"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."I do not write these words for my contemporaries. We are the damned. It is our lot now to watch as the lamp of liberty is extinguished, our burden to bear witness to the final flickering of the flame of freedom.
โ WWI conspirator Edward Grey
No, I don't write these words for my peers; I write them for those yet to come. The inhabitants of that future dystopia whose birth pangs we are experiencing. The remnant of once-free humanity who might โ through some miracle I can't even imagine โ come across this electronic message in a bottle.
I know that it's almost hopeless. That the chance of these words surviving the coming internet purge are slim at best. That even if โ against all odds โ this message does wash up on your digital shores, that the chance of these words being understood by you is even slimmer. Not because you don't understand English, but because you no longer use these words I'm writing: Freedom. Humanity. Individual.
Still, I am here to record the end of an era. So I will press on in the hope against hope that someone, somewhere in that future Digital Dark Age will have eyes to see and ears to hear.
The darkness is descending.
Let there be no mistake: We all know this.
Comment: Erratic seasons and extreme weather are devastating crops all over the planet, and at the same time we're seeing outbreaks of all kinds.
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