everyone knows

i don't believe that there are fundamentally malicious people. i believe that most of us are simply misguided. or, perhaps, complexly misguided. i believe that when you're conditioned to accept things that require activating cognitive dissonance, whether its owning slaves, or killing jews, or fighting undesirable sexual urges, or advertising useless products, or destroying the planet, or producing and destroying animals in their billions, or grinding eight hours a day in jobs we hate in the hope of not starving or losing the roofs over our heads; the struggle to operate without fighting back or losing one's mind can make one depressed and resentful and frustrated and cruel.

i don't think of the people who can step back and say "this is wrong" as "compassionate". i don't believe they're any more compassionate than everybody else. i believe they're enjoying the privilege of being able to identify the wrongs and the empowerment to do what's right, regardless of the consequences.

that's true freedom, in my opinion, the freedom to be a hero and face down adversity even when the consequences are life-threatening. the courage to stand up to the world will always be more of a blessing than a curse, because whatever ill may come you'll know in your heart that you did the right thing.

i think it's the same freedom that motivates heroes as the freedom that motivates (misguided) terrorists. it's the power to serve one's ideals to the very death, in an age where most people feel trapped in the industrial machine while being shown glamourous pictures of a life of excess that they can only dream of buying their way into.

that freedom isn't something anyone else can bestow - not a person, not a government. it's something we can only choose for ourselves. others can rig the game, but we can play it on our own terms. or we can change the game entirely.