Catatonically Speaking

"ONE HAD BETTER DIE FIGHTING AGAINST INJUSTICE THAN DIE LIKE A DOG OR A RAT IN A TRAP"


This saying, by virtual unknown Ida Wells, screams truth so forcefully my eyes and heart shatter simultaneously into a gazillion slivers upon reading it.

It is indeed far more desirable to literally die combatting injustice than to allow yourself to be trapped by it, and be among the living dead. Injustice shrivels the soul and if you are complacent in its presence, you are complicit with its ill intentions.

I for one refuse to suffer injustice as much as I can. True, injustices on a small scale happen everyday, and we all are forced by circumstances to a degree to endure them. But injustice on a large scale should NEVER be tolerated. What's the point of breathing if you're going to enable cowards to manipulate you in crass fashion?

I am not saying that all large-scale injustice scenarios are easily combatted. When we're talking sociopolitical injustice (and really, it's ALL sociopolitical, in the end), such situations can almost be insurmountable. It doesn't mean they should not be challenged in the most peacefully brutal way, of course - it just means that sometimes, such battles cannot be won, at least in overtly tangible ways. But of course, as we have established (implicitly anyway), dying while resisting injustice is a victory in itself. One should always endeavor to fight back, as it were, brashly asserting dignity and integrity. People should never permit cravenly vampires to suck the very life out them.

But let's take it back to a personal level for a minute. In your workplace and social life, likely injustices happen and you feel helpless to counter them. Your fear overwhelms your ability to dig into that sacred space of "healthy narcissism" that resides deeply in us all, and use it as a stealthy weapon against abusive maltreatment.

For we are ALL special people who do not merit maltreatment. Nor should we maltreat, of course. Peace should always prevail in human interactions, and the only reason that it does not is because people allow fear to corrode their sense of self. Fear withers and corrupts. Fear taunts our self-confidence, and taints our psychological sanity.

I won't go into details about why I am writing about injustice in such an abstract, circumlocutious way. I have always been one to vociferously fight social injustice on behalf of others as well as any injustices presented to me on a personal level. Lately it's become distressingly obvious to me that there will always be those who allow fear to penetrate their "sanity barriers" and either egregiously maltreat others or permit themselves to be maltreated. But I refuse to become part of that rank of staid, unimaginative, fear-riddled fools. "Life is so colorful," as the Dali Lama reminds us, and a life of passive conformity is one void of scrumptious color and creativity.

So I'll just leave it at that.

This belated issue of Clockwise Cat is chock fulla yummylicious literary cuisine that will satiate your cerebral hunger and fortify your heart and mind to resist any injustices that threaten to fuck you up, yo.

Eat up, and in the immortal words of The Cure, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"