The Advocate

( Tree of Hope, by Ashvin Harrison ) "Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes — you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone." — Rebecca Solnit Take note and take care.

(Art by  Zdzislaw Beksinski) "Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with

A while ago I started posting this topic on my other social media accounts to cultivate a healthier and more sustainable social media praxis. But I never thought to share them on here! Well, to correct that oversight, here are all the posts since I started in order from the very first to the most recent. NB: for anything you're curious about, Google is your friend! But I'm happy to answer more in the comments. *** "So yeah, dreams are important. And I think there are more dreamers today than ever before in the history of anything…but…they're so afraid, so many of them. Afraid to lose all their 'manageable misery.' It's all just so…so…pathetic. Pathetic…and selfish. Are you seriously telling me…that you would deny the world an exquisite painting just because the cardboard firm from down the street is hiring? That you'd stay out of politics because your mates would think you a twat? That the greatest secrets of quantum physics would go forever unearthed…b

(By Banksy) Every day, I read and watch the news. My eyes bounce from MSNBC to Mother Jones, from Fox to Vox, from WaPo to HuffPo, from NYT to JDF, from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to even fricking LinkedIn. The world is full of sad shit. People die. Lives are ruined. Monsters and villains run amok. Communities crumble from disparities in wealth, health, diversity, equity, equality, liberty, tolerance, justice, and peace as our planet literally cooks us all alive in a polluted mess. Every day, I read and watch the world, wondering what the hell is happening, feeling like the problems are too big for me to comprehend, let alone solve... So I tear my eyes away. I look at my family, look at my career, look at myself. I look away in fear, feeling powerless. I look away in shame, embarrassed that I am part of oppressive systems. I look away in exhaustion, expending so much energy merely to keep myself even. I look away and laugh, if only because I was never very good at crying. (H

I keep dropping knowledge bombs // Quick-like on villages of the bigoted and ignorant // From high-above the Ivory Towers and Golden Parachutes and Brick-Mortar Bunkers I fly // But when the firestorm has passed ashes are all I find // Of cognitive dissonance, of double-speak and lies // Spread across cyberspace like so much trash // Can't even find a single corpse to prove that falsehood was hit // Until the next village I see // Always the next // Crops up on my radar shooting flak at my wax wings // And back to bomb I go again, a toy soldier to the toddler What's the point in having all human knowledge // At your fingertips when you can't even comprehend it? // What's the point in having intelligence // If they never use it?