Friday was the anniversary of the collapse of the World Trade Center, – twin office towers in Manhattan,  struck by two hijacked commercial airliners. The event occurred twenty five years ago. We ought to cease lying to ourselves about the overarching context of the attack. What other than a response to America’s empire, could this event have been? Fanaticism of any sort is a derangement of the psyche. Empire in any form, yes the velvet glove-style post WWII American colonialism – was nothing else but an attempt to control others. Of late our effort to hold onto hegemony has not been benign.

We are in a cluster-fuck of reciprocal fanatics. Until we Americans admit this serial-lie subscription is not the way forward, – nothing can change for the better.

And we did elect a liar-in-chief, twice!? Be done with this madness!

When Zarathustra had spoken these words, he again looked at the
people, and was silent. “There they stand,” he said to his heart; “there
they laugh: they do not understand me; I am not the mouth for these
ears.

Must one first smash their ears, that they may learn to hear with their
eyes? Must one clatter like kettledrums and preachers of repentance? Or
do they only believe the stammerer?

They have something of which they are proud. What do they call it,
that which makes them proud? Education they call it; it distinguishes
them from the goatherds.

Therefore, they dislike to hear the word ‘contempt’ applied to themselves.
So I will appeal to their pride.
I will speak to them of the most contemptible thing: that, however, is
the last man!”

And thus spoke Zarathustra to the people:

It is time for man to set a goal for himself. It is time for man to plant the seed of his highest hope.

His soil is still rich enough for it. But that soil will one day be poor and exhausted, and no lofty tree will any longer be able to grow on it.

Alas. There will come a time when man will no longer launch the arrow of his longing beyond man – and the string of his bow will have unlearned to whir!

I say to you: one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. I say to you: you still have chaos in yourself.

Alas. There will come a time when man can no longer give birth to any star. Alas. There will come the time of the most despicable man, who can no longer despise himself.

Behold. I show you the last man.
“What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?” – so asks the last man and blinks.

The earth has then become small, and on it there hops the last man
who makes everything small. His race is as ineradicable as the flea; the last man lives longest.

“We have invented happiness”, say the last men, and they blink.

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Thomas Common, Prologue

Let there be music! Music, more music! A tune from the 1970s, Share The Land by The Guess Who.