The beauty of the universe and the beauty of what we can accomplish within it are two related but separate things, and the separation matters.

The honest philosopher is rewarded with poison; the hypocrite is rewarded with power.

perhaps faith is neither choice nor submission
perhaps faith is a demand
for our pain to have meaning
for the stories of the world to rhyme
for a world designed by a loving hand

perhaps I will believe with defiance
in the forgiveness of all sins
in the kingdom of god on earth
and even
the resurrection of the dead

I will believe with clenched fists
and gritted teeth
and prayers that refuse
to be gentle

I've been wondering, what made our ancestors settle in these godforsaken places? It can't have been easy with those frail, squishy bodies of theirs.
What makes a caveman go yes, this frozen hellscape is where I want to live out my days?

We live in a decaying system, which in turn produces ideologies of decay to justify its existence.

No matter what cultural signifiers they get packaged with, these ideologies come down to the same material result: a future in which for the average person there is less of everything. To paraphrase Mark Fisher, we find it easier to imagine the decline of civilization than to imagine a civilization worth living in.