Very few individuals with the inner steel of Chelsea Manning have ever walked this earth. We live in what could best be referred to as the Age of Towering Vanities, an age where character and principle are as foreign as they are on Uranus. The social media mob, taking the form of Plato’s troglodyte monster, rules the roost of public opinion on culture, politics, art, and morals. And as mob rules usually go, it vulgarizes everything it touches. Within this milieu, morality and character become non-existent yet outrage is ubiquitous. In this environment, derelict parents neglect their duty to raise their kids, giving them phones instead. The mob becomes mother and father of a new generation.
Amid this decayed moral apocalypse walks Chelsea Manning, a rare individual who made a conscious decision to do something right, regardless of the personal cost. Her leak of the atrocities committed by American soldiers in Iraq got her several years of torture under Obama. The torture consisted of months of continuous sleep deprivation, forced nudity, and other degradations committed by mindless goose-steppers who follow orders without question. She was released, but later was compelled to testify against Wikileaks. Her character being what it is, she refused, and for that was tossed in jail again for a year. She could’ve taken the easy way out at any time by agreeing to testify. She refused, and apparently would rather kill herself than compromise her values. Following her suicide attempt, the presiding judge granted her release. Again, she is free. Here’s to the hope that she finds peace and safety out of the reach of the filth of the Political Class.
Rather than clamor endlessly for saviors and messiahs to lead us out of the desert, it would be better to search within ourselves for even a shadow of the courage exhibited by Manning, who faced the abyssal imperial war machine head on, and standing alone, refused to blink, and refused to budge.
“Reputation is what others think of you. Character is what you are.”
