Letting The Cruelty Of The World Break Our Hearts Together

Caitlin Johnstone
3 min readJul 5, 2024

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Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Let’s allow the cruelty of the world to break our hearts, kind friend.

Let’s weep together at the shredded and emaciated bodies in Gaza, and at their mocking, cackling tormenters.

At the amputees and orphans in Ukraine and in Russia, and at the icy-eyed swamp monsters who put them there.

At all the gasping plants and wildlife as we make this planet uninhabitable, and at the ambition-clouded minds who keep this cataclysm rolling forward.

Let’s just let it all in.

Let’s let it shatter us.

We are not soldiers. We are not killers. Our hearts are not meant to be calloused.

So let’s let the cruelty of the world smash us to pieces, and scatter us like dust in the wind.

Fully surrendering to the anguish. Letting it immolate us.

And then seeing what remains.

Maybe we will find that life keeps on lifeing, even after we’ve let ourselves be swept away.

Maybe after we stop holding back the heartbreak in our absolute certainty that it will kill us, we — somehow — do not die.

Maybe after the hurricane of sorrow has been fully permitted to tear through us and have its say completely, we go on.

The lungs keep filling with air. The veins keep filling with blood. The light of the rising sun makes its way into our eyes.

And we slowly feel our strength coming back to us.

And then maybe we start to stir.

And maybe we let our bodies have a good shake.

And then maybe, when we are ready, we start to sit up.

And then rise to our feet.

And return to the fight.

Let’s allow the cruelty of the world to destroy us, kind friend.

And then find out what remains.

And fight on.

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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

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