high-priest-of-battoo

[high-priest-of-battoo]

I do not hate the creator because I hate the world, nor do I hate him for in a roundabout way creating sentient life.

The world is beautiful even with all of the hardship and strife.

Especially since most of the world's problems are caused by humankind. That we know of.

The world is beautiful because it is full of love and it is the responsibility of every sentient creature to spread this beauty.

You see the creator made a massive universe full of wonders; countless planets, stars, and everything in between. But selfishly he did not make anything to see and admire. The universe itself however through a stroke of luck accidentally created something that could comprehend it once the creator had already abandoned it

Let's cast our minds to the first homo erectus who through some random genetic mutation developed a soul. Let's imagine them as a mother. At some point that first soulful being looked down at its newborn baby and realized that suddenly for the first time in its whole life, it was no longer entirely alone. Then it looked to the stars the same stars above us today and hoped for the first time that the babe in their arms would never fear predators, that it would be free of disease, that it would never know the crushing loneliness that their mother, that it would know the taste of fresh fruit and meat, of cool water, that it would feel the sun's warmth and the wind's caress. It prayed that that baby would have a better life than they did.

And for the rest of human history that has been the most common prayer. The prayer of serfs and slaves. The prayer of mothers and fathers. The prayer of children and their grandparents. The prayer of people rich and poor. Of people living in the present and those living in the past.

The creator heard every one of those prayers. He listened to the first mother and simply didn't care.

He did not care when the first mother's first babe knew starvation more than they knew joy.

He did not care when the slave's child grew up to inherit only their parent's labor and suffering.

He did not care when the soldier's child was forced into a war twice as horrific as his father.

I hate the creator not for his malice but for his indifference.

I give my power to the true-hearted gods so that one day generations from now those prayers may be answered.

So that no child is forced to go hungry, that no person has to die from disease, that all know the love of family and friends, and the wonder and awe of the the beautiful universe.

I pray to the gods so that the creator will one day be bound in the chains of Bat’too and snuffed out. So that vengeance may be taken upon the creator who saw the love and the beauty of the universe and was content to let it wither and rot on the vine.

And to those who would follow in the footsteps of the creator, I will say this.

There are no pockets in shrouds. One day you will die and future generations will spit upon your graves and curse your names for your cruelty and greed.

[high-priest-of-battoo]

“Smallpox was” is the single most important phrase in human history. For more than forty years smallpox has not killed a single person. If you would have told someone in the seventeen-hundreds that in the future smallpox would be eradicated they would have thought you were crazy. The idea was laughable even into the twentieth century. They would have considered it science fiction at best and utopian at worst. What would you think if I told you that in the year 2081 no human starved to death? In 1980 humanity killed a boogeyman that had terrorized it for at least three thousand years. This is why hope for the future is important. Right now malaria, tuberculosis, and polio are in the same position smallpox was in the nineteen hundreds. If no one had believed that smallpox could be eradicated then. We would still be dealing with it now. I will now list some phrases for no particular reason.

Covid was

Diabetes was

Cancer was

Uncontrolled man made climate change was

Billionaires were

Capitalism was

Natural death was

[high-priest-of-battoo]

The oppressor’s greatest weapon is apathy. Apathy is the enemy of compassion. A polite society is an apathetic one. Feeling and acting out is the easiest act of civil disobedience that you can do. Are you sad? If you are, don’t force it down and feel it in the background. I want you to cry and lament. I want you to show to the whole world how you feel because your feelings fucking matter. Are you angry? Rage against the system that made you so. Confront why you feel like this and use the energy that your hate gives you to fight against it. Do you love someone? Show affection to those you love. If you are safe to do so display your affection to the world. Are you happy? Laughter is an action that should never be shunned. Are you religious? Pray and read your religion’s literature. If it is safe do acts of faith in public places. If you are not religious then think of how unlikely you reading this sentence is. Think about how far humankind has come from being simple omnivorous beasts with no help. Hear that? Capitalism and bigotry have filled the air with such a din that our collective humanity has been overwhelmed. The only way that anything will change for the the better is by creating a symphony to drown out the noise and connect us all.