True ...
... since best-selling novels became a thing that could topple royalty, bad governance, lock-jawed social norms and past-sell-by conventions;
... and would topple us, the get-by conventionals: you, me, near futurists; topple every future as far as good science could SEE. I'm not a revolutionary. I'm a "please don't hurt me; I'm just a writer" with revolutionary-leaning views.
... which meant that NON-fiction (real life) was so UN-kind that only fiction could heal the wound.
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Fiction is better. A rudder. For our journey.
It conspires to nudge us from our born-to-it omnivore "take/exploit/consume anything" nature to something not quite as cruel, more cooperative, apparently kinder; way more tolerable as a next-door neighbor, for instance.
Do stats matter? Not at first.
Everyone's dumb (wrong). Everyone's smart (wrong). Some get it right all the time (wrong, wrong, wrong).
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The Bible promises, "The meek shall inherit the earth." So I'd heard.
I looked it up on Wikipedia.
Matthew 5:5. King James Version: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." The World English Bible version [published 2000] bends slightly a different way: "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth."
"Gentle"?
That can mean many things, including "merciful" and "strength under control." Not to mention, "I soothed this ill sheep until it fell asleep. Then I mercifully slit its throat. Blood poured forth like the Nile. It dreamt sheep banquets. Then. Smoothly. Stopped."
There's this curious 3rd interpretation.
The author of Matthew 5:5 "wrote for a community of Greek-speaking Jewish Christians located probably in Syria."
Greek warriors would "meek" a wild horse.
Sam Whatley, 2015, Journey Magazine: "To be meeked was to be taken from a state of wild rebellion and made completely loyal to, and dependent upon, one’s master.... The best were trained for warfare. They retained their fierce spirit, courage, and power, but were disciplined to respond to the slightest nudge or pressure of the rider’s leg. They could gallop into battle at 35 miles per hour and come to a sliding stop at a word. They were not frightened by arrows, spears, or torches. Then they were said to be meeked."
So there you go: you have the you (me?)-meek and the me (you?)-meek and the other-astonishing-meek who will (????) inherit the earth: and they are/might be/must be not frightened by arrows, spears nor torches.