One Hundred and Sixteen

I used to tell myself I stay alive because I still want to learn, to understand what little I can while I still can. In reality I want to learn new things in order to avoid thinking about old things, the things I’ve always known.

I’ve always known knowledge should lead to action. It’s not enough, as Marx said, to understand the world. We must change it. 

I’ve always known knowledge is not power. Only power is power.

I’ve never had the power to change the world. Those who do remake the world to serve them, usually at the expense of others.

The made world is not made for us, but some of us find a place in it by making ourselves useful to its masters. But now our masters, like Hēphaistos, have tripods that walk, so they no longer need our services.

Having destroyed our world to make theirs, and made us accomplices to their crime, our masters are now withdrawing inside their gated communities, like gods returning to Valhalla, leaving us mortals behind to burn in hell.