Simple things really. But increasingly difficult to preserve. And like so much of life, simple, but not easy. Especially given that our would-be masters have deemed themselves the arbiters of truth and beauty.
No. We reject their claims to the moral high ground. And we owe them no further explanation. We are on the side of Truth. We know beauty.
Their lies reveal to us just as plainly. The fact that their version of progress always seems to require more of our heritage, our liberties, and our stories to be dragged to the pyre is just some coincidence they claim.
A conspiracy theory, don't you know!
Conspiracy or not, we work to build parallel economies and robust and insulated communities to carry forward the sparks of our people just the same.
We do this because our heritage is under a great, dark duress. The stories of our people are being re-written before our very eyes.
The Truth itself is being subverted and inverted.
All that is good and beautiful and natural is being recast to be oppressive and hateful and in need of replacement by those who claim to be our betters.
Their Ministry of Truth twists and mutates, even to the point of taking up opposing positions some weeks or days apart, as long as it advances their cause. Which is, by the way, the end of us.
The powers behind this great migration into darkness peddle their inverted world as utopia.
Utopia, coming from the Greek: οὐ (“not”) and τόπος (“place”), literally: "nowhere". An apt destination indeed!
Meanwhile, they intoxicate the masses with envy and resentment; cheap turpentine that fuels their imbittered orgies to remake our world into a broken, ugly, and brutal dystopia. All while blinding them to the destruction and despair they leave in their wicked wake toward their collective precious.
No, we reject all of it.
So, we here at Dissident Rags turned our hobby of creating original thoughts and imagery into a means of holding that darkness at bay.
At first, just for ourselves.
But now we kindle these creations into gestures of defiance and moral fortitude in the face of our dispossession. We share with fellow dissidents - and regular folks alike, who have perhaps just started peeling the facades.
To them we say, keep peeling.
Hopefully you find our creations to be beautiful, irreverent, funny, clever, inspiring, or thought provoking.
We are hard at work to create small tokens and symbols to shepherd those things we love through to what comes next. A little light in the tempest; a wink to fellow dissidents.
A few laughs at the expense of our enemies. A few displays of defiance to ignite conversations. Together, they will know our strength.
Let's have some fun.
After all, in the end, we win. Providence!
- DISSIDENT RAGS