Those Who Bear the Flame Must Light the Way

There is an inscription in stone at a Journalism School in Missouri. The newshounds love it. And I love the newshounds! I think about them, and I try to see through their cute little puppy eyes! I know that they would rather be writing stories about the happy hunting grounds, or how Phyllis over at the hair salon won the lottery. Journalists would rather write those stories, but they don’t. They write about Constitutional crises and the existential risk for Ukraine. I believe that our faithful and trustworthy newshounds do this out of duty. Which brings us back to the the inscription, that as students some of them passed underneath many a crisp fall day:

“Those who bear the flame must light the way.”

Now, Ukraine is that flame. Support for Ukraine is a naturally unifying position among the good people. Americans seem to agree that Ukraine’s defense is righteous. I am pleased that public opinion is moving against Donald, when he acts to betray Ukraine.

Ancient religions battled long ago, because belief in one precluded belief in another. Today, the monotheistic religions no longer teach exclusivity of a true God. Indeed, many practitioners of one faith will describe those of another as ‘still believing in God, just in a different way.’ I have been thinking of the piercing of this exclusivity lately.

Today, around the world, I see nascent exclusive spheres of influence forming. In my own country, malicious disinformation is injected into all of them, encouraging further division among Americans. Support for Ukraine transcends these spheres of exclusive influence.

It also identifies enemies of the United States within them, as those who throw out the wreckage of discord and dissent among our citizens.

Our enemies make this easy, as there is only one source of anti Ukrainian propaganda on this planet. Just one. Even today, I see people cling to the details of disinformation like the flotsam and jetsam surrounding a maelstrom. They fixate on the discord and dissent, while ignoring the swirling doom of the attention economy itself, the delivery of malicious influence.

I recall the words of J.J. ‘Dynamite’ Rousseau, “All that destroys social unity is worthless, all institutions that set man in contradiction to himself are worthless.” The Social Contract (1762).

And of course it must be said! What great warriors the Ukrainians are! Three years of successful defense of their freedom, and they stand as tall as the Statue of Liberty, holding high that torch of righteousness for the world. I can see it from here! Just as our own giantess does, they stand upon chains!

 

 

 

Please find the illusion of Poe above, read by me below!  The words are always my own!

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