Mad Smile — Globe Hackers

We had so much; we were so well entertained, and laughter came so easily. When I see carefree young people laughing, my stomach tightens, and my heart feels like it’s in someone’s clenched fist.

We finally know what it means to be a nanosecond from doomsday.

Can we be forgiven? None of us could have prevented this.

The system’s logic was intended to be akin to god’s will and who can thwart god’s will.

Will wealthy players enjoy a fulfilling existence in their bunkers, knowing that they can eat a month longer than the family in the village?

Will they feel wise that they moved out of harm’s way in time?

In Beyond Good and Evil, after cautioning the reader that someone who fights monsters risks becoming a monster himself, Nietzsche said, “if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you?”

Most of our leaders are narcissistic sociopaths. They believe the destruction they cause is creative. Rewards for taking charge are plentiful in this world and even more significant in the next.

Men of action always know what must be done.

The Abyss represents the parts of ourselves that we fear, the aspect of our creative will that is god, or fears god, or hates, or is hated. When the Abyss stares back, it sees the weakness of the conscious ego that thinks it can control the Abyss. When the conscious self stares into the archaic unconscious, it realizes that we are darker and more animal than we like to admit.

Some may feel guilt or shame.

Ordinary folks don’t dare to contemplate the Abyss, so it hypnotizes them.

At the end of the world, we are all monsters afraid to confront that truth. We summon the Devil to make the final, fatal blow, releasing us from fear.

When we fail to confront reality, reality swallows us whole like Moby Dick.

Still, we are assuaged. It is the Devil’s fault.

And so, those of us who understand what it means to roll the boulder up the hill keep smiling while we stare into the Abyss.

Originally published at https://www.globehackers.com on March 17, 2022.