Nietzsche, the great nihilist, once wrote, “he who chooses to fight monsters must not himself become a monster, and when you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares back into you”. The authoritarian Leviathan is swallowing our humanity whole, and we all stand at the precipice of its jaws. Unfortunately, the generations of today and recent are precariously moving towards the edge, and unlike the Abyss, they do not look back.
It becomes painfully apparent with each passing day that the world has divided itself into two camps. The first and largest group is that of complete surrender to ignorance. This group of subservients beg for their enslavement, capitulate to authority with conviction, and long to incorporate themselves into the framework of injustice. They use the same old, emasculate excuse that they just weren’t aware the shackles were tightening, or that the ground underneath their feet was giving way not because they walked into a trap, but into a gallow. The groups that fawn over any engineered fad, like perfumed Lolitas, jumping into the embrace of the corporate agenda. These are the collective of Zero Fucks Given, the chic cooperative of fashionable do-nothings, and their numbers swell by the day.
You may not know them by name, but by their confident detachment from anything outside of their immediate realities. No longer burying their head in the sand, they opt for a spade to dig themselves a shallow grave of duck-faces and self-validation as a response to civil unrest, income inequality, massive surveillance, humanitarian imperialism, and shadow corporate government. Whether you sit next to them in class or mingle with them on Instagram, they are all the same flapping heads of Winston’s mess hall, forever singing praises of fiat reality.
Then, there’s the second camp: ours. Our eyes are also heavy; not due to weakness, but weariness. Forever lost in thought as we drag our feet through the streets, headphones blaring songs of revolution to drown out the doldrums of transience. Building a better reality with our dreams. Risking life and reputation for answers. Plodding through the criticisms of others because we dared to demand a world where humanity, and all it represents, was found superior to a synthetic, empty technocracy. We, the ones that left the poetry slam for the protest. Who abandoned the television for the online blog. Who intentionally strayed from the worn and beaten path for the road less traveled. Who dared to trust that their fellow men and women could one day rule unabated with ideas that could withstand the persistent assaults of the ruling class.
Einstein once said that “Truth is what stands the test of experience.” It must be equally understood that those who do not seek the truth do not exist, and you can only stand when you have a spine. It is the ultimate choice to make in life. Those that walk the perilous road of giving a fuck will exist long after they have gone, made immortal through their deeds, words, and impact on society. By carrying their torches, we uplift others and take destiny into our own hands.
The days of zero fucks given are over, and those that are not strong enough to take the heat are but its cinders in the winter of civilization.
