We Have Met The Enemy, And They Are Us

We have met the enemy, and they are us… 

Sometimes I sit and wonder, why something as simple as a conversation has become extinct? 

The threads of patience, respect and human dignity are no longer woven into the fabric of our daily interactions.  To discuss is to be weak.  To listen is to be misguided.  We must shout, scream and proselytize like a hammer on the refrain – all that we believe… all that we divine… all that we need to be true.  HEAR ME, we shriek from strangled voices that just want to belong… to something… to anything… just don’t leave me alone.  So, we latch on to whatever is in front of us, ride the wave of indifferent existence with our eyes closed, hearts lost, and minds tangled in a black forest of cobwebbed regrets, chances spent and potential unrealized. 

Searching… yet never finding. 

Because this is the distant and divided world that we now live in… this is our world… this is your world… this is my world.  Daily lives are lived on autopilot and people choose to remain hidden in the distractions of petty arguments and bureaucratic incompetence meant to lull already jaded eyes asleep.  We fight among ourselves – on the outside like rich, spoiled children; on the inside with the frantic lashing fear of rabid dogs – it’s a disgusting melee to watch.  Unfolding on the world stage with the bright red, white and blue colors of hypocrisy and the lingering stink of muddled hate and antipathy. 

I no longer recognize the world that I once knew.  A foreign country stares back at me as if a stranger in a strange land – a country that I was once proud of.  It’s hard for me to even question anymore because I can’t remember what people were like.  How did we become this way?  Such scared and fragile creatures… lashing out with our pain but biting down on our shame.  No… we need that shame.  A shame of a nation.  It drives us… we can’t let it go, because if we do, we must finally face ourselves. 

Why can’t we just talk?  What’s the big deal?  What ever happened to a conversation?  Pragmatism?  Unified progress?  There is no duality.  There is no them and us.  There is only WE.  But we can’t stop pointing fingers; it’s become second nature, ingrained in us like the cells of our skin. 

But unfortunately… the question has been replaced with an infallible answer.  Social media tells us how to live our lives and we accept.  We face the enemy, swords drawn, formation tight, our backs against the walls, and we recognize ourselves staring back at us.  But that’s okay, because we are divided.  There is no unification… no human element… no bridge to compromise and condolence. 

There is only room for totalitarian thoughts, ultimatums from egos laced in pathos…  them versus us. 

— 

I stumbled upon this quote the other day: 

“We have met the enemy, and they are us.” 

I fucking loved it.  I read it in a NY Times article, and it was like a gut shot of pure eye-opening oblivion that finally summed up all the madness surrounding me in such a concise and precise metaphor of the conundrum that is life. 

The doctor was referring to people not wearing masks and the virus, but I think this applies in a much broader sense to the world as well. 

But I need to interject here.  I felt a month ago there was no way I would write anything about masks in a post.  This topic was such ridiculousness that it didn’t even deserve to be acknowledged.  But now, as things just keep getting worse and I read that magnificent quote above, I have to do my duty as the world-renowned brand the Q-FI nation has become and address it.  My wife told me not to do it.  Leave this topic alone.  But I have to.  I have an obligation to humanity.  Hahaha… well, not that grand. 

So, as I’m doing my 40-mile commute home the other day (one of the few days I went into the office), my mind wandered and settled on this conclusion: 

If you had come to me in March and told me there was going to be a Pandemic that would shut down the economy, I would have said, no way.  We are all in agreement on that.  These are unprecedented times… yadda yadda ya.  But if you would have further told me, that two months into this worldwide pandemic that is killing a record number of people, a lot of Americans would simply stop wearing masks for no reason (that I can ascertain) relating to medical or health issues, I wouldn’t have even been able to entertain the thought.  I lump it up there with insanity.  Nope, people are crazy, but not that crazy. 

And yet, a few months later here we are.  I’m typing what I thought to be impossible.  And I feel like a part of me is slowly going insane.  What I think is logic, is no longer logic.  There is a good chunk of Americans that think the opposite of what I assume would be commons sense.  And I’m learning the hard way.  Yet, let’s be clear, it is a person’s right to do what they want.  I may disagree with their actions entirely, but I understand how our country works and the democratic constitution it was founded on.  But to see so many people acting so recklessly, the only way to describe it is pure shock. 

If you are anti-mask wearing, then shouldn’t you be a nudist too? 

This isn’t a facetious jab at all.  I’m being dead serious here and trying to use the most basic reasoning I can think of… 

The biggest argument for not wearing masks that I can find is, “I don’t want the government telling me what to do.  So, if they make mask wearing a law, I’m not going to do it.” (If there is a better or bigger reason out there, let me know.  But this was the most prevalent argument I could find by scouring the internet.) 

I mean you wear clothes, right?  It’s illegal to walk around in public naked, so the law is telling you to do this.  How are masks any different?  Isn’t a mask just a small piece of clothing?  Plus, the mask is actually protecting and saving other people’s lives.  That shirt, shorts, pants, skirt, dress or bathing suit you’re wearing isn’t protecting anybody from anything (it’s really just a made-up cultural belief that society has imposed on you).  But you wear them.  You follow the law.  Yet, unlike clothes, that little piece of mask can actually make a difference. 

So, what’s so hard about wearing a mask?  If you’re anti-masks, then shouldn’t you be anti-wearing clothes as well? 

I’ll be frank.  I don’t get it.  I don’t understand why such simple things need to be made so difficult, turned into a war on politics, rights, or what-the-fuck-ever nowadays. 

If people are struggling, suffering or in pain, lend a helping hand.  Put the bullshit and egos aside.  Reach out and do what is right.  You can think whatever you want and believe whatever you want, but why not help if you can.  Let’s transcend the opinions and appeal to human dignity and integrity. 

Leave the world a better place… make the world a better place. 

So, let’s get back to the basics.  Let’s have a conversation.  Let’s discuss.  And most importantly… let’s listen. 

And maybe we can save some lives… together… while we’re at it. 

-Q-FI 

— 

P.S.  I don’t know what to ask.  I think deep down I wrote this post so that years from now I can look back and say, “Yep, that shit really happened.  People were that fucking nuts.”  Beware, and hope history doesn’t repeat itself again in my lifetime.