In which V. gets uncharacteristically political for a moment.

It just fucking sucks.

I read something in Preacher recently that kind of stuck with me. In Preacher, this group of religious loonies is trying to mastermind the apocalypse and generate a culture of fear, so that they can more easily control and manipulate mankind. Anyway, one of them says something along the lines of "make sure that the 90s are a decade of hope. Make sure there's peace, make sure the Berlin Wall falls."

When I was a teenager, I really felt lucky to be living in such amazing times. It seemed like society was changing for the better. It seemed like peace was possible. Human rights were possible.

Life imitates art, I guess. Preacher ended before our current state of unjust war and vengeance. But one thing kind of rings eerily true: the 90s were a decade of hope, and just the memory of what the world could be like is enough to make all of the present bullshit seem even worse. We have our culture of fear. We have our torture and abuse and lies and carnage. We have a nation of idiots who are all too happy to sacrifice personal liberty for the illusion of safety.

And safety IS an illusion. Because I'll tell you something else we have: we have evil. And it's not like in the movies, where the good guys fight the evil, and everything is okay in the end, like when Superman fought Nuclear Man in Quest For Peace. Nope. What we have is evil fighting evil. There are no good guys any more.

On that note, I do still hope for change. I hope for the return of common sense, and intelligence, and responsible thinking. I hope, naive as I may be, for global unity and community and an end to famine and disease and poverty. And I hope for peace and closure for the survivors of today's London bombings, something that hit uncomfortably close to home for me. Thankfully my friends and loved ones in the UK are all healthy and accounted for, but there are hundreds of people out there tonight who weren't so lucky. The world fucking sucks.