May I interest you in a little dystopia? Big Brother is watching you. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery.
Oh, but the sun is shining and the mayflowers have emerged after their long rest. Who can look up into all that blue and scream that the sky is falling? I cannot. I refuse to see any darkness on the horizon. A month ago this green grass was brown and gray, and we couldn’t go outside without layers. Dystopia, shmystopia.
There is music everywhere, pulsing rhythms on a cosmic scale, gentle birdsong, and no, this world is not going off the rails.
That guy you’re telling me to hate? Those people you want me to despise? I don’t see them. What I see are people who want a better world — is that a bad thing? They’re trying to give their kids more than they had growing up, trying to leave the world in better shape than they found it, just like you, just like me. Oh my goodness, the problem is that they’re in that other political party? Are you serious?
That man who just died, what did he sing again? “There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys, there’s only you and me, and we just disagree.” You don’t see eye to eye on everything — that makes you and him human, not evil. Good grief.
I dreamed we all were all right — what a lovely dream it was. I dreamed a man who was more than just a man said we should love our neighbors, and on this little speck of dust in an infinite universe, everyone we meet is a neighbor — so I love you, man. That doesn’t seem to be such a hard thing to do when you look at it that way.
And if you can’t love somebody because they’re not like you, you’re in deep trouble, buddy, because no two of us are alike. Everyone you meet is different from everyone else, so you can either love them or live a very lonely existence.
Oh, but he’s wrong about so much stuff? That’s OK. When I said it’s not about good guys and bad guys, I didn’t say somebody can’t be wrong or think stupid things.
This may come as a shock, but some of the stuff the other party talks about is right, and some of the stuff your party talks about is wrong. That doesn’t make them evil; they just see things differently.
Why are we even talking about this? Haven’t you noticed what a beautiful day this is?
And, by the way, war is war. Peace is peace. Ignorance is ignorance. Strength is strength. Freedom is freedom. And slavery is slavery, even when nobody’s watching.
