Conversation

So one moment you’re bragging about having ”the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world” (Kamala Harris) and the next you’re terrified about how your new fascist regime is going to use it against its own people.

I find it highly concerning that some of us still don’t understand that every weapon we produce – whether it’s surveillance technologies, coercive laws, police, soldiers, or bombs – will eventually fall into the hands of the worst people possible. There is no such thing as a weapon that can only be used by The Good Guys™; there is only a weapon.

So maybe, just maybe, it’s in our best interests not produce them to begin with. Or to limit them to the absolute minimum. Or at the very least not to glorify them and to enact the strongest checks and balances possible at a constitutional level. But, most of all, to strive to create the kinds of societies where they would not be required to begin with.

I feel it’s especially important to keep this in mind here in Europe where we are, rigthfully, concerned about the twin threats of Russia and the US. Must we do more to defend ourselves and stand up to bullies? Yes, sadly, we must. For there’s only one language they understand. But in the process, we must keep the germ of a different – better – future alive, lest we become, ourselves, that which we abhor.

So yes, we must shore up our military strength, band together, and protect our sovereignty in the face of Russian and American threats. But we must also show that a different way of life is possible. A fairer, more just society. One that is not only tolerant of differences but celebrates them (but is equally as intolerant of intolerance and threats to its tolerance). A society where your worth is not defined by the size of your bank account. One where everyone can live and die with dignity.

And it is possible.

This is what our level of technology enables, as much as all the terrible things.

This isn’t idealism. It’s realism with imagination.

We’ve allowed the worst of us to destroy even our ability to imagine a better future and so, in learned helplessness, we conflate resignation with realism.

This is a time of change. But we – not a relative handful of overstuffed psychopaths – decide what shape that change takes.