Take the frog in boiling water apologue.
The extent to which we notice general goings on and are able to get used to them – acclimate, if we’re looking for a poor word choice – remains a much greater, darker mystery than the fable of the mythical frog. Still, perceiving danger and saving oneself, one’s country and compatriots needs a bit of a reset.
Slender appetites for suffering but no end of explaining away those who explicitly promise more nightmares. The kind of true that some desire the worst of everything if it will hurt others elicits a shrug, or even shrewdness toward toward their understanding. It’s an opinion you can understand enough to pity, though it must be appreciated enough to fight. Not correct, but confront and conquer. Comprehending simple minds bent on retribution meets an unmovable force in climate change. Misogyny, too, has an endgame.
There is no gradual increase in this temperature. You may wake up today and note that you are in boiling water, but there has been no creeping authoritarianism, slowly appearing right under your nose. All along, individuals chose not to notice – or celebrate its arrival, let’s be honest. The rationalized-away digression of what on some level was accepted as agreeable was approved as such. More please, we were actually demanding.
But the magnitude by which we choose bewilderment instead of joy, fiery passion and benevolence is all on us. Seek no refuge in ‘how could we have known?’ Wonder instead why we did not and begin to paddle toward others, recognize salvation.