I’ve had cause recently to reflect on my past, present and how I want to go into the future. I don’t think that I’m unusual in saying there are things I’ve done in the past that I think I could have dealt with better. I hope that I’m a better person than I was then, and more committed to trying to continue to do better in the future.
One of the real joys in my life now, that I did not see being so important to me in my past, is having my friends and family (both by blood and found) around and knowing they trust me to be a safe person to be around and that my house will always be a safe place for them. The world is currently circling the drain of disaster and there are great forces at work beyond my control that seem intent on making the world a much more threatening and unsafe space for an awful lot of people. I find it very difficult not to give in to despair and, “awfulisation”. I struggle with depression and, perhaps more than just a, “touch of the ‘tism,” that causes me to rail against injustice I can do very little about. I get frustrated by being told that any effort I make to improve the lot of others or stand against exploitation is, “performative,” and done for the sake of appearance. I earnestly believe that piecemeal engineering can and should be done.
The piecemeal engineer aims to improve the current situation of society by gradually fighting against suffering, injustice, and war, and other such social evils whose existence can be established relatively easily.
The bare fucking minimum I can do is to practice, “intolerance to intolerance”: I will not see my nearest and dearest suffer from the bigotry or casual cruelty of others. I won’t even see you make them uncomfortable. If I find myself having to justify, or make excuses for, someone’s toxic behaviour, that’s not someone I want around my kids, or in my home. That’s my house. That’s my rule. I’m not compromising on this. That’s kind of the whole point.
You don’t owe me an explanation of why you think Nazi salutes are just someone’s expression of freedom of speech. Likewise, I don’t owe you an explanation of why you need to get the fuck out of my house before I throw you out. Still, you got one. Fuck Nazis.
Much of the thinking above done by greater brains than mine in The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper, 1945.
Also, props to Tom Morello for the image. I don’t think he’d object to this being used here.