Uploaded August 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Sometimes, it’s hard to consider what you can’t see. You might be out on the pasture, watching your flock, when suddenly a slight buzzing distracts you. Is it a fly? A cicada? No. And then a flash, and then it doesn’t matter what you think or know. Do we really believe this to be more civil, simply because it happens outside the jurisdiction of the news cameras? Just because it happens quietly, where no one is able to argue back?
Maybe the next time you’re pumping gas look up. Where does that gas come from? How would your life be different if you were never quite sure when fire might rain down from the heavens? Sure, drones have killed some bad men. But they don’t have souls. So, they as comfortable killing good men. And they are efficient. And worst of all, they are so easy to forget about. Until it’s too late. Until it’s your silence that is suddenly imbued with meaning, with the nihilistic threat of unpredictable, irrefutable violence.
The righteous should not need to do their work secretly in the shadows. But as long as they do it, we will too. To remind you of the hidden truths that only become important when it’s already too late:
Wars are won with drones. Elections are won with checkbooks. Colonialism hides in the Fortune 500. Slavery continues quietly as a system of private, for-profit prisons.
So, keep your eyes on the sky. It’s not god, it’s bored soldiers with remote controls. Either way, they won’t hear your prayers.
In Memory of an honorable soldier: Howard Zinn
"Mystery Fish" Aesop Rock
rhymesayers.com
INDECLINE
Sometimes, it’s hard to consider what you can’t see. You might be out on the pasture, watching your flock, when suddenly a slight buzzing distracts you. Is it a fly? A cicada? No. And then a flash, and then it doesn’t matter what you think or know. Do we really believe this to be more civil, simply because it happens outside the jurisdiction of the news cameras? Just because it happens quietly, where no one is able to argue back?
Maybe the next time you’re pumping gas look up. Where does that gas come from? How would your life be different if you were never quite sure when fire might rain down from the heavens? Sure, drones have killed some bad men. But they don’t have souls. So, they as comfortable killing good men. And they are efficient. And worst of all, they are so easy to forget about. Until it’s too late. Until it’s your silence that is suddenly imbued with meaning, with the nihilistic threat of unpredictable, irrefutable violence.
The righteous should not need to do their work secretly in the shadows. But as long as they do it, we will too. To remind you of the hidden truths that only become important when it’s already too late:
Wars are won with drones. Elections are won with checkbooks. Colonialism hides in the Fortune 500. Slavery continues quietly as a system of private, for-profit prisons.
So, keep your eyes on the sky. It’s not god, it’s bored soldiers with remote controls. Either way, they won’t hear your prayers.
In Memory of an honorable soldier: Howard Zinn
"Mystery Fish" Aesop Rock
rhymesayers.com
INDECLINE
