp. With each war, we need a new Nuremberg. Try them. Nail them.

Let empathy and reciprocity work both ways. And let it be known, there will always be a price for everything, including inaction. No wonder of late, another generation (among the new Billion) get emboldened, and think they can get away with it. To come out, to pump their chests, utter primal scream. A catharsis from deep down, finally finds release. “Jews will not replace us”.

All spent. Like Stallone shooting up computers and data servers. Do we get to win this time? Sir!

Meanwhile, our lone survivor goes about assessing and repairing the damage. What’s left after the fire and the quake. After the Insurrection (a Koran representative was cleaning up broken glasses – ironically incited by the once Law-and-Order NYC Mayor).

To mourn and rush through the five stages of grief. How does one manage to rush to closure? To accept the unjust terms of a contract one did not sign. The more the merrier? Ask ourselves if supply chain can now accommodate 8 Billion souls on this freaking Earth, where every moment on the Internet, we learn of new revelations and saw new bits of data, facts and fiction that alter our assumption and entice our consumption.

Social history seems to catch Alzheimer early in life. We already forgot the names and faces of yesterday’s victims. Justice delayed is justice denied. And the Statue of Limitations seems not long enough for the wheel of justice to play catch-up.

We’re all under house-arrest while waiting for drippy charges, delivered to our in-box and mailbox. Until the house itself is no longer safe. Foundation – moral and legal- first. For survival. Everything else, bonus. In Storm of Steel, the author depicted horrors like,… even the dead got killed twice (cemetery got bombarded and corpses blown up).

The living had to play dead while the dead got jolted

Be a survivor. Join the human race and be counted in. That makes 8 Billion of us in 2024.

Let the dead bury the dead. Self-deleting. There is an aftermath and a price for everything that happened.