stick it to the man, go look at the moon

Have you noticed how different news sites are using different words to describe what happened to Charlie Kirk? The New York Times calls it a "killing," Fox News calls it an "assassination," the BBC calls it a "shooting."

No matter what you call it, taking someone's life because you don’t like what they stand for is not the move. We don’t know who killed Kirk, or their motive, but this certainly doesn’t read like a random act of violence.

The values that Kirk held are fundamentally different from my own, but I don’t think this man deserved to die. Freedom of speech is vital to democracy, and is protected by both the First Amendment (est. 1791) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (est. 1948). People should be able to voice their opinions without the fear of being killed. I’m praying that what happened in Utah does not become the norm.

I often bop around different news sites to see how a breaking story is being covered. This morning on Fox:

“Welcome to our news site that incites rage, fear, and worry. Any chance you're interested in a pill that will help you relax?”

Trouble sleeping? Try Relaxium. Dragging ass throughout the day? Relaxium. Violent rhetoric of this very news program got you down? May I suggest: Relaxium. This is straight out of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

I wonder how much Relaxium is paying Rupert Murdoch to have their ad at the top of that page.

We members of the public are glued to our small screens and medium screens and big screens, desperate to learn what’s happening, attempting to pacify ourselves, hearts bleeding and exploding and being manipulated by the media. There’s money to be made.

Before we continue—can we take a moment to appreciate what a hilarious name “Relaxium” is. They also sell a product called “Relaxium Flexium Joint Support.” These guys have a knack for branding.

In order to vote appropriately come election season… in order to know how to vote every day with our hard-earned money… in order to decide when/how to engage in activism… it is important to know what’s going on around the country and the world. But. It is also important, and arguably more important, to pay attention to the present moment.

My toddler is obsessed with the moon. It was one of her very first words—she would point and smile and say “moooo!” from her stroller. Now, she uses more robust vocabulary to inform me that the moon will be following us to the playground, or to the store, or to the forest.

Little kids are psychologically better-off than grown-ups because of their innocence and because of their presence. We adults will never be able to reclaim our innocence. But we can reclaim the present moment.

In this tornado of news and social media, it is a rebellious act to pay attention to the trees, or to little plants on the edge of the sidewalk, or to birds. It is a rebellious act to learn the names of wildflowers. It is a rebellious act to push aside all distractions and be completely present with a person you love. Yet these acts have been bringing humans safety, satisfaction, and joy for as long as we’ve been on Earth.

I’m reminded again of Brave New World—when the government is training babies to be afraid of plants. They let all of the children crawl towards some flowers in the center of the laboratory, and once the babies touch the soft petals, zap them with an unpleasant shock. Repeatedly. The people in power do not want the public to feel any sort of delight or satisfaction for free; a love for nature would present a threat to the money-making system. The book was written in 1931.

Huxley’s take is still relevant almost 100 years later: those in power do not want us to find joy in the natural world or in the present moment. They want us to be living in fear, hating “the other,” filling up with bitterness and bile, and itching to remedy the dissatisfaction that we feel. They want us to have holes in our hearts, and to believe that these holes can only be filled by giving them our freedom or attention or money. By app-scrolling, TV-watching, buying, buying, buying.

So many forces are vying for our attention, our allegiance, and our wallets. People with psychology degrees (and now, bots who have learned from people with psychology degrees) are helping these forces to be extremely effective.

We all know that the screen-sedative-vortex is not where we belong as individuals or as a society. This is not where we thrive.

Whether you believe in God or Evolution or some combination of the two, this is a wondrous existence on a wondrous planet. I’m just starting Thich Nhat Hanh’s Miracle of Mindfulness, and he keeps using this word: wondrous. I can’t think of a better word to describe life on Earth. There is wonder, beauty, and healing power in the present moment if we just choose to pay attention.

So, stick it to the man. Quit the app. Turn off the TV. Fuck your Relaxium, go look at the moon.