Who cares

I have been a 'die-hard metal fan', as they call the kind of folks that bang their heads at the thrashing beat of drums and screeching sounds of guitars, a guy who, like all the other die-hard metal fans, used to say, “I don't give a shit what people think. I really couldn't care less.”

Well, I was lying.

Of course I cared! That's the whole point of being a die-hard metal fan. You yearn to be other than the others, you want to show off your freedom to all those sheeple out there who don't dare to bleat. You want to be seen.

So I was lying; I did care, and I was wrong about my perceived liberty, too, as I know now. Being different, as well, is not the desirable thing I thought it was. There are no sheeple. Or rather, all of us are sheeple, the lifestock of the 1%, and each living being deserves getting cared about in kinder ways than rejection as an 'other'.

Caring is the point of being an activist. Because, if you didn't give a damn you wouldn't be out there risking your reputation, your job, or, for some of you, even your life. Yes, you want to make a difference, physically. And then you want for that difference to take roots in the collective consciousness, you want for it to persist and have a lasting impact; you wish for people to finally wake up to what you can see so clearly.

Yet, to get to the point where you can see so clearly what most others don't, you must have significantly reduced caring about mainstream opinions, and that means, you let go of wanting to be an acknowledged, highly valued member of society. Because the very moment you start to deviate from their kind of truth you are on your way out.

From this perspective, a quote from one of Richard Bach's novels makes a lot of sense:

"Well, what's wrong with losing ninety percent of my audience? What's wrong with losing ALL my audience? I know what I know and I talk what I talk! And if that's wrong then that's just too bad." --Richard Bach

In the end, as an author, you are writing for the sake of truth as such. You are writing in support of those who already understand the truth you tell, the ones who need support with staying strong and sane in an ocean of falsehood. You are writing for the ones you care about. You are writing for whom and what you love. Hell, does it make a difference! It makes an infinitely greater difference than voting for the right guy or buying from a green shop.

So let's care. Let's care a lot! Let's care about our friends and neighbours, about the toads, the grass, the cockroaches, the sky, and the creek. Let's care about truth.

Truth is not depending on a democratic majority, or anybody else but its speaker at all. Let truth be told, no matter what. You don't know what else to say. A certain way along the path, you cannot stand anything but the truth; no matter how small the deviation, you cringe under the slightest of falsehoods, and you would rather be dead than contributing to the big lie that is our culture. This is how much you care.

You'd rather be dead.