Nothing never changes

I was thinking the other day about politics, but also about vampires; specifically, how, according to legend, vampires can be held at bay by presenting a symbol of faith. For Christians that would be a crucifix, but I imagine that a yin-yang symbol or the Star of David would work as well. Yet, as Peter Vincent learned, the symbol works only if you have faith; otherwise, you're just holding a piece of wood, or plaster, or tin. Vampires, who create nothing, believe in nothing, and exist only to consume and corrupt, are the ultimate nihilists. Faith, being the conviction that some things matter, is the antidote to nihilism; thus, vampires cannot abide it.

Much has been said about what's gone wrong with the American political system, and it's easy to blame our leaders--okay, really easy in the case of Marjorie Taylor-Greene--but they don't have magical powers that enabled their rise. They got to where they are because the voters put them there, and they remain in place because too many Americans think nothing matters. 

All politicans lie, but Donald Trump just got caught. 

Both parties are the same, so my vote is meaningless.

Nothing ever changes.

To this mindset, no belief is sincere, no effort is earnest, and no desire for reform is trustworthy. Everyone is on the take, or biased, or just out for themselves, and anyone who claims differently is either lying or stupid.  There's a comfort to thinking this way, because it means we no longer have to try. Instead, we can adopt a phony world-weariness that says it's wise to be jaded. That's a fool's belief, and it leads only to a fool's end.

When we view the world as a place of corruption, we corrupt ourselves. When we lose ourselves to cynicism, we lose our power. When we insist that nothing can change, we ensure nothing will change. We give ourselves to the vampires, who devour everything we have and leave us with nothing. This is the space in which the Donald Trumps, Matt Gaetzes, and Marjorie Taylor-Greenes thrive. If these people can make us think that everyone is phony and everything is rigged, then we will endure anyone and accept anything.

Faith is the conviction that some people are earnest, that some intentions are basically pure, and that it's possible to do the right thing. It's the confidence that we really can drive away the vampires if only we believe we can.

You are what you do

This image has been on my mind all morning, probably because it reminds me of something that's been on my mind all year.

Since the pandemic, I've spent a good amount of time wondering if I am a good person, and wondering what being a good person even means. So I did some reading on moral philosophy, figuring at the start I'd like deontology best. By the end, I was most in love with virtue ethics, with a dash of nihilism to give it a zing. The most important lesson I learned, however, was that being good is about doing good.

Back to that image. We assume that Our Heroic Adventurers are better people than Their Brutish Invaders largely because the Adventurers believe good things, and the Invaders believe bad things. But if they're both pillaging, looting, killing, etc., does what they believe matter? Do you care if the guy who burned down your house and murdered your family really believed he was doing the Lord's work?

It's incredibly easy to assume that as long as we have the correct opinions, we've done our moral duty. In fact, those correct opinions can even make us feel free to engage in terrible behavior, because, hey, the Lord's work. So if someone disagrees with me on Opinion 827, I am entitled to mock him online, make him trend on Twitter, get him fired, blah blah. The Lord's work, remember? After all, Opinion 827 is sooo obviously correct that anyone who disagrees is not just wrong, but bad. Evil. Problematic. Toxic. And thus they deserve whatever they get.

I don't know who "deserves" what. In this world, good things happen to bad people, bad things to good people, good things to good people--I doubt it all balances out in the end. Deserve is in some ways a magic word that makes it acceptable for us to manually balance those scales, dealing out rewards or punishment as we see fit. Thus, we become Heroic Adventurers, and those we hurt are the Brutish Invaders.

The fact is, I don't always know what's right, and neither do you. What I am more sure about, however, is when I am being arrogant, intolerant, petty or cruel, instead of humble, open-minded, sensible and charitable. (Virtue ethics!) And no matter what cause I claim to serve, if I am acting like a bad person I am one. And that's how I distinguish between Our Glorious Leader and Their Wicked Despot, or Our Noble Populace and Their Backward Savages. I look at what they do, not what opinions they claim to have. So if I want to be the Heroic Adventurer, I have to bloody well act like one.