don’t be tricked into seeing life through the greedy bastards’ eyes
Yesterday it was really hot. A lot of people were pretty stinky. No judgment. We are after all, animals. We forget that, but when a heatwave strikes you can smell our humanity in the air. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’re civilized. I enjoy my indoor potty and my hot shower. I like that I gather my fresh, locally grown, organic produce at the co-op, though I’d be just as happy to do the work to have a garden big enough to feed myself and the friends I invite to my table. But I don’t have to because I have an easier life than most animals do.
Except. Media and capitalism (especially the late stage variety) have convinced us that food, shelter, and community health matter less than obtaining the newest, shiniest things that will convince us and everyone watching that we’re better than the other humans. They’ve guided us to see danger instead of love, to fear instead of to hope, or at the very least to stay just anxious enough so that we buy medicine — official or snake oil, or something new and “of the moment” (because TikTok says so) to make us feel a little better. For a minute or two.
Even though the Alpha Males in most predators’ packs can be vicious, making sure they get the lion’s share (pardon the mixed metaphor) they still take care of their own. “They” — the ones they warn us about in all the dystopian novels — work really hard to train that natural mammalian urge out of us. Unfortunately they are far too successful.
Maybe we’re taking to their lessens a little too well. Maybe we’re swallowing the beliefs that others are keeping us from loftier positions, and that some are less human than we are.
The supposed “good” among us don’t come out and say that directly, we talk about class and missed opportunities instead. We thank our lucky stars we aren’t one of “those” people even if we don’t say it out loud. We throw money or virtue signaling monologues at the problem but we still believe “they” aren’t us. And thank god we aren’t them.
Others are willing to annihilate an entire country to prove they are one of the elite, or to stand on the neck of anyone whose race, creed, or sexual orientation or identity is different. Different than what? What we think they should be. You know, like us.
Some of us really do care. Some still have their home fires burning and those fires are communal or at least the fire tenders are willing for their fires to be part of a large collective of fires that requires nothing other than being human to join, to belong.
The boulder of humanity is being overturned all around us. We’re seeing our undersides exposed. Ugly things are crawling out into the daylight. But here’s the thing, we need the dark, crawly parts of our human animal nature to show us our deep darkness, our potential for evil, so we can gobble it up and replace it, so we can do better. We may need to experience, or even invite some decay as we gather better fuel for our fires and do that dance, you know the one, the one where we all join together to invite and welcome the light.
Cinse Bonino
2025
