{"id":38364,"date":"2026-01-25T02:54:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=38364"},"modified":"2026-01-25T02:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:54:45","slug":"i-feel-despair-about-evil-tonight-but-my-cats-offer-some-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=38364","title":{"rendered":"I feel despair about evil tonight, but my cats offer some comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I feel despair about the rest of the world being insane and irrational, I take comfort in the feeling that the greatest sanity and reason around me come in the form of cats and dogs.<\/p>\n

They never lie \u2014 to us or to themselves \u2014 and they\u2019re completely transparent about who and what they are.<\/p>\n

When the humans around me seem to be doing their best to make the world a horrible place, I appreciate the love and consistency I experience from those such as Alex, who you see in my arms late Saturday night. He\u2019s a great comfort to me on a night such as this, when the humans around me feel insane and irrational.<\/p>\n

There are times when the evil in the world is so clear that it seems as though every person of good will must see it and recoil from it, but I know that isn\u2019t true. Not yet.<\/p>\n

But on this night when the evil and dishonesty of the powers around me are so incredibly clear \u2014 even more than usual \u2014 I feel despair about whether most people will ever again care about truth and decency and morality.<\/p>\n

If you see the evil going on in the world, you don’t need me to explain it. If you don’t yet see that evil, you’re in such a level of denial that I can’t make any difference for you anyway.<\/p>\n

My sense of morality says that all exercises of violence and political coercion are evil, so I consistently make the same moral case no matter which group of thugs is running around with guns. But there are times when the naked evil and abuse become so obvious that I think, \u201cSurely they’re going to see it now. Surely they’re going to understand that it’s immoral, no matter who’s doing it.”<\/p>\n

But I’m almost always disappointed when I hope this.<\/p>\n

I can’t make humans start being honest with themselves. I can’t make people become intellectually consistent when it comes to applying their stated beliefs. I can’t make people take off their blinders. I can’t make them see the monstrous evil they have been supporting and enabling.<\/p>\n

The only thing I can do is pray — in the literal sense — that a remnant will form around morality and decency that go far deeper than the political allegiances that our society teaches people to hold as sacred.<\/p>\n

I know I can\u2019t change the way of this world, but I can remind myself that not everyone is part of the evil. I hope you are one of the few who isn’t part of the evil — and who isn’t trying to substitute another brand of evil for the evil in our streets right now.<\/p>\n

I do feel despair tonight. I feel helpless that I can do nothing. And I feel pretty hopeless that things can change. But I’m thankful for the felines around me tonight \u2014 and if you’re one of the few who join me in praying for a more moral and just and free society, I’m thankful for you, too.<\/p>\n

We are a tiny remnant \u2014 and I pray that more will join us in the days to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I feel despair about the rest of the world being insane and irrational, I take comfort in the feeling that the greatest sanity and reason around me come in the form of cats and dogs. They never lie \u2014 to us or to themselves \u2014 and they\u2019re completely transparent about who and what they Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-9YM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38364"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38383,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38364\/revisions\/38383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}