The same story told one million ways
The epic tales told through a visual or written medium, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, tell the same story. Different characters. Different beasts. Different magic.
I have spent my four-day Easter weekend blissfully down the rabbit hole of an epic series of fantasy novels where the lead hero is a woman. Same story. Woven differently, and when well written, never tiresome.
The age-old battle. The small, under-armed oppressed against the powerful oppressors.
There are simple signs, worth considering in our modern-day war that has so far rejected, for most of us, guns and killing, with monetary policy, technology manipulation and rampant propaganda. Tools to break back, exhaust rebellion, and sew seeds of such inner division and confusion that aligned, galvanised action is reduced.
As Hannah Arendt discovered when she witnessed Adolf Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem, evil doesn’t come dressed in black wearing fangs. “The banality of evil.”
Evil is the regular person. Often indistinguishable from everyone else. It is the person you chat to at the cafe. The numbers do not lie. The predators and rapists are the normal looking guys. The ‘nice’ neighbour.
But most evil lives in a context—a set of conditions and circumstances that enable evil acts to be normalised.
I believe that when we change the context, when we create the conditions where people – all people – can genuinely flourish, only the sociopaths will be left to feed on darkness. And they are the minority.
The battle is real. The road is long.
It starts with simple questions.
Does my work support an increased well-being for Earth and all her creatures?
Do I stand for omni-integrity in all things?
Am I capable of humility, compassion and wholehearted care for all?
Do I hold justice for all as a human right?
Photo April 21st 2025, Article written April 21st 2025
