This is an insane time on our planet. We’re here because we are truly the ones we have been waiting for – and that is not a cliche’. It’s time to create a new time. It’s time for the scales of justice to be returned to their rightful place at the hands of Lady Justice, and to restore her blindfold. She has seen too much, and she is troubled.

Lady Justice is thought to have arisen from mythology as Themis, a daughter of the earth and the sky, Gaia and Uranus. It is a nice theme for rising above the perils of earth-bound life while still maintaining humility and realizing that we can never take over the Earth or Sky. Some of us have forgotten that we are not divine, and never will be. Many of us have forgotten that Divinity has no need of adulation or worship, and certainly not money – those are human platitudes. The unconditional love. Love that is not dependent on anything but more love. Divinity has no conditions – WE have conditions, and some have affixed those to Divinity. A divinity has no need of conditions. A divinity has no need of obedience or conformity. A divinity can benefit only by giving it more of its own life force, which is love.

I want to say there will be peace here, but I cannot. Love is the most tumultuous of emotions, and it becomes entwined with the worship of our egos. Our egos turn love into brutality and cruelty and hatred. Our egos deprive us of the very connections we are doggedly pursuing. As has been said many times, by greater minds than my own, hate is not the opposite of love. Indifference is the antithesis of love. Hatred implies that I want you to have some particular experience, or outcome, so I am still in some kind of relationship with you (no matter how twisted. Indifference is just that – I don’t care enough about you to even see you, let alone want you to have an outcome that I believe will ultimately benefit you (no matter how wrong I may be). You ultimately do not exist, you are a non-being, so what I do is only for the benefit of me and…I guess it sucks to be whatever it is that you are.

Think as I do, or else. Believe as I do, or else. Live as I do, love as I do, hate as I do or else. Or else what? Or else you will end me? Torture me, beat me, violate me? Is this not what intolerant people do every day? This is nothing new, but none of us have to even bother with physical constraint any longer. We can do the torture, beating, and violation digitally and by means of social engineering. We’ve been doing social engineering for decades, and the Southern Strategy is finally bearing its putrid rotten fruit.

I cannot relegate this solely to humans. Sentient creatures are often very cruel in the natural world. The bald eagle nest I have been watching for a couple of years produced two eggs last year, but only one hatched. It was fascinating and endearing to watching the single eaglet grow from a pam sized puff of grey feathers into a full-sized bird with glossy dark feathers and the characteristic golden eagle’s beak. Its white head and tail feathers will be evident in about five years. Watching the adults gently nurture this tiny thing was incredibly touching, but it was not really love, only instinct. But still, I’ll take that.

This year, there were again two eggs, and both hatched. The first one that broke the shell and emerged was a cute, innocent-looking bobble head. The second one hatched about two days later, and it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. Identical tiny grey heads with teeny little wing nubs and barely able to keep their heads raised. The adults fed them with great care, beak to beak, and sheltered them in equal measure.

Within a week, however, the older sibling began displaying a tendency toward dominance over the younger eaglet. There was no shortage of food or care, but the older eaglet would bonk the younger several times a day, entirely unprovoked. Neither sibling was old enough to stand on its own, but a hierarchy was already evident. It was disturbing to watch, but it’s a part of the natural world. Various species have plain evidence of toxic sibling rivalry, and it’s not as though such behavior has been nurtured. It is simply part of who they are.

One day, the aggression from the older eaglet was markedly pronounced, and it attacked the younger one, pulling its neck and pecking at its body unmercifully. I didn’t actually see that in real time, but the comments from those who had seen it was more than enough for me. The younger eaglet was not dead, but I had no doubt the elder sibling would finish its task at a later time. This was nauseating to contemplate, especially since the younger one seemed defenseless and wasn’t aggressive toward the other. Yes, those are human values at play, but I found it so disturbing on so many levels that I don’t watch that nest any longer.

What is most depressing about the baby eagles is where this seems to lead, that cruelty and aggression are hard-wired into the animal kingdom. We cannot escape it. But, as humans, perhaps we can eventually overcome it. I would hope so, but if it is possible it will take hundreds of generations to do that. Until then, we’ll peck each other to death with knives and guns and fists, policies and laws and rules, plus an added layer of illogic and egotism for garnish. The end result will be the same – some of us will kill each other. We are simply not terribly far removed from our base level instincts.

I don’t like that about our species, but I should accept it. It causes me to wonder if species from other worlds carry the same tendencies. Is that part of universal order, or simply Earth order? Maybe it’s something in the water, or the soil, or the air. Is a soul naturally cruel and competitive, drive by ego and selfishness? I certainly hope not. It would be crushing for me to believe that we can never rise above this small-mindedness and the arrogance of false superiority.