What’s that poem about the cockroach and the moth where the cockroach is like “I wish I’ve ever wanted anything the way that moth wanted to burn itself up in that lantern” because we had to read that in high school and it still fucks me up to this day
Ok I found it it’s called “the lesson of the moth by archy” and it’s by Don Marquis
archy and mehitabel are a treasure, newspaper columnist Don Marquis wrote a lot of these free-verse poems in character as a cockroach named archy (always lowercase because he’s a cockroach and can’t reach the shift key!!) who was using his typewriter & while it started out as a way of poking gentle fun at the avant-garde poetry of his time (the 1910s - startling how little “avant-garde poetry” has moved forward, isn’t it) it evolved over time into some genuinely beautiful and moving poetry
ALSO many of them have illustrations by Krazy Kat author George Herriman which are frankly iconic and adorable!!
I don’t have to worry about “chemicals you can’t pronounce” in my food and my shampoo because I can pronounce every chemical flawlessly and without effort. Butylated hydroxytoluene. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Fenugreek. I am saying these out loud and laughing at you. I’m immune to all known carcinogens. I can never die. Fight me.
Let the actual data and facts end the bad faith arguments.
The problem are not the facts, but the limits of imagination. For many, many people UBI is just too different from what they know and no amount of factual evidence will ever change their opinion.
So what we do is bring reality closer to UBI and bridge that gap. Start off with, say, universal food security. Everyone gets a food card that they can buy a certain money amount of food with. No strings. Even the billionaires. And that will work and have massive positive effects across our society, and maybe then they will accept the idea, because it is not such a large leap anymore.
But if that isn’t enough, we do something else. Medicine, housing, childcare assistance, clothing, transportation, depending on where you live there are a dozen things that could be done at any time. Choose one, take that step, and repeat until the gap is small enough for us to make the jump.
I mean it would be great if we can skip all the middle steps and jump straight to a good society, but the larger the jump the harder the jump and we as a political block might simply be unable to bring change that large that fast because we lack the political power. We may never have the political power to make it happen all at once, and these strategies are not mutually exclusive.
Constantly take steps but always be ready to take the leap.
This month we are celebrating the 100th session of the community by resharing some of the most iconic artworks from the past! Next month we will start again with our regular posts.
