Chapter 27.
To Remind You All
To Remind You All
Religion. It's the oldest trick in the book. Ever since man was able to write anything down he started with a lie. A truth is something people understand without the need for any indoctrination. It's only lies that ever needed actual explaining. Now...thousands of years after the inception of faith in something beyond the mortal world...the acts justified in the name of flying balls of light with infinite power have taken a sharp, very HUMAN turn. Last night, in an attempt to raise the amount of aid given to us by foreign pockets claiming it necessary for the fight against terror, the Pakistani government coordinated and sanctioned an attack on one of it's own buildings in Karachi City, with the help of the very people they're supposed to be at war with. I truly believe this to be true. I'm writing it though...so it could be a lie.
You know you're in a bad place when a 1000 kg of explosives are used to raze a building to the ground and the first thing you think is thank God only 17 people died. It's getting so bad in this country we're almost forgetting all the hell breaking loose outside of it.
I'm not political. I'm not religious. I don't even think I'm smart anymore. I used to think I'm above the rest in some way. Hoped to God I was infact. That I was special, more brave, more grounded, more sure of how everything works no matter how ugly it may seem than everyone else. But last night I feared for a lot more people than I can even remember caring about till now. It's annoying feeling that weak. So weak that you could take a gun and just put a bullet in the rat bastard that orchestrated this attack. But you know the truth...gift wrapped, beaten, tied, ready to be killed, nailed to a God damn chair in an empty isolated warehouse sitting three feet from you...you still wouldn't be able to pull the trigger to end the life of the man who was responsible for the deaths of 17 people.
The truth is the buildings in Karachi aren't the only thing that were shaken by this blast last night. It was our faith in good. But I hear we only lose things that those things may have a
chance to find US instead. It's not normal to forget about this in a couple of days, but thats exactly what's going to happen. Though I don't feel sad about it anymore. Everyone's out to set their facebook status to say what happened. Some even try to plug something noble or constructive they were up to at the time they felt the shake. Nabeel was helping a dog with three legs find a home when the earth shook. Nazish was helping an old man put on diapers when the bomb went off so he shit himself before she even could. Basit was building a fucking orphanage with nothing but a spoon and some God damn steel rulers. Then there's always that one fat fuck who was just at McDonalds scarfing down a mac when he spilt ketchup on his shirt which exposes that chubby well he calls a damn stomach through the little spaces between the buttons because the vibrations in the ground were so strong. Atleast a couple of them have the decency to say hope everyone's safe...forgetting that anyone who isn't wouldn't exactly be logged onto Zuckerbergs social fucking network at the time.
We've got problems...this isn't the first time anyone's saying it, but how much longer can we keep up the drama of reacting to these incidents like they're phasing us in any way? Yet if we go on pretending like nothing's happened, how in hell is it ever going to change?
You're not the president of a country. You don't have a civic duty to comdemn bomb attacks then continue to do absolutely dick all about them. When the time comes to pick a side, and I mean REALLY comes...who will you stand with? Humans? Or humanity? Since the beginning of time, wars end only when one side has lost...and you'll know which side did when you see the trail of dead leading you it. Both sides warring in the world today have equal strength...and its the people in the middle with none of it that end up paying the highest price. In this war, there are only two sides. But the side we're supposed to be fighting for, survives on faith alone. You can't see it because your judgment has been clouded by powers pretending to be rivals. Everyone fails to notice one side essentially says God is obsolete, and the other is saying God is violent and backwards. These are your options. And they're one and the same.
This world peace we all hope for...its the absence of war. It's an illusion. A blanket over our eyes woven by lesbians and vegetarians whose idea of a battlefield is a rally holding picket signs saving cows from slaughter and the right to get married. We're skipping ahead of the REAL problems. But you're far too many explosions away from realizing that. That's why this continues.
Even now I'm typing this shit in the same word file I've been collecting jokes for a stand up set in the near future. THAT'S how much I care. The headline in the morning paper reads "Bomb and gun battle rocks Karachi". Like it's a Sunday Images review of a two band concert. An intense opening with an explosive finish. A review by some social whore who wouldn't know art if it raped him and threw him down six flights of stairs then came up to him and said "Hi. I'm art." Some superstar reporter making the big bucks by just telling us what someone with a REAL job or agenda did last night. Critics and reporters are so very alike. But I swear this isn't going on the list of possible jokes. Not only because it's not show worthy...but because I think it's crude to make light of bomb blasts that kill people. I'd rather stick to simple sarcasm.
The blast last night, was to remind you all what your lives are. And that you must continue to live, as humans, if you remember what that even means anymore, even in the face of madness. But the time will come sooner than you think, to pick a side. Your choice is going to be the death of someone, and at this point, all you can hope for is that you don't know them personally.
Now go and pray for the dead. And try not to whore out to brownie points from your friends by TELLING them you are. Prayers are a lot like wishes that way. They only work if you're fucking humble. Push it all into that big box labelled "the PAST" in your little head, and look towards the future. There's going to be a lot of work to do soon, let's see if we're up to it.
