M. Mehwar Anjum's Blog

Yet another scifi thriller? You’re going to be disappointed.

A science fiction series, one of the few that hasn’t really been adapted to the electronic media yet. And it can’t really be made compatible for TV or the cinema. The universe is too vast, the background elements and themes are so creative that to give them shape would be equivalent of undermining them. It is just too succulent to be even slightly altered. If you’re a science fiction reader, and you haven’t read this yet, what are you doing with your life?

There are four books, in the series; Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion. Hyperion and Endymion are characters from the Greek mythology. In this series, Hyperion is the name of the planet in the outback where the Time Tombs are present. Endymion is the surname of a character in the last two books. The series constantly pays homage to various people from history. And that is saying something, considering that the setting is many years into the future when Earth no longer exists (its not really destroyed, more of a misplaced). There are references to Churchill and Lincoln. John Keats is a major character. And apparently John Muir has a whole faction of followers who live on a giant Tree planet and fly Tree trunks as spaceships which are powered by little sentient beings called ergs.

To understand the enormity of the plot in this series, you need to understand that the story is not about good and bad. Good stories never are. There’s really no distinction. There are just groups which hold power in one way or another in the Hegemony of Man. The Hegemony is the government-esque system of ruling that humanity has adopted ever since migrating from a dying Earth. This migration is termed the ‘Hegira’ a quaint reference to the ‘Hijrat’ events predominant in Islam. Anyway, these power holders include:

The Senate, which is aided by the All-Thing (analogous to an amalgam of all sorts of media) Speaker. Headquarters at the planet Tau Ceti Center or TC²The Christianity’s Church. Plays a very vital role in the last two books. They live on Barnard’s World, where they have built a new Vatican with original pieces of art brought from the Old Earth.Brotherhood of Muir. The environmentalists who carry seeds for planting on planets they travel to, have large tree spaceships. They are the templars and live on God’s Grove.Yggdrasil, the space-ship of Het Masteen (the templars are psychologically connected to their ships)

4. TechnoCore, the AIs that help the Hegemony by providing them with all the machines and the technology. They’ve gifted the Farcasters, a teleporter network to humanity. There is no hardware to these computers and no planet where they excluively live. They exist ‘somewhere’ and keep in touch with the Senate by the Council of AI, where some of them manifest as holographs, kind of. Later we learn that the AI’s like humans have graduations among them; the Ultimates, Stables and Volatiles

5. Church of the Final Atonement, is a group of weird psychos who believe that the Shrike is the Lord of Pain. Their true motives and workings are unknown but they just seem to be at the center of everything and seem to be involved in everything.

The red glare of it’s eyes is quite infamous

6. The Shrike. Oof. The Shrike, to say too much about it would be a spoiler.Suffice it to say that the shrike is not the Lord of Pain as the Church of Final Atonement puts it. It is not the villain or the foe. It is not an ally. It is not a henchman or a servant. It is almost nature manifest. Perhaps it is a force of nature, doing what it was made to do, and doing it efficiently and without regard of anything or anyone else. If to do that, it has to mechanically kill millions of people ruthlessly, then so be it. To confuse Shrike for a machine, would be a fatal error. It is just an entity. A certain character says that the Shrike will just be a footnote in the pages of history. Really, now? A chromium armored, havoc wreaking entity, a machine (not literally) of destruction laced with spikes whose very thought sends shivers through the spine, cannot be just a footnote. The Shrike is an interesting character in the books. One of the few ones to prominently appear in all four books. It is the only character that appears in the cover of all four books. And to know who, what the Shrike is and what willed it into being, you’ll have to read the whole series.

7. Ousters, who aren’t really a part of Hegemony of Man. In fact they are the Russia to the America that is the Hegemony. I almost typed in details about Ousters that are potentially vital to enjoying the story. Let me just say that they are creatures who do not inhabit on one planet. They live on marvellous space-ships, which are in fact entire mobile planets. This gives them agility and makes them a constant threat to the Hegemony

You might ask what these massive groups do, or what they bring to the table. They bring politics, evolution, religion, environmental conservation, mystery, action and a power struggle or a status quo establishment to the plot.

The first book is like the Canterbury Tales. There are pilgrims who are going to the last ever pilgrimage (duh) to the Time Tombs, which are monolithic structures sent back in time from the future. Their contents which haven’t been revealed yet will soon be disclosed. They are also conveniently the stronghold of the Shrike. The pilgrimage is pretty much a one way trip arranged by the Church of Final Atonement who claim that the Lord of Pain fulfills the request of one pilgrim and kills the others. How jocular! The pilgrims each tell stories which reveal their backgrounds and which clear many vague details. They introduce us to this universe, and explain the reasons why these people are the pilgrims. A brief word about the pilgrims, who play a vital role in the series.

The Hegemony Consul: Top diplomat of the Hegemony, the unsaid protagonist of the first two booksFeidman Kassad: Probably the best soldier that the Hegemony millitary, FORCE had.Brawn Lamia: A private investigator who is neurally linked to a cybrid of John Keats persona. This sounds whacky but her story clarifies itHet Masteen: The true voice of the Tree. Captain of Yggdrasil.Martin Silenius: A poet who looks young but is so old that he was born on the old Earth literally.Sol Weintraub: A scholar and philosopher whose daughter studied Time Tombs and becomes diseased. She barely features in the last book. There is a very interesting concept that Sol constantly fosters. It is about Abraham’s sacrifice. He concludes his train of thoughts with the following idea:

Sol Weintraub suddenly understood perfectly why Abraham had agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his son, when the Lord commanded him to do so. It was not obedience. It was not even to put the love of God above the love of his son. Abraham was testing God. By denying the sacrifice at the last moment, by stopping the knife, God had earned the right — in Abraham’s eyes and the hearts of his offspring — to become the God of Abraham.

7. Father Hoyt: A christian who appears to be incurably depressed and distressed. He has a very important character later in the series, however we do not see a lot of him. His story is the first in the book and it is also probably the best. Such a terrifying and gruesome tale that one could have found the likes of it in Skeleton Crew. I am sure, even standalone this story would lead to an excellent read.

The second book resolves many conflicts that appear throughout the pilgrim’s stories. These conflicts just happen to affect the rest of the Hegemony too in one way or another. It ends neatly, giving us a big picture to look at which allows some unexplained things to be cozily explained but at the same time unravels other ambiguous points. This installment is perhaps one of the best scifi mystery, thriller, adventure, whatever the fuck.

The third and the fourth books are nice. Not as good as the first two. Religion stars heavily in varying facets of the plot. The good parts in these books are the exploration of the large universe that we were introduced to but never shown. The endings and the revelation moments of what happened to certain things and certain characters of previous books are also something to look forward to. The overall ending to the series in the 4th book is very well rounded, balanced and self-explanatory. I hereby christen it as one of the best endings to a scifi novel series.

Aenea and someone/something else

However, the fact that some characters dont get any kind of closure makes these two books, for lack of a better word in the entirety of the English language, shitty. But what makes it worse is the ongoing romantic relationship between the two main characters. Raul Endymion and Aenea. The age gap is, if I recall properly, more than 10 years. Then conveniently there is some time debt (time dilation) to Raul involved in the 4th book so basically the age gap shortens to 9 or something. You can’t make this sound okay. Even if the child has visions of possible futures and is some great leader, you still can’t. Its still absurd and downright fucking wrong. To put the cherry on top, the lewd scenes are written in quite detail and in abundance. Raul spends a lot of time musing about her or their relationship and even though the last book is called the “Rise of Endymion”, its not exactly a rise, as Raul starts being too dependent on Aenea. Oh and by the way, this relationship is not a spoiler. Not at all. The first lines of the third book quite clearly make you aware of this exquisite detail.

Sweet Quotes:

“Mobs have passions, not brains.”

“Its hard to die. Harder to live”

“We are destined and designed to bear our pain with us, hugging it tight to our bellies like the young Spartan thief hiding a wolf cub so it can eat away our insides.”

“Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.”

“The shortest route to courage is absolute ignorance.”

“Words are the only bullets in truth’s bandolier. And poets are the snipers.”

Themes:Self-lessness and the power of loveThe monotony of life and the innate ability of man to fall into a groove and carve everything around it to fit his needThe need for adaptation to survive and thriveFaith in its true meaning and what an unwavering belief really meansThe strength of unityThe importance of evolution and growth. The vitality of change and diversity.Interesting concepts:Farcasters: Portals. Rich people have farcaster homes, where one room is on one planet and the other room is in anotherFast space-ships: At a certain point in the stories, a fast courier space-ship is designed which travels super fast but kills its inhabitants in the process. A system of resurrecting them is inculcated into the ship. A certain crew in the story, volunteers to die hundreds of times in this manner and be resurrected in the line of duty and for the sake of their beliefs.Cruciform: A parasite, that doesnt let you die. Vital in the resurrection process of humans. People are immortal, kind of in the last two books.Consul’s Ship

4. Consul’s ship: As farcasters make inter-planetary travel easy, the need for space-ships isnt really a thing. But being the top dawg of the Hegemony, the Consul has a fancy space-ship which later underoges modifications and becomes just mind-blowingly cool. Its not weaponised but boy does it have tricks up its sleeves.

5. In the last two books many different planets and their ecology is described and the detail and thought process put into this must be immense and intense. Similarly the fact that most major religions of today, Islam,Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism have entire planets full of its followers.

6. A certain (Alladin’s) flying mat, termed the Hawking mat features in all of the four books and it is just uncannily an important part of the story

7. There’s also another interesting concept by which capital punishment is dealt to a certain person. He is locked inside a schrodinger box and then left to live the rest of his life there or wait for the cyanide to be automatically released which it will on a random and unknown trigger or time. No executioner and nobody gets their hands dirty. Schrodingers cat? Pfft. Schrodingers prison? Ding ding ding.

8. Then of course there are the typical scifi paraphernalia. Laser blasters, body integrated computers and crazy yet helpful gadgets and what not.

TC² during the Hegemony of Man

Hyperion Cantos was originally published in Putrid Potatoes on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Millions saw the apple fall but only Newton asked why.”

What about the currently popularised theory that quantum entanglement is not action at a distance in space but it is rather action through time..? That the current state of a particle can be affected by changing its state in the past. We won’t need to take into account entropy for this thanks to the quantum superposition. And yes, this would be only possible at a microscopic level, but on paper it sounds rather sane, doesn’t it?

Maybe these people are trying to leach off of your readers 

The voice from the speaker asked the sentient factory

“Gender?”

“Male”

“Voice Distortion?”

“Done”

“Facial disguise?”

“Slow onset but done”

“Repulsive shield?”

“Given”

“Stature?

“Buffed”

“Body camouflage?”

The sentient factory paused and then added:

“Done, I guess.”

“What about the weapon?”

“Enlarged and loaded”

“It is no more firing blanks?”

“Yes, no more”

“Next soldier!”

The conveyor belt whirred as the freshly equipped soldier was exported to the one side of the factory and an innocent person was imported from the other.

The factory was in the middle of all things. Well, not really exactly the middle. But it separated two entirely different landscapes. It took innocent citizens from the sunny and sparkling land present on its right side. This place never experienced autumn. It was always spring. The weather was pleasant. Almost everyone had whatever they wanted. The Lilliputian citizens were happy but not even this land was spared from misery. Sometimes the people died upon their arrival. Some of them could never get what they wanted. However, it was still better than the other side. No one knew what was there. There was only one official statement. It said that all citizens from right hand side would eventually be sent to the left side.

There were rumors of course. Some believed that the left side was full of alien species who controlled the right side. Most of them, however had been led to believe that whatever awaited them on the other side was nasty. Life was not easy there. Survival was a liability and existence an eternal struggle. To aggravate things, some taleteller had hollered about there being enemies on the other side who the right side citizens had to fight.

Inside the factory, the speaker boomed again:

“Gender?”

“Female”

“Voice distortion?”

“Done but minimum”

“Repulsive shield?”

“Activated”

“Weapons?”

“Enlarged”

“Bombs?”

“Planted and ready for deployment”

“Strength and endurance?”

“Buffed”

“Body camouflage?”

“Limited”

“Next soldier”

All citizens of the right side were given serial numbers. They were called into the factory in that order. Nick and his friends, Richie and Jess were supposed to go in today. Nick didn’t know how he felt. His feelings like everyone else at this stage were mixed. He wondered what the factory did. What was awaiting him on the other side? He was curious, excited, tensed and even sad because these were his last moments in this glorious place where he had spent more than a decade.

“Guys, what do you think does the factory do?” He asked his friends

“I honestly don’t care” Jess replied

“How could you not care?” Richie was incredulous and not an ounce of its intensity failed to express on his face.

“Look, what I mean is that whatever is going to happen, is going to happen, we can’t do shit about it”

Richie and Nick were stunned at the use of this swear word but Nick managed to continue the conversation by admitting:

“She has a point, Richie” But he still couldn’t resist asking:

“What about the enemies though? Who are they?”

“Nick!” Jess was exasperated. She wondered why she even hung out with them.

“I just told you, it doesn’t matter.”

Gary, the creepy guy who had a nose like Bilbo Baggins and glasses like Harry Potter, barged into the group.

“Nick, I know the answer to that question”

“No thanks, I was just kidding”

“Nope, now you have to listen. We are our own enemies. The factory sends us there and then we fight ourselves and each other”

Nick knew that even Richie felt this was stupid so he sagaciously remarked:

“This is absurd even by your standards, Gary.”

Jess who had been quiet until now, mused:

“Why would we fight ourselves? Who would benefit?”

“I don’t know. I guess that’s why survival will be hard. If I had to guess, I’d say we’d be fighting to please some higher being like an alien you know maybe” Gary’s answer was met with disbelief but he continued nevertheless:

“To be honest, I’m imagining a bald bearded guy as the higher being, maybe a Caucasian son with longer hair…who knows?”

Nick was about to point out the faults in this theory when he was called into the factory. He said his goodbyes, knowing that he wouldn’t have to wait long anyway as his friends would be going in next.

So excitedly he sat on the chair. And blacked out.

When Nick opened his eyes, he was sure some mistake had been made. It looked quite normal. There were a lot of people on the left side but that is if you could call them people. They didn’t look like people. They looked weird. Nick made his way to a nearby shop. He wanted to see himself. He was worried about how he looked now. Nobody had taken any notice of him. If these guys had anything to do with Nick, they really didn’t seem to care. Curiosity rescinded as suspense took hold of him. He edged closer to the reflecting glass.

Nick stared at the reflection. Horror crept into his soul. Disgust filled his very existence. That’s my reflection, he thought, emphasizing on ‘my’. He couldn’t decide whether the thought was an intriguing one or an assuring one. Every bit of his body seemed strange to him; the hair which had been previously limited to his head was now everywhere. Even on his face. He couldn’t recognize himself. With a sudden impact, the realization hit him that the lingering stink he had associated with this place was actually originating from his arm-pit. Nick wasn’t sure if he was raging or crying anymore. He yelled for help but even the voice was foreign to his ears.

Devastated, he leaned against the wall and sat down, observing what was in front of him. The factory. It had a name.

Puberty.

Helen just wanted to rest.

And she was about to do just that, when the doorbell rang. Cursing and muttering, she unlocked the main gate and cleaned the guest room with a swipe on the control centre of the house. With another tap on one of the many screens that ornamented her room, she pimped herself up and walked out to meet the guest.

“Liz!” She said robotically, and followed it with a mechanical smile.

“Helen” Liz acknowledged with an equally monotonous tone.

“I love your dress. What did you get it for?”

“Oh the dress shop on Pence Avenue gave it to me for one minute of delirium, though between you and me, I could’ve got it for a single minute of happiness too.”

Helen clenched her teeth. “They accept delirium there? Wasn’t it outlawed?”

“No Helen, in fact its market share is increasing.”

“Forgive me, I am not augmented with a financial comprehension chip”

“Oh it’s okay” Liz replied automatically.

“Besides, I am so tired, my batteries are dead.” Liz got the cue and used her visor to apply a chuckle animation façade on her face.

Helen smiled back. Of course she hated Liz. She knew that she had a façade on briefly. Well, in all fairness, facades were easy to spot but the Ministry of Interactions had obliged all interactors to not point out their phoniness. Helen hated Liz but she never really knew why. In her moments of meditation, she had ascribed their mutual hatred to a fundamental polarity difference. But it did not matter. They had to meet each other now and then anyway. The Social Union had made them sign this pact.

“What’re you up to Liz?” Helen asked

“I’ve been trying to chart the currency trends”

Helen would’ve rolled her eyes, if it were not for the fact that the Behavioral Police would’ve accused her of breaking one law or another.

“Oh you and your currencies.”

Liz like everyone else was oblivious to any form of negative sentiment that radiated out of anyone or anything. However her communications guide suggested her to change the topic:

“Yes, they’re interesting. What about you?”

Helen almost groaned. Was she the only one to feel the lameness of these laws? She had been tolerating them since forever for all she knew. Since her latest system reboot, she had grown particularly more critical. Maybe they had inserted a cynicism implant in her. Or maybe she was special. Different than everyone else. The Department of Beliefs had prophesized the arrival of a different being. But that’s all it said. There were no specifics. For all Helen knew, Liz probably thought she was the different one. Maybe that was the purpose. To make them believe that they were special after and that there was a hope. What else would you need belief for? It definitely couldn’t buy you even the lowest quality bread otherwise, anyway. It was all pathetic, really; how the Cyber dictated everything. Who made up all these absurd injunctions and institutions? Was there even a government? What was a government anyway? She knew the word remotely only.

A red flashing sign cut short her trail of thoughts: “Failure to reply instantaneously will result in initial de-facilitation.”

“Liz” Helen started “I’ve been innovatively utilizing the Power.”

“Oh, really, how is that”

Helen smiled. Maybe they had inserted the ‘ability to bullshit-chip’ in her.

“Let me show you.” Helen turned towards the other room and voice activated the Service.

“Rebecca show us the Chef.”

A frail woman entered the room. Her milk-white skin was exposed to the eye. She had adorned what Nature had bestowed her with on birth except the metallic bits on her arms and the blinking light on her bosom. She was bald and except for the little black tuft on her groin, hairless. Her legs were thinner than the branches of a dead tree. One wondered how a stature as meek as hers could even be supported by these pair of legs. But nothing about her struck as extraordinary to Liz and Helen. It shouldn’t have anyway. Not even her immaculately beautiful blue eyes that had so much depth in them. Like a whirlpool in an ocean, her eyes were bright and glaring. You could not look at them without feeling a sense of loss and abandon. They completely enveloped you.

Rebecca rubbed the metallic plate on her arm and activated the holographic projector. It showed a complex food making machinery which manufactured ancient food items such as pizza and pasta.

“Looks nice” Liz was genuinely impressed, and the amazement in her wallet increased.

Helen tried to multi-task but like always was denied the access.

“Liz you want to see the Power room?” Helen sighed and finally asked. This always succeeded in getting rid of her.

“Sure Helen.” Then she added in a whisper, which really didn’t matter because anybody listening to them could hear it anyway:

“I must confess, I get thrilled on seeing it.”

Helen grinned, showcasing the metal bars in her mouth that were supposed to be teeth.

With a wave of the hand, Helen opened the door to the Power room and both of them peered into the darkness.

The darkness was periodically shattered by blinking lights and glistening plates. Momentarily, it took the shape of arms and legs. Human bodies could be espied as the shadows of the darkness, turning the wheels of the Power Cycle. Nonchalant to their nakedness and proximity to each other, their brilliant eyes stared at the visitors.

Helen and Liz squealed in delight.

But doesn’t what we do makes us who we are? Aren’t we the product of our actions and not just a characterised existence?

A hypothesis based on a (possibly flawed) logic

I was showering for college a couple of days back. Water splattered on my face. Some of it definitely made contact with my eyes. I rubbed my eyes with my hand and opened my eyes. Suddenly a queer thought struck me. I splashed water on my face particularly targeting my eyes and tried opening my eyes without rubbing them or even using my hand. I couldn’t. You can’t. Its impossible. Its a way of the body to protect the eye from water or if you’re in dusty air from dust. This is an instinct. A built-in default feature that doesn’t have to be separately installed or learned. We just implement on it. It requires about zero thought. Pretty similar to how our arm jerks back when we touch a cup of hot coffee. A reflex action. The body is trying to protect itself from external harm.

It is then safe to assume or rather consider the fact that it is an involuntary action of the body to protect itself. An instinct. The question then is what is self harm? How did it originate? What was the reaction of the people who saw it for the first time? What compelled a person to it? What kind of a behaviour is it? How did it reach its present magnitude?

Let’s break this down one question at a time.

If you believe in evolution, which most people do (I am no longer sure if I do but since most of present Biology tends to rely on it, so we’ll also just use it as a foundation), then you’ll know that every major change in a species behaviour is driven by natural selection to adapt it for the challenges of the world so it can survive for a longer time. Cactii have smaller needle like leaves because they need to cut off on the transpiration which is loss of water from the leaf surface. So what if, self harm is nothing but a behaviour that evolved in the human brain aided by latent learning?

Imagine an ancient man, wounded fatally and crippled by an incurable disease (which at that time would be basically most diseases), the body’s instinctive behaviour would be to protect itself but the mind is no fools tool. It knows when the damage done is irreparable. So what happens next? He won’t die. Not yet. But the body has to be saved right now. From what?

From pain!

Yes, the man is alive and dying but not quite dead. The body is exposed to immense pain and the only way out seems to catalyse the death. So in the history of mankind the brain comes up with a unique solution. Rid the body of the pain permanently! Kill itself!

I know you might be disgusted at how I’m seemingly promoting self harm but trust me I’d be the last person to do that. Its a rotten thing to do. So before you decide to not read further and judge me….I ask you to read further and then judge me

Thus now we can safely assume that the first suicide case in the history of mankind must’ve been caused not by depression but by other circumstances. Quite similar to euthanasia. Now how did the people react to this apparently insane act? They must’ve been startled and amazed.

I’ve said it a billion times that the first person to see another person dying must’ve been weirdly fascinated. Morbid but true. It is the tendency of the human psychology to wow at anything new, even if it is ultimately decreed as scary or boring. The first witnesses or discoverers of a suicide case must’ve been awed at this unprecedented behaviour. That wasn’t the way they were wired! Maybe this fascination also explains how society’s response varied from leniency to strictness over suicide in earlier centuries. It was only when euthanasia was proposed that suicide was sort of mainstreamed again. Lets address the potential elephant in the room now. If suicide is considered an evolutionary adaptation and if such thoughts are prevalent in our society among people of all factions then is it actually good for us? Because we know that an adaptation is only taken up permanently by a species when it is vital for the survival in general. Does this mean that by the gradual passage of time the human mind realised that at some point it might’ve to go rogue on itself? That it had to develop a self-destruct mechanism? What possible circumstances could humanity have faced that pushed so many of the species to the brink and compelled natural selection to instil the kill switch in them? It is impossible that humanity could’ve faced fatal situations en masse. Or maybe they had? What if the ancient humans saw a mass extinction? A worldwide plague. Say something preceding the Black Death. Something so horrible that they all wished they were dead. So that they wouldn’t have to bear the agony but just be over with it. Maybe they saw the extinction of some other species? An ice age? That is all possible. It seems quite reasonable that such an event could cause a species to evolve. After all the recent hurricanes did kick in the evolutionary mechanisms in a certain species of chameleons in the South American forests or somewhere.

But then why does this kill switch still exists. There’ve been no gut-wrenching massacres or killings…none to wipe out complete species. Yes, I cannot refute the countless incidents of terrorism, gun violence, racism along with climate destructive activities that might’ve contributed to the retention of self harming thought process. However I can provide a better explanation. A covert one.

Let us again consider our good fellow. The first person to have evolved suicidal thoughts. You know what, he was not ill. He was not wounded. He was in perfect health and enjoying life. Perhaps more than anyone else. He was also gifted with a certain intellectual quotient maybe not parallel to anybody around him. This person wanted to understand life.

Centuries later, Adam Douglas would answer this question with the number 42.

This person wanted to see how much control he had on his own life. Was he a puppet whose strings were being pulled by a cosmic being? Was he an actor in the grander scheme of things? Was his life even his own after the Creator had given it to him? Was control over life an illusion? There was only one way to test this. Try to hurt himself. For if he could hurt himself it meant that life and this body were his completely and he could do whatever he wanted with them. To his astonishment he must’ve observed how he could harm himself and maybe even kill himself. Did that mean that he was not a mere pawn? That he was in control of everything? But surely there must’ve been some way life would’ve originated. But if it had been originated then it cannot just be terminated without the normal sequence of events. Or maybe the termination of his life by his own hands was what was supposed to happen…thus bringing fate into this mess….

Now I want you to set aside everything you’ve read and think about this ‘kill switch’ in another way. We can all kill ourselves. It’s pretty easy. But for that you have to believe that you’re not important enough to live, that your life eventually would be meaningless. I believe that nobody has a meaningless life. We’re all always contributing somehow. The fact that we know we can harm ourselves acts as a reign and an activator. It tells us that we have control over our lives and we shape our destiny, if things don’t turn out ideally you can always end the game. But here’s the catch and perhaps the whole point of this post. Things never turn out ideally. Shit happens. Every trough is succeeded by a crest. Hurting yourself because life sucks and just because you can and nature has allowed you doesn’t mean you have to. You can also travel kilometres by foot, nature has also allowed you that, do you do that? So why hurt yourself? At the core, if you seriously think that hurting yourself can make things better or it is an escape, it’s not. Get some help. Its a statement that you yielded arms and used the right tool for the wrong thing.

The evolved kill switch isn’t an invitation to death, it’s a constant reminder of our immense potential. That we can do whatever we want and achieve whatever we wish for as long as we respect the sanctity of this body. Corrupting or inflicting damage to it just shows that you can’t keep your end of the bargain. And what good will it do to you? None.

The purpose of this post was to shun self harm but not in a way that people have turned this into. Today issues like racism and suicide are not openly talked about in case it depresses someone. That’s not the way things should work. Talking about them helps. Suicide happens. Self harming thoughts exist. You can’t deny them. There’s only one way to see this. To explain them and that is what I’ve precisely tried to do.

I sympathise with what you write. And to some extent I understand. It resonates with most of us. I respect your opinion. But I’ve been crying out loud to everyone I meet how social media is no longer what it used to be. How it is littered now with politics and how even the worst of the worst have been given a platform. And I don’t live in the States! But you see that’s how we lose; by giving up! We should continue lashing against all such monstrosities and make them know that we exist. They can mind boggle their low witted followers into submission but not us! Being people who have cohesive thoughts and who possess means to voice these thoughts it is our responsibility to let the world know where we stand and what we think.

Edit: I just opened Twitter and found something that might give you a head-start

Shameless promotion, follow me on twitter @Mehwar99 I’m a very boring person

Posts like these should be at a higher echelon instead of ‘how-to’ posts and repetitive rants or bullshit comedy. Beautiful