I recently re-read Fahrenheit 451 and, once again, the opening scene slapped me in the face and hit me with the reality that we live in that world today.
At the start of the book, the main character, Montag, comes home to his wife, a woman he doesn’t feel connected to at all because she is constantly on a screen. They never talk. Never connect. Never support each other.
They get up, go to work, and come home to stare at the TV before falling asleep again.
They don’t have a real relationship.
They simply come back to the same building as each other each night.
Only, this night, she isn’t in front of the screen.
She’s unconscious in the bedroom after taking a bottle of pills.
Quietly dying.
Instead of reacting emotionally, Montag simply picks up the phone, calls a team to pump her stomach, and goes about the rest of the week as if nothing happened.
She recovers by morning and does the same.
And though there are a lot of other things that happen to him throughout the book, this is the moment when Montag starts to question.
His world is colorless.
Emotionless.
Dull.
Even in the face of death it just…..keeps on going the way it always has before.
Even when so many people are inwardly suffering, everyone just….ignores it like it never happened.
Talking to the team who pumped her stomach, he learns that they are constantly moving from house to house- doing the same thing. Pump their stomach, move on to the next person. The team isn’t trained to do anything else. They aren’t even medical experts. They just know how to run the machine. It’s as often and as casual as taking out the trash.
In other words- this happens Every. Single. Day.
Multiple times a day.
Imagine a world where a husband comes home, finds his wife dying on the floor by her own hand, and simply makes a phone call like they are ordering pizza.
Then, they both get up, go to work, and never talk about it again.
Pretend it doesn’t exist.
Ignore the fact that your neighbor had the same experience last week.
Wait – that is the world we live in….at least, almost.
I read recently that today’s suicide rates are growing ever closer to the rates that occurred during the Great Depression, one of the worst economic times in our nation’s history.
So I looked it up-
During the Great Depression the suicide rate averaged 18-19 people per 100,000.
Today, its 14-15 people per 100,000. And increasing. (Source)
So while we aren’t quite there yet (a mark I hope we never hit), we are very, very close.
Almost everyone I know, knows someone who has died by suicide.
Even more know someone who struggles with depression or suicidal thoughts.
Or struggles with it themselves.
We really do have an out-of-control crisis of mental health issues.
1 in every 8 adults in the U.S., in fact.
And everyone is quietly asking the question- Why?
Why are so many people suffering so much that this seems like the only option?
Why is it so silent? So normalized? So clinical?
The economy is in the toilet, no one sleeps well, communities don’t exist, families are scattered and disconnected, everyone is constantly on a screen, our food isn’t healthy, and a lot of us just don’t see a way out of any of it.
Like the Great Depression, there is a constant shadow of hopelessness over us that we all just try to ignore. Or we cover up with jokes about the end of the world. Or endure by telling ourselves we can focus and work our way through. Or that it could be worse.
And while those and so many other factors contribute to depression, they are not definitive causes.
People experience them all the time and do okay.
They keep going. They heal. And eventually, they move on.
So, I don’t think factors explain the whole picture.
Or that any one of them is the decision maker in these situations.
Or responsible for the hopeless, immovable haze that we all feel hanging around.
But, if we are all struggling, and we all are trying to get through the fog, my next question was-
Who are the ones struggling the most?
Why are some more likely to succumb?
And I started to look at the numbers:
Four times more men than women die by suicide.
In fact, 80% of suicide deaths are men, most of them white men. (Source)
However, women report more attempts that are less successful.
So, the feeling is not universal to one gender or another.
But, when you dig deeper than gender….the numbers show a pattern.
And the pattern broke my heart.
It’s in work.
In the jobs that we do.
In men, the highest suicide rates are among construction workers, farmers, fishing and forestry workers, personal care and service workers, installation, maintenance, and repair workers, and in the arts industry.
In women, those numbers include the same jobs, but also include protective service workers- like police and prison guards.
The ones who make sure the world works, has homes, has food, and is cared for….are the ones we are losing most often.
They are the ones who feel hopeless, alone, and like it’s all over.
While they are struggling to keep everyone and everything else alive, safe, and comfortable, they are struggling to keep themselves alive and safe.
We are losing the ones we need most.
Imagine a world without these jobs.
A world where the knowledge, experience, and expertise within the trade just….vanishes.
No houses built, no food growing, no children cared for, nothing being fixed.
No heath care workers, police officers, or worthwhile stories or art anywhere to be found.
No mothers. Fathers. Or daycare workers.
And no one who knows how to bring those things back.
Ray Bradbury understood this type of world better than we think.
He grew up during the Great Depression and watched as his peers went to war during WWII. In his world, people were dying all around him, many had no hope of financial recovery, and others couldn’t see an end to the war that pulled so many men away from their regular duties into a fog that seemed overpowering and unending.
He lived through it, and then he wrote about it.
And, as history repeats itself, we feel like he knew more about our lives today than we do.
Bradbury says in Fahrenheit 451 that there are two types of people- builders and burners.
Builders are the ones who make sure we have homes, food, water, safety, and joy.
They create, protect, improve, and care for others.
They get up everyday with a to-do list and get it done.
They are the ones who, paid or not, make the world go round and daily life work.
Construction, law, healthcare, education, childcare, farming, repairs.
The ones society needs in order for all of us to survive.
Burners, well….they burn.
Destroy, tear down, use up resources, and expect there to always be more available.
They don’t question where food, homes, or healthcare come from.
They don’t care that each of those things takes work, years of training, or a lot of perserverance.
Those who don’t actually create or maintain anything.
They believe that food comes from stores, money comes from rich people, and houses are owed to them for existing.
They are the ones who leave problems for others to fix, who make mess for others to clean, and who spend their days destroying what others have built.
They don’t sacrifice.
Nor do they see the sacrifice of those who keep the world running every day.
Burning is fun.
It requires no intelligence
No work.
No training.
No persistance.
No suffering for a better future.
It’s something that you simply just….do.
And, according to Bradbury, “Those who don’t build must burn. It’s as old as history and juvenile delinquents.”
Those who don’t build must burn.
Must.
Burn.
Not may burn.
Not might.
Not gonna think about it.
Must.
It’s human nature.
Look around your work, your school, your country.
Every group of people has builders.
And then there are burners.
People who take, destroy, harm, and always seem to find the easy way out.
Society will always have both.
In all times throughout all of human history, there have been builders and burners.
When there are more builders, society rejects and shuns burners.
It keeps up with maintenance, makes repairs, and stops burners before they get out of hand.
It cares for the weak, spends time teaching the future, and creates something better than what it was given.
Society operates at a net positive- healthy, productive, and happy.
It moves forward.
Supportive. Honest. And united.
Builders wake up each day and make a conscious choice: make the world better.
And expect others to do the same.
It requires a systematic, community-wide review of what a person is contributing- or what they are destroying.
Healthy societies are like ships: everyone has a job and if you don’t do it, you haven’t earned your place.
And you can’t expect anyone else to earn that place for you.
They not only encourage everyone to be a productive contributor in some way- but demand it by refusing to provide for those who burn.
They care for the young, and the weak, and the elderly.
It sees children as an investment into the future.
The weak, not as worthless, but as contributors in different ways.
And the elderly as a fountain of knowledge worth preserving.
But they do not tolerate those who try to take advantage of that care.
A healthy society rejects the idea that builders should to do the work for themselves and burners.
But, history shows that eventually even healthy societies get sick.
They start to empathize, not with those who actually need help, but with those that take advantage of them.
It’s not their fault.
They just need love.
The didn’t have the same advantages.
Their past defines their limitations.
If we just give them the opportunity….
If we throw more resources their way….
So, as every society does, we start programs.
Maybe with good intentions at first.
Builders, after all, want to help.
But these programs grow, and are taken advantage of, and are abused.
Every single time.
And they attract predators.
Like the site of a bleeding wound, the flies start to gather, taking more and more of the life-blood that was meant to carry society.
Draining the still-working body, overwhelming it with demand, until it simply gives up.
The builders pay and the burners do nothing but take.
More and more.
And builders become slaves to burners.
They work for tiny wages that they barely get by on.
They pay increasing taxes, over and over again, and simply work harder.
They quietly continue to complete their to-do list, until it is so long that they are exhausted, overwhelmed, and numb.
All while burners take.
All while burners survive without the to-do list, the exhaustion, the drive to make the world better.
As the burners overtake society, by number and power, they begin to criticize the builders.
Because, Evil cannot create anything new, it can only spoil and destroy what good forces have created. (J.R.R. Tolkien)
If a builder complains, asks to keep more of the fruits of their labor, questions supporting someone who could support themselves- the burners use the stolen energy and resources to push down the builders even further.
They call builders evil.
Lazy.
Selfish.
They use examples of their own failures to push builders into further empathy.
Think of the children!
Why would you want them to starve?
Why do YOU (who worked) need MORE than me (who didn’t)?
Why should you get to build a future, when I can’t?
Why should I be punished for stealing, for murdering, for taking from those who have more than me?
It’s not my fault!
If a builder wants to preserve the good, it is ripped from their hands, turned upside down, and stomped to death.
If they can’t have, burners will destroy it….even to their detriment.
And eventually, when a society is overwhelmed with burners, when too many builders are drained, society starts to die.
The builders lose hope.
Their driving force.
And they begin to give up.
They stop building- because it will just be destroyed.
They stop loving- because it will just be destoryed.
They stop creating- because it will just be destroyed.
Fires rage all around them, and they are trapped.
No one is left to put them out.
The flames are so strong.
And they move so fast.
Builders can’t keep up.
They are so very tired of trying.
And, what could survive in flames that seem to never end?
Look around you today.
Our society, like Montag’s, is dying.
Our walls are grey. (Source)
Our buildings all look the same. (Source)
Our trees and flowers are gone, replaced with concrete and asphalt. (Source)
No one sings, paints, or tells stories.
No one sits on porches, just thinking or talking.
Few of us raise animals, tend to gardens, or build families. (Source)
Even fewer have the energy to turn off the screen and look at the people next to us. (Source)
We come home to a house that matches everyone else’s’ and a person that we don’t know is suffering and sleep in a bed near them.
It’s all designed to make us numb.
Without feeling. Emotion. Or empathy.
Our kids go to schools where they get cookie-cutter memorization, rather than real knowledge. (Source)
Our problems disappear behind a wall of fire and endless noise.
And the only colors we see are gray…..and the orange of burning flames.
Where are those who build because they love the future more than money?
Where is the quality, rather than the efficiency?
Where is the beauty, the art, the new stories?
Where is the education for the future generation?
The safety? The new and exciting? The purpose?
Where is the compassion? The joy?
The love for these other people who share we share the world with?
Read the news.
The builders are losing.
Corporations, not families, own homes.
Everything, from houses, to furniture, to toys, to food, is made for profit and efficiency rather than quality.
Animals are raised in factories, instead of corrals.
Children are raised in schools that are falling apart and teaching nothing.
There are few notable new artists, and our stories have all but died out. Even Disney is out of ideas.
Our crime rates are overwhelming.
Our taxes even more so.
And many of us has lost a sense of excitement, joy, and purpose in life.
Builders all around me say they are exhausted. Overwhelmed. Numb.
Hopeless.
And we watch, unfeeling as husbands are killing wives instead of cherishing them.
We talk about mothers are killing babies as if it’s a normal medical procedure, instead of the death of an innocent.
People record and laugh while others are beaten in the streets, instead of protecting them.
We joke about how our kids drive us insane and teachers need to deal with them, because they aren’t our problem.
We hate mothers for staying home, fathers for protecting their families, and anyone who doesn’t fit into our perfect mold of the rules that surround us.
We are not a healthy society any longer.
We are on fire.
America began as a country of builders.
The first settlers came to a wild land, full of the challenges of nature, and settled it.
Their children fought a war for freedom, because they wanted their children to have a better world.
And their grandchildren expanded farms, businesses, and homes across the continent.
There was a hope, an idea that they could make things better.
If they just worked hard enough, gave up enough, their children would see a world where the work of building would pay off.
But today….. the United States currently has 105.8 million people on disability. (Source)
30% of American’s are not building.
They are burning.
A record number for our country.
Many of these people are in their prime working ages and fraud is rampant.
How do I know?
If 1/3 of our population is incapable of working, we are doing something wrong.
There are 131 million Americans on government assistance- 38%. (Yet only 35.9 million are below the poverty line)
On top of that, 21.4 million receive subsidized meals every day. Sometimes twice a day.
72.5% of all school lunches served are subsidized in some way.
7 out of every 10 meals- builders pay for and (in many cases) burners take.
Now, I know those bleeding-heart types are going to tell me some people really do need this assistance. And I don’t disagree.
But, look at those numbers and tell me….in what society is it 30% or more that can’t do something meaningful?
In what world can over 70% of the people be asking for help….and how can the 30% who aren’t asking, support themselves, and pay taxes, and pay for everyone else who is contributing nothing?
How does a society survive if 3 out of 10 people are doing the providing, but 10 of 10 have needs that must be met?
At what point to we look at society and figure out…..it’s impossible for builders to support themselves and everyone who doesn’t feel like building?
Look at the amounts you pay each month from your paycheck. Really look. Calculate the hours of hell you had to live through to make that money.
Just to have them take it away and give it to someone else.
Then, tell me- could you do a better job support your family, and those in need near you, if you got to keep that money?
Would your family be in a better spot?
Would your debt be less?
Your future be more?
Would you be able to buy food, pay for housing, or open up your own wallet to compassionately help those around you in need?
Tell me how it makes sense to hand that money off to someone else, especially someone with as much power as the government, and assume it’s going only to those who need it.
To assume they are doing as much with it as you would. And as honestly.
This isn’t a small number of honestly needy people.
This is a sickness that has taken over our country and enslaved builders.
It is a government-approved burning.
If you don’t pay your taxes, which take at least 30% of your hard-earned money, you go to jail.
And those taxes are used for these programs.
Our builders are becoming overwhelmed.
Their blood is being drained.
And more and more flies are coming. (Here’s one example)
For years, builders have just added things to the to-do list and kept going.
That’s the American way.
Even if they were tired.
Even if it made them sick and weak.
Even if it cost them everything.
They kept going through injuries, sickness, and depression.
Though broken appliances, uncured illnesses, and missed opprotunities.
But today, America is reaching the point where they just…..can’t anymore.
They fires have consumed too much.
The cost is too high.
And the future is too distant.
Why maintain something that no one appreciates?
Why build if it is just going to burn before it can be enjoyed?
Why fight so hard to do things the right way when others are thriving on being lazy and destructive?
Why work when the fruits of my labor are placed in the hands of burners who contribute nothing?
And it’s not just in America.
Ladies, fires are raging across the world.
And fire is fast.
And building is slow.
Notre Dame Cathedral was built over the course of 182 years. In 1163 the cornerstone was laid. Nineteen years later, the altar was completed, allowing for services while the rest of the building was under construction.
But it was 182 years before the cathedral was considered complete.
The men who started it never saw it finished.
Some worked an entire lifetime.
Adding detail after detail.
Making every inch of the building and everything inside of it perfect.
Perfect enough to worship their God.
If you’ve ever stood inside of it, you can’t help but feel an overwhelming feeling of care. Workmanship. Dedication.
A love for what they were doing.
And for the generations of people who built before them, who would build after them, and for those invisible descendants in the future who would visit.
The very walls dripped with a palpable love and hope for the future.
Over time, the cathedral was visited, prayed in, restored, improved. Babies were blessed, mass was held, wars were withstood, and holy artifacts were protected.
Through centuries of builders.
Men and women working entire lifetime for something only the future would fully realize.
Meant to last through lifetimes of quiet reflection, inner turmoil, joy and grief.
Made holy by the sheer amount of attention to detail and time that it had passed from builder to builder.
And in one morning- it burned.
Nothing but ash left where beauty once stood.
It takes nothing to burn.
And it takes everything to build.
Around the world, builders are realizing, no matter what they do, it will never be enough.
Everything will simply be gone in a matter of second, minutes, or a few years.
Last year, the American federal government collected $5.3 trillion in tax dollars.
They spent $7 trillion.
$1.5 trillion on social security.
$1.9 trillion on Medicade.
Several hundred billion dollars on income security programs.
$950 billion on interest alone.
Education, transportation, charity subsidies, the list doesn’t end.
And guess who is going to cover the difference?
Guess who is going to benefit less and less while they give more and more?
Builders.
I know.
It feels hopeless.
And that’s why our builders are dying.
Farmers. Construction workers. Day care teachers. Police. Nurses. Doctors. Artists. Maintenance workers.
All lying unconscious in a bed, waiting for their stomach to be pumped by a team who sees it too often.
A team that doesn’t even care if they live or die.
How do you fix a broken society?
How do you heal something that has been sick for so long?
How do you even want to when you are so strapped down just trying to survive?
Montag went through the same questions. And he met a man who remembered what life was like before all the programs that enslaved them, before books were burned and questions were forbidden. Before marriage was nothing more than a contract, before children were shipped off every second of the day, before emotion and art and beauty disappeared, and before the world turned gray and numb.
His answer was- “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while.”
We have to stop thinking that if we work hard enough, it will stop.
They will leave us alone and we will be happy.
Eventually we will have what we need if we just keep going.
They aren’t going to leave us alone.
They are going to burn us to ash until we can’t fight back.
Until there is no one left to put out the fire.
For me, it was the day I realized: we could give mothers everything their child needs for life- and there would still be starving children.
Because burners will always burn. Take. Be selfish.
And that should piss us all off.
That should move us to real compassion that leads to long-term changes instead of fake compassion that starts programs with no accountability or results.
That should lead us to ask more questions.
So, why don’t we feel this anger? Why is this not something we think about?
Well, Montag’s friend had that answer, too.
He said we needed three things in order to feel bothered and do something about it.
“Number one: Quality of information.
Number two: Leisure to digest it.
Number three: The right to carry out actions based on what we learn.”
They control our information.
We are told what we think from birth.
Schools, history books, voting machines, social media algorithms, news broadcasts, bloggers, AI robots, and even religious leaders- all get their information from one source.
Listen to them, they mirror each other and create an echo board.
They digitize, delete, and alter.
They emphasize the things they want you to see, and make the things they don’t want you to know disappear.
They make you forget what you believed yesterday and create a whole new truth for today.
They make you feel calm, and safe, all while tying a rope around your neck.
They’ve created a world where “Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.”
Builders are the smart ones. The ones that survive no matter what. The ones that figure things out, fix problems, and find better ways.
And they have been gagged and bound by those who burn. And those who benefit from the burning.
We have to search for real, true, and accurate information. And we have to do it in a world that is hostile to truth.
And then, we have to have the courage to share it. Discuss it. Digest it.
Which means, we need time.
They leave us no time.
We are always working. Always watching. Always consuming.
No one sits on their porch anymore drinking sweet tea and just….thinking.
They sit in front of a screen.
Kids don’t run around the neighborhood drawing chalk pictures or making bike ramps.
They go to dance lessons, after school programs, and video game sessions.
No one goes out in the forest and has a two-hour picnic.
They go to McDonalds.
No one just sits and chats with a neighbor. Looks at clouds with kids and makes pictures out of them. Or makes their own candles.
They go look at Facebook and Instagram and go to Target.
No one reads books anymore.
They ask robots for summaries to get through one report and move onto the next.
Work, exhaustion, phones, TV, social media, movies, activities- don’t think.
Don’t stop.
Don’t figure it out.
That’s someone else’s job.
The thinking has already been done.
Just….exist.
You’re too tired to deal with it, anyways.
Bradbury says: “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”
The books don’t have to disappear.
They simply have to be something we don’t have time for.
The crazy thing is….in our world, all we have to do is say no.
Turn off the phone.
Pick one lesson fewer.
Choose something to learn.
Something old.
Something that takes time.
Something that betters the world.
Brings more joy. More quality. More knowledge.
Something that will last into future generations.
And find a way to walk away from time-wasters that exhaust your resources and repay you little in return.
They are burning you alive.
Knowing where to find truth and how to say no, naturally leads us to number three.
Freedom to change. To act. To use the truth to build.
And though the previous steps take courage, they are mostly internal.
They can be hidden.
Done at home, in a dark hall, with the world passing by- like Montag.
But to fix society, to bring back builders, to protect the goodness in the world, we have to stand in front of the world and tell it that it’s wrong.
Most of the time, this means we have to be angry enough, bothered enough, to risk the cost of change.
The burners in our society are content.
The builders have their head down trying as hard as they can to survive.
They know that they are outnumbered and hope to fly under the radar.
But when they learn the truth they see….this is a fight for thier lives.
And it demands freedom.
Freedom to be speak up.
Be wrong.
Talk about anything.
Our society doesn’t want us to talk.
People are going to jail for calling women, women and men, men.
They are being locked up for saying they would feel the need to defend themselves in certain situations.
They are having everything taken because they don’t want to associate with certain people.
They are losing the ability to grow their own food, access water, and build a business that is outside of the rules of those who produce nothing.
And they are having their lives ruined for speaking truth.
The books are on the shelf.
They are deep in the recesses of the internet.
They are in the old guy next door.
The homeschooling mama’s curriculum.
The dad who is at every city council meeting, reminding representatives of their duty to the people.
Montag meets Clarisse, a girl who doesn’t go to school, knows stories of the past, and stays up too late. Who no one talks to because she seems crazy. Yet, who speaks truths, feels connected to other people, and looks at the stars.
He finds his friend, who hides books and regrets allowing the burners to take over.
He leaves the city and finds others like him, who found the truth and escaped because a sick society cannot allow the truth to live.
Builders don’t fit into a dying society.
They want to provide for themselves, grow families and gardens, and be left alone to watch the clouds.
They don’t feel left out because they missed the party, don’t have the currently popular mug, or wear the wrong shoes.
And they watch in horror as everyone around them misses the truth.
As others demand more of them.
Blame them.
Expect them to keep less and less.
They carry a sadness in their eyes that comes from knowing they are doomed. Outnumbered. Outpowered.
Fighting a hopeless battle.
But do it all while giving the world the middle finger and carrying on anyways.
To quote another book (and a slightly crazy god): “The thing about fate, Magnus: even if we can’t change the big picture, our choices can alter the details. That’s how we rebel against destiny, how we make our mark. What will you choose to do?” (Loki, Magnus Chase by Rick Roirdan)
Builders know that an unhealthy society has reached a point that is difficult to return to.
And many of them get lost in that dispair.
But some of them know….this is their Ragnarök.
A battle they will likely lose.
But they will fight like hell on the way down.
Because they know.
This fire won’t simply burn itself out, eventually leaving a few shards behind.
It has to be put out.
Someone has to stop the burning.
“One of them had to stop burning. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago. Somewhere the saving and the putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and the keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people’s heads, any way at all so long as it was safe, free from moths, silverish, rust and dry-rot, and men with matches. The world was full of burning of all types and sizes.”
Many builders are starting small.
They are growing their own food.
Working to get a little land.
Trying to save and build up a future for their kids.
They look for answers, learn skills, and keep records so that knowledge is not lost, even if the burning continues.
And slowly, almost imperceptibly, they are picking up buckets of water and putting out the small fires they can.
They are fighting fate, because the details matter.
Society isn’t falling apart because of social media.
Buildings are not failing because of a lack of funding.
Crime is not increasing because there aren’t enough laws.
And builders are not taking bottles of pills because their job is a little difficult.
America is dying. The world is dying.
It’s bleeding out while the flies gather and the fires burn everything to the ground.
No matter which side wins- builders suffer.
So, like Montag, today’s builders need to stand up and say: ENOUGH!
Refuse to sit still and allow the burning.
Fight for the small details. And them the medium ones. And then the big ones.
And it all starts by looking for truth.
Stop trusting the Truman-like world we have been bred in.
Ask a question.
Allow ourselves time to figure out where that question leads.
And allow ourselves to be bothered enough to pick up our tools, tell normal it can go to hell, and begin to build again.
Not for burners to take.
But for our children to build on top of.
Society will be healed by those who, like Montag, leave, wait, and come back with truth.
Hope isn’t in the world. The systems and the rules.
It’s in the future.
Purpose doesn’t come from taking. Or tearing down.
It comes from building something that will last longer than ourselves.
Benefit others.
And be picked up by the next generation who thinks what we gave them can be better….and they can figure out how to get it there.
So what are you doing as the world burns?
Holding a bucket?
Or a match?