WEEK 41 Sept 30th to October 6th 2002

   THE WALK OF THE LIVING DEAD

   Editorial by Amos Keppler

   A lot of thinking, critical minds have been more than enraged lately. There is a lot of being enraged about, of course, and it isn't improving any. Present day human society is usually taking one step forward, ten leaps back. But the big protest in Britain recently, the biggest in 180 years, the protests in favor of fox hunting really clinched it.
   When one thinks about it, one is tempted to go mad with grief and rage. A major, public protest is finally undertaken. A major protest has been anticipated and sorely missed for years without number, against the growing horrors of the world. But is it a major protest against pollution, against nuclear power, against the injustice of modern society, against modern society itself? Oh, no, it's a march supporting establishment, supporting an old, disgusting tradition. One may wonder what goes through the mind? of these people, if they are thinking at all, or if they truly are just mindless slaves, jumping when the puppet masters say jump, joyfully asking: how high? And this time they're truly jumping very high indeed, like blithering idiots, like tape-recorders doing nothing but repeating the words and actions of others. They're marching to keep their ways, to keep a tradition, to keep their right to turn a blind eye to their surroundings, to keep refusing to look up from their stupor at the bigger picture.
   When a government, on a whim, for once decides to do something right, something long overdue they get up in arms, while being virtually silent, mute and sheep-like concerning the countless and ongoing wrongdoings public and private government in general are doing to the Earth and all Life here. This is bad, this is horribly fucking bad. It can hardly be any worse. And these people dare to call themselves Human Beings, thinking, imaginative human beings?
   After something like this, one is sorely tempted to conclude that there can't be much of a future for humanity.
   Fortunately there are still humans, few as they are, not wearing their head in their ass.