Who Is To Decide?

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

This was almost a post about abortion and euthanasia, but then I decided I didn’t have the time/mental space/spoons to arbitrate the free for all that would open up. So, in a month or so. You have that to look forward to.

It is however a post about human life and humanity as a concept.

It is important.

I believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, among the inalienable rights of humans. But the question, asked in a dirty little voice from a corner of my mind as I say that is “who is human?”

Look, we can’t really claim that this used to be beyond dispute. Humans have always had issues with this concept. I am, undoubtedly human, freighted with all the rights and consciousness of a thinking, sentient being. You, my friend, almost certainly so. Those buggers over there, whom I’ve never met? Children yet unborn or too young to speak? The elderly so old their mind wanders and they have no idea who they are or what they’ve done? The demented? The impaired? Are they human?

Bah. Who is to decide?

For millenia, humans being tribal creatures, creatures of the band, it was decided by positional and relational criteria. My tribe is human. Those buggers over there? Not so much. Look, they eat weird things, and dress funny, okay?

Though exceptions were always made for those known and friendly. Because humans are funny. And not funny ah ah.

Christianity brought about the “all children of G-d.” So that the stranger with completely different skin, manners, features, was your brother or sister. All human. All redeemed by the one sacrifice that redeems us all. Young, old, impaired. It didn’t matter.

It’s kind of funny in the present day Christianity is presented as the most racist religion evah. Never mind. We live in funny times. And not funny ahah.

The twentieth century and the growth of the state to replace the church (note I say replace. This was intentional. Having a vast state might be okay — all right, by me it isn’t but hey — if it didn’t try to become the religion: the only ones to decide. The moral and thought of the nation it controls. As we know that’s impossible with any derivation of Marxism.

Which is what made the twentieth century (and possibly the end of the 19th) funny and not funny ahah.

The state, being controlled by a group of people who consider themselves qualified to decide who is human — or if you prefer — who gets any rights, considers most of humanity widgets. Mere chattel to be disposed of.

Only the insane or idiots would say things like what Bill Gates openly says, about reducing humanity — whose numbers he doesn’t know. Whose lives he can’t hope to understand — to 20% of its numbers. Because they too are human, and would realize it if they took a minute. Crowned heads and peasants alike have been “reduced” suddenly and horribly, and he’d see that, if he removed the hubris from his eye.

But in our day oligarchs, and the very rich who think they control them, say this casually.

They have forgotten or never understood the horrors of the 20th century that killed over a hundred million human beings, who were deemed not human because they were the wrong ancestry, the wrong religion, the wrong color, the wrong “utility” or simply because they wore glasses. Over a hundred million humans, as real as any of us reading this, were sent to their graves, sometimes in horrible ways, because those with power to decide decided they weren’t human.

Worse, millions more were reduced to lives that we wouldn’t inflict on our own domestic animals, because they weren’t deemed human. (The Nazi experiment of feeding concentration camp inmates on old rags and paper still horrifies me more than death.)

They weren’t deemed human by other humans, temporarily in power.

Only an idiot or a madman would think this is right. Only an idiot or a madman prey to a sadistic compulsion would try to do this. And forget the fate of Robespierre.

I was raised to think that “the important thing is not to be happy, but to be good for some thing.”

Both sides of that equation are flawed. Of course, the important thing is not to be happy. Happiness is a fleeting state. You can pursue it, but never hold it. Unless the happiness you crave is the sort of satisfaction when it’s late on cleaning day, and everything is done, and you snuggle up to your husband. A sort of glowing contentment. Or what Foxfier called “a sense of “this is good.””

But being good for something is the utilitarian evil rearing its head. Babies, the extreme aged, the infirm aren’t good for something. Either temporarily or permanently.

Does this mean they’re not human?

It took me till I was thirty, a stay at home mom (and very ill, but I didn’t know that) and making no money, and found myself listing for anyone I met that day everything I’d done that day for me to understand my grandmother’s habit of doing the same. It was “justifying my existence” since I was not making anything TANGIBLE. So I had to tell everyone how many times I’d changed the baby. I was ransoming my life for another day.

A sad and evil impulse. Human, of course. And not funny, ahah.

The truth is every time you give humans the power to decide who is human and who isn’t, you get this sort of thing. “Prove you’re useful.” Or “prove you’re useful to me.”

The worst part? As we saw through lockdowns, those who would order who is to live and who is to die don’t even understand what makes the world work. Or to quote a headline from the NYT (No, I didn’t read it. Do I look stupid?) “No one knows what makes the economy work.” (Oh, reeely? No. We do. It’s free humans trading freely. Those who would decide who’s to serve and who’s to eat? Not so much, no.)

You can’t decide who’s to live and who’s to die. No one can. More importantly, no one should. Certainly not a bureaucratic body, or someone who considers himself “scientific.”

That’s not how any of that works. To be human is to be flawed. The mote in your eye will not let you see clearly. Ever.

Judge not lest you should be judged.

Or if you prefer and if you don’t believe in G-d: To give humans the power to decide on the humanity of others is a corruption, which eats society and in the end makes everyone into things.

I believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. For all humans.

And I believe anyone saying “We are human, but those deplorables/stupid people/people who tan/weird ones over there aren’t, and they get fewer rights” is an idiot or a madman, and courting the fate of Robespierre.

Let my people go.

171 thoughts on “Who Is To Decide?”

  1. Good Morning Sarah.
    Hope you’re doing well this morning.
    Just sitting here, drinking coffee, and reading your post.
    Have to run over to Manchester later and pick up the latest copy of Barbarella from my son.

  2. Local comic store had sold out its copies.
    Having now been there, I can say this is not necessarily a good sign. For a college town, it’s a sad excuse for a comics shop. Actually, for a college town the overall bookstore situation is pretty sad. There are three stores “downtown,”….but they’re actually three branches of a single store and of course, it’s woke.
    But “downtown,” depressed me, anyway. Not politically, but….the center of town is occupied by trendy boutiques, small eateries, and upscale apartments. OK, I did spot a t-shirt shop. And the less exalted stores may be located on the streets leading into the town square. It still comes across…wrong. Or maybe, aristocratic/wannabe aristocratic. The square is not meant for “starving,” college students.
    Maybe this isn’t quite off-topic, because this may be a symptom. This is one of the places dedicated to turning out people who can carry out these utopian (that’s the nice word) visions.

    1. When my alma mater decided it wanted affordable off-campus housing for graduate students, it used eminent domain to grab most of the “typical college joints” to the south of campus. Most of those places had affordable prices, over half of them were independent places, and if some of them were a little worse for wear they had a certain charm, and reasonable prices. They were bulldozed, and because of the economy, were left as an empty field. Finally, after years, the new apartments were built, with retail/restaurant space on the ground floor. The spaces that are occupied are mostly mid-scale to up-scale chain restaurants.

    2. Double Midnight Comics has two locations I’m aware of. One in Manchester, and one in Concord. Concord store was in process of relocation when that manager basically took off in mid move. Son One has been working huge amounts of OT (and getting paid for it), trying to make up the slack for it. The owner managers have noted this and are compensating him accordingly, and fairly well at that. Since Son One has a lot of experience running and setting up events, this sort of thing is right down his alley. Lesson from all this? Do the work, don’t screw over your employer just because you don’t feel like working, get reasonable to generous return on your investment for your work.

    3. Sigh, we used to have 3 bookstores, now we’re down to a Barnes & Noble toy and coffee shop that also sells books.

      Hadn’t thought about it until just now but every book I bought over the last two years (Quite possibly the last 3 or 5.), I’d bought on line, over the internet.

      1. When I moved to my current neck of the woods, within six miles there were a B&N, two Borders, a Media Play, two Half Price, a B. Dalton, a Waldenbooks, a Christian book store, and another independent used book store. Plus there were several well-stocked library branches. It was like a book utopia for a few years. Alone, with my girlfriend, or with groups of friends, I spent many a happy outing going for a walk, grabbing a meal, and hitting libraries and/or bookstores.

        Then suddenly the Media Play closed. A bit later B&N relocated to about ten miles away. Then all the other nearby bookstores except for one of the Half Price closed. In the meantime the libraries suddenly began thinning out their collections, especially the older books. They didn’t get new books, just got rid of old ones, particularly non-fiction. The older travel guides were particularly hard hit, with few up to date replacements. The books on area railroads disappeared. Where before almost every branch had a circulating copy of some of the books, suddenly they only had a reference copy down at the main branch, and maybe one circulating copy down there as well. In some cases they seemed to disappear entirely.

        The bookstores a bit further away didn’t fare much better. I still visit every now and then, but it isn’t as much fun, and is more of a hassle. So much of the new fiction is Woke, as are many of the histories, much of the technical non-fiction, if it is stocked, is dumbed down, and even the travel guides are often filled with Wokeness.

        1. When the old book wear out or get dropped in the gutter or chewed up by dogs one cannot always buy a replacement. Both in house repair and sending OP titles to be reboind is not an option anymore. When older librarians retire the old tatty looking books get tossed by their replacements; who are frequently maleducated.

        2. When I was much younger, I used to believe I didn’t need to own any books — I could always get them from the library if I needed them.

          A major factor that disabused me of this notion was when I found a fantastic book in a public library, called “Starting Forth”, about how to program in a quirky computer language called Forth — and as I learned from the book, the binding broke, and it started losing pages. I noticed that the library didn’t replace the book (possibly because it wasn’t in print anymore, and probably because it wasn’t that popular of a language, regardless).

          The internet was a new thing back then, though, so I managed to hunt it down, and I bought myself a copy. I have bought many books since then! (Perhaps too many …. at least, judging how difficult having a lot of books can make moving to a new house!)

  4. The cruelty of the so-called ruling class during the pandemic has been like a child pulling the wings off of a fly. Or a Nazi feeding a starving child rags. They mask us and our children in schools in order to torture us and harm us, while insisting that they’re doing this for good. The flat evil shine in their eyes betrays them. They enjoy this.

    They should remember Robespierre. They should indeed.

    1. I’m not convinced that introducing much of our ruling class to Madame Guillotine is a bad idea. Or having them decorate lampposts.

      1. I don’t know. 250 years ago these actions would have long ago triggered thousands of people to decorate the lamp posts in Washington with various Senators, House members, the President, VP and cabinet, and various other government bureaucrats.

        Only the Woke are following conservatives into restaurants, and bathrooms to berate them. Only the Woke are shooting up Congressional baseball games in protest, or burning down cities over crooks of color being treated like crooks by the police.

        Some days I wonder if conservatives aren’t angry enough to act yet. Right now, many of us are meeting to plan election campaigns and strategies. But the assumption is still that the election process is either fair, or will be fixed by then. Except yeah, it will be fixed, just not fairly. And we’ll end up with the same result we had last election. You think that might get folks angry enough to act?

        1. I’m not sure what the trigger event will be, but I keep getting stronger feelings that a trigger event will occur sooner, rather than later.

          The transplant refusal for not taking the not-Vax kill shot is pissing more people off…

          1. I second the “sooner than later” feeling. People I know who have been totally apolitical, or incline toward the old-school liberal side of things are starting to talk to people (self included) and saying things that I wouldn’t have believed had you asked me two years ago. It’s simmering, the bubbles at the bottom of the pot are starting to get larger, but they’re not breaking the surface.

            Yet.

          2. I think it’s coming sooner… when my “violence-solves-nothing, peace-at-any-price” mother is calling me up and ranting and raving about what Washington did this time and how we need to start decorating lampposts soonist, instead of the other way round (usually I call her and rant like that)…. that’s not a good sign.

            1. We’re waiting for sister, and nieces, to start doing that. So far all they are piling on are excuses for the admin. The “they don’t mean that.”, “that isn’t how it works”, “you misheard”, “you only get your information from Fox News”.

              1. Hell, Fox News gets it wrong at least 50% of the time. Stop looking at the media as an impartial information source, and start looking at is as a bunch of scam artists trying to get you to do something.

                1. Hey. Didn’t say the comments we get are true. Just those are some of the comments we are getting.

                  Yes. Tend to watch Fox News. Do not quote them. Not without verification. Even then a lot of what they discuss isn’t provable or disprovable for months. But what is good, at least the few we follow, they are willing to admit their mistakes, if not expound on them. OTOH they do tend to crow to the heavens and beyond when they get something right 🙂 Plus most of those we follow clearly say they are not pure journalist, but are columnists. They’ll do both. But they also make a point of distinguishing between the two.

                2. 50% wrong is better than 100% lies. And, how can Fox be wrong when directly quoting the enemy? “Here’s a video clip of so-and-so saying such-and-such.” Followed by another video clip of the same so-and-so saying something completely different and denying they ever said what they said in the first clip. Even when confronted with the video: “Here is what you said last year.”

                  The Democrats believe they can control reality if they just find the right lies and repeat them enough times. It works on their indoctrinated followers, WHY are those deplorable conservatives so pigheaded? They’re supposed to Believe and Obey!
                  ———————————
                  Not everybody should go to college. Some folks, you send ’em to college and you just wind up with an educated idiot.

                3. Thing is, if I use any news sources it’s the “accepted” mainstream services. I look for the transcripts of interviews/talk shows/etc. and it’s kind of amazing what gets quoted and what doesn’t get quoted by their talking heads.

              2. Or what’s becoming the five most infuriating words in politics when it comes to making excuses for the Democrats for me. Might already be there, actually: “But at least they care…” Pfui, to quote our hostess.

            2. Twenty years of dealing with crazy left academics slowly shifted a relative from apolitical to conservative. The five years since the 2016 election made her ever more vocal about it. I do need to ask her to email me political stuff to personal rather than work email, since my employer has gotten rather Woke.

        2. Only the Woke are following conservatives into restaurants, and bathrooms to berate them.

          What? They did it again?!

          Only one I’ve heard about is eating their own.

          1. The FBI does NOT want to piss me off any more than I already am. They collaborated in the murder of a family member and conspired to cover it up. That doesn’t get forgiven or forgotten; regardless of the so-called trial outcomes.

          2. What people need to do, as soon as that ‘domestic terror hot-line’ gets set up, is start reporting on everybody. Overwhelm the system with so many millions of bullshit reports they can’t begin to keep up.

          4. Comment on Twitter – guy nobody knows turns up at school board meeting talking about “good people doing very bad things.” Comment was, “Plants already?”

        4. “Some days I wonder if conservatives aren’t angry enough to act yet.”

          People don’t act because they’re angry. This is what I’m starting to learn, here Canaduh. They won’t go do something precipitous just because they’re angry about some cause or policy. They’ll just sit there, pissed off.

          Watching the Woke riot and shoot people, this is not a new thing Mike. We’ve been watching the Woke riot and shoot people since the 1960s. It’s the same guys, doing the same crap, the same way. It isn’t costing me any -money-, okay? They didn’t come and burn down -my- hamburger stand. There’s no reason for -me- to go act up and take down some Woke-ies. The most I’m going to do is boycott them. (Which I do.)

          But that can change. Example, in Super Woke(TM) Toronto, which just re-elected the Shiny Pony for Prime Minister, today there was a mass-disobedience rally on Danforth Avenue. Hundreds of people showed up to stand around with no masks, eating lunch on the sidewalk outside the restaurants they’re not allowed to eat inside right now. A picnic protest against the Covidiocy and vaccine mandates.

          Let the cops make the mistake of killing a few of those protesters, and they’ll burn down Parliament. But if the cops behave themselves, nothing bad will happen.

          Until there’s no heating fuel, and no food at the store, and no gas for your car, and it’s winter. Then you’ll see something, I expect. Or not, I’ve been wrong every single time so far.

          1. Woke/doomer/glowie theory is that we are bunch of wimps, and will just sit here meekly and accept it.

            My previous working theory was that we are looking things over carefully, as the sides form, before the fight starts.

            After Indiana404 at MHN talked about folks in his Eastern European neck of the woods burning down parliament, I noticed two more theories, from “what probably holds over there, that doesn’t hold over here?”

            First is, if a bunch of unarmed gentlemen proceed to go burn down a public building, they cannot normally be sure that they have figured the odds on pulling it off. Thing about thirty or forty unarmed men, one lunatic with a rifle can make things a bit difficult. And, normally, in America, you don’t know what people are thinking enough to 100% say ‘the guards are disgusted, and have left us to burn the place down’. Even if the guards are all gone, a lunatic passerby could step in. Basically, such arson is a tool for people who control police departments, and are using the rioters as a deniable proxy, or for groups of armed men who have decided it makes sense to shoot their way in, and do the job. Which is a weightier task to commit to.

            Second thing, when you have built something with your own efforts, burning it down is a bit less casual of a decision. And, this isn’t a country where we just think of stuff built with public taxes as belonging to some official. Rei Publicae. Rei Publicae. Even the most Doomer among us once thought that we had put effort into this stuff, and that it was ours.

            Even with all that is lost, we are looking for what can be saved.

            O Lord, help us, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!

            Even when you have finished soaking everything that might be saved, it can still be pretty hard to start the lower temperature fire. And things aren’t yet deterministic again, so we don’t really know what we can save yet.

      2. Pikes. A line of them, leading to the steps to the Capitol, as a reminder to all future generations.

        The absence thereof is proof that Jan 6 was not an ‘insurrection’

    2. It seems like California is taking a very dark turn. Since the recall election, they passed a vaccine mandate on school children, once it’s approved, and also required CRT training, which gets nasty very fast.

      1. Remind me, wasn’t it California that a while back tried to make home schooling illegal?
        After all it is one of the leading tenants of communism/socialism to indoctrinate the children so as to grow a compliant and subservient class of serfs.

        1. “…one of the leading tenants of communism/socialism.” Yep that’s me ’cause I live in California. Sorry, go ahead and throw the carp.

            1. Yeah, I knew it was a typo, but I was amused at the picture it brought to mind. As a child my wife once called her dog an incomepoop instead of nincompoop. Unintentional truths.:)

      2. Simple, the first time someone in a CRT training class says something that isn’t true, loudly and publicly denounce them and refuse to allow the indoctrination to proceed.

    3. 《And they that rule in England,
      In stately conclave met,
      Alas, alas for England,
      They have no graves as yet.》
      —GKC

  5. Any time I hear someone saying we need to do X “for the public good,” or, “the greater good,” I get queasy.

  6. The challenge is that the willingness to make the who lives / who dies decision appears to be wired into us at a tribal level as a response to scarcity. That may be the best understanding we can have of Marxism’s death toll. History indicates that humans overcome that willingness only now and then. The ‘better angels of our nature’ are pretty scarce.

    1. you MUST stare your worst impulses in the eye. And muster the ability to tell them no. Otherwise, you haven’t really earned the right to call YOURSELF human.

      2. The abyss looks back. And we must acknowledge that, and master the impulses that come from there. It’s not easy. I call it “riding the tiger” because I end up bleeding inside, with scar tissue that pulls. Not everyone wants to go there. Some people never have to, and I envy them a little. I know what’s in me, what it can do, and I will be the master, G-d help me. And if that ever slips, or I am forced to release that control, may G-d have mercy on anyone in the way, and even more mercy on me.

      3. ^^^ THIS!!! ^^^

        My worst impulses would send Bob screaming into the darkness.

        The thing about civilization and the rule of law is that you CAN tell those impulses “NO!” with confidence that your family/tribe will survive. Take those away, and…

      5. many now breathing owe that to this maxim… or should it be Maxim?I tell myself it’s not cowardice, I just don’t want to disappoint the Author of the Ten Actually-Not-Suggestions.

  7. Cruelty. Unbridled cruelty sums up a lot of the past 2 years.

    And on top of everything else, my WordPress blog is currently down. Have contacted them by the form, have no idea what happened, argh….

    1. We talked about things, and that probably violates the TOS. (Hopefully it is a bot gone wild, and not malice.)

      My site is still up, and I talk about much more controversial stuff. But maybe the discussion of Chinese judiciary practices we had? If so, maybe something can be done?

        1. I checked my pages and WordPress board, and nothing is wrong. Checked my email and my spam folder, and I got nothing. However, my comments did get some likes, and they did use a lot of keywords that bots might search on.

          That said, it could also be your charming relatives, or other malicious persons. Or it could be the vague “commercial links,” although I haven’t really seen that happen to anyone.

          If you haven’t checked your WordPress board, try logging in through wordpress.com and see what access you still have. Worst comes to worst, and if you still have a non-suspended user account, you might be able to start a backup blog through that.

      3. Now starting a tumblr as wuxiaphoenix, just in case I need a backup site to put up books, posts, etc.

        The WP form didn’t get any response, but a direct email to their help at least got the canned response of “we got your email”. So hopefully someone will notice eventually.

    2. And done with that smooth, smarmy, “But it’s for your own good,” expression. (Yes, I am thinking of the Speaker as a matter of fact).
      I gather VP Harris was trying to talk to children and tried to win the canned ham – comment being, ” her coaches are trying to get her to come across as more likeable and they’re overdoing it.”

  8. There are two questions we’re looking at. One, is it human? And two, is it a person (ethically, legally, or morally)?

    Now I’m sure you’ll all agree that an arm, or a leg, or a spleen may be a part of a human, but by itself, it is not. Until we get to the point where we can keep someone’s brain alive and viable, as in the TV show, Futurama, that’s not likely to change. The closest we get today is with people with full paralysis from spinal cord injuries like Christopher Reeves. Does it matter what shape it’s in? Mostly not, as long as there’s a head and a torso to keep the biological processes running minimum. (“I have no mouth and I must scream”, is a scary story.)

    Individual cells of our bodies are of human genotype, but they are not humans except when they have been altered in very specific ways to become reproductive clones of us. At the point a cell based on human DNA becomes capable of developing into a separate organism, that’s when it becomes a human. I can’t tell you if it’s DNA only, because I don’t know if anyone has placed a human cell nucleus inside a chimpanzee egg cell and raised it to birth. I’d be willing to bet that the experiment has been done at the cellular level, but no idea if they’ve tried to implant. The DNA, sure, but cytoplasm, mitochondria, etc. would all be non-human. At best, we have a chimeric result at some level. How would that effect development? Would the result be human? Beats me. I suspect the resulting organism would not be able to give or receive transplants, such as blood transfusions, and may not be able to reproduce with baseline humans. (Sperm or egg cells may be too different.)

    On the other hand, considering the percentage of difference in DNA due to duplication in Down’s Syndrome from baseline humans, it could be argued that Down’s kids are less human than chimpanzees. Chimps being considered to share 98.6% of our DNA, Down’s kids 97.9%. Or maybe it’s the other way around since Down’s have 47 chromosomes to our 46. (Chimps have 48. Actually, this part is a red herring, since DNA and number of chromosomes are apples and oranges comparisons. Humans and Down’s kids have 100% the same DNA, in basically the same order, with just a duplication of a chromosome. Chimps have 98.6% of the same DNA, in a wildly different order, and in 48 chromosomes. For us, chimps are not humans. To a 8-foot long, intelligent, praying mantis from Altair IV, they might not see the difference.

    So there you go. It’s considered human if it is comprised of human DNA in human cells, developed as a separate organism. And yes, I’d consider conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel to be a single organism, a single human. Although not a single being; but that question is for later discussion, after I do my weekend chores.

    1. Every time I see the “98.6% related to chimpanzees” I have to wonder if that’s like “we only use 1/10th of our brains”. (That one is because 9/10ths is support structure and “wiring” and all the “computing” goes on in the outermost layer.) Like, how much DNA is just “how to be a cell” and how much is “how to be a multicellular animal” and how much is “how to be a vertebrate and mammal”? Once you cancel out all the super-common things, how different are humans and chimps where it matters?

      1. Cells spent 3 billion years evolving to be cells before they started joining up and specializing some 700 million years ago. Clusters or colonies of identical cells don’t count.

    2. There are two questions we’re looking at. One, is it human? And two, is it a person (ethically, legally, or morally)?

      Oh yeah? Since when? Who decided that some humans are not persons? Who decided that was even a question?

      And where can I find a hangman’s rope or at least a public stock to throw rotten fruit at the Dewberry who decided to appoint himself God.

      And paceMrs. Holt, it was not the Christians but the Jews who discovered that all H. sap. were imago dei, made by God, and ultimately belonging to Him.

      Christians gave us the Brotherhood of Mankind through Christ, but credit where it is due.

      1. I would add, though, that Christ is a Jew, and that the Jews were expecting a Messiah all along.

        In any case, it’s absurd to conclude that Christianity is racist!

  9. I just don’t understand why a person who strives so hard to make and then does his very best to ruin it for others. In fact decides that his fellow humans are not humans but are just numbers that he needs to reduce. Is this what happens when you gain money and power? or was he always like this and money and power gave him the means for his “agenda?”

    1. “Selfish” genes? A lot of these people are operating at the single or family level of morality as defined by Heinlein. Only those of the immediate family are considered “people”, all others are not. To them, elimination of the others means more opportunity for immediate family. This is exactly what drives Biden, the Clintons, Sanders, BLM founders, etc. I’m not sure Camelharris even operates at the family level, I think she’s still stuck on herself only. Think of it as the ultimate power trip for a teenage boy. Wipe out all competition, get the harem of women to yourself, be King of the World. How he gets there doesn’t matter; which is about as Machiavellian as it gets.

      2. I understand it’s a family disorder.

        What I can’t figure out is how these families pass this on without their kids blowing the whole thing. “I’m better than you, you need to die so I can have the world to myself,” says the 3rd grader who has been listening to Daddy.

        1. They don’t say it, any more than a sociopath announces that you are just an object to him, or a narcissist, a source of narcissistic supply. For one thing, it’s like saying the sky is blue.

    2. I think — maybe this is naive — that most “the population needs to be lower” people do not imagine it to involve actually killing anyone, or causing any real suffering, or possibly even require any coercion. (This is not to say they won’t look people who are suffering in the face and tell them it’s fake/irrelevant in the end.) The world got along with fewer people back in the day, didn’t it? And having kids is a lot of work, isn’t it? Surely people will be happier to take the easy route.

      1. Probably (to add to the “world got along with fewer people”) while expecting all the infrastructure that they rely on to keep on working, either through “magic” (automate ALL the things, like that’s ever worked), or by “you there, peasant who is the only one maintaining and running the power plant including mining the coal for it, my power went out for 15 minutes yesterday, you food ration for the month will be withheld!”

        1. Most people have no idea what it takes to get water to the cities of Los Angeles or San Diego. Or that they can lose it in a half second at any time.

          Heck you can give people a problem with a hard work solution and most of them still won’t figure it out.

          Deliver water to a 55 gallon drum cistern outside your house. The source is a stream half a mile away. The source is 150 feet above your level, on the same hillside your house is on. The ground between those two points is porous and absorbs water readily. You have a hatchet, a shovel, and a 50 foot 1/2 inch rope (line.) You have access to an unlimited supply of 1 foot diameter, 50 foot tall pine trees. Using only those materials, find a way to continuously deliver water to the cistern. All human living needs are provided for. No time limit.

          2. I’ll need a little help with moving things, but as Ian says, it’s not a hard-to-solve problem. For people who have thought about things like that, or seen things like that, or remember things like that.

      3. Somehow, I think too many of the population depleters would be thrilled to see the suffering of the to-be-depleted. Either that, or they’d love pulling a fast one on the “too many people”.

        (Recalls anecdata on increased miscarrige rates and potential fertility issues from the not-Vax.)

    3. What makes him so sure that he won’t be one of the ones “reduced”? His skills are obsolete, and he’s old now. Never ceases to amaze me that people who think there needs to be a reduction, never think it applies to them.

      2. Yes, this. My answer to anyone who posits that the population of the planet needs to be reduces is, “Fine. You first.”

    4. The rationalization may be, “with great power comes great responsibility. I must use my great power for good.” And that sense they have to “earn,” their power by doing something to “make a difference.”

    5. Money and power accrued to him because he is ruthless and unethical. I remember when MS eyed a local company’s product because it was better than theirs, offered them a choice between a cheap buyout or theft of their tech and leaving them with a protracted and futile lawsuit. They chose the latter, but eventually took an even cheaper buyout after 2 years of trying to get justice. The tech overlords are just as, if not more, ruthless as any robber baron from the late 19th and early 20th century.

      1. They didn’t even offer to buy Stacker, they just stole the software, then kept Stacker tied up in court until they went broke.

        1. Thanks Imaginos1892! Scientists say old age doesn’t dim memory. It just makes it harder to access because there’s so much to sort through. Don’t know if I believe it, but I like that explanation.

          1. “Waall, that’s the three things that go out on ya. Yer memory, and yer eyesight.”

            “What’s the third thing?”

            “What third thing?”

  12. BSE in combined Industrial and Systems disciplines and MSE in Operations Research.
    I am supposed to know how things work, and my job for some 40 years was to endeavor to make them work faster, more efficiently, and improve the quality of the resulting products.
    Last 25 in a very specific and highly controlled environment, ie operations in low Earth orbit.
    What I see in particular in recent times is that the vast network of processes that keep the First World nations functional is being dictated to and managed by our “betters” with degrees in law and political science earned at the most prestigious universities where graduation depends entirely on parroting back whatever the professors want to hear from you. And basing anything on real world facts is for the most part unheard of. In their bubble universe reality is malleable, capable of being altered with the power of words and persuasion.
    I do not see all of this ending well. Unless well is defined as torches, pitchforks, light poles with good hemp rope, or tar and feathers for the lesser lights.

  13. Anybody that wants to make those decisions should NEVER be allowed into a position to implement them. Unfortunately, the current political environment selects for sociopaths and narcissists. Especially in the Democrat party.

    They really are stupid enough to believe they can micromanage the lives of 327 million people.
    ———————————
    When reality doesn’t conform to your theories, it’s not the universe that’s wrong.

    1. I suspect all political environments select for sociopaths and narcissists. It is in our brain chemistry. Winning at the contest of ancestral politics meant more resources. More resources meant more offspring surviving to a breeding age. Being able to win in such contests, therefore, improved the inclusive fitness of an individual.

  15. Democrats and their media and tech arms have already explicitly and openly stated that they do not consider those who disagree with them to be “human”. They have on multiple occasions denigrated the many millions of people who voted for Trump as less than human. Anyone who doesn’t believe that they intend to ship people to gulags and concentration camps at the first possible opportunity hasn’t been paying attention. Just look at what they are doing to the January 6 protestors. That is a small taste of what they want to do to the rest of us.

      1. Especially when you consider there’s an 18 year old that shot 4 people at a school and got released on a $75,000 bond within a day. And supposedly over someone owing him money for drugs he was selling. And his mom gave him the gun…

        Consider it Diversity in Action

  16. “It’s kind of funny in the present day Christianity is presented as the most racist religion evah. Never mind. We live in funny times. And not funny ahah.”

    It’s like “opposite day”, except that it’s much longer than a day, and no end is in sight. Color-blindness is racist. Factoring race into decisions is anti-racist. Taking over a Senate building and offices is a peaceful protest. Wandering through the capitol is a deadly insurrection. Gender is whatever I feel like that day, but culture is assigned at birth and can’t be changed.

    1984’s got a quote about that.

  17. I have NO issue with “NOT human.” That’s fine. No big deal. Considering all too many humans, I’ll agree happily. Now, “LESS THAN human”? Do you REALLY want a fight? Really? You do? You boor pastard!

  18. Perverse Universe: positions of power tend to attract those least suited to having the ability to wield such power.

    At best, they might get those going, “I do NOT seek his, but DAMN, the other choices are somehow WORSE.”

  19. I admit I think of children, as apprentice humans, by which I mean non civilized,starting out savage, wild things. No, you can not reason with a two year old.

    Our job, as parents is to train them to be journeymen humans, and, when they leave the shop/home with their tool boxes they’ve carefully built under our supervision we hope they, down the road, with experience, achieve master status.

    Non human, cull them? No train them, educate them, civilize them, prepare them for, and hope for, the best.

    Sadly some of the tools we had available when I was putting my children through their apprenticeship are no longer suitable.Today I firmly believe caring, responsible, loving parents should not allow their children attend public school, let alone university.

    1. you can not reason with a two year old.

      –
      I’ve been known to walk by an adult attempting to reason with a toddler, and mumble, “The toddler is winning.”, “You are losing to a toddler.” Not my dog and pony show so never got more involved. But dang it was hilarious.

        1. Certainly a particular period of child raising literature (I’m looking at YOU Dr. Spock, And Ms. Leach (less so)) implies this. So instead of setting boundaries like a toddler needs/desires the parent tries to reason/negotiate with them. You will have better luck reasoning with a cat or a democrat lawmaker.

          1. Ran into a few adults that were raised under these principles. It is obvious. They are still throwing tantrums when in their 30’s … Only thing they learned was negotiations are won by throwing tantrums.

            What MY child learned was throw a tantrum and you didn’t get your way. Period. Don’t throw a tantrum and I might decide your wants are a reward.

          2. I’ve always wanted to write the anti-Dr. Spock child-rearing book. It starts with “You are not his buddy, you are his parent. Act like it!”

            2. All that needs to be written! One short book!!!

              Or you could take Dr. Spook’s book and repeat what it has. Before and after each and every point. Repeat that line! Best rebuttal ever.

              1. Oh. AND.

                He/she is NOT your double. Just because YOU wanted to be top in sports, or whatever, be that parent and I guaranty your kid will HATE whatever.

  20. I’ve never thought of happiness that way. Joy is proverbially fleeting (“kiss the joy as it flies,” as Blake said); pleasure is a thing of a moment; satisfaction is relative to the thing that satisfies you. But I think of happiness as a sustained state, a word that roughly translate’s Aristotle’s “eudaemonia”: a product of integration rather than differentiation. (That’s why the Greeks said “call no man happy till he is dead.”)

    But as Ayn Rand said, “Happiness is the purpose of ethics, not the standard.” Emotions are not criteria of truth; your feeling that doing something makes you happy doesn’t mean that doing that thing will actually result in your being happy.

    But maybe we mean different things by “happiness.”

    C has said to me for years and years that I seem fundamentally happy: not that I constantly have flashes of enjoyment, but that I wake up in good spirits, and go about my day in good spirits, as a default state. That doesn’t seem to me to be the fleeting notes of my life but the continuing burden that sustains it. And I wish you all the same.

    1. While I agree that happiness is a thing of duration and not just a moment however ecstatic, it does not have to be a tremendously long duration. A la “Happiness Makes Up in Height For What It Lacks in Length”

    2. I tend to flip happiness and joy. Happiness is fleeting, but joy is the lasting, deep sense. However, I’m probably looking more from Christian theological traditions than Classical philosophical ideas.

    3. The difference between Joy and happiness:
      I cannot be happy when I am suffering. I cannot be happy that my son has died of cancer, but I can be Joyful. Joy is not altered by circumstance, it is the same as Love. The mother of a killer can still love him regardless of what he has done. Joy is an aspect of God. The dictionary is wrong, since it says that joy is happiness. Others can and do change my happiness. True JOY is a gift. This can be why it is so fleeting. Our current design does not allow for an encounter with Pure JOY. It would turn you into a crispy critter.

      There are 4 infinities:
      Joy, Love, Hope and Peace. It is always possible to “be” more of each of these. In the same way that Love is a gift, nothing you can do to earn it, Joy is also a gift from God. Are you prepared to receive it?

  21. “I was raised to think that “the important thing is not to be happy, but to be good for some thing.”

    “I know what pleasure is, for I have done good work.”- Robert Louis Stevenson.

    “Judge not, lest you be judged.” I prefer my own translation, “Condemn not, lest you be condemned.” I judge everybody. I just don’t condemn them because I’m just as liable to condemnation. As the epistle says, “If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.” Sorry to be pedantic. It’s who I am.

    1. Everyone always leaves out the rest of that quote, “for by the measure which you judge others so you will be judged”.

      Look around at the folks who are neither praised nor condemned by any rule conforming to reality: how they ended up. Would you want that for yourself, much less anyone you loved?

      Judge away.

      But judge wisely. What you feed will grow. Give roses to the living, give correction to those that want it; take correction gladly and praise humbly. Repent, make ammends, and seek virtue.

  23. I know there are a lot of very smart people here, including some programmers. I’m getting close to having funding to hire a backup programmer for my current project, a C++ hash table with the hitherto unknown capability of containing variable-length records directly in the table rather than requiring a pointer for all such records.

    If anyone here is interested in finding out more about this project, please write me at sheller@2misses.com.

      1. I’m sure SQLite has many sterling attributes but getting to variable-length records with one random access to storage isn’t one of them.

        1. Sounds like a similar project option I was involved in, in ’96 – ’02. Records were actually saved in a flat file. But the programmer building the records could define the record as fixed field size, or variable text field size with defined field separator character and EOR setting. With or without a separate Key defined.

          Library and generated code, for the targeted program, were written in C. User interface to define generated code parameters, was written in Visual Basic and C++. No. I don’t have any of the code stashed away. Should have. I really, really, should have. If not used the actual code, the principles, as examples, could have come in handy later.

          Curious. Not interested in work. Sorry. I like retirement. That is a addiction rabbit hole I really should not get pulled into. Sorry.

      1. Does Mongo allow accessing variable-length records by key with one random read? If so, I should definitely look at it.

        1. From your brief description I think it might fit. It stores records as JSON and individual fields or records do not have to be the same length. However, I am not familiar with the source code so I don’t know if it will meet the above requirement.

          1. I can guarantee that anything that uses JSON is not going to be competitive in performance with a native C++ hash table of any type.

            I guess I didn’t make it clear that what I’m looking for is a programmer to help with our new product, not an existing product, no matter how wonderful that product might be.

  24. Pingback: Think, thunk, clunk | Dio's Workshop

  25. Comments on Twitter stating flights into Jacksonville, FL were cancelled due to “staffing shortages,” with strong suggestions this is a euphemism for, “air traffic controllers walked off the job due to vaccination mandate.”

    1. Funny coincidence. BiMart has sold their pharmacies to Walgreens. Our local corner Walgreens (per posts on NextDoor) closed early for prescriptions because only one Pharmacist and Lab Tech available. They stayed open long enough to perform booster shots for those already present, then closed. Pharmacist told one poster that they were backed up over 1200 unfilled prescriptions. This doesn’t count the ones that will, haven’t yet, come over from BiMart. Another posted that they were told all other pharmacists and techs had quit that day … Gee, I wonder, what deadline might have loomed or hit?

      Another poster posted that “people just need to go back to work”. Don’t disagree with the comment. BUT pharmacy jobs, not even the tech level, can’t be filled by just anyone. Pharmacists have degrees and certifications. Techs are not just HS graduates.

      1. Walgreens? Yikes!
        OTOH, I have a decent supply of my prescription meds, with the least stock a statin (of which the effectiveness is now disputed). The ones that keep me alive, I’m in good shape, and I’ve refrained from getting shots from Bi-Mart. The clinic that did my flu shot has an extensive disclosure statement for the COVID not-Vax that has to be signed off on before they’ll give it. (And then, they ban the taker from the clinic for 3 weeks so they don’t shed virii to the rest of us.)

      2. I just read the info on it, and we will see the in-house pharmacy shift to Walgreens. (It should; the nearest Walgreens location is over a hundred miles away.) After the two “accidental” COVID-instead-of-flu vaccine injections for a couple of kids (both of whom are seeing heart issues now), they’d not be my first choice.

        We have two chains (Rite-Aid, CVS) as well as captive ones (Wally World, Fred Meyer, $LOCAL_HOSPITAL) and a couple of independents. Not sure if the independents will get frozen out on meds. (Would TPTB be that corrupt and petty? Need you ask?)

        I’ll have to see how or if it works out.

        1. As far as I know, only the one Walgreens in town affected. But it seems none of the others had anyone to spare.

          We use Costco Pharmacy. Used to use Fred Meyer. Son and Mom still do. We switched to Costco for 2 reasons, cost when paying out of pocket – our post retirement, pre medicare insurance pharmacy coverage was lousy, they provide prescription meds for animals. All you had to do for both was sign a paper stating you didn’t have insurance for prescriptions (as a guardian for the dog). Dog’s heart meds were 1/3 what the cost at the Veterinarian clinic. Our 30 day x 3 (couldn’t get 90 day supply through insurance) out of pocket cost for hubby’s meds were double the 90 day “we’ll pay for them” cost. My eye drops the savings isn’t as dramatic, but there was a difference. On medicare the pharmacy got better, for hubby. Now, we both are on medicare, but we’ve changed policies, so we’ll see (same company, just on open exchange, not through union … Savings, $380/month (that one was gone regardless) or $90/month, to $0 month, Union option to Open Exchange. On another note. September $486 extra money in the account, or the amount NOT paid in September for October insurance. October, and ongoing, $341 extra a month. October is when I start paying Medicare out of SS deposited.

          1. “As far as I know, only the one Walgreens in town affected. But it seems none of the others had anyone to spare.”

            The Walgreen’s we use here in Plano has had a general corporate help wanted poster in the drive thru window for the last 3 months. Pharmacist is the same but several new techs.

            1. Almost Everyone locally, and the areas we saw across Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, has “Help wanted” posted in their windows. On our trip more than a few service industries, restaurants, etc., had – “Help Wanted. Sorry the service is slow. If you feel the need to complain, feel free to fill out an application.”

              Jobs opening – fantastic
              Jobs filled – lousy

          2. I started on the Bi-Mart inhouse cheap prescription plan. At about the same time, due to (lack of) income and inaccessible retirement money, I ended up on the state-run Rx program through Moda.

            Bi-Mart dropped their plan, and then Moda dropped the Oregon contract, but I still get some kind of a rate for the usual meds (Warfarin is dirt cheap, and the BP and statins aren’t expensive). I’ll try to check at Bi-Mart when I go into town. If it’s really the state program, Walgreens might go through it. Not sure if WalMart still has their cheap program, and I don’t know about Fred Meyer. The BP med is more expensive since it’s 180 pills for a 90 day supply, but I like spreading the dose. I’ve run low BP from meds and it ain’t fun.

            Used Costco for a medication when we first moved here; it was easier to transfer from the California store to Medford, and at that time, we were going over the hill every 6 weeks. Now it’s been considerably longer, likely settling into every 6 months.

            $SPOUSE is asking about on-line. BTDT, and it can work for baseline meds. Still need a local pharmacy for some stuff.

            I know about the eye meds. The NSAID I had for one post-op was expensive, though the steroid for the cornea procedure wasn’t too bad. The stronger steroid for the retina procedures would have been expensive, but it came out of Medicare Part A since it was prescribed at the hospital. OTOH, the glaucoma medication (my eye pressure goes through the roof with steroids) was breath-taking, over $300 for a 3 week supply. I think I had to refill that once. Urrk.

            1. Hubby’s medications are the cheap, generic, BP, cholesterol, and water pills, 4 of them. $0 if we start going through online delivery option. IDK what he wants to do. Not sure how Lantanoprost, for glaucoma, can come from the online store. But it is kept in the refrigerator until used, then it can be out for 6 weeks. Very clear, every prescription renewal time, to not let is sit long term in a non cool location before getting it back into proper cool refrigerated storage.

              1. Imagine how it is for people who depend on insulin, which HAS to be refrigerated. Always one power outage from a trip to intensive care.

                1. for people who depend on insulin

                  –
                  I thought about that too. For all the BS issues I have, I’m not on insulin. Thank goodness it is the last thing I need.

          3. We use Freddy’s primarily – I have to find a new PC tho. My former one is in the Legacy system, and now you have to have the stab to go in to see her, or anyone else in the hospital.

            Wish I had time….

      3. Techs can indeed be just high school graduates. There’s nothing particularly difficult about being a pharmacy tech, though there is a licensing exam, it isn’t actually required to work as one. You do get better money if you pass the exam, though.

        1. I know the critical drugs are kept locked up. But not everything. Plus the personal information that pharmacies deal with. Figured that techs needed more training than the standard clerk. Maybe not a degree. But “more” …

  26. Well-put as always, especially in light of the way these psychos are now trying to divide everyone into humans and disease vectors. Like that’s ever ended well for anyone involved… Let my people go indeed.

  27. I’ve seen claims in a couple of places now that more than a hundred Congresscritters and their families have taken Ivermectin to treat the Wu Kung Flu, starting last year. All the while denying it to everybody else and saying that ‘horse dewormer’ is not a valid treatment.

    Am I being overly cynical if it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out it’s true?
    ———————————
    That is OUR house. Congresscritters are just the help.

    1. I can’t recall if it was ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, but the Nevada governor banned the use of it, but kept a supply for the inmates of the state prison. That was fairly early in the ‘demic last year.

  29. Argument:
    Those trying to claim the power to declare others “less than human” have chosen to become themselves inhuman, and should be treated as such.

    They should still be treated with as much compassion as time and circumstances allow.
    Not for their sake, but for ours.

  30. I would argue the difference between human and people.

    Human is genetics.
    People is a choice. The choice to treat people like other people, respect their decisions, and accept that people will make decisions that you will not agree with. And, accepting that people will make bad decisions. And, that you can offer them a hand to help them out-and it’s up to them to accept that hand or not.

    If you threaten me and mine, if you try to inflict harm on those that cannot defend themselves, if you cannot accept that I will make my decisions and live with the consequences, come what may…you might still be human. You are probably not people.

    There are nominal “monsters” and demons and dragons and minotarurs and even lawyers that I would group in the “people” category.

  31. Here in Kalifornia they just banned all 2-cycle engines as of January 2024. Dirt bikes, chainsaws, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, weed wackers, everything with a small engine is now verboten. Of course, the left-wing media are all cheering.

    How are fire crews supposed to work without chainsaws?

    But, no, don’t worry about consequences, or try to understand the issues, or take mere reality into account, just pass a law requiring the universe to conform to their preferences.

    One of these days the universe is going to smack them upside the head with a clue-by-four and they’ll be flat on their asses saying, “Where did that come from?” It was there all along, they just pretended it wasn’t.
    ———————————
    Some folks can be taught. Others can learn by example. The rest have to piss on the electric fence for themselves.

    1. They expect them to use battery operated motors. It was the liquid fuel two cycle motors that were banned.

      Good luck with battery operated chain saws on those wild land fires … Compare those little toys to the Real Wild Land Fire Chain saws? Good Luck. I can’t even pick one up, let alone pack or use one.

      1. I’ve got an electric chainsaw myself. Easier to use, and much less maintenance than a gas-powered chainsaw, but I can only use it where an extension cord can reach. I definitely wouldn’t take it out in the woods!

        What’s the engine size limit? How about forklifts, small tractors, Bobcats, brush cutters, post hole diggers, portable sawmills, welders and log splitters? Do any of those wine-sipping, tofu-eating jackwagons even know such things exist? I wouldn’t bet on it.

        Lots of oil wells out in the back of beyond use a small engine to power the walking-beam pump. This is sure to do wonders for oil prices.
        ———————————
        There are forms of stupidity that businesses can’t indulge in. There are no such limitations on the stupidity of government.

      2. I bought the 14″ Makita battery-powered chainsaw for expeditions into Tierra de Balzacq and it’s pretty sweet, but there’s no way it’s good for cutting down the Mighty Kings of the Forest, on fire or not. Or even more than a couple of hours of light work in a row, not without power and a charger and fresh batteries available.

        Good luck, Soviet of California! Looks like Fire* season is going to be more intense in the future, and you can’t even blame Globull Warmening for this screwup.

        *(California has three seasons: Pleasant, Fire, and Mudslide.)

        1. Makita battery-powered chainsaw for expeditions into Tierra de Balzacq and it’s pretty sweet, but there’s no way it’s good for cutting down the Mighty Kings of the Forest, on fire or not. Or even more than a couple of hours of light work in a row, not without power and a charger and fresh batteries available.

          –
          Exactly!!!

          Great for trimming up branches, or taking out smaller saplings. Not good enough for the volunteer exotic oak, or Douglas Fir, or even the old hallow white birch out front. These are minor trees compared to what is found in even a cultured forest farm, not even in the same league of what is found in wild lands, or Mighty King of the Forest.

  32. This post reminds me of the wistful wishes of George Bernard Shaw, who wanted to establish a committee where people would be brought to justify their existence — and if they could not, they would be “humanely put to sleep”.

    I am absolutely sure that he expected to be a member of such a committee.

    I doubt he ever reflected that, historically, there have been plenty of such committees — and that many of them thought that “being a playwright and philosopher” was not sufficient justification for one’s existence.

    I have often wondered how much he would have screamed and protested, had he been put before such a committee, and then dragged away to be “humanely put to sleep.”

    Of course, as someone who has been unemployed multiple times, I have also reflected on how I had that precise experience, sans “being humanely put to sleep” — I call these “job interviews”, or in some cases, “talks with the bishop of my congregation for assistance”, and while many of these committees have found me wanting, I have nonetheless been able to find the occasional committe who has found value in me, even when I wonder what they see in me. I have often reflected on how, even though this “capitalist” version of what George Bernard Shaw argued for was far more harsh than what he proposed — after all, if I couldn’t convince a committee I was worth something, both me and my family would be condemned to starve — in practice, it has been far more humane: even despite the danger of starving, every rejection meant that I would merely move on, and search for another committee, and make a choice before them, until I found one that found me suitable, while in the meantime relying on the benefits of people who thought it fit to help provide for me while I made my case (whether it be via charity help or unemployment)!

      1. Wordsworth (Burgess Meredith!) missed a great line there:

        “Yes, like air! Try living without it.”

  33. Thank you, Sarah. I know EXACTLY what you mean in your paragraph about being a SAHM as I went through the same thing. Until realizing that my value (and yours, and everyone’s) is not utility but being. Who we are, made in the divine image, not what we can do.

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