The War They Snuck Us Into

We’re underdogs, but only because we didn’t realize we were dogs at all.

Some wars are obvious. I recently read an article about a current world conflict. The conflict had been represented in the news and, depending on your political leaning and that of your news source, multiple nations have been blamed, and violence on both sides has been glossed over in favor of bias. The article I read was written by an independent journalist who broke down the political causes, advantages, and disadvantages of several political entities involved. It was refreshing, even though I could see layers missing. (Most notably, the human layer regarding the people who live in the effected areas of these nations.) The thing is, everyone knows the conflict is happening. Few of us understand much about why, even when we think we do. Most of us choose a side for good reasons; essentially we want to root for ‘good’ to prevail.

But there is a war on us that we’ve been baited into. I’m not talking about the spiritual battle between light and darkness this time, either.

I don’t mean to get all existential on you, but just think about what we’re here for. What is it that we do? If you hold to any religious creed, that will make up a large part of your answer. But on a very simple, physical human level, we must eat, drink, reproduce (at the very least for the survival of our species) and, I would posit, commune with one another—we aren’t quite ourselves in isolation. And look what they’ve done:

Elicia Johnson
Eloise’s birthday lunch ‘24

We must eat. But our food is poisoned. Few of us have the resources to produce our own food and therefore, we depend on a complex (fragile) system. There are such conflicting messages on what we should and shouldn’t eat that it’s a challenge to find any joy in eating, if joy is your thing.

We must drink. But much of our water is full of toxins. The other liquids that people have historically used for hydration (such a milk or fermented beverages) have been tampered with in such a way that they can do more harm than good.

And at the risk of seeming flippant, we must be merry. Or grieve. We must think and feel and believe, but by golly, we must do it together. And yet, the societal expectation is for us to be so busy that we have no time for others. We supposedly live in the most connected era, yet roughly two-thirds of young people say they are lonely or don’t have close friends. Human relations are more sticky than ever. And, as an introvert myself, I’m saddened to say that toxic introversion is becoming entirely too popular.

Your belief system (or the level to which you entertain conspiracy theories) will dictate what you believe to be the source of the attack on humanity. My concern today is not who “they” are. My point is that everything that makes us human is under attack—down to our ability to think and create.

When was the last time you saw a new building and thought how beautiful?
Sleek, modern, rigid, efficient…yes. But nothing that could hold a candle to a cathedral or even the houses a few hundred years ago.

Elicia Johnson
St. Brigid’s Cathedral

This reality wasn’t forced upon us. How did we allow this to happen? Well, we traded. The battle lines were drawn by our great-grandparents when they worked hard for what mattered to them. We moved the battle lines back, surrendered territory by trading those values for convenience. It didn’t happen all at once, mind you but every little convenience has come at a cost. We didn’t realize that this was an unlimited liability deal with no fixed interest.

Now we see it. We have little left. And what we do have, we’re barely holding on to.

There’s another back-to-the-lander movement in mid-swing right now. People will quickly realize that more will have to change than acreage and location for that to work. Not only do they have to support themselves, they have to support their agricultural hobbies with both time and money. The current governments and economies in North America and much of Europe have set small farms up to fail. That’s a big conversation for another day. What I’m trying to illustrate is the amount of change necessary for us to regain our humanity.

Essentially, even if we recognize this battle against our humanity as something real, how are we to do anything about it? We’re stuck. Cornered. “They” have executed a pincer move and now we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A moderate swing (economic, government, societal) might make it feasible. It happens. The chances that any large changes in the graphs will have a positive effect seem slim to me. (<-Very scientific, I know.) But it’s difficult to see how anything less than massive changes will recover any ground.

I don’t mean to seem dismal about this. We should still try to eat well, drink well, and commit to life-giving relationships. ( I mean that proverbially not biblically…mostly.) I just genuinely want us to recognize the corner we’re backing into. I’m the type of person whose thinking hops from ideal to reality to idea, briefly checking in with the dreary facts but largely refusing to give up on the beautiful things. Maybe we could all remain more aware of the problem but live as well as possible by asking ourselves, What would hobbits do?

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