[2023-11-25]澳独立记者凯特琳：永远为帝国的堕落感到震惊吧

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
A friend of mine shared my article about how the Biden administration is worried the pause in fighting will allow journalists into Gaza to show Israel’s crimes to the world, saying he knows he shouldn’t be surprised by how evil these freaks are but somehow he still is.
I told him I actually consciously cultivate the ability to stay surprised by such things. If you stop being surprised when you see the world’s most powerful people always finding new and innovative ways to make the world a worse place for ordinary human beings, it means it’s become normalized in your system in some way. It means that on top of all the other horrible evils they’ve inflicted upon our world, they’ve also managed to steal an important part of your humanity.
No longer being shocked by the murderousness of the empire is a counterintuitive sign that something unhealthy is happening to you, like when the body stops shivering as it sinks into the later stages of hypothermia, or when the hunger pangs go away in the later stages of starvation. It’s a sign that your system is no longer forcefully rejecting conditions it ought to reject, and has instead shifted into giving up and trying to conserve energy.

我的一个朋友分享了我的一篇文章，谈到拜登政府担心战争的暂停会让记者进入加沙，向世界展示以色列的罪行，他说他知道他不应该对这些怪物的邪恶感到惊讶，但不知为何他还是很惊讶。
我告诉他，我实际上是有意识地培养对这些事情保持惊讶的能力。如果当你看到世界上最有权势的人总能找到新的创新方法，让世界变得对普通人来说更糟糕的时候，你不再感到惊讶，这就意味着你的感官系统中，已经某种程度上将其正常化了。这意味着，除了他们给我们的世界带来的其他可怕的罪恶之外，他们还偷走了你人性中很重要的一部分。
不再被帝国的残忍所震惊是一个违反直觉的信号，表明你身上发生了一些不健康的事情，就像身体在低体温症后期停止颤抖，或者在饥饿后期饥饿感消失一样。这是一个信号，表明你的感官系统不再强行拒绝它应该拒绝的条件，而是转向放弃并试图保存能量。

I spend all day every day staring into the ugliest parts of the imperial machine, but I refuse to let it desensitize me. These monsters have taken so very, very much from the world, and I refuse to let them take that too. I refuse to let them rob me of my humanity like that.
I see it as a sacred duty to keep a flame lit in myself which knows what a healthy world looks like, which knows what sanity looks like, which knows how things ought to be, and which naturally finds it jarring when the sickness of this civilization reveals itself.
I refuse to accept this as normal. I refuse to let the abuses of the empire turn me into a callused, jaded husk of a human who can only respond to each new monstrosity with a deep world-weary sigh. I make sure it still brings up a white hot rage in me. I make sure it still brings white hot tears to my eyes.
You can’t let them take that from you. You can’t let them harden your heart and darken your eyes. We’ve got to keep the flame burning for a sane and healthy world, if not for ourselves then for our children, and for future generations who we will never meet.
If you’re still finding yourself shocked and shaken by the actions of our rulers, that’s a very healthy sign. It means they haven’t got you yet. It means they haven’t succeeded in snuffing out your flame.
We’ve got to protect our sensitivity at all costs. We’ve got to maintain that visceral rejection of madness, because that’s what’s calling us home. That’s what’s calling us home to a healthy world. That’s what will guide our way as we fight our way there, one small, almost-insignificant victory at a time.
If they haven’t yet snuffed out your flame today, that’s one more small win for humanity. That’s one more tiny step toward health.

我每天都在盯着这台帝国机器最丑陋的部分，但我拒绝让它使我变得麻木。这些怪物从这个世界上夺走了太多太多的东西，我拒绝让他们也夺走这些东西。我拒绝让他们那样夺走我的人性。
我把保持自己心中的“火焰”视为神圣的职责，它知道一个健康的世界是什么样的，它知道理智是什么样的，它知道事情应该是什么样的，当这个文明的病态显露出来时，它自然会感到不安。
我拒绝让帝国的暴行把我变成一个满脸老茧、颓废不堪的人，对每一个新的怪事只能发出一声深深的厌世的叹息。我确保它仍能激起我内心炽热的愤怒。我确信它还能让我热泪盈眶。
你不能让他们夺走你的这团火焰。你不能让他们让你麻木，蒙蔽你的双眼。我们必须为一个理智、健康的世界继续燃烧火焰，即使不是为了我们自己，也是为了我们的孩子，为了我们永远不会见面的后代。
如果你还在为我们统治者的行为感到震惊和不安，这是一个非常健康的信号。这意味着他们还没有抓住你。这意味着他们还没有成功掐灭你的火焰。
我们必须不惜一切代价保护我们的敏感性。我们必须保持对疯狂的本能排斥，因为那是召唤我们回归的声音。那是召唤我们回到一个健康世界的声音。这也将指引我们奋力前行，一次次取得几乎微不足道的小胜利。
如果他们今天还没有掐灭你的火焰，那就是人类的又一个小胜利。向健康又迈进了一小步。
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Dr.Who
If there’s any positive that has emerged from this genocide, that it has awakened the humanity that was crushed within millions of souls. That it took the blood of thousands of children reflects the state of our collective conscience. - Like (35)

如果说这场种族屠杀有什么积极意义的话，那就是它唤醒了数百万灵魂深处被压抑的人性。成千上万儿童的鲜血反映了我们的集体良知。

BJ -> Dr.Who
My sentiments exactly - for the longest time we had no regard for human life - this changed everything!!
More imperative is that Caitlin has not relented with her reporting while so many others have!
Happy Thanksgiving? Seriously? The way I see it this is a billion times worse than 9-11 ever was - Like (21)

我也有同感，长期以来，我们对人的生命漠不关心，而这改变了一切！！
更重要的是，凯特琳在她的报道并没有丝毫让步，而其他许多人却让步了！
感恩节快乐？真的吗？在我看来，这比 9-11 还要糟糕十亿倍

JennyStokes -> BJ
sorry but 9/11 was a blip in the Oceans of death caused by the US. - Like (14)

抱歉，不过 9/11 只是美国造成的死亡海洋中的一个小插曲。

Pauline P Schneider
As a child in my father’s country of Greece I recall the CIA led coup and Junta against our democratically elected prime-minister. I think it was 1973-1974. College students were being shot at from helicopters. I was 9 or 10. My guitar teacher, a Greek patriot who had lived through Nazi occupation and a civil war, was not interested in seeing more bloodshed and fled to Canada. I never heard from that sweet man again.
For years neighbors suspected my dad was CIA because my mom was American. Our school, American Community School of Athens Greece, had ongoing bomb threats. It became normalized for us and our fellow international students who included US Airforce military kids, and diplomats’ kids from around the world.
The US was smuggling guns from Greece to the Afghan Taliban back then in its endless war of attrition against Russia. Don’t ask how I know this from first hand.
My fellow Greeks are still reeling economically from US/CIA meddling.
The goddamed USA has been fucking people’s lives and countries for over two centuries.
No. We never REALLY get used to it. - Like (12)

作为一个在我父亲的祖国希腊长大的孩子，我记得中央情报局领导的政变和军政府反对我们民选的总理。我记得那是 1973-1974 年。大学生们被直升机射杀。 当时我 9 岁或 10 岁。我的吉他老师是一位希腊爱国者，经历过纳粹占领和内战，他不想再看到流血冲突，于是逃到了加拿大。我再也没有听到过这位善良的人的消息了。
多年来，邻居们一直怀疑我爸爸是中情局的人，因为我妈妈是美国人。我们的学校，希腊雅典美国社区学校，不断收到炸弹威胁。这对我们和我们的国际同学来说已经习以为常了，因为我们的同学中有美国空军军人的孩子，也有来自世界各地的外交官的孩子。
当时，美国从希腊向阿富汗塔利班走私枪支，与俄罗斯展开了无休止的消耗战。别问我是怎么知道的。
我的希腊同胞们仍因为美国/中央情报局的干预而在经济上挣扎。
两个多世纪以来，操蛋的美国一直在破坏人们的生活和国家。
不，我们永远不会真正习惯。